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 2^nd 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.