“All rules are there for breaking”

That statement is true, but rules are there for a reason even if the reason might appear to be silly.

It is because of the silly rules that the serious rules tend to be downplayed and the macho among us use them as a reason for their flaunting of them.

These are some of the silly rules:

Frankfort, Kentucky, makes it against the law to shoot off a policeman’s tie.

Horses are forbidden to eat fire hydrants in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Idaho state law makes it illegal for a man to give his sweetheart a box of candy weighing less than fifty pounds.

In Denver it is unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor.

In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.

In Greene, New York, it is illegal to eat peanuts and walk backwards on the sidewalks when a concert is on.

In Lexington, Kentucky, it’s illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket.

In Memphis, Tennessee, it is illegal for a woman to drive a car unless there is a man either running or walking in front of it waving a red flag to warn approaching motorists and pedestrians.

In Ohio, if you ignore an orator on Decoration day to such an extent as to publicly play croquet or pitch horseshoes within one mile of the speaker’s stand, you can be fined $25.00.

In Pocatello, Idaho, a law passed in 1912 provided that “The carrying of concealed weapons is forbidden, unless same are exhibited to public view.”

In Seattle, Washington, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon that is over six feet in length.

In Tennessee, it is illegal to shoot any game other than whales from a moving automobile.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it is against the law to open a soda bottle without the supervision of a licensed engineer.

It is against the law for a monster to enter the corporate limits of Urbana, Illinois.

It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time.

It is illegal to say “Oh, Boy” in Jonesboro, Georgia.

It is Texas law that when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.

It’s illegal in Wilbur, Washington, to ride an ugly horse.

Now we all have had a good laugh it’s time to be serious.

Accidents mainly happen when we don’t follow the rules.

This is a piece of sound advice:

“See basically we need to understand why there are rules. We have studied and we know that there were rules from long past. Why do people find it necessary to apply rules. The answer is to make our lives easier. Rules are just the guidelines to follow.

“We must follow rules. Whenever any new rule is made or prepared, people think over it multiple times. They knew the consequences of not following any particular thing, or they do it because they don’t want people to suffer from anything they knew that it will happen if we don’t follow it.

“So we all must follow rules. Accidents occur either because of not following rules or because of negligence of a person. So, we must keep in back of our mind that, this is for us only. We must respect it and follow it rather than waiting for someone else to do it. We should take initiative and carry things.”

There is a very sad story headlining our news at the moment of the missing diver. Another of our stories today is from someone who was there at the scene when the incident unfolded.

The writer says at the end of the story:

“This was a good trip tempered by a very sobering experience. While talking to a bunch of people, it turns out that some of them don’t routinely inflate their BCs [buoyancy compensator] upon surfacing. The two reasons that I heard were “I’m right at the ladder” and “I’m a good swimmer.” This has led my dive buddy and I to go over our practices with this in mind.”

This advice from the website Dive Training says:

What is the first thing you should do upon reaching the surface after an ascent?

“If you said, “Inflate your buoyancy compensator (BC),” you’re right. If you’re properly weighted, remaining at the surface without positive buoyancy requires constant kicking, which wastes a lot of energy and can quickly lead to exhaustion.

“Normally, achieving positive buoyancy is as easy as pushing the power-inflation button to add air to your BC. But what if things have not gone as planned and you are low on air, or even out of air, when you reach the surface? Your first action should still be to inflate your BC — but without sufficient air in your tank you’ll have to do it orally.

“In basic scuba class you were taught how to orally inflate your BC by depressing the inflator button while exhaling into the mouthpiece. Depending on how negatively buoyant you are, it could take several breaths to exhale enough air into the BC to become positively buoyant. During that time you must kick continuously to keep your head above water — unless you bob to inflate instead.

“The idea is simple — kick to raise your head above the surface and take a breath from the ambient air. Then relax and sink back beneath the surface while blowing that breath into the BC inflator hose mouthpiece. Bobbing minimizes the amount of energy expended to orally inflate a BC on the surface. Use it to establish positive buoyancy while conserving the air remaining in your tank, or in an out-of-air situation. The bob-to-inflate skill is performed in five easy steps.”

I am not suggesting the missing man did not do this upon surfacing and this is the reason for his disappearance.

However, the writer mentioned it as a practice that some divers do not do upon surfacing and led him/her and dive buddy to “go over our practices with this in mind”.

The odds are, unless the diver suffered a heart attack, equipment failure, or similar, his death was caused by some form of breaking the rules.

Just look back on the large majority of accidents that happen.