Skip to main content

What happened?

I should be asleep right now, but I'm not. I had some iced tea too late tonight and now I'm wired for sound. I tried going to sleep earlier, but that didn't work. I tried watching some football. That didn't work. Let me vent a little:

What happened to 'neighborhood kids'? I used to be one so I think I can comment on this. Whenever a car came down the road -- no matter what we were doing -- we got out of the way. We'd yell "Car!" to everyone within earshot and everyone would immediately dart for the curb on one side of the road or another.

I drive through my neighborhood (typical suburbia) and these kids look at me like I've got eight heads. I had a kid dart in front of me on a skateboard and I almost hit him. If I had, his parents would be all over my ass for money. You can't tell parents to "watch your brat a little closer, dumbass!" because they tend to take offense to that.

Another time, I'm heading to my house and I had to make a right-hand turn to get on my street. I see a kid on a bike so I slow down to be extra careful. I make the turn and pass the kid pretty much at the same time. I look in my rear-view mirror to see this kid reach out to grab my car so that he can hitch a ride. Unreal! I speed up enough to foil his plan.

The parents are just as bad. This time, I'm making a right-hand turn to continue my journey to work. There are two lanes that are going straight and I'm in the turn lane. I wait until I see the light turn green and the cars begin to take off. I step on the gas and start to make my turn -- only to see a large van speeding toward me, cutting off traffic and almost plowing right into me. I slammed on my brakes and blasted my horn... only to get no reply. What is so important that you would put yourself in harm's way like that? Is your wife pregnant and you're speeding to the hospital? Is your house on fire? Did you just win the lottery? What could it be?

By the way... could you please pay attention to the cars behind you? I wish I had a dollar every time I saw someone blocking a turn lane, only to find out there are 2 car lengths between them and the car in front of them. Move up!!! If you can't see someone fighting to get around you in your rear view mirrors -- you need your eyes checked!

I wish this conversation were possible:

Police Office: Do you know why I pulled you over?

Me: Yes, officer, it's because I bumped that car in front of me trying to get around it.

Police Officer: That's right. I'm writing you a ticket.

Me: But officer, that guy is a complete dumbass! He had enough room to move up so that I could get around.

Police Officer: He did?

Me: Yes.

Police Officer: Well, in that case, you have a nice day. I'll be giving HIM the ticket for being a dumbass!!

A boy can have his dreams, can't he?

This rise in blood pressure just thinking about this stuff can't be good for my effort of trying to get to sleep. I'm going to be useless tomorrow. I'm going to be running on adrenaline and caffeine.

L-girl and I went out again. We did the classic "dinner and a movie". We went to Outback and neither of us had a steak. Then we went to see "FlightPlan" with Jodie Foster. It was okay, not great. Not to spoil it, but if you ever see it, don't think 'Sixth Sense'... it's nothing like that although it does have that feeling at times.

Basically, a mother and her six year old daughter get on a flight from Germany to New York. The mother falls asleep and wakes to find her daughter missing. The twist? No one remembers seeing her with the girl. It's a mother's worst nightmare.

The writing was thin, the direction was heavy-handed and the acting was just adequate.

I really, really, really need to get to sleep but I'm as wide awake as I can be. I need to find something that will settle me down. Well, I'm going to try and sleep now so that I can get an odd number of hours of sleep.

I am seeing today through yesterday's eyes...

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Cartoon Duo's

This time out the subject is Top 10 Cartoon Duo’s. I was only going to make this a Top 5 list but I had so many entries to work with, I added the last 5. Here’s the list is no particular order – wait, that’s not right… 10. Ren & Stimpy: Call this entry the ‘Odd Couple’ of the group. A cat and a dog (I think) living together and making their way despite their obvious instincts to be sworn enemies. I have to admit that this cartoon was hard to watch sometimes because of the ‘gross’ nature of both characters – pooping and boogers a big part of the vernacular. “Oh, Re-e-e-n?”, “Yes, Stimpy!” 9. Inspector Gadget & Penny: An uncle and his niece go around solving crimes against Dr. Claw. It was actually Gadget and his dog, Brain, that tried to solve the crimes and Penny that actually solved them. She would tell Brain the solution and that crazy dog would expend a great deal of energy trying to make the Inspector understand the solution. Finally, when Inspector Gadget would ‘stumble

High Kings vs. Celtic Thunder

I had the rare chance to compare Irish music this weekend. I caught performances by both “The High Kings” and “Celtic Thunder”. First up was HK: The show was filmed in front of an audience somewhere in Ireland. The set appeared to be a simple wooden stage that was reminiscent of a boat dock – simple and effective. There were drums on the left and a small supporting band on the right. While they played, a large video wall displayed images behind them – mostly water – setting the mood for the song they were singing at the time. The vocalists were excellent. You could tell they were really Irish by their brogues, which were honest and uncluttered. The harmonies were good and you could tell they were really singing. In the beginning of the show they made it clear that everyone should know all the words to the songs they were singing and the audience was asked to “sing up”. They started with a rousing version of “The Rocky Road To Dublin” which drew everyone in and they never let the audien

Lunch with a side of awkward

Last week I was sitting in my office wondering what to eat for lunch since I didn’t bring anything to eat. I happened to be in our break room and saw a collection of restaurant menus and began thumbing through them for suggestions. I came across a place that I had heard of but had never been to, so I decided to go there – mostly because of how close it was to the office. I walked in and looked around. The place was empty. There was a table of 4 ladies in the corner who looked like your basic bridge-playing women. Sitting in the booth next to them was another couple that looked like they were wrapping things up in order to leave. Finally a server appeared and seated me at a table across the aisle from the foursome. By then, the other couple had left. As I looked around, I noticed a lot of the place was made of or covered in wood. It’s the kind of a place you might find overlooking a body of water, but all that was outside this place was a parking lot. The server was tall, thin, dark hai