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Twice now in the past week, cars that I am passing have decided to pull into my lane right when I am next to them so that I've had to slam on the brakes and blare the horn in order to keep them from hitting me. On numerous other occasions this week, cars have breezed through their stop signs without slowing just as I'm traveling through the intersection, suddenly pulled out in front of me from the curb with absolutely no warning (or space for a car), and unexpectedly cut me off as they did U-turns in the middle of the street. I have no idea how I have managed to keep our car in one piece.
A math teacher, perhaps?
Sep. 29th, 2009 04:17 pmOn the way to Target today, I drove behind a Corvette with a vanity plate reading, "SUM FUN." My first thought was that it had to do with summer, as in "summer fun," but then I thought maybe the person just couldn't spell "some." Then it hit me, the person loves to add, hence "SUM FUN."
Mel Gibson comes to Minneapolis?
Jun. 3rd, 2009 01:41 pmThe other day, as I drove to Éiden's preschool, I saw a normal looking sedan driving down the street with a huge piece of metal pipe taped to the passenger side of the car with electrical tape. The pipe looked like it was about four or five inches in diameter, and it ran almost the entire length of the car, from the trunk to just in front of the windshield. I couldn't figure out why the owner had put it there. Was it taped on merely as a way to transport the pipe to another location, or did the owner know something more about the current economy than the rest of us and was preparing for a Road Warrior future where the pipe could be used as both a battering device and a mechanism to launch flaming projectiles at oncoming cars? I didn't check the driver to see if he or she were wearing half a spiked leather jacket and shoulder pads, so if it's the latter, I guess I won't know until it's too late.
I really, really, really, really, really hate driving in Minnesota.
Now to start off, I'm not talking about all people who declare their political allegiances on the back bumper of their car -- there are plenty who do who are perfectly reasonable motorists. Nor am I talking about all bad drivers since there are many of them who drive cars with no political bumper stickers. However, among those who do voice their political opinions via their cars and who are bad drivers, this is what I've noticed:
Republicans/libertarians/conservatives
--Drive aggressively fast
--Speed up whenever I try to pass them on the highway
--Weave recklessly through traffic
--Knowingly run red lights and stop signs
--Cut me off on purpose, fully aware of what they are doing.
Democrats/Greens/liberals
--Drive aggressively slow
--Sometimes take up two lanes at once making it impossible to get past them
--Drive ten miles under the speed limit in the passing lane and refuse to budge from it
--Stop at intersections where they don't have a stop sign to let the person go through who does have a stop sign
--Cut me off without realizing it because they're wandering vaguely about the road.
Has anyone else noticed these traits?
Republicans/libertarians/conservatives
--Drive aggressively fast
--Speed up whenever I try to pass them on the highway
--Weave recklessly through traffic
--Knowingly run red lights and stop signs
--Cut me off on purpose, fully aware of what they are doing.
Democrats/Greens/liberals
--Drive aggressively slow
--Sometimes take up two lanes at once making it impossible to get past them
--Drive ten miles under the speed limit in the passing lane and refuse to budge from it
--Stop at intersections where they don't have a stop sign to let the person go through who does have a stop sign
--Cut me off without realizing it because they're wandering vaguely about the road.
Has anyone else noticed these traits?
5 Observations
Jan. 16th, 2009 01:46 pm1. The roads around here are seriously fucking dangerous. I've now started to go into spins on three separate turns and a straightaway when traveling at speeds well below what you'd consider safe. And, in about twelve hours, I've now seen three pretty bad accidents because of the ice.
2. Do the white baristas at Anodyne realize how offensive it is to play an hour of gangsta rap where practically every other word is either nigger, ho or bitch and half of the songs are about shooting someone in the head while the other half are about prowling for pussy? Did I mention that Anodyne is often frequented by preschool-age kids?
3. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow when the high is supposed to reach into the (positive) 20's. Someone in the paper the other day mentioned that you never realize how warm freezing can be until you go through one of these cold snaps.
4. Working on the third draft of my book is slow and, at times, is really kicking my ass, but I think it's going well and I'm getting some good work done.
5. When I was driving Éiden home from school today, I saw a cop car pulled over next to another car on the side of the road in my neighborhood. At first I thought it was either an arrest or a routine traffic stop. Then I realized that the cop car's hood was open and he was helping a couple of guys jump start their car which made me smile. I don't think I've ever seen a cop stop to give a jump.
2. Do the white baristas at Anodyne realize how offensive it is to play an hour of gangsta rap where practically every other word is either nigger, ho or bitch and half of the songs are about shooting someone in the head while the other half are about prowling for pussy? Did I mention that Anodyne is often frequented by preschool-age kids?
3. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow when the high is supposed to reach into the (positive) 20's. Someone in the paper the other day mentioned that you never realize how warm freezing can be until you go through one of these cold snaps.
4. Working on the third draft of my book is slow and, at times, is really kicking my ass, but I think it's going well and I'm getting some good work done.
5. When I was driving Éiden home from school today, I saw a cop car pulled over next to another car on the side of the road in my neighborhood. At first I thought it was either an arrest or a routine traffic stop. Then I realized that the cop car's hood was open and he was helping a couple of guys jump start their car which made me smile. I don't think I've ever seen a cop stop to give a jump.
