Driving

[Mad Dog]

For me up here it's usually "tourists".  They don't understand that this is a place we live, and not some big National Park.  I can't tell you how many times people will slam on the brakes, fail to pull off the road, and get out to take pictures of wildlife in some way, shape, or form.

I always wondered why it is called "tourist season", if we can't hunt them.   I want to know what the bag limit is........lol.

[StinkerBell]

I recall when I lived up in Anchorage some Einstein decided to place his two year old on the shoulder of a young bear that he started feeding in his backyard.

[Redoverfarm]

Can't even remember in 25 years the number of accidents that I went to where someone passing on the right was a contributing cause.  Mostly in rural settings with exrtra wide lanes or wide berms. Wasn't really legal unless there was a lane designated having sufficent width.

Then comes to mind Ski Season.  I think that when the people come from the city to a ski area they would have sense enough not to stop in the traffic lane of a blind mountain turn to clean their windshield wipers or headlights. Sort of like the show "What were you thinking".

Another little tidbit. Here in WV if you overtake a vehicle proceeding in the same direction  you have to give an audible signal.  That's why you hear so many horns on the interstate

[glenn kangiser]

Is WV in the US, John? 

Horn when you come up behind someone on the freeway -- I haven't heard that one.  They would never stop blowing here.

How about bikers who ride about 4 feet left of the side even on blind corners?

[glenn kangiser]

Friend of mine ran over the front of a guys car who snuck in beside him..  Got out - told him he shouldn't have pulled in there, got in and drove off.

[Mad Dog]

I recall when I lived up in Anchorage some Einstein decided to place his two year old on the shoulder of a young bear that he started feeding in his backyard.

Time for more bleach in the gene pool, huh?  I saw something that wasn't as bad about a month ago.  Guy was out of his car on the Old Glenn where the bridge passes over the railroad tracks, chasing a black bear down the road to get a better picture.  He was about 15-20 feet behind him. Lucky for him, the bear kept running.

[Redoverfarm]

Well at least part of it is that isn't joined by Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. 

Strangely here the bicycles are given the same right of way as the cars.  In the same token they have to obey the laws just like everyone else.  That's why I am a big fan of Mountain Bikes.  They stay on the trails and not on the tails.

[StinkerBell]

Instead of bleach in the gene pool, why not just take those select few out to the tide flats at low tide and encourage them to go out and find some pretty sea shells.

[Mad Dog]

Instead of bleach in the gene pool, why not just take those select few out to the tide flats at low tide and encourage them to go out and find some pretty sea shells.

[desdawg]

Instead of bleach in the gene pool, why not just take those select few out to the tide flats at low tide and encourage them to go out and find some pretty sea shells.

Just ouside the levy in New Orleans.

[Mad Dog]

Instead of bleach in the gene pool, why not just take those select few out to the tide flats at low tide and encourage them to go out and find some pretty sea shells.

Just ouside the levy in New Orleans.

Actually here in Alaska.  When the tide goes out, what's left is a combination of silt and mud, and is extremely good at getting you sucked in and stuck.  There have been people(as well as animals) who have walked out there in the past, only to get stuck, and have the tide come back in.

[StinkerBell]

It is like quicksand. 

[desdawg]

Mad dog, that toilet emotican tells it all. 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Guess mine would have to be the guys driving combines or 12-row planters at about 10-15 mph and then hugging the center line so you can't see around them to pass, even when there is a paved shoulder that extends 6'-8' beyond the right lane.... I mean, would it hurt to pull over a little so that folks could see around you?

Another one is folks who speed through parking lots... where are they going that is so dadgummed important that they'd risk running over kids or little old ladies going into Piggly Wiggly?

Sunday afternoon, I stopped by the health food store to buy some wheat.  As I was getting the kids out of the car, I heard an insistent honking.  Hardly anyone honks around here unless it is to say, "Hey, I know you."  Well, in the adjacent parking lot (incidentally a Hooter's parking lot) a little Prius was carefully picking its way over the speed bumps.  Two Mexican guys in a red shortbed Chevy pulled up right on the back end of the Prius and just leaned on their horn.  They guy in the Prius got mad and just stopped halfway through the gamut of speed bumps, so the guys in the truck, still laying on the horn, rammed him from behind. He started moving again, very slowly, over the next few speed bumps, with the truck following and honking constantly, and coming up and hitting his bumper.  When the Prius cleared the last speed bump, it reminded me of what happens when you lift up something and there is a mouse under it; it shot off and swerved all over the bigger parking lot, tires screeching and desperate to get away.  The truck took off chasing him, but they gave up the chase before he got very far... a few minutes later they were cruising the parking lot to look for someone else to harrass.   Don't know what's gotten into people....

Oh, the other one I hate:  litterbugs!!!  Can't stand it when people throw stuff out the windows of their cars going down the road (yes, Stink, including boogers!)

[sparks]

We all seem to be on the same page here. But Stink has a very unique perspective with the flying boogers and 'snotty nosed teenagers'

Is there a connection ?   

[desdawg]

They are trying to stop being snotty nosed. That is why they throw it out the window. I don't think they can win.

[apaknad]

how 'bout smokers who think the whole world is their ashtray as they flick the butts out the window of their vehicle. i too hate litterbugs and this action also increases the chance of starting a fire. of course they will be long gone. i won't even date a gal that smokes.

[glenn kangiser]

They seem to be the ones who start many of our fires.  The  roads are a patchwork of burned land along them -- nearly all started at the edge of the highway.  Had one a mile away where the big fire was a couple weeks earlier.  Had another on Monday.

Millions of dollars damage for the sake of cigarettes and idiots.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

My dad is in the category of the "cigarrette flickers"... aggravates the soup out of me.  He'll argue till he's blue in the face (which isn't all that long since he sometimes gets a little short of breath seeing as he's been smoking for 50 years) that it is impossible for a cigarrette butt to start a grass fire, but everyone knows good and well it can.  And Apaknad, I don't blame you... I always wonder how folks who don't smoke can live with smokers, let alone kiss them!   I also hate it when people dump their ashtray at a stop sign or light while they're waiting for their turn to go. 

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Oh, and drunk drivers, but that's a given, isn't it?  By the time I was 21, I'd already lost six friends in drunk driving accidents (none of them were the ones drinking.)  Another girl I knew from high school was left permanently brain damaged and crippled in the same accident that killed her boyfriend, one of my friend's older brothers. 

[apaknad]

good one HT,
i forgot about the ashtray dumpers. makes me cringe just to think about it. i see piles in parking lots too. last summer i was talking to a good friend of mine and we were discussing changing our engine oil and i asked him where he recycled his old oil. he said he dumped it in the back yard on the ground. i offered to recycle it in the future. made me feel bad. this is a hard working intelligent man. i just feel that there are somethings that we can't do anymore. i know 100% recycling is not the answer for everyone but at least pick the low hanging fruit off the recycling tree and try to help future generations(if we have any).

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

  Re the dumping used motor oil in the backyard... when I was about 8 years old, my aunt and uncle had a massive fight because he dumped some motor oil by accident (tripped on the oil pan) and it spilled into my aunt's tomato patch.  My mom was working nights, so I was spending the night at their house.  Even though my parents had divorced three years earlier, I'd NEVER seen them fight.  Well, my aunt and uncle were at it all night, and my poor little cousin was scared to death by it.  I can still see my aunt out there with rollers in her hair and in a terry-cloth house dress, beheading the defenseless tomatoes with the sharpened hoe raised above her head and bawling and shrieking through her teeth, "Shtupid, shtupid, shtupid!!!"  It's funny in retrospect, but was sort of scary at the time.  My aunt is one of those women who always has makeup on, so when she isn't wearing it, she looks kind of scary, and then add the rollers, old house dress, and the temper, and she was a sight!  It was an honest mistake on my uncle's part (or at least I really think it was) and the tomatoes probably would have survived if not for my aunt.  I remember being amazed that they were still married a week later because my folks never fought and yet divorced, and here they were up ALL NIGHT screaming and yelling, and they're still married.  I don't ever remember them fighting before or after that day, and I was over there a lot, but that one stands out in my memory.  I felt sorry for my uncle and thought my aunt had truly lost her marbles. 

[Sassy]

I get mad at people who don't know how to merge into freeway traffic when coming from on-ramp or those who are in such a hurry that they will pass you & pull in right in front of you, just about hitting you when they're not going to get there any faster as the traffic is all backed up in front...     I like to keep a little room in front of me when driving so in case someone stops suddenly, I don't hit them in the rear - but noooooo, this idiot will pull into that safety area although he's still not gonna go any faster 

btw, I think everyone who throws out a cigarette butt should be fined as much as someone would throwing out a piece of paper - here in lots of places, it's $5000...  maybe that'd teach em!   

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

they actually started doing that a while back in my college town when we were having a spell of dry weather and wildfire

[glenn kangiser]

Now if they could only catch more of them.