Magooing on Highway 101

This was a tad too long for the comment section of Mr. Biesbolfan’s blog, so with that limiting technology I just had to respond to his post about texting while driving in this format. Sorry.

First, let me make it clear that I disagree with the premise that texting while driving is an unsafe practice in general, but admit that if ones brain is not fully functioning it can become somewhat hazardous. This only makes it dangerous if the person driving and texting is stupid. Here is a perfect retort to that asinine premise;

I was driving along on Highway 101 near my home when Mr. Biesbolfan’s blog post popped up on my vehicles HUD, a wonderful device that allows me to see the road and internet at the same time, and I began laughing so hard that I had to pull over to the side of the road. By the time I was able to reenter the roadway it was packed with RV’s towing stuff, bicycles, hitchhikers, little teeny sport cars, big trucks and all manner of other vehicles. It was busy, so traffic was just creeping along at low speed, which gave me a perfect opportunity to respond to Mr. Biesbolfan.

I kept getting distracted from my task by people honking and waving at me, but despite their shenanigans I was finally able to complete an email or two, read some news, play Mafia Wars enough to bank some imaginary dough, and all of this while still creeping along toward my destination. I thought, “This will free up a lot of time later when I am not driving and will be able to work on other things.” When I felt the right front tire thumping and shaking I knew that some contractor ahead of me must have lost the box of roofing nails from his truck and some of them must have found my tire. Imagine my surprise when I pulled over, again, and found part of a bicycle helmet embedded in my tire. This made it not round. After removing the offending plastic I pulled back onto the highway only to have to pull off once again for emergency vehicles speeding along in the opposite direction. This really slowed things down for me! But not wanting to waste time I reverted to the HUD and got a lot more stuff done, enough work that I knew I would be able to just play the rest of the day when I finally reached my destination. Still more emergency vehicles and a tow truck or two later, I was finally able to get off the highway and arrived home refreshed in the knowledge that the rest of the day could be devoted to more important things than just driving.

So you see Mr. Smarty-pants, it is possible to text while driving, and one can even deal with emergency vehicles cluttering up the roadway, if one stays focused and concentrates on BOTH tasks.

Badgers need love too

This might be called Mr. Badger's bad day. According to the information with the photo, the badger is still alive and was later freed. I thought badgers were actually pretty fast and smart. The smart part was on vacation this day.

Sucked In

OK, I am not usually a big fan of on-line games, but the facebook game of Mafia Wars sucked me in and maybe it is the same sort of thinking that initially gets people headed down the real slippery slope - it doesn't take a whole lot of time and it is sort of fun.

Anyway, I find myself now recruiting facebook friends so that I can get my crew to five members in order to accumulate enough money to buy more weapons so that other crews can't beat me up easily and steal my fake money. It is a slippery slope and now I am spending time blogging about it. But if you are inclined to join I could really use the help and I will try not to bury you with useless email or facebook post...............................I just need protection from all of the other bad guys.

It is a nasty, tough world out there in cyberland. There are people that must spend all of their time at this stuff. If I get to that point just join the fray and hire a hit on me to take me out of my misery!

It is not a REAL addiction. It's not, really!

Endless Highway Sympathy

Julie and Alsiha will be leaving Tucson tomorrow for Stockton, Texas enroute to Washington, D.C.

I have a tremendous amount of sympathy for them driving the route through Texas. I once tried to get out of Texas from Houston in one day and failed to make it in my VW van just short of El Paso when a bush by the side of the road spontaneously caught fire a jumped into my lane. I immediately pulled over and took a nap in the back. Brother Earl was slepping most of the way in the back because he had not yet attained the age of 16. I have never again allowed myself to be so deprived of sleep that halucinations hamper my senses, but it is something I will never forget and West Texas is forever on my list of places to avoid. Julie is a very good Mom to volunteer for this duty.

I-10 also goes through New Mexico, but it is a mere blip on the radar compared to what follows in Texas.

This is the one intersection on the highway in all of West Texas.

Crumbs

Crumbs have been on the forefront of my thoughts as I waved goodbye to daughter Alisha and faced the prospect that I, yes me,me, me, may actually be the culprit that has been making a mess around the toaster every morning. Alisha and I like things that are crunchy, so toasted breads are high in the order of edible things. The area near the toaster has been a real mess and while she was here I gleefully blamed her for every crumb I could find.

Now that I have cleaned things up I may find one or two crumbs of my own making, but rest assured that I will tell no one and report that things in the kitchen are simply glistening all of the time.

What is a girl to do?

Alisha is preparing to hit the road tomorrow for her 3,800 mile drive to Washington, DC via San Francisco, Phoenix, Tucson, New Orleans and Atlanta, with her Mom along in the right seat for the Phoenix / Atlanta portion. This was a compromise to help get through the endless scrub brush of Texas.

Of course packing her car was a bit of an experience. Her apartment bedroom in DC is 6 feet, 10 inches by 11 feet, 8 inches. If you know Alisha the biggest challenge will be to find enough space for clothing and shoes. Shoes are an entirely different category, although one could argue that bodily coverings of any sort are "clothes". Alisha takes shoe acquisition, display and storage to a level seldom seen in this hemisphere.


Nothing in my 58 years of experience has prepared me for the task of packing a small hatchback sedan with so much of life's flotsam. When I was in the mining business we made money when we could move tremendous quantities of rock quickly to our crushing plants and we used really big equipment to get the job done. I understand the value of big vehicles. We are a bit more limited by Alisha sensitivities toward the environment because she will not consider owning a Suburban or equivalent land yacht. She does like to borrow mine occasionally as long as I fill the tank, and it would be really useful for this trip, but she has declined the offer.

So, I suppose, as is normal, that I have absolutely no control or say in any of this and that my job is simply to help let loose the lines when she wants to go somewhere and hold my tongue about the acquisition and storage of "stuff" lest someone inventories my own belongings. We were able to get 99% of everything into the little car for her departure in the morning and that will just have to be good enough for now.

You gotta love the Swiss

The Swiss have always, well almost always, known how to make their place in the financial world secure........

By BALZ BRUPPACHER, Associated Press Writer Balz Bruppacher, Associated Press Writer

BERN, Switzerland – Switzerland's government said Wednesday it would forbid the Swiss bank UBS AG from complying with any court-ordered transfer of data on tens of thousands of American clients to the U.S. government, and would consider seizing documents to prevent that.

The statement was the strongest yet by Swiss authorities locked in a battle with the U.S. Justice Department over the identities of more than 50,000 American clients at UBS.

The case in the federal district court in Miami has become a focal point of Washington's efforts to crack down on tax evasion and the foreign banks that help wealthy Americans send money overseas. But UBS and the Swiss government say handing over the names would violate Swiss law and subject bank employees to criminal prosecution in Switzerland.

"Swiss law prohibits UBS from complying with a possible order by the court in Miami to hand over the client information," the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement, describing its latest filing with the Miami court.

It said the bank would not be in a position to comply, anyhow, since "all the necessary measures should be taken to prevent UBS from handing over the information on the 52,000 account holders demanded in the U.S. civil proceeding."

Ministry spokesman Folco Galli told The Associated Press the government decided last month that it would even seize the documents from UBS to prevent the transfer.

Family

We are beginning to see the first arrivals for our 4th of July gathering. Sterling, Julie & daughter Vivian arrived yesterday from Las Vegas, along with friend Eric Soland from Tucson, and Gary & Char arrived late Monday from Springfield. We have taken the boat tour of the lake today and today Vivian was the first to catch a trout from the viewing dock. We're looking forward to Cris and Sandy tomorrow and Josh and Kelly on Friday night.

more later....................

This is later.

We have consumed our second group meal and listened to many stories from the "kids" about situations from their childhoods and I have concluded that we were not completely aware of all of the details of some of the things that they did as youngsters. There were certain omissions at the time. Not outright lies, well maybe some, but mostly just the collective amnesia of teenagers. We are somewhat surprised that they are still among the living and I am not sure that I want to know everything. It may be better at this point in my life to not know certain details, although they have assured us that they are already cleaning up their recollections for us to lessen the potential impact on our parental psyche's.