I pulled up to a 4-way stop today. Generally this is always an adventure (why don't women know how to "work" a 4-way stop? fodder for a future post...). As each of us came to the intersection, we all made some sort of eye contact. And all sorts of things came to mind.
First--I noticed that we were all the sole occupants of our vehicles. While in the bigger cities, that might seem odd. Around here, that's not a big deal. But then I started noticing people's faces. Have you ever looked at the faces of your fellow road warriors? It's scary! Particularly those who are driving by themselves!
For the most part, single drivers appear to be fairly pissed off at the world. Everyone is scowling. Like they are late for an appointment, and you'd better not be getting in their way! Others look fairly stoned, and you question if they've really got anyplace in particular to go, or if you should be anywhere near them on the road. Of course, you have your elderly drivers. The old ladies drive without concern for anyone or the rules of the road. You definitely don't want to be near them. The old men have that dazed look in their eyes--somewhere between hen-pecked and comatose. They aren't too bad, but you know they're cursing you under their breath.
Some of the others I've noticed are the talkers. They're just scary, wherever you meet them. The singers--totally oblivious to the fact that they're behind the wheel of a lethal weapon. Generally teenage girls. The teenage boys have the bass cranked so high that their subwoofers are actually affecting the position of the car on the road. Stay away from them!
The only ones left are the ones that are actually smiling. Either because they are medicated, or are one of those ever-cheery types that you want to smack up alongside the head. There's not many of them, but you want to alway be wary of them. The upshot of all of this?? I want the roads all to myself, thank you...
I haven't ranted or raved about any commercials lately, because there hasn't been anything spectacular. But two have caught my attention. First, the rant--Quizno's prime rib/garlic bread sandwich. Quizno's has gotten a rant before for using mutant rodents to sell their sandwiches. This time around, it's the folksy, "person-on-the-street" opinions about it. Flash ahead to the girl who says it's "not lacking any meat, and that's what girls need". And then, the giggle. The giggle that lands somewhere between "I said something racy" and "I remember that thing you did to me last night." What's up with that?
The rave, such as it is, is for T-Mobile's "five friends" promo, or whatever it is. The family is sitting around the dinner table, and Mom asks the daughter if she's chosen her "five". She lists them off, and then little brother lists the same five. "Your friends are haawwwttt." In that voice that only a horny little brother could make (I'm assuming here, since I've never had a little brother...). Not great, but pretty funny.
Ooh--a second rave! The new JCPenney commercial. Not so much for the commercial, because I can't tell you a thing about it. But the music they use in the background. "South American Getaway", written by Burt Bacarach for the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and sung by the Swingle Singers (or a similar jazz vocal group). I have always loved that part of the movie--no dialogue. Just bank robbing and fun in Bolivia. Kudos to JCP for bringing back that great music!
My ISP and the Google sites haven't been playing nicely with each other as of late. I find that I have to keep rebooting in the middle of chats, and sometimes I can't access Blogger or even Google Search. Of course, my ISP thinks it's taking care of me and redirects me to their homepage, for which I have NO use, thank you. And when things things seem to be OK and I try to access one of those pages again, it's cached to go back to ISP. Why can't things work the way they're supposed to?
To end on a relatively light note--I have a new favorite show. The best one on TV these days. You can find it on the Discovery Channel. "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe". There is nothing as good as this. Not even the surgery scenes on some of the other Discovery shows. Mike, who seems to enjoy his work, checks out the smelliest, sweatiest, dirtiest, foulest jobs you can possibly think of. And does so with a smile! And outtakes during the credits! As you can imagine, it frequently involves waste, innards, and all sorts of unmentionable things. If you've never watched it, I highly recommend it.
Though they haven't hit upon the absolute worst job of all--being the cameraman who has to film all of this. Take after take after take...
I checked in to the hotel, Stealth, her neighbor and I ran off to drink a couple of beers, came back to get ready, and met up with TaraTaintonand her partner.
