Turn signals and other options

I realize that some people are busy.  I realize that not everyone feels that they have time to do everything that they want to do.

HOWEVER.

Some things are not options.  Like turn signals.  Using a turn signal to indicate your intention to change lanes or turn a corner is the law, people.  IT'S THE LAW!  So when you suddenly swerve in front of me without using your signal, don't get all huffy when I honk at you because you almost hit me.  It's YOUR fault, Mr.-I-don't-think-traffic-laws-apply-to-me.

Also, when you run a VERY red light (as in two other cars went through the red light before you did), don't give ME a dirty look for almost getting hit by your crazy-driving-ass!

/end rant.

A few more things crossed off my lists

I've finally finished listening to the Librivox recordings of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. That took... a while.  Five volumes, each with 40-70 recordings.  Yowza.  As I listened to it, I remembered why it took me an entire summer to read the book while I was in high school.  It wasn't that I'm a slow reader.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), Hugo tends to be more of a historian than a story-teller, which results in a book that isn't particularly interesting to me for large chunks.  There were, like, nineteen chapters on the battle of Waterloo.  And three on the history and anatomy of the sewer systems of Paris.  All I really needed to know was that Jean Valjean was in the sewers.  It didn't make any difference to the story that he was in the section that was built under... um... someone's reign.  See how much it mattered to me?

But the heart of the story was good, and when he got on a roll with story instead of history, I was captivated.  There were times that I would sit in my car for ten, fifteen, twenty minutes after I got home, just to hear the rest of the section.  I think, though, that it will be another fifteen years before I reread it again.

I also finally finished the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.  Wow.  I've been working on this series since I picked up the first book almost fifteen years ago.  I reread the series every time a new one came out, up until the last three.  At that point, I knew that the series would be wrapping up, so I waited until it was finished to read the whole thing once more.  I started again over the summer, and this weekend, I finished the last book.

I'm feeling a bit, well, ambiguous about it.  The ending fit the rest of the books.  It worked out well, and it tied together whole chunks from the beginning that I was wondering about.  There were some bits that didn't make sense, and all of the characters have a tendency to deliver monologues rather than actually having discussions with one another, but aside from that, I enjoyed the series.  It wasn't nearly as over-written as I found the Wheel of Time series to be - I stopped reading at book 7, and I've had no desire to pick it back up.  At the same time, it's sad, because I've waited so long to find out what happens, and now that I know, well... hmm.

Can you tell I've been making up for lost reading time?  I also finished Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella.  It was in the cupboard at work, so I picked it up and read it during my lunch breaks.  It was okay.  It wasn't as if it were poorly written.  It was actually the story that I didn't like.  She wrote it well, don't get me wrong!  Rebecca (the MC) just made me uncomfortable.  I think it was the situation that she had managed to get into that didn't sit well with me.  Please, don't skip this book just because I didn't enjoy it - as I said, it was very well written, and the characters were nicely developed, and it is clearly a book that many others have enjoyed.

I've started reading Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire.  I read Wicked years ago, and loved it.  Of course, I also loved Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister and Mirror, Mirror, so I'm expecting to enjoy this one.  I'm only about 50 pages in, but I'm liking it.  I'll give you a final verdict when I'm done. :)

I was going to start listening to another audiobook, but I found the most random-ass mix cd in my car, and I can't stop listening to it.  I'm pretty sure that Otter made it for me - it's labeled "Princess/Disney Mix," and I was expecting a few songs from The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast.  Instead, it's got the standard princess songs, mixed with the soundtrack from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, Shrek, Peter Pan and some other craziness, all in one.  There are 148 tracks!!  So I'll be listening to it for a while before I switch back to a book.

And that's what I've been up to!  (Well, partly.  But you have to wait until Friday to hear about the secret I'm keeping.)

For cryin' in the sink!

I just had my first car incident today. I'm not happy.

I was parallel parking (which I had already done twice today!), and realized that I just was not going to get into the spot. There were cars backed up behind me, and I gave up. I was pulling out, and I scraped up against the other car. Shit. Nice long scratch on the car I was driving, and a paint scrape and a little scratch on the rear bumper of the other car.

I left my name and info on a napkin on the windshield, and the girl called. She was really nice about it, at least. She'll get a quote on repairs, and if it's below the deductible, I'll just pay for the repairs.

Sigh.

This sucks.

Fairy Feet, Fairy Fingers, and Turn Signals

Tonight's blog is brought to you by the number 8.

Those of you who know me in real life know that I've got small feet.  Tiny feet.  Fairy feet, as a friend once called them.  I wear children's shoes more often than adult shoes.  I always buy kids' socks.  They're just little.  I like 'em.

I also have small hands.  Back when I lived in climates that required gloves or mittens, I actually had to wear children's mittens... size 8-10 years.  With small hands come small fingers - fairy fingers, as I like to refer to them.

Unfortunately, the makers of Volkswagens did not have fairy-fingered people in mind when they made their turn signal stick thingies.  (Yes, I know there's a technical name.  I don't care.)  I have discovered that, when I have my highbeams on, the turn signal stick is just a little bit too far for my fingers to reach!  I actually have to lift my hand off the steering wheel to put on the turn signal.  *Sigh*  I guess there are a few disadvantages to having fairy fingers...

Attention all drivers:

Please read my blog.  That way, I won't have to have yet ANOTHER blog about idiot drivers.

Please do not ride my ass when it's raining.

Please do not ride my ass when I'm driving the speed limit.

Please do not ride my ass.  Period.

Thank you.

Tired... but no dead turtle!

So I'm tired, and not too inspired, but I thought I'd share this with you.

I HIT A TURTLE!!  I was driving to church on Sunday morning, and I thought I saw a brown paper bag in the road, but as I got closer, I realized it was a turtle.  I was on a stretch of road going uphill with limited visibility, but I tried to swerve a little to avoid it.  Did you know that a turtle makes a very distinctive "ka-THUNK" sound as you drive over it?  I only heard/felt one wheel go over it, but I had no idea if it was alive or not.  I felt AWFUL!  

After church, I made a point of going home the same way, because I had to know if it was dead.  I figured if it was, it would still be in the road.  But it was gone!  So it didn't die (and please, don't ruin my dreams of a somewhat-pissed-off-but-not-dead-turtle walking away from this!).  I was happier.

That was the first live thing I've hit since I started driving.  I didn't like the feeling.  I don't want to do it again.

Approaching 300/100

Two landmark type numbers coming up - 100 consecutive posts this year, and 300 total posts in this blog!  Wow.  I write a lot of random crap.  So I want to do something to celebrate, but I don't know what.  Suggestions are welcome (hint hint).    However, it's going to fall in the middle of the run of Sound of Music, which means I'll be sleep- and internet- deprived... perhaps it'll be a video blog.  *tries to think of any span of time when she might be able to do this*

In the meantime, some poetry.  Keep in mind that I am not a poet, but every once in a while, a little poem demands to be let out of my brain.  I think it's nicer to have free-range poems, rather than caged ones, so I let it out.  

Seventy-five

I'm going seventy-five

in the slow lane

Trucks speed past

and make me wobble

I step on the gas

trying to keep up

Little blue hairs

are speeding by

Nothing that I was taught

applies on the interstate

Speed is relative

so is the law

I'm going seventy-five

in the slow lane

And life's still

passing me by

A few more letters.

Dear Rainy-day Drivers,

WTF?  Seriously, it's been raining for three days, get it together!  Stop riding my ass!  If you didn't want to go as slow as 40 mph, maybe you should have taken a different route, one where the speed limit was higher than 35!  Please note that I was technically speeding!  

And go back and read the other notes, too, egghead!

Thank you,

D

Dear Weather,

Thank you for the rain.  I'm sure the farmers and other wet-loving folks appreciated it.  Can I have the sun back please?

Thank you,

D

Dear Ann Landers,

I don't know how you manage to put up with the levels of stupid that you must see every day.  I applaud the fact that you haven't yet stuck a fork in your brain to make it go away.  However, a lot of your advice leads to more confusion for the sorts of folks you're trying to help.  Can you try dumbing it down even more?  It might help them (trust me, I know the type - I see them at work every day!)

Keep up the good work,

D

Dear Saturday Morning,

Please hurry up and get here.  I really need the sleep.

Thank you in advance,

D

Dear Rainy-day Drivers

Ahem.  It would seem that you ignored me.  Kindly go back and read yesterday's note.  And while you're at it, could you turn off your freaking hi-beams when you're driving towards me?

Thanks.

Dear Rainy-day Drivers

Dear Rainy-day Drivers,

There is a happy medium between not speeding and not moving.  Please find it.

Thank you!

Slow down, you move too fast

If you've been following my blog, you may have noticed that, from time to time, I comment on stupid drivers.  Tonight, on my way home, I had another jerk behind me, following way too close, with his lights shining right in my eyes.  

Granted, I may be a little more sensitive to this sort of thing, given that I've only been driving for... wow.  I've only had my license for five months.  It feels a lot longer than that!  Hooray for freedom!

Sorry.  Still get a little excited.

Anyways, this guy behind me was being a pain in the ass, and I kept up a little monologue about how by riding my ass, he was simply encouraging me to slow down to exactly the speed limit.  I got to a red light, and he pulled up just enough that I wasn't being blinded and I saw the license plate in my rear-view mirror.  It had a star and three numbers on it, and for a second, I tried to figure out if it was some band or something that the driver was supporting.  Then I looked up.  The car had siren-y lights on top (I'm sure there's a technical name for those, but I don't know what it is).

The jerk was a cop.  

So I felt even better about standing my ground and driving the speed limit.

Much driving...

Tonight shall be a short post, because I'm exhausted.  I drove to Marietta and back tonight, so I could meet my dad for dinner.  It was great to see him again, and I wish we could have had more time.  Luckily, he's coming back in about two weeks, and this time, it will be for a visit with me, instead of just passing through on business.  Yay!

The most important part?  I drove through Atlanta, by myself, and made it home in one piece!  Yay!  I've heard horror stories of Atlanta driving.  Granted, I was driving on a Sunday night, but still, I managed to make it, so I'm proud of myself.

I listened to my "iPod mix" on the trip (that's what the playlist is labelled, I'm not just using quotation marks for fun), and I heard a lot of music that I haven't listened to in years.  I basically went through my entire music collection, and added my favourite song or two from every cd I own.  I decided that I need to re-listen to Jet Set Satellite in the next few days, because I love the title of one of their songs, and I want to write a short story with the same title.  I want to listen to the lyrics, to see if there's anything else I can incorporate.  Does anyone else do that?

They're trying to kill me!

I swear, big, white pickup trucks have it out for me!  THREE times today - THREE! - I nearly got crushed by a big, white pickup truck.

Granted, I've got a small car.  I drive a Volkswagon Beetle.  But it's RED!  It doesn't blend in with the grass or the highway or the sky... you should be able to see it!

The first time, I was on the interstate, and this truck changed lanes without signalling, and I had to slam on  my brakes to keep from hitting it.  And I wasn't going that fast, and it wasn't going that slow - it was just that close to me!

The exact same thing happened again about a half hour later!

The third time, I was on my way to the theatre, driving under an overpass, and the truck to my left started drifting into my lane!  I slowed down, because on my right was a freaking wall!

I'm going to be very wary of big, white pickup trucks.  Unless it's Mitzi.  I don't think she has it out for me... I hope...

Car go boom

Okay, so the car didn't go boom.  It went, "Bing bing bing bing bing!"  (That sound makes me want to watch 'Friends'...)

I was on my way home from the vet, and the ABS light wouldn't go off.  That didn't seem good.  Then, as I was stopping before pulling out of the parking lot, there was a loud beeping sound, much like the sound that means I'm almost out of gas.  I looked down at the gauge, and I was not out of gas.  Then I saw the 'BRAKE' light flashing.  That seemed worse.  As I started going, the brake light turned off, and the beeping stopped.

Then I came to a red light.  As I stepped on the brakes, the care started screeching at me again, and the light came back on.  Again, not good.  This went on the whole way home.  Keep in mind, I'm on my way home from the vet, and so I have a puppy in the car with me.  She's not a happy puppy.  She doesn't like the vet much, even though he didn't give her any shots this time.  (I'm not sure I like him, either... he's got creepily vacant eyes.)  I pulled into Arby's to get dinner (because that's what we do on the way home from the vet), and I went through the drive through.  Of course, this involves much stopping, and there was much binging from the unhappy car.

I finally got home and pulled out the manual.  All combinations of brake light and ABS light apparently require an immediate, slow trip to the nearest VW dealer to fix either broken brake cables or empty brake lines.  Hmm.  I was right.  This is not good.  Of course, all of this was going on AFTER work, so I couldn't get in anywhere.  The place I called is fully booked tomorrow, but the guy on the phone was super-nice, and told me to bring the car in tomorrow and they'll hook it up to the diagnostic computer to see if it's a major problem, or if I just need to top up fluids.  

So I may have to spend my Christmas shopping money on fixing my car.  *sigh*  On the bright side, this guy was really nice on the phone, which says a lot about the company (in my opinion).  As long as they don't charge three times what the market rate is, I think I've found my 'shop.'  Yay!  And since the car's going in anyways, I'm going to get a quote on the price to fix the electrical outlets (can't charge anything!) and the roof (the lining is falling off).  I don't think I'll necessarily get those repaired soon, but it would be nice to know what I'm saving for.  :)

And that was today's car fun.

I want to play in the fog

I was driving home tonight (woot for driving!), and as I drove past Tatnall Square Park, I could see that the lower parts of the park were filled with fog.  It looked so cool!  It was rolling around, like in the movies, which, I suppose, is why movie fog rolls like that...

In any case, I really wanted to just pull over and get out and walk around in the fog for a bit, because it seemed like it would be a lot of fun.  Sadly, the logical part of my brain would not go for it... something about it being 11 pm, and downtown, and dark, and alone... I almost called Blake to see if he'd come play in the fog with me, since it was a block from his place, but the logical bits pointed out that it's bedtime, not playtime.

*sigh*

But the next time I see fog, I'm probably going to get out and play!

Dear Stupid,

Dear Driver Behind Me,

It's eleven o'clock at night. It's dark out. It's pouring rain. We're on a road with lots of curves and hills. There are almost no street lights. I am driving exactly the speed limit. Riding my ass will not make me drive any faster. And if you don't turn off your brights, I will fucking stick a fork in your eyeball.

Love,
Me

Lots to celebrate!

What a day! There's so much to celebrate!

First, I learned how to parallel park today. Woot! I practiced downtown tonight, and I had to imagine cars based on where the lines on the road were. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the lines on the road because I was inside the car. But I got the theory of it. Then, as we were on the way home for the night, Shane saw a spot right between two cars, so I got to practice with real cars! It was soooo much easier - apparently I am no good at all at imagining cars, but I can handle the real thing. Just a bit more practice, and I'll be ready to take my road test!

Second, and more important (in my opinion), my puppy did not have any accidents while I was home tonight! Even better, while she was crated (while we were driving), she didn't have any accidents in the crate! She's done her business (I love puppy euphemisms) every time I've taken her outside tonight. I'm so proud of her! Things are finally starting to click with her, I think. Ring bell, go outside, THEN pee, THEN come back in. For a while, she had the order wrong...

So hurray for today! Only problem is, driving (while fun) still stresses me out a bit, so I'm exhausted and going to bed. But I've started formulating the idea for a new story... we'll see what percolates while I'm sleeping. I'll let the idea marinate overnight. I love using marinate in a non-food context - I heard it in the movie "Kissing Jessica Stein" and I wish I had more opportunities to use it in everyday life. Off to percolate and marinate!

I like to drive

I like to drive. To some of you, this may seem like an odd statement to make. I think most people like to drive. Driving gets you from point A to point B very efficiently. It may be a tad expensive with the current gas prices, but it's still relatively efficient. In the time it takes me to walk to the store (not in the store or back home, just to the store), I can drive, shop and get home. Efficient.



Most people over the age of fifteen drive on a regular basis. Up until last month, I was not most people. I have had a learner's permit (or beginner's license or whatever you want to call it) for thirteen years. Yes, thirteen years. In the city where I used to live, I could get everywhere either by walking or by using public transportation. The buses were reliable, clean, and safe, and most people used them at least occasionally. There was truly no need for me to learn how to drive. Since I couldn't afford a car, I didn't bother getting my license.

In Georgia, you need a car. It takes 45 minutes to walk to the nearest grocery store. By the time I get home in the summer, the milk would be spoiled. So I have found it rather important to learn to drive.

I never really liked the idea of driving. I preferred to let someone else be behind the wheel. There was less responsibility and less concentration required on my part. I was lazy, I suppose. There was also the fact that I had seen other people driving. Many, many drivers are idiots. No, that's being generous. In any case, I had no real desire to share the road with any of them.


In the last several weeks, though, I have been driving more and more. I have a car now, though technically I don't own it on my own, because they won't sell you a car if you don't have a driver's license. That was a bit frustrating, but really, it's a good policy. Anyways, it turns out that I like driving! Who'd have thought? So I'm hoping to do my road test in a few weeks and get a full license, after thirteen years. Crazy!

It helps that I love my car. That's her, off to the right. Ruby (that's her name) is a 1999 Volkswagon New Beetle. She's got heated leather (or possibly fake leather) seats, which is kind of redundant in Georgia, especially in the summer, but it'll be nice if I take her up north. She has a pink gerbera daisy in the flower vase, and she's just a cute girly car. I've got a harness for my dog, so when she's big enough, I'll drive around in my girly red Beetle with a pink flower and a Miniature Pinscher. I feel like a stereotype. But somehow, I really don't mind!