Safe driving practices

There's a section of freeway that I drive every morning that is notoriously riddled with traffic. On most days it's stop-and-go and I've been known to eat a banana or switch radio stations while we're going 10 mph. What you won't catch me doing, however, is applying eye makeup. That makes you an accident waiting to happen. I was tempted to snap a picture, but hey, that wouldn't be a safe driving practice.

Lucky for me, there was a highway patrol car cheesing it on the shoulder. They were helping keep the crazies in check - normally you get an assortment of morons that dart in and out of traffic trying to jockey for position or to get into the line for the exit at the last second. I thought for sure the officer would notice the rather erratic driving of the lady in front of me, who was steadily drawing on her face with an eye pencil. Unlucky for me, the police officer had bigger fish to fry as the lady went by them without any fanfare. Maybe next time the lady will get pulled over. Or maybe she'll rear end someone. Or maybe she'll jab her eye out.

Dear Corpus Christi, Texas

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0522/largest-marijuana-plant-seizure-police-departments-history-turns-mere-yard-work/

Commentary to follow.

You of all people shouldn't be jaywalking

The family and I were on our way to church yesterday when my wife and I noticed something lolly. If you've driven around in Portland, you learn to get used to the amount of walkers and bikers on the road. If not, you run the risk of hitting someone, especially if you're in downtown.


The church we go to isn't in a pedestrian-heavy area, although there is a transit center nearby. Beyond that, there is a small community of sorts in the area as well, so it's not like the area is devoid of anything other than cars. When we saw someone jaywalking across the street, it wasn't a huge surprise. What was a huge surprise, however, wsa the fact that the person jaywalking had a freaking neck brace on.

My first reaction was that someone suffering from neck pain should be taking greater care of their safety. I mean, you would hate to reaggravate most any injury and I would think a neck injury would be that much bigger of a deal. For example, when I had my hernia surgery I somewhat rushed myself back to work. I knew that I wasn't going to be doing anything super strenuous and that I was taking a relatively small risk of injury. You know what I didn't do? I didn't start a jogging routine in my neighborhood. Calculated risks. If I have an injury to my neck that calls for a brace, you bet your ass I'm staying at home. I'm certainly not going to be jaywalking.

My wife brought up a great perspective also. The fact that this person was in a neck brace meant that his range of motion and speed was greatly reduced. Not only is the neck brace very restrictive by design, the guy probably shouldn't be turning his neck side-to-side very quickly. Then again, he shouldn't be jaywalking across a relatively busy intersection, either.

20 items or less

My wife got off work a little early today so I took her up on her offer of meeting her at the store to grab a handful of things we need for home. Let me emphasize that it was only a handful of things. The items on the agenda were as follows:

1. Infant acetaminophen - baby AJ is under the weather due to teething. Sad face.

2. Small bag of salad - complimentary towards the rest of what was planned for dinner this evening.

3. One two liter bottle of Diet Coke - my supply at work is almost exhausted.

4. A second two liter bottle of Diet Coke - one can never be too safe.

We head over to the 20 items or less checkout stands since it should theoretically be the fastest option for us. Even though the lines to these stands were a little longer than normal, you can expect to progress through them at a good rate since any sensible customer(s) would observe the item limit.

We were unceremoniously cut off at the pass by a couple that was probably in their late 40s. I didn't even think twice about it because I was saving my energy for more important battles - namely battling the illness that I wrote about earlier today. I quickly scanned the couple's shopping cart full of crap and you know where this is headed. They were clearly in violation of the stated 20 items or less limit. I'll try to post a picture that I took of the illegal activity, although it's pretty low quality. I didn't want to stir up anything with the troublemakers.

After sitting in line for an eternity thanks to the rule-breakers, I wanted to ask the cashier about the incident. I wanted to ask why he didn't do anything about the violation that he allowed to happen on his watch. When I was getting ready to pay, however, I decided not to. I made eye contact with the cashier and without saying anything at all he answered my question. He was simply too scared to tell the couple that they had more than 20 items. Better to leave a hornet nest alone instead of poking it with a stick.

Man, I feel like crap

Two days ago I started feeling a little under the weather. I know my body quite well so I had a bad feeling of what was to come. Yesterday I was feeling icky enough to start taking a little bit of ibuprofen and I was a few minutes late to work because I felt like garbage when I first woke up. Well, here we are today and man, I feel like crap.

I woke up to my alarm at 6:45a and wanted to crawl back under the covers. The alarm did its irritating job, however, and convinced me to get up. I peeled myself out of bed, turned off the alarm, and wanted to crawl back under the covers. I started reasoning with myself to stay home or at least work only half a day. Being the good worker bee that I am, though, I started the shower, turned on the space heater, popped 2 ibuprofen, and got ready for work.

After playing in freeway traffic, here I am at my desk and I think my slight fever is breaking. Either that or the office is especially hot this morning. I'm pretty sure my fever is breaking. We'll see how the day goes. I figure I'll reload on ibuprofen when I go home for lunch and should be able to power through until 5ish pm. Here's to hoping the hen house isn't too clucky today. I just don't want to deal with that junk right now.