An Adventure In Commuting

On Tuesday, or maybe it was Wednesday, might even have been Monday...some days run together like that, but whatever day, I was taking Nick to school and as I'm driving our normal route, I reached a point where I could see all manner of flashing blue lights, the kind on top of police vehicles.  As I neared, I could see it was across the median on the opposing traffic side.  At the first set of lights, I could see a black pickup truck that had been loaded onto a flat-bed truck, obviously having succumbed to an accident.  Further observation revealed a large light/utility pole that was awkwardly bending over next to a twig of tree that had also sustained a similar bend.  Continuing to drive, I noticed more and more sets of those flashing blue lights at intersections where they had to cut off traffic from traveling along that route, in fact, for several miles back from where the accident was.

I kept in mind that because of this, I would need to take a different route home.  There were two options.  Opt 1 would take me back along that road amidst the very heavy traffic backup in order to turn a direction further away from my route in order to parallel that route and return to the road I needed to get to.  Or, opt 2, which took me around another part of town that's only slightly more distant but one I've taken on occasion for similar reasons.  It's good to have alternate routes.  I opted for option 2.  As I travel along that route, I'm thinking to myself, "wow, sure is a lot of traffic this direction too" and wondering if just that many people had the same idea I did.  At that point there were no other alternatives, so I continued on.  

Just before I reached the location to where I needed to make a turn, traffic narrowed down to one lane for our direction.  Oh dear!! A youngster in an itty bitty car about took off my front bumper cutting in front of me.  It was not a day for good traffic.  Then, along the side of the road was all that remained of a burned out something that appeared to take up the space of a motor home, but not even the framework was there, just the burnt debris about 6" or more deep.  And as I turned where I needed to I then remembered "road construction", yep, the same construction area I encountered back on my return from the wet land at the end of July.  This part of the city is putting in a round-a-bout and it's taking a toll on traffic, but wait! it gets better.  I'm in the left lane and approaching are firetrucks, spaced out from each other, not one, not two, but three, and in between one and two, a car decides to come up along my driver's side hoping for a left turn and was only inches from my door as she tried to get out of the way of the trucks.

Then I came to where I needed to make a left turn and did so without incident, but after driving another distance, again someone thought they needed to be in my lane, right in front of me, right that minute, and again, a narrow brush of nearly having my bumper removed.

I was never so glad to get home as I was then.  Oh, but then there was the return trip later that afternoon to pick Nick up from school.  Yep, where the wreck had been early that morning, the road for the same distance was still closed to traffic as they had to replace the utility pole and possibly reconnect some electrical lines, so that time coming back we took opt. 1, which was better than the morning, but still not ideal.  There are days like this that make me wish I'd stayed in bed and out of traffic.  Even though the Lord kept me/us safe and secure, the frustrations of the drive sorely tested my patience and grace towards other drivers.  Even so, I prayed that the drivers of the accident vehicles were not harmed, at least not badly.  I will never know.  

Fina-Lee Friday

Just a mish-mash of some things in my week since I didn't spend much time in Blogland this week:

• For whatever reason, Marty has trouble remembering our son's middle name. Since I use our middle names here in blog-land, you all know I call him Nick (for Nicolas). Marty, when filling out forms, puts it as "C" for Christopher(?). I don't think we even had that as a name in our naming pool. So with this current year's medical forms at work, he did it again and I prodded him to get it fixed. It isn't fixed yet, so I i.m'd him at work and asked if he did anything and his response was "it fell through the cracks". I responded with maybe we should just change his name to Christopher, he said "cute" and I stuck my tongue out at him with that little smilie. :P Maybe he meant we should change his middle name to Cute - it begins with a "C", hehe. But then, a LOT falls between the cracks around here.
  
• Not much progress on that bathroom problem. On Monday, Nick said the water flow was wimpy (I'd gotten up too late to shower!). On Tuesday, I showered and agreed, very wimpy! Nick went to take his shower and the shower wouldn't work at all and made gurgling noises in the wall/pipes. The leak may be in the pipes as the only time the water shows on the floor (from under the tub) is after Nick showers, yet we've run just the shower even and had no water show. Nick isn't splashing water out...it definitely seeps from under the tub, and it isn't the drain. Then I noticed the actual faucet (where the water actually pours from) has a big gap between it and the tile where the caulking should be and I keep forgetting to tell Marty - maybe that's the culprit in all this. My actions are 'on hold' until Marty finishes his investigation and determines what we need to do next.
  
• On Tuesday I was feeling a little like Balaam (you know, the guy that got off his donkey and beat it because he, Balaam, couldn't see the angel blocking the donkey's path). It seemed every incredibly slow putsy driver was in front of me and I'd finally get by only to have another one at the next turn. Was wondering if maybe God was using the slowpokes as messengers to slow me down (I wasn't speeding, not even close to the speed limit), but maybe He was preventing me from an accident, or ticket, or just changing the whole timing of my day. One has to wonder sometimes.
• On Wednesday I finally got the bulbs potted up that should have been potted by the end of last October...oops!...but in my defense, I had a wrist problem that's only been better the last month or so. I'm not sure what all they are, some tulips, daffodils, miniature daffodils, maybe a hyacinth or 3? Most of these bulbs were already sprouting, some a good 2", but I potted them all in 4 large pots and didn't leave a huge amount of space between each. I'm less concerned with whether they produce blooms or not than I am in just getting them into soil where they'll at least survive and come back for 2013 blossoms. The ones I planted in 2010 (also late, but not this late) gave me lots of blooms that year, but then didn't bloom much last year. This year, they're coming up nicely and I have one yellow hyacinth, and one yellow miniature daffodil in bloom. I'd prefer to have them in the ground but we just don't have a good spot without digging up the backyard which is full of huge tree roots from our Ash tree that's probably 50 years old.
• Today was a vet day for the kitties. Raven's caught up on all vaccines but goes in on Monday for her spaying. Flame's already spayed but needs one more vaccine which will be in 3 weeks. Flame does NOT travel well, she cries the whole time and even starts huffing - high anxiety...and she's the mellow one of the two (Raven clearly has Oriental/Siamese genetics) Raven loves the car, just lays down in the carrier and soaks it all in quietly. I think Raven would be fun to travel with even if she weren't in her carrier.
• I didn't get to attend my quilt guild meeting last night though I'd planned on it. Seems Nick could get extra credit in a class he currently has a C in (he never gets grades that low!!) IF he went to the school's basketball game and said hi to the teacher during half-time. I want to know what extra credit I get for missing my meeting and driving him 22 miles round trip so he could do this. I have to say it was kind of fun seeing our school team play; I haven't been to a game since I was in high school myself (grad. in 1971).
  
• Signed Nick up for bowling again. In fact, have to remember to take him and his ball back to the bowling alley after 4:30 this afternoon so he can be re-fitted to his ball since he's grown and the finger holes will need it. He also needs to make up a game as this past Tues was the first day and we didn't sign up until yesterday. He had bowled since he was about 5 but then took off since last summer. That and golf are the only two sports he likes to play - he doesn't do team-sports well. golf and bowling, while you can be on a team, your individual score is what you work on.
  

Fina-Lee Friday

• I've heard, but haven't yet researched, that our president(?) is trying to put in a bill (or has?) to add a 15 cent tax on Christmas trees to "improve the image of Christmas trees". Does the Christmas tree have a bad image? I wasn't aware.
• A couple weeks ago I saw a car carrier with nice new police cars on it. They were "Lexington Police" cars. Hmmm, were they headed to Kentucky but took a detour to the southwest? Maybe they were painted here? There is a Lexington in California, so maybe they were headed there. Or maybe they were taking a tour like the DC Christmas tree that took a month to get to DC.
• I wonder if some of the driver's I see have ever read the driver's handbook. Have I wondered that out loud before? Specifically wondering about the guy that stopped in the middle of the three lanes of traffic because of the emergency vehicle that was going the opposite direction on the other side of a curbed and tree-filled median.
• And the other driver that couldn't decide if he wanted to turn into a driveway or not and held up traffic while he contemplated the notion.
• Or the dudette walking in the parking lot that didn't have the sense to move aside to let the cars drive where cars drive, I wondered about her. Of course, she's a pedestrian, and I'm not aware of a walker's manual, but think there should be one...also one for bike riders - they should be licensed!!
  
• Why did the city put in a fully functioning traffic light on a street at an intersection where the cross street hasn't been constructed? Is that an example of the cart before the horse? Or an attempt to slow traffic in a posted 55 mph zone?
• Marty let me know last night because of some areas he needs to learn at with his job that he'll no longer be telecommuting on Friday. Bad for him, good for me. He has to endure Friday traffic, I have a 5th day to do what I do with my days in 'my' domain without interference-even if it's only in my mind. What will we do when he retires? I suppose I'm a bit 'selfish' in my territory.
• My sweet baby girl called yesterday inquiring as to our Christmas list. The whole gift area of Christmas is a struggle for me. It used to be because of lack of funds. But now it's more that there's nothing I really need and my big want is the kitchen remodel and a couple quilting-related very pricey items (like cabinet/table for my machine); same with Marty-doesn't need anything but maybe would like a 4WD vehicle for his photog outings (his car has >150K miles on it); Nick has a list...mostly things with a high price tag, too! The grandbaby's easy - toys, outfit at this age, but my daughter and son-in-law...that's the hard part. And I'm running out of time!