Commuting Musings

Goose Greifs

There are too many Canadian Geese in my area. There are hordes of them, and while Horde is good and Alliance is baaaad, (do not trust the living...), these hordes are a nuisance. They're mean - they hiss and snap at you if you get too close. They're filthy - anywhere they choose to hang out becomes a goose-sewage-treatment-facility within hours. This morning, however, I felt sorry for the geeses.

I was coming up to a red light when I noticed a van in the next lane was stopped about 10 yards behind the car in front of him. In front of the van were 2 geese, honking quietly and walking in confused circles. Then I saw the third goose. He was on the line between my lane and the turn lane - quite deceased. Apparently quite recently deceased.

The van would not move until the geese totally cleared his lane. I let them walk thru my lane, and watched as they walked around their "friend" and honked a bit, then made their way to the median strip and I swear that if geeses could cry, these would have.

Anthropomorphism, I know. But it seemed very sad.


Squirrels In Love

Or maybe having a fight.

Two little red squirrels (I guess they'd be "ginger" to the UK group) chasing each other down the alley, up and over a fence into someone's back garden, back over the fence, along top of the fence and back down - all the time no more than 12 inches from the tail end of the front one to the nose end of the back one. I LOL'd - for real. If it wasn't a fight, they looked to be having one hell of a good time.

The Interwebs as a Community

When I first discovered the "Internet" it was back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth GUI's were the "new thing" and WIN3.needtoupgrade was the HOT "new thing".

Even if I never get near a fax machine again in my life, I'll still always be able to replicate the SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr OOBAHOOBAHOOBAH of a modem connecting. I'll never forget the interminable "blue line" of AOHell every single stinking time you switched screens...

I still keep in touch with a number of people I met in those dark old days before flashing banner ads and popups/unders. Most of them are near my age and are professionals who were also expected to "Find out what this "internet" thingy is all about" for our bosses.

I've walked away from any number of internet communities - chat rooms, BBS's, forums, &etc. Some I've walked away from sadly, wishing the community hadn't changed so drastically that I didn't feel comfy anymore. Some I walked away from because they had always BEEN uncomfortable and I wasn't comfy being uncomfy... yes, that DOES make sense in there somewhere!

What I've noticed as a trend lately is that the "fad" of blogging seems to be running its course. Lots of bloggers are leaving the "blogosphere" and moving on to something else. One wishes them luck. One also wishes they wouldn't delete their farking blogs!

I can understand someone deleting a blog if it had become, for instance, an addiction and that if they knew it still existed they couldn't stop - but a large number of folks seem to just wantonly decide "Well, I'm done with this, so out it goes..." - and I find both of these reasons annoying. I understand them - but they annoy me. Because I've learned a lot from other bloggers.

I've gotten recipies, and I've learned about diseases and how to pronounce words I knew to see but not to say. I've learned a lot about other cultures, and found some terrific resources from the blogs of others. Thing is, I have been known to lose links or forget something - and like to be able to re-read and reacquaint myself with those gems of knowledge. Which I can't do if YOU DELETE THE DAMN BLOG.

Just sayin'

283 days

Cars again

Because I'm bored during my commute lately.

Petite young lady driving an SUV - a "Soccer-Mommy-mobile" - with the entire front end missing - 1 fender, the bumper, 1/2 the hood, the grille... you could see inside the engine compartment, FFS.

Now, yes, this obviously was a bad accident. The scarey part is - she had TEMPORARY license tags on it. (Illinois issues these until your permanent tags come in the mail for new cars)

Yikes

So I see Honda doesn't put turn signals on their cars anymore. I feel sorry for that poor bloke in front of me who was switching lanes back and forth and probably had NO IDEA that he wasn't signaling his changes. Really, Honda, I think those are MANDATORY.. please put them back!

Who ever told Honda that Americans want Japanese "Styling" in our SUV's??? That "Element" is just too ugly for words. It brings new meaning to the word "FUGLY" - looks like a bad anime cartoon! Now, there's another one, not sure of the manufacturer or model because I try to stay FAR away from them - but it seriously looks like a fried-rice box with wheels. Every time I see one I cringe.

Yeah, I know - this is boring stuff. Right now I'm trying to write another post but it keeps getting sidetracked and I don't intend to hit "publish" until I know what I'm saying and all that. (Yeah, right, mouse... like that's gonna happen...)

285 days

Shaddup, self.

Certified Used?

The Honda dealer on the corner where I turn to go to work has signs in the windows of all the vans on the East side of the lot that say "Certified Used".

I'm happy he has these signs. The fact that it is a 1985 van might just make me sceptical if I thought it was a NEW 1985 van that nobody thought was good enough for them to buy in over 20 years on the lot.

You would think - or, at least *I* would think - that considering the pressure that car lots get from the manufacturers for turning over inventory, that at SOME point they would have marked down this van enough that SOMEONE would buy it, no matter how ugly the upholstry or flakey-sounding the engine, or wimpy the tires when kicked.

However, this sign lets me know that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME climbed into this van, breathed deeply of the New Vinyl and Formaldehyde scent, Took the proffered keys and drove off the lot happy with their new baby.

Yes, the fact that this car is CERTIFIED to be USED is comforting.

Lexus goes one step further - they call them "CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED" - because Pre-Owned is the Posh and Snobby way to say "Used". Lexus doesn't have "USED" car salesmen - it has "PREOWNED" car salesmen - which does, in fact, seem to insinuate slavery in some rank and dismal way - as who would REALLY want to have a car salesman as a slave, sex or otherwise? Not to mention getting "sloppy seconds" on the slave owning and all. *shudder*

You know - it would be nice if these cars, Certified as OLD AND USED UP AND PROBABLY 2 WEEKS AWAY FROM BLOWING A TRANNY, would come with something a bit more useful - like a warranty or something...

Dream on, Mouse.

287 days