Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Observations of a car-driving commuter on American roads

As a commuter for many years and a person who has driven in several different countries around the world, I have a few little hints and some advice for American drivers. One reason a lot of you have trouble, is that your driver education is poor at best and seems to only rely on Daddy or Mommy "teaching" you how to drive. The final test seems to be a short trip around the block. No parallel parking, no 3-point turns, no starting on a hill with a stick-shift transmission; no real test on freeways or at major intersections and as sure as heck, no knowledge of or advice about traffic circles (also known as roundabouts); no rules of driver etiquette and being polite etc. 

 For our purposes here a single lane road is referring to one direction. So a double is 2 lanes in one direction etc. 

 Ok, here are a few pointers for your edification: 

 1) Stop being so passive aggressive!! 

* Let the car in the lane next to you merge in front of you 
* Do NOT slow down even more when someone is obviously in a hurry behind you. Griefus, they have their reasons for being in a rush and it isn't your job to judge and convict them. Speed up or get out of the way. One day soon, you will be in a hurry yourself so get off your self-righteous hobby horse!
* Don't speed up when someone is trying to pass you on a single lane road (called double lane in America). Slow down instead or pull slightly over to the right and let them pass

 2) Drivers, please use the RIGHT lane for most of your travel in a two lane road. Leave the freaking left lane for passing purposes. This, of course, applies when traffic isn't so thick as to need both lanes full. I can't tell you how often two drivers will block both lanes and cause a heck of a bottleneck because for some reason, they can't travel in the right lane and let others pass. Be thoughtful and think!

 3) Please, please do not become complacent at traffic lights. If you're in the front, you have a responsibility to watch that light and leave immediately it turns green. You've got to think of the 10 - 20 cars behind you who also want to get through that light. It's always the FIRST person in line who starts playing on their phone or otherwise being distracted and yes, of course they get offended when you beep the horn behind them (as the light is about to turn orange again) 

 4) People who cannot drive the speed limit or 5 above must NOT try and drive during rush hour. I'm talking to you people who are older than 75 or who are handicapped etc. They just cannot keep up!  

5) Ok, here's your lesson on traffic circles. Here's the ONE SINGLE rule you have to remember. Give way to the left. That's IT, people. That's the only rule. Since the circles are so small in America, that is the only rule. If the circle is a decent (large) size, then you say Give Way to those on the circle. In America they're so small, they don't have much time in the actual "circle". Why is this such a difficult concept? 

 6) Please be patient at stop signs or other intersections like your driveway - advice - don't pull out in front of any vehicle so that they will have to slow down. That's just a pure knowing how to be kind and polite - it barely has anything to do with driving. Just because the American rule says anyone at the back of you is guilty if they hit you, doesn't mean you have to take advantage of that and pull out when you see a car coming! There are a FEW exceptions - if the intersection is really busy and traffic is thick and slow. Then you will HAVE to pull out at the earliest available space. 

 7) In a single lane road, please drive at LEAST the speed limit. See the note on grannies and other old, handicapped people. It's really quite annoying to have to drive 20 miles an hour in a 40 zone. 

 8) This is a message to traffic engineers (unfortunately they're not too clued up on traffic FLOW). You need to turn more stop signs into yields. Sometimes one is waaaay out in the boonies and lo and behold, a 4 way stop or a 2 way stop. Even a flashing yellow light would be better than having to stop completely.  I could actually expand on this one point quite a lot - there are so many places where the lines, lanes and other traffic patterns, exits and on-ramps etc, make VERY LITTLE sense and actually make driving more hazardous in so many cases. Honestly, I don't know what some of them are thinking sometimes. Maybe I'll write a whole blog to engineers/road designers. 

 9) When you pull up to a traffic light - most of them have sensors - please be smart and pull right up to the front line. In this way you'll trigger the sensor and the light will turn sooner. Thank you. 

10) At a 4 way stop (when they're necessary) why do some people WAIT there for a car to come to one of the other stops before moving off?  Just asking because it makes no sense really.  If you get there first, stop and continue on.  

 These are the only points I can think of right now. I'll think of more later, I'm sure. So, keep that thinking cap on and drive safer and more friendly. Thank you!

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Talking about Rollercoastering! Welcome to 2020!

Well, who would have thunk it? Here we are in 2020 which started out so promisingly, and has abruptly fallen off the cliff of reality.

A few observations:

1) I wish people wouldn't always be trying to lay the blame on political individuals for things like this.  If anyone deserves the ultimate blame, it is Satan, who, of course, insinuates that God is responsible for this.  In case you were wondering, the blame lies squarely on the devil-inspired Wuhan lab kingpins!  Please don't blame the president for this pestilence.  Griefus.  Hindsight is ALWAYS PERFECT.  Who of you would have done a better job?? NO ONE is raising their hand!!
I believe China introduced this pestilence in a very "timely" manner - to overthrow the current administration. 


2) Let's not panic.   I hate that people have died - that is tragic - but let's not shut the whole world down and have dire predictions that we can't live normal lives until we get a vaccine.  Please, people, AIDS, flu and many other viruses have killed millions of people worldwide and we still don't have a vaccine.  Get real.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it seems like some group is taking advantage of this virus to change the world as it is.  And in the process will use anything to ruin the economy so the president will look bad.  Idiots.  There were and ARE early treatment options which BIG PHARMA ignores because they want to sell a vaccine.  Are people blazing idiots not to see this?

3) And PLEASE don't tie the global climate change into this whole virus thing.  I KNEW that was coming sooner or later because the Jesuits and the pope want to control the world and bring in a Sunday law....don't tell me later I didn't warn you!  The climate change thing is stretching things to its limit.  And exactly how long has it taken for the pollution to dissipate and disappear?  2 weeks? 3?  Pretty quickly if you ask me!  Even the ozone hole is smaller - 1 or 2 months is all it took!  Wake up, people!

4) To the Left especially:  Why must everything in this country turn into a political war?  Since Trump came into power, everything is always his fault and against him.  You know what?  This country transcends any president.  Could we please just stand behind our elected president for once and get off our snotty pedestals, pull up our diapers, wipe our noses and support him, especially in this time of crisis?  Is that too hard to do?  Instead of bashing the president, why don't you do what you can to mitigate the crisis in your own life sphere?  Isolate yourself if you want to, wash your hands, all that good stuff.  Check on your neighbors, help people.  But get off your hobby horses of hatred and jealousy.  It makes the whole country look bad.   Desperate Babies.

5)  I had a fifth point but this discussion has heated my brain so I can't remember it.  By the way, when I attended a liberal university in my 20's long ago, I remember even then how closed minded they were.  They could not tolerate ANY voice that dissented from the liberal viewpoint.  How sad is that in a university setting?  It's just the same now in this country, but only 10 times worse haha.  WhatEVER happened to fair and probing debate and questioning?  If this is truly SCIENCE then science can stand SCRUTINY and testing.  So SOROS and SCHWAB and GATES,  "SUCKER"BERG AND BESOS, stop your meddling and stop feeding us pig slop.

Enough ranting for now.  As some memes on social media say - it's not important whether you live or die, but whether you die without Jesus and without hope.  Take advantage of Jesus' sacrifice for you and His work right now FOR YOU in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.  His love for you is INFINITE and beautiful.  Surrender to that and you will have peace and happiness.

And may 2020 recover and redeem itself!  Take THAT, SARS CoV-2/Covid-19/novel Coronavirus!!

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Rollercoastering

If you ever want to ride on a roller coaster from home, try having cancer and you'll experience a lot of ups and downs, and sharp turns :) Not really the kind of ride I wanted....but who of us has the ideal life?  "This world is not my home, I'm just a--passing through" so the song goes.

The older my parents get, the more I perceive the cycle of life and really, how short it is, whether you have good health or not.  "Only what's done for Christ will last".  I'm thankful He asks us to work with Him.  Nothing else really has lasting meaning and results.  Heaven is real!  And Christ wants YOU there.

Well, I'm rambling.  Will close for another few months.  May God richly bless you!


My newish grandkitties

My sunset painting (following a tutorial on youtube). YOU can do it too and have fun!

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Comparative Head Cams

Well, you know me - how I love comparing pics.  So here is the history of my poor head from August /September 2017 to August 2018.

August/September 2017

During some sick times



December 2017



After surgery on January 3, 2018


January 2018


February 2018






March




March



It is taking FOREVER to grow, it seems to me.












This is around April or May 2018







May?












June 2018

June

June or July

July


August


August


August 2018

Oh, I forgot

Oh, I forgot to tell ya'll that I was diagnosed with cancer a year ago.... Had chemo every 3 weeks until mid December (horrible!), then surgery on Jan 3 of this year, then radiation for 6 weeks until the end of March.  Then it has been 3-weekly infusions of Herceptin until mid August and now I'm done except for Tamoxifen - one pill every day for 10 years!  Really??!!

So now I'm like "Now what?"  Everything has ended - the treatment, the surgeries, the radiation, the infusions and most of the doctor's visits.  Kind of feels weird after going non-stop for a year.  Oh yes, I am getting the port out next week.  After that, I'm on my own (mostly).  I see the surgeon and the radiation oncologist every 6 months it seems.  Maybe the regular oncologist every 3 months who knows yet? I see him tomorrow and will find out more.

The surgeon told me if this cancer comes back, there's no cure.  That's why I'm having the port out - no sense in having chemo again if it's not going to help, is there?

I'm happy it's me and not a member of my family!  Really happy.  Also, I leave myself in God's hands.  I don't know the reason for these things happening but I choose to trust Him and if possible, to bring Him glory through to the end.  This has definitely been stressful for hubby - he's had to deal with numerous of his family having cancer - so for his sake I hope it's not a long, drawn-out deal.


This is my bald head during chemo


This is at my LAST infusion in mid-August.  Got to ring the bell, Yay.


The longer I live, the more I realise how MERCIFUL God is.  I wouldn't want to serve or deal with any other god, ever!  Thank you, Jesus!

Another thing I've realised is that no-one can pinpoint the cause of cancer occurring although one can speculate to some extent, I suppose.  In my case I have no genetic mutation for cancer and no direct family history of this type of cancer.  I'm vegetarian, exercise and am a non-smoker etc.  Things which may have contributed, but not definitively are:  I used to eat quite a bit of sugar; I had two direct injuries to that exact location where the tumor was found and I did have a bit of stress at work a year before the diagnosis.  So who knows?  I had a friend who was a vegan, exercised, gluten free and strictly NO sugar, and she still got cancer.  So I'm a little less black and white than I used to be about causes of cancer....

Til later,

SnapChat mischief

Dear beloved Peeps,

I'm so sorry I haven't been keeping up with this blog.  How can one compete with Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and the host of other Social Media Time-wasters out there?  I'm SO guilty of wasting time on those but am going to try to turn over a new leaf and post here at least a little more regularly.

This past weekend I had some fun on SnapChat for the first time in my life.  Had to get a lot of help from my nephew's wife.   Then later some help from C.  Yes, I must be from an earlier generation but hey, it's really fun and not too bad.  Here are some of the results of that escapade.



Hmmm, freckles aren't too bad.  Actually, as a child this was one of my wishes.  So, here we go!


This is Granny.  She was highly amused by several of the filters.

The only time I'll be foxy.


Ok, so that's my brief history with SnapChat.  I also took some strange and grotesque photos and movies of huge mouths, skewed faces, voice changes and other wonderful things, but will spare you those.  

Does anyone have any Bible questions?  I'd love to research and study the Bible with anyone who has some legitimate questions.  That's if anyone ever visits here anymore haha... I might be writing to myself.  

Toodle-loo til next time.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

From This to That

After the chickens moulted in the autumn they stopped laying eggs and so we had to *gasp* BUY eggs.  Then after some really warm weather in December.....


We got an egg.

Then they continued until......



And now....






Saturday, June 20, 2015

Another Out West Trip - Day ONE and TWO

Honestly I can't tell you where the last 6 months got to - can't believe I haven't had ANYthing to say for 6 months?? Something is wrong here.  Anyhoo, we've done it again and have taken another trip out west.  So we'll start with day one again...

June 1 Monday


Our first picnic lunch

We had unexpected company

They politely declined our food in favor of their own

Such brilliant green almost blinded us

What a cute house!

So we took a quick side trip to Paris

Paris, Tennessee, that is.

Our first campsite was on Reelfoot Lake

It was very windy and cool but not cold
 Day 2 Tuesday, June 2


Hmmm, who are these intrepid travelers?  Seems like they need to get their itinerary straightened out if they're going to travel together!

Somehow (due to the weather), we crossed paths with our previous travels and since this road was open this time, we drove right down to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi.  S is standing here on the point.  Also a landing spot for Lewis and Clark several decades ago...

Two happy cows

Huh?


Yah! Especially the last one... (We almost left the kids behind once but that's another story)

Night 2 was at a KOA

Although cool, the girls couldn't pass up a good swim

Or some hair dyeing

Open air salon

2nd campsite (pool in background)