Welcome
back. Today is Sunday, April 27 and
there are only 242 days until Christmas.
I can smell the fruit cakes baking already, or are those the ones left
over from past years rotting in their tins?
Birthday wishes go out to Herbert Spencer, Cuba Gooding and Sheena
Easton. On this day in 1509 Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of
Venice, in 1805 US Marines attacked the shores of Tripoli (I can hear you
humming the song) and in 1989 Beijing students took over Tiananmen Square in
China. It is 2nd Republic Day
in Austria, Sierra Leone is celebrating Independence Day and tomorrow Alabama,
Florida and Mississippi will observe Confederate Memorial Day.
I am going
to rant about one of my favorite subjects today because there are a few things
that have gotten me going lately. One
thing is that I think people who drive are becoming stupider and stupider. Here is one example of what I am talking
about. I had to go to the grocery store the
other day. By way of explanation, the
parking lot there has three driveways.
Two of them are two-way and one is for exit only. The driveway is clearly labeled Exit Only
when you are in the parking lot. It has
a solid line painted in the middle with one arrow pointing right and one
pointing left. When you approach it from
the street there are signs that say “Do Not Enter” on both sides of the
driveway.
So here is
what I saw today. Twice I saw cars
coming in from the street, completely disregarding the Do Not Enter signs, and
one time a car exiting was almost hit by the car coming in. What made it better was that the car coming
in from the street apparently did not care that he should not be coming in that
way, in spite of the signs. He swerved
around the car and then flipped the exiting driver the social finger. This was all as I was walking into the
store. When I came out, a car was
exiting and was in the right lane. One
would assume that, based on the large, white arrow painted on the road that the
car was heading right. But one would be
wrong. The car was going left, much to
the surprise of the car who pulled into the left turn lane and started to go at
the same time. Horns blared and fingers
were exchanged.
The problem
that I see is that the people who were wrong did not have even the slightest
clue that they were stupid. The other
problem is that people do not paying any attention to what is going on around
them. They simply do what they want to
do. I have seen people come to a corner
to make a turn and then have to jam on the brakes because you had the temerity
to be driving down the road, getting in their way. The fact that they had a stop sign really didn’t
factor into it, as far as they are concerned.
One of the
more recent innovations at traffic lights are the sensors that know when cars
are there so the light system knows when to use left turn arrows and when cars
can go. The problem is that, for some
reason, people have decided not to pull up to stop lines. They stop about a car length before it. This means that the sensors don’t always know
a car is there. One example of this is
on one of the main streets in town where there are sensors that let the system
know if a car is waiting to make a left turn.
When there is a car there, the left turn arrow allows the car to turn
before the oncoming traffic gets a green light.
I sat behind a car through two light cycles because the car had not
pulled up far enough. Horns beeping did
not seem to faze the driver because he did not move. Finally, he got tired of not being able to
turn and started to move up, I guess planning to run the light on the next
cycle. Wonder of wonders, he got the
arrow and was able to go. I am sure that
he had no idea that he was the reason he couldn’t go.
I see all
types of nut jobs on the road. There are
the ones who drive along and then put on their brakes for no reason. There are no cars in front of them, they are
not speeding, they just feel the need to put on the brakes. I have been driving along in the middle lane
and seen a car coming up on my left. The
car passes me, drives a little further, pulls into the middle lane and then
slows down to the point where I now have to pass it. You have to wonder what was going through
their head – “I have to speed up so that I can get by that car, pull over into
the middle lane and then slow down. I
don’t want to pull in behind him even though there is plenty of room. I have to make it necessary for him to pass
me.” Or there was no thought process at
all and, gun to head, they could not tell you why they did that.
Think about
it. How often do you drive along and
wonder what the hell the person ahead of you was thinking and why they did what
they did? I don’t know about you, but I
just wish I could stop some of them and ask them. “Excuse me sir, but you just cut in front of
me so that you could get off at that exit that they have been telling you about
for three miles. Would you be so kind as
to explain why you waited until 20 feet before the exit to get over from the
far left lane?” I have also been
tempted, several times, to go to a car stopped at a red light and ask the
driver if he was okay. When he asks why
I would tell him that based on the way he was driving I was afraid he was
having a stroke. If I ever do, I will
let you know how it went.
Our fact
this week tells us that a person standing on the observation deck of the Empire
State Building at 5 PM on a clear day would be able to see, on average, 32
jets, 12 helicopters and 4 propeller planes within one minute. That is assuming they are looking up and not
trying to spot marks left on the building by King Kong.