Test picture from my office
-- Posted from my iPhone
iBlog
I'm testing the ability to blog from my phone. This will enable me to share my thoughts with you from anywhere! Hey! Where are you going?
Test picture from my office
-- Posted from my iPhone
Test picture from my office
-- Posted from my iPhone
Paging Pete Seeger
I figured it would be impossible to take a 24 hour road trip and not sock away some observations along the way. Ok, so this is more of a pet peeve /rant.
I guess it also makes sense that my beef is with drivers and specifically those who don’t understand the turn signal. It’s a good thing the guy who invented the turn signal or directional signal didn’t call it something really confusing like Gyrocompass signal or the Quasi-Looky loo. If it had those names then the other 50% of the drivers would never figure out what it was for either.
I could list a bunch of things that I see happen, but I think this blog should continue to be a beacon of hope and inspiration to drivers that might not know any better. I can only speak for myself, but I see another persons signal to turn as an opportunity to help another person. I slow down or speed up to give them the proper room to achieve their goal. I hope to leave them with a warm, fuzzy feeling as they move their vehicle to precisely the location they wanted to move it. Sometimes I follow this maneuver with a little wave of my hand. My way of saying “Glad to be there for you partner! You’re welcome”. I don’t want anything in return really. I will say that it IS nice to get the wave returned. Sometimes I think my wave is misunderstood and I receive a one finger wave in return.
It blinks not to be mocked my friends. Mock at your own peril…especially in Florida.
The “Team”
After delicately balancing the camera on the TV and failing to get the timer to work about 10 times. I finally captured the entire collection of the “2009 Orion to Tampa Dog sled” competition.
Tampa – Nashville – Tampa – GO!
Well…we survived. I think. There might be some delayed damage from that much driving in two days.
There’s something particularly unrewarding about travelling so far and not getting a big payoff. I’m sorry to say, but retrieving the dog was not rewarding enough to offset the drive. We did, however, get to visit with my parents for a few hours. Wilma and Larry decided to drive the dog over from St. Louis rather than dropping her off and letting Tim bring her to Nashville. This is the first time that Jen and the kids have been able to visit with them in person since last Christmas. I have a couple of more extensive items to post later, but here are some thoughts from the drive.
- Truckers seem to have a great life. There were plenty of places I saw on billboards offering them massages, spas, and “trucker discounts”
- Driving is an art form that many people seem to never have grasped. Dry pavement and sunny weather and people still couldn’t keep their wits about them.
- How fast do you have to be going to get pulled over? I saw a dozen people pulled over by various police agencies, but most of the time I was riding along with the rest of the world at 10-15 MPH over the speed limit. These people must have REALLY been going fast.
- A Nintendo DS battery life is only about 4 hours.
Tennessee Tuxedo
Ok. Today starts the trek to Nashville to pick up Sunny. This is the last piece of unfinished business from “the trip”. The kids are super excited to get her back, but no one is very excited about driving 24 hours in two days. I also think that all of us are in various stages of a cold and won’t be good travellers. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
or…if you don’t see anything on this blog for more than a couple of days, it might have gone very badly.
Wish us luck.
Nashville or bust!
Good day sunshine!
I’ve got to type this up before I forget. I’m also typing this up strictly for posterity. I’m sorry if it is mushy or sounds silly, but I make mental notes to remember things and then I don’t. The blog is a diary for this moment.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been dropping Sam off at school in the morning as Jen continues to recover from surgery. I have discovered that this might be the most satisfying and relaxing part of my day. No, not because I am dropping my 5 year old rambunctious kid off and getting some much needed quiet time. It’s because when I drop him off and he heads out to the playground I get to see him in a lot of different ways. He’s independent and confident. He’s excited and happy. He’s curious and active. I watch him run out onto the playground and immediately begin searching for two things. How many of his friends are there and where are they? Where is Miss Marjorie so that he can tell her “Buenos Dias” and get one back from her. As strange as it seems I think that if Miss Marjorie takes a day off we are going to have to prepare Sam. I stand and watch Sam for a while before I go. I probably have a luxury that the other parents don’t have as I watch them throw the backpacks on a hook and run the other way. He doesn’t really do anything worth watching except he is healthy, happy, and having una buena dia.
All I want is to be left alone in my average home!
I will try to break my streak of cynicism here tomorrow, but for today you get some more.
You ever notice those “Neighborhood Watch” signs?
Criminal #1: Hey Joe. Look at that place over there! Corner lot, shades closed, grass is overgrown….lets take them for everything they have!
Criminal #2: Are you kidding? Did you see the sign? The neighborhood is watching. We don’t stand a chance.
There was about 3 weeks in the 80’s that people in these neighborhoods got together at one of the neighbor houses, had some beers and talked about taking back the streets. The toured the streets for a couple of hours with flashlights, patted themselves on the back for 265 consecutive crime free days and moved on. I’m sorry, but I laugh when I see these signs. Are the neighborhoods without the signs at serious risk? Do you just have to buy a sign? I’m always looking for the people to peer out of their windows as I drive through their streets, just begging them to bust out the Bat signal.
Go, Go, Go, Go speed racer…
If you want to see a true measure of someone and their thought processes, here is my suggestion.
Take their car. Park it in the local day care / pre-school parking lot. Tell them they have to get it out of the lot at ___ time of day. Then tell them they only have 2 minutes to do it and see how they process all of this. I sit and watch people try to drive in and out of the parking lot of Sam’s school all the time. I see all kinds of crazy things. The person who honks at kids, not to warn them, but to tell them to get out of the way…not a great parent. There is also the “I’m in a hurry” mom/dad. I could never understand how speeding in and out of the school parking lot was going to get you wherever you are going so much faster. I can’t even imagine how that person would begin the story after they hit someone. “Well officer, I was in a hurry to get to ____” No matter what goes in that blank it isn’t going to make sense. The last person I hate to see is the “Leave your 2-3-4-5-6 year old in the car while you just run in” parent. Are they crazy? Keep in mind that this is also Florida so if they want to keep the kid cool they also have to leave the car running. If I didn’t think I would get arrested I would hide the kid from them and see what happens. Well there ya go. My observation for the day. I’ll try harder next time.
Check please!
I saw the craziest thing today at the market. I had gathered all of my purchases and taken my place in line at the “Less than 10 items” checkout just behind a guy with 11 purchases, go figure. When it came time to pay the most curious thing happened. This guy reaches into his pocket and brings out some strange rectangular wallet. He asks the clerk for a pen and proceeds to take 20 minutes transacting his business. Seems he wrote some sort of note to the cashier on a piece of paper, she took it and his drivers license, and then they gave him the groceries. I can’t imagine how this deal works. They must have to gather all of these notes and trade them somewhere to get money. What a weird system.
Two jokes for Friday
When Bill and Hillary first got married Bill said, “I am putting a box under the bed. You must promise never to look in it.” In all their 30 years of marriage, Hillary never looked.
However, on the afternoon of their 30th anniversary, curiosity got the best of her and she lifted the lid and peeked inside. In the box were 3 empty beer cans and $81,874.25 in cash. She closed the box and put it back under the bed.
Now that she knew what was in the box, she was doubly curious as to why there even was such a box with such contents. That evening, they were out for a special anniversary dinner. After dinner, Hillary could no longer contain her curiosity and she confessed, saying, “I am so sorry. For all these years, I kept my promise and never looked into the box under our bed. However, today the temptation was too much and I gave in. But now I need to know, why do you keep the 3 beer cans in the box?”
Bill thought for a while and said, “I guess after all these years you deserve to know the truth. Whenever I was unfaithful to you, I put an empty beer can in the box under the bed to remind myself not to do it again.”
Hillary was shocked, but said, “Hmmm, Jennifer, Paula and Monica. I am very disappointed and saddened by your behavior. However, since you are addicted to sex, I guess it does happen and I guess 3 times is not that bad considering your problem.”
Bill thanked her for being so understanding. They hugged and made their peace.
A little while later Hillary asked Bill, “So why do you have all that money in the box?”
Bill answered, “Well, whenever the box filled up with empty cans, I took them to the recycling center and redeemed them for cash.”
AND
Early Saturday morning a policeman waited across the street from a popular bar, hoping for a nail a drunken driver, possibly preventing a tragic accident.
At closing time the patrons came out and the officer spotted his potential quarry. One man was so obviously inebriated that he could barely walk. He stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, looking for his car.
After trying his keys on five other cars, he finally found his own vehicle. He sat in the car a good ten minutes, as the other patrons left. He turned his lights on, then off, wipers on, then off. He started to pull forward into the grass, then stopped.
Finally, when he was the last car, he pulled out onto the road and started to drive away.
The patrolman, waiting for this, turned on his lights and pulled the man over. He administered the breathalyzer test, and to his great surprise, the man blew a 0.00.
The patrolman was dumbfounded. “This equipment must be broken!” he exclaimed.
“I doubt it,” said the man, “Tonight I am the designated decoy!”
Cerebrum conundrum
Is there a Discovery channel show that would describe how the 14 year old brain works? Please?
I find it scary that my 14 year old is so close to being behind the wheel of a car and making X number of decisions every minute, but can’t make basic decisions at home that are successful. I want to put in my usual disclaimer. I love Sara and will always love her, but she is driving me batty.
I’m going to give you the scenario, but it is going to sound dumb and petty…not unlike other things I’ve written previously.
Me: Hey Sara. Please empty the dishwasher and load it again before you go to bed.
14 year old brain: Uh huh.
The first mistake is that I heard “Uh huh” and thought it represented a verbal contract. An affirmative answer of some sort. I now know that “Uh huh” in 14 year old language means “Whatever…just stop talking or bothering me. I’m not really listening to you.” The part that kills me the most is that not only did she obviously not do what I asked, BUT she also used dishes the next morning and stacked her dirty cereal bowl on top of the dishes I asked her to put away. How does a brain process something like this?
I thought this was only a “Sara thing” until I was driving home the other day and encountered another 14’ish year old kid on a bike. This kid was riding his bike in the middle of the road like he was on the ride at Disney, whistling “It’s a small world after all…” I honked at him to get out of the way and what do you think happened? He stopped in the middle of the road. Turned around and looked at me. Evaluated what I might be honking at him about and it took him like 30 seconds to realize he was in the middle of the road. I know this was the process because I saw his face change expression when it finally occurred to him what might be the problem.
I’ll talk to you guys later. I’m going to call some doctors and see if there are any studies being done. I have a brain to donate to them.
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