You Thought You Had Bad Traffic?

Traffic around where I live can be miserable. At times when driving the beltway around Washington D.C., a normal 40 minute trip has taken almost three hours. Although, one time I just quit trying and went back home.

I read an article about China's Massive Traffic Jam which makes all of my experiences pale by comparison.

Here are some excerpted paragraphs.

A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles (100 kilometers) with vehicles moving little more than a half-mile (one kilometer) a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office.

Some drivers have been stuck in the jam for five days, China Central Television reported Tuesday. But Zhang said he wasn't sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal.

This kind of traffic tie up boggles the mind. I complain if I get delayed for more than about 10 minutes! And if you look at the pictures in the article--most of it is truck traffic. I wonder how the produce going to market is holding up?

It really helped put the three hours we were broken down in the U-haul truck on Saturday into perspective. What if we were only making a half-mile per day? It would have taken about a month to get to Patrick and Tina's new house. Ugh!!

I guess it kind of puts it all in perspective. In the morning on my way to work, when I hit traffic on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and slow down to 35 mph--I should be happy I'm not in China.

Oh, let me think--I am happy I'm not in China, anyway.

But reading this, I sure do appreciate living here a little bit more.

Headlights in my Eyes

It happened yesterday morning.

My drive to work at the fairly reasonable hour of 6:30am was accompanied with headlights.
Yuck!

Even with the dark skies though, the top was down on Cat. The cool morning air--and it was cool, high 60's; felt refreshing--yet it made me sad too.

It is amazing how quickly the summer passes.

Monday evening, we took a timeout form the hustle of life and sat on the screened porch enjoying dinner and a bottle of wine and watching the evening fall around us.

Chris and I enjoy those times together, alone except for Makayla who desires to be near us.

We were escaping a bit--right in the middle of where we are. To enjoy conversation and planning, and a sip or two of wine to cap off the day.

We talked about life and the things of the day and the week. Chris reminded me that her favorite season is autumn as we noticed a coolness in the air. I reminded her that autumn makes me sad as I mourn the passing of another summer. And technically it remains summer for another whole month--but we all know the truth, don't we?

Of course, it was Monday evening and it was Chris' last evening before returning to work following another fantastic summer vacation. She accused me of secretly being happy when she returns to work; but that is not true! I wish we both could be on summer vacation everyday.

But we still need to work to live.

Long ago though, I stopped living to work and started enjoying the living a lot more.

So no matter the season--live and enjoy.

Bad From the Start

As I wrote yesterday, some days are just bad from the start.

Let me write about my Sunday.

It all began before I was awake--or should I say as I was awakened with a thumping on my back and my lovely, but sleep deprived wife screaming at me to stop snoring. I asked her what the problem was--because I was startled and not fully coherent. She told me in her best imitation of a sailor that I was snoring and should leave. It being 5:45am and being now fully awake, I just decided to get up, which Makayla thought was great.

Groggy though I was, I did enjoy watching Sportscenter, especially since the Orioles were in the last segment which was just airing as I got the TV on.

My next mistake was making coffee. Although I make coffee all of the time, this morning the coffee pot decided, about half-way through the brew, to stop accepting more coffee--which sent hot coffee over the counter, onto the floor and saturating the rug in front of the sink. A nice mess to continue the day. Although I was later accused of not emptying the coffee from the pot before brewing, I pointed out that the pot was only half full of hot coffee when I poured my first cup and so that could not be the case. Doubts, however, remained in the accusers mind I later found out.

Next was the breakfast bagel. By now my lovely sleep deprived wife was with me and I offered to make her a bagel after I completed mine. She was happy that I offered and I cut her bagel and placed it in the toaster at which point I noticed that there was a bagel setting on the toaster that I had not used. Feeling very pleased with myself I selected the bagel setting and pulled the handle down. A short while later I heard the toaster pop up and then the smoke alarm sounded. Seems her bagel was a bit crispy. I gave her the unconsumed half of my bagel and took one of her crispy halves. The smoke alarm stopped wailing after a short while.

We prepared to go to church and the last thing I do before leaving the house is put my wallet in my pants. I never lose my wallet. I know where it is. Yet, this morning we could not find it. We looked all over the house in the usual and unusual places, retraced steps to the car--but no wallet. Finally, as we became later and later departing for church, I realized that the last place my wallet had been located was my pants pocket from the day before after moving Patrick and Tina. Great. Or not. Someone had thoughtfully picked up my pants and washed them while I was swimming in the pool. Yes, we found my drenched, ruined wallet still in the washing machine. Fortunately the losses were not too great--but one of Chris's shirts was destroyed as the color from the 10 or more year old wallet had run into her shirt.

And so it was off to church with my driver's license in my pocket--but no wallet. What could happen at church? Nothing right? Well almost. No sooner had we seated ourselves and stood for the opening songs when I could not find the bulletin to doodle on. It had fallen under the seat in front on me.

One would think, that with the time being only about 9:20am and this many things going wrong that I would have gotten the message, right?

No.

We returned home after I had been coerced into grocery shopping, a stop which went from "we need a couple things for dinner today" into major grocery shopping.

I unwittingly decided to mow the lawn. After dutifully inflating the tires on the mower, and my truck and Kitty; the mowing went relatively uneventfully until I crashed into a short tree stump that I forgot was there because it was covered with grass that I wanted to mow. This bent the mower deck so that the blades would not turn--but thankfully, did not break the drive belt. Two hours and one severe rainstorm later, I had finished repairing the mower deck after saying some unkind things to the person I live with who showed up late with suggestions about how to fix the mower deck. I was very hot and sweaty because the humidity was up around 100 percent.

Was I bright enough to just call it a day at this point?

No. Sadly--

We went over to Patrick and Tina's to help them unpack and move in. Everything went great right up until the last project of the night. Patrick and I were hanging a quilt on the wall. It is a very big, beautiful quilt that Tina's mother made. The hanger needed a bracket in the middle to stop the sag. Right where I wanted to put the bracket in the wall was something into which I could neither screw a screw nor even drill with a masonry bit. Ugh! With the ends already in place and secure and the quilt already modified for the middle bracket I had to move the bracket a bit, the quilt is about 1 inch off center. UGH!

With that--and it being 10pm, Chris and I took Makayla and went home ending one of those days that should never happen to anyone.

Monday Musings - August 23, 2010

1. Some days are just bad from the start--and then they continue to get more frustrating until, finally, crashing into bed and drifting off to sleep ends them.

2. Moving is hard. Packing is bad but unpacking is worse.

3. Some weekends pass by so quickly that on Monday morning as I am preparing to go to work I hardly feel refreshed for the workweek ahead.

4. Makayla didn't see too much of me this weekend--I'm sure in her doggie-mind she was wondering if it was something she bit.

5. Sales at major department stores really bring out the crowds on a Sunday afternoon.

6. I was reminded this weekend that the next time I move--we will definitely pay someone to move all the stuff.

7. Fish are great to look at, they are really difficult to move. It doesn't matter if they are salt or freshwater--I've helped move both and they require a lot of care to arrive alive.

8. The pump on the pool burned out. I wonder how long I can keep the pool from turning green and will the new pump arrive before that happens?

9. And here is an interesting tidbit: On this date in 1617, the first one-way streets open (London). Where would we be now without them? (From Brainy History)

Moving day disaster

So the u-haul broke down within a couple miles of the starting location.

Jeremy showed up for comic relief.

We are still here after like three hours.

Help.

We are in moving day hell.

Summer Afternoon?

What is the best way to spend a summer afternoon in late August?

Answer? See image at right.

What is the not so best way?

Answer? Moving furniture form one home to another. Ugh!

It is moving day for Patrick and Tina. And the family is being mobilized because that's how we roll!

Hopefully, we will be able to minimize injuries--the team is not as young as it used to be.

Riding the Rails to D.C.

I took a half-day off Wednesday to take Ethan, along with Chris, into D.C. to do something I always love doing--visiting the museums.

The national museums are free--and so the only cost is getting there--a metro ride, which by comparison for the traffic it avoids is really pretty inexpensive.

A five year-old in a museum is an experience.

It is pretty much point and shoot--see something and look at it then move on.

It takes a bit to get into it and then you can really get going. Ethan seemed to like the movies a lot--where he could watch what was being presented. Although he did appreciate the dinosaurs and the animals. He spent some time playing with the ancestors, too.

I've been to the museums so much, I pretty well have the big exhibits memorized--but I still love looking at the airplanes in the Air and Space Museum.

After Ethan bored with the Natural History Museum, we had some ice cream, shopped till he dropped in the museum stores and then it was off to the National Air & Space Museum. Yay!!!!

We were incredibly lucky to miss getting dumped on by the rain which came down in buckets just as we walked into the Air & Space Museum.

Of course, since he was already tired this museum went by much too fast--but that was O.K. because it was his day! I think he enjoyed the Skylab space station the most--although the exploration of the planets was right up there.

And then, except for the ride home--that afternoon was done. Although we had to navigate the rush hour mess--we did O.K.

Well worth the effort and twice the fun.

That was a day to remember.

Dino-riffic

Spending the rainy afternoon in the Museum of Natural History with Chris and Ethan.

Scary.

And then I lost them both, I hope they are together. I'd hate for them to become Dino food.

Rain, Dark, and Cool

I figured out what it is I don't appreciate about August: rainy, dark, cool days.

The rain really dampens my spirits, although I was able to turn off the sprinkler system which kept the gardens alive, barely, during the scorching heat of July. The rain is here and really coming down as the cooler weather bumps against the humid heat we have been experiencing.

The high for today (Wednesday) is only supposed to be 77 degrees. Cool compared to the 99's of jsut a few short weeks ago.

While we were in Ithaca over the weekend, there was a smattering of 50's in the hills and Ieven saw some early signs of autumn in some of the stressed trees and bushes.

And this morning I noticed that it was dark again--no dawn in sight, as I let the dog out for her moning business. I paused for a sad moment to consider what this means. Of course I was also listening to the raindrops splat against the front walk and encouraging the dog to get her feet wet at the same time--so it wasn't much more than a passing thought.

August, at least the last half, seems to segway into September.

I am reminded of a Paul Simon song--April, Come She Will and the last verse being:

August, die she must

The autumn winds blow chilly and cold

September I'll remember

A love once new has now grown old

I feel as if Paul got it right. My love affair with summer--is becoming old and gives way into the autumn.

But the darkness is creeping across the area again. The hours of light are shorter--by almost 3 minutes every day now.

August, then can be reduced to three things--Rain, Dark, and Cool.

Sadly--

Up in the Air

Sometimes, things are not what they seem.

Usually, when a loud noise is heard in the air I can usually correctly identify it as a jet, or a propeller driven airplane, or a helicopter.

When I was a lot younger--I could often even determine the type of aircraft it was--although those were usually military aircraft. The venerable C-5A has a distinctive sound as does the B-52G.

On this day, I could not identify the air vehicle. I was snorkeling about 100 yards off the beach and I looked up to see the Goodyear Blimp. For real, slowly, and almost gracefully flying overhead.

I kind of wished that I could have just stood and watched it, but as I was in about 10 feet of water, that wasn't going to happen. So I snapped a couple of pictures with my now dead camera, to remember the moment and then went back to looking at the fishes.

I had forgotten that a blimp is based in Miami--and so while it was unusual to see one, it was not something highly out of the ordinary for the area.

I was happy to be in the water snorkeling.

But I still think about flying, sometimes.