Back to School...and Idiocy on the Road

Ah, back to school time!  The smell of new sneakers, freshly sharpened pencils, new clothes, brown bagged lunches...and people ignoring stopped school buses.
Yes, it happened yesterday on the first day of school.  As I was traveling down Main Street in Portland shortly after seven in the morning, a school bus was approaching the intersection of Fairview Street with its yellow lights flashing, clearly indicating it was slowing to pick up some kids and the three cars in front of me just flew by.  Are these people driving while still asleep?  Do they not have children?  Or are they simply so selfish and self-absorbed that they don't care about the safety of school kids?  Stop, people.  It's the law.  It's that simple.
And for the woman in the Honda (CT 127-WPF) at Main Street and Pleasant in Middletown this morning:
It was a good thing you caught yourself when you were halfway through the "no turn on red" intersection with a cop right behind us, but please explain to me how you could be so distracted that you almost rear ended the guy in front of you at the next intersection, especially since we were all at a dead stop for the red light when you decided to go.
If you have kids, warn them to be on the outlook for these idiots because I promise you that for every one I see, there are scores that I don't.

Road Trip

This will be a hit and run, but after a weekend in which I drove to Delaware, then to NYC, back to Connecticut and then to the Boston area and back, I have a lot to share.
Let's just say the leg of the trip from Westport, CT to Wilmington, DE started with spending 3 hours trying to get across the George Washington Bridge.  That leg of the trip should have been an hour.  Not an auspicious start.  And need I add that the first two people to irk me on this odyssey were an Audi driver and someone bearing NJ plates.  I'm just saying.
Traffic was moving so slowly I had plenty of time to take down some vanity plates...I have a lot to say about that subject one of these days.  Suffice it to say my favorite one on Friday afternoon was "FLOSSBOY".  Really?  His mother must be so proud of her son the dentist....or exotic dancer.  Whichever.
Actually the one vision that  keeps coming back to me as I sit at this keyboard has nothing to do with last weekend's trip.  It's a few weeks older.  My friend and I were heading into Middletown on Route 66 near the reservoir when a small white car passed us. The driver's left leg was propped up on the edge of the driver's side window with his foot resting on the side view mirror.  The thought of the pretzel like contortions required to do that were jarring enough, but the really great touch was the white athletic sock he was wearing.  Classy.  Maybe you had to see it, but the vision just keeps coming back to me.
The other visual that has been stuck in my mind for the last week is the collection of golf balls that decorated the Arrigoni Bridge for several days last week.  I'm not sure how they got there, but it was kind of fun checking every day to see how many were still there.
Truth is there is seldom a dull moment out on the road.

Or maybe......

I was driving on route 72 in the area of Berlin, CT tonight when a big hulking pickup truck passed me on the right.  His bumper sticker read "If I'm passing you on the right, you're in the wrong lane."
That gave me pause, but then I realized that I was doing 75 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone.  (I'm not proud of it, but it's a fact.)  So perhaps, sir, if you're passing me on the right, YOU shouldn't be driving 85 miles per hour in the SLOW lane.  Just a little something to think about.

And for the record, if you had been behind me in the fast lane, I'd have happily moved over to let you by, unlike the person you got stuck behind after you blew by me.  I think I've indicated here before that I don't really enjoy tailgaters who might as well climb in the back seat of the car.

And....since this post was prompted by your bumper sticker, let me just say to all of you out there, if you're going to put a bumper sticker on your car, please make sure it's legible.  it pisses me off when I try to see what sentiment you felt necessary to plaster on your car only to find the print is so small I couldn't read it without a magnifying glass or that the contrast between background and lettering is so poor as to make it invisible.  If it's worth saying (and most of it isn't), SAY IT.

Texting, Driving and Teenage Girls

I took an hour ride across I-84 on a bus Tuesday.  I'm not often a passenger in any vehicle and the elevated seat on the bus offered a different perspective on the road.  I decided as the bus merged onto I-84  to observe how many people were talking on cell phones or texting while driving a minimum of 65 mph.  It didn't take but a second to catch the first texter and then they passed the bus with stunning regularity.  What was interesting about this little experiment was that not one of these texters or talkers were female.  Every single one that I observed from Meriden to Ridgefield was male. Several of them were driving business vehicles so I would assume they were conducting business as they drove.  I will admit that I have been known to occasionally take a quick call while driving, although rarely, and I have NEVER texted while driving.  What amazes me about the people I observe is the brazen manner in which they break the law. 

I also took a 1000 mile road trip last week covering six states in the process.  I expected to have a lot of fodder for this blog when I got home.  Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) I didn't.  The drive south was a breeze and the ride home was not bad until I reached the George Washington Bridge and miles of overnight construction in Connecticut.  The start of the trip however almost set me on a rampage as I was trying to leave town and had to do the alternate merge to get on the good old (almost completed) Arrigoni Bridge.  A Toyota Tacoma truck felt the need to cut me off so he could get one vehicle length ahead of me.  I find that infuriating (see previous blog entries), but was able to let it go when we got over the bridge and he had to stop at the stoplight for those heading down to Route 9 and I sailed right by to go down Main Street.  "So long, sucker!"

My weekend trip also took me across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.  I've made that crossing many times and really find it a marvel of engineering, but as I was heading south across it this time, I noticed a huge tanker ship about to cross over the tunnel I was about to enter.  I actually had to stop and say a little prayer that the tanker was not so overloaded that it would ride too low in the water, scrape the top of the tunnel and spring a leak while I was down there.  Perhaps I've watched Titanic documentaries a few times too many. 

LeMans in Middletown

I know it was a beautiful day.  I get that you like driving your sporty little Mazda Miata with the top down on a day such as this.  What YOU don't get is that Main Street in Middletown at mid day is not the Indianapolis 500 or the LeMans raceway.

On the other hand the gentleman in the big hulking pick up truck that the Miata cut off needs to understand that while Main Street in Middletown at mid day is not a race track, neither is it a nice little country road for a leisurely drive.

Sending Mixed Signals

Another fun day driving in the Boston area.  Just one quick note to the driver of the Honda Pilot on Rte 30 in Weston with MA plate 69M J55: If you are stopped at a light and have your left turn signal on (score one point) and then decide not to turn, but to proceed straight ahead, look before cutting off the right lane traffic (lose 3 points).

When They Said Speed, He Was Listening.....

Did you hear about the guy in Oregon who got stopped for speeding three times in an hour, once at 105 mph, once at 98mph and finally at 92mph?  He's facing over $2000 in fines, but my favorite part of the story is his reason for driving so fast.  He was on his way to a court date to face methamphetamine charges.  About the only thing that really surprises me about this story is that he apparently wasn't high on meth at the time.