It never fails to astound me how people really believe they can multitask while in control of a vehicle moving at 40 mph.
I was sandwiched between two such drivers this morning. It was , to say the least, a very scary experience.
The man in front of me was driving 10 miles under the speed limit, and, on the phone. He also appeared to be sightseeing. In this, I mean looking everywhere BUT in front of him.
I admit it. This irritated me. At 7 am , trying to get the kids to school, this guy was not the one I wanted to be driving behind. I may have muttered some not-so-nice statements.
I glance in my rear view mirror, and see Evil Knievel coming up fast behind me in a bright yellow sports car. I tap the brake, to let her know, 'hey, we aren't going as fast as YOU are ! '
She drives up so close I was sure she would hit me.
Then suddenly drops back, and speeds up again.
I think , looking to pass?
Mind you ,I am seeing this in bits, as I can't forget the slow, chatty, sightseer in front of me.
She gets close again, and I notice she has her head tilted up , and she's kind of leaning toward the center of her car.
She is using eye drops. . . I kid you not, she was that close, that I could tell exactly what she was doing, and it terrified me.
when she would glance at the road, she'd see she was too close, hit the brakes, back off, then gas up again, not paying attention until she got too close again.
I can't do eye drops standing still, and she's doing it while she's driving ??
Now in front of me ,captain tourist-with-the-local-plates is braking. WHY, I have no idea, but he has decided to go even slower.
I have to slow down, and glance in the mirror again.
Dear Lord, she hasn't noticed we've slowed, because now she's doing her makeup.
I make sure the kids are sitting right in their seats as she miraculously looks up and slows down.
At this point ,I am praying we make the next half mile to the turn.
When I do get to the turn, I have a bad feeling this girl behind me won't even notice, so I know I'll have to be quick ,and smooth about it.
I made said turn, and sure enough, she didn't even slow down at all. My 9 year old daughter in the backseat commented " Oh my God Mom!! she would've hit us ! did you SEE her? she didn't even slow down!"
yea. I saw her.
Scary ,scary ,stuff. This peeve ranks up there with Wal-Mart. Driving is a responsibility, not a luxury, and certainly not a mobile vanity, a phone booth, or a cafe.
Not only did I feel I and my children were in danger between these two drivers, but the cars behind the girl . There were at least 6 cars lined up behind her, due, of course, to Mr. no-where-to-be in front of me going too slow.
WAKE UP PEOPLE ! If you get in the car its to DRIVE, and you are NOT in a safe little bubble of your own little world. You are responsible for LIVES, of yourself, your passengers, and every other car on the road with you.
AND PUT YOUR KIDS IN THE CAR SEATS THEY BELONG IN !!!
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Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Storm Season has Returned
Spring here in TN brings storms. Much warm-meets-cool-air type storms. We all know those also provide us with tornadoes.
This is nothing new to us, last year we even left the house several times during these nasty events.
What's new to us, is that we put our television service on hold early this year. We usually do this in may or june, because with all the outside time and traveling, no one watches it for a few months. ( and it saves us some money too!)
Without TV, these storms have been sneaking up on us. I check the radar online, husband does on his phone, but we sometimes miss the chatter that makes us look.
One snuck up on us last night. I had been antsy all day and could not figure out why. I turned on the radio in an attempt to calm my nerves and heard our area was under tornado watches until 10pm, and part of the storm was heading straight for us. just in time to pick the kids up from school.
I picked up the kids in a heavy wind, but oddly, not much rain at all.
now hearing reprots of pea size hail breaking car windows an hour away. (small, yes, but the wind was pushing this sucker along at up to 80mph!)
We keep the routine at home, kids doing homework and chores, I start dinner.. Husband comes home and want to bring us up the hill to the garage. Hmm.
Ok, why not. Up we go, and surprise, he may have acquired a new toy. (totally different tale) While they are all ogling daddy's new toy, I look up. The sky is becoming unusually dark, and fast. I tell husband I am going back to the house, finish dinner and check the radio.
As I walk to the house (50 yds or so downhill) it gets darker and darker, and my nerves are jumping like crazy. I call up to husband to send the kids in.
They start walking down, and just as the get to the house, the siren starts.
Want to talk about insta-adrenaline?
We all go downstairs, and son is absolutly panicked. Its the siren, along with being a long, tiring day.He doesn't like storms at all to start with, but the siren sends him over the edge every time.
This time was new. He actually got so scared he bgan to gag. " I'm gonna be sick mama!"
ugh
He wasn't actually sick, but the gagging was awful for all of us.
Each time we'd get him calmed down, that siren would sound again, and freak him out again.
I won't knock the siren- we are actually lucky enough to live where we can hear it, and they don't sound it unless theres a report of rotation. It was a busy evening.
We stayed downstairs for about 2 hours, trying to calm son, ate dinner, and waiting. the rain and wind was horrendously hard, and the noise was unreal..
When they announced the watch until 10 pm again, so kept telling me we couldn't go to bed.
oh yes, we can, and will.
The worst of it passed, several touchdowns reported around the area. the rain even stopped, and the wind died down to a strong breeze.
I was sure the child would try to stay awake until 10pm- but he was truly exhausted.
Hopefully his panic won't become a habit, and even he said he felt a lil silly once it was visually over.
A bigger hope that our storm season won't be as hard as our winter was this year !
This is nothing new to us, last year we even left the house several times during these nasty events.
What's new to us, is that we put our television service on hold early this year. We usually do this in may or june, because with all the outside time and traveling, no one watches it for a few months. ( and it saves us some money too!)
Without TV, these storms have been sneaking up on us. I check the radar online, husband does on his phone, but we sometimes miss the chatter that makes us look.
One snuck up on us last night. I had been antsy all day and could not figure out why. I turned on the radio in an attempt to calm my nerves and heard our area was under tornado watches until 10pm, and part of the storm was heading straight for us. just in time to pick the kids up from school.
I picked up the kids in a heavy wind, but oddly, not much rain at all.
now hearing reprots of pea size hail breaking car windows an hour away. (small, yes, but the wind was pushing this sucker along at up to 80mph!)
We keep the routine at home, kids doing homework and chores, I start dinner.. Husband comes home and want to bring us up the hill to the garage. Hmm.
Ok, why not. Up we go, and surprise, he may have acquired a new toy. (totally different tale) While they are all ogling daddy's new toy, I look up. The sky is becoming unusually dark, and fast. I tell husband I am going back to the house, finish dinner and check the radio.
As I walk to the house (50 yds or so downhill) it gets darker and darker, and my nerves are jumping like crazy. I call up to husband to send the kids in.
They start walking down, and just as the get to the house, the siren starts.
Want to talk about insta-adrenaline?
We all go downstairs, and son is absolutly panicked. Its the siren, along with being a long, tiring day.He doesn't like storms at all to start with, but the siren sends him over the edge every time.
This time was new. He actually got so scared he bgan to gag. " I'm gonna be sick mama!"
ugh
He wasn't actually sick, but the gagging was awful for all of us.
Each time we'd get him calmed down, that siren would sound again, and freak him out again.
I won't knock the siren- we are actually lucky enough to live where we can hear it, and they don't sound it unless theres a report of rotation. It was a busy evening.
We stayed downstairs for about 2 hours, trying to calm son, ate dinner, and waiting. the rain and wind was horrendously hard, and the noise was unreal..
When they announced the watch until 10 pm again, so kept telling me we couldn't go to bed.
oh yes, we can, and will.
The worst of it passed, several touchdowns reported around the area. the rain even stopped, and the wind died down to a strong breeze.
I was sure the child would try to stay awake until 10pm- but he was truly exhausted.
Hopefully his panic won't become a habit, and even he said he felt a lil silly once it was visually over.
A bigger hope that our storm season won't be as hard as our winter was this year !
Fun with ..... Denistry ?
Can it be possible? you ask ?
Oh, yes, even dental emergencies can be amusing at the Nuthouse.
I have awful teeth issues. Unfortunatly, our insurance doesn't cover ANY dental at all.
So I cope with it the best I can, and when we can afford to, or there's an emergency, get some work done.
Recently I had an awful infection.
The swelling of my face occurred on a friday. When husband came home ,he was determined to get me in, anywhere. He called almost every dentist in the phone book, only to get message machines . ALL of the dental offices in town had closed at least an hour before thier advertised hours.
I told him to just take me home.
Saturday morning he woke just as determined. "you aren't going to find anyone on saturday!" I kept telling him.
He left messages where we take the kids, a family practice. My heart almost stopped when the dentist himself called back. bring her in.
Turned out BOTH dentists were in the office, but no staff, because it wasn't regular hours for them either. They were there to repair a bathroom problem in the office, just happened to catch the call.
These two are like night and day. one os very outgoing and chatty, making comforting jokes.. the other is very quiet and all biz talk.
It made for an interesting position for me, the patient.
They pulled six teeth. wow. To be honest it felt like four. they kept taking turns running in and out to talk to husband, to ok the next pull. . . THEN they thought they should maybe ask me. I told em take em all. whatever money guy approves is all yours.
They got 6. and in the process I learned our dentists have no clue where anything in thier office is located.
There was much cabinet door and drawer openings, and toward the end, he put in two stitches, but has no way to clip the threads. The other dentist searched the entire building for a simple set of scissors. "SO sorry about this, haha , being the dentists we're missing the nurses, you know, say it and it magically appears. we don't know where this stuff is !"
I had to laugh, becasue we had really put them on the spot by our call, then having them wait an hour for us to get there, then having to figure out where the equipment was, and cleanup.
There was one last "I dunno" at the desk before we left, as they tried to write us up. Essentially they left a note of details for the desk gals on monday.
Ironically, the kids had regular exam appointments on tuesday. That also made for some interesting chatter. The nurses asked immedietly how I was feeling, MUCH better, and we fixed up all the paperwork we hadn't done saturday. I let them know, not to let the guys take them for granted, they were sorely missed !
Oh, yes, even dental emergencies can be amusing at the Nuthouse.
I have awful teeth issues. Unfortunatly, our insurance doesn't cover ANY dental at all.
So I cope with it the best I can, and when we can afford to, or there's an emergency, get some work done.
Recently I had an awful infection.
The swelling of my face occurred on a friday. When husband came home ,he was determined to get me in, anywhere. He called almost every dentist in the phone book, only to get message machines . ALL of the dental offices in town had closed at least an hour before thier advertised hours.
I told him to just take me home.
Saturday morning he woke just as determined. "you aren't going to find anyone on saturday!" I kept telling him.
He left messages where we take the kids, a family practice. My heart almost stopped when the dentist himself called back. bring her in.
Turned out BOTH dentists were in the office, but no staff, because it wasn't regular hours for them either. They were there to repair a bathroom problem in the office, just happened to catch the call.
These two are like night and day. one os very outgoing and chatty, making comforting jokes.. the other is very quiet and all biz talk.
It made for an interesting position for me, the patient.
They pulled six teeth. wow. To be honest it felt like four. they kept taking turns running in and out to talk to husband, to ok the next pull. . . THEN they thought they should maybe ask me. I told em take em all. whatever money guy approves is all yours.
They got 6. and in the process I learned our dentists have no clue where anything in thier office is located.
There was much cabinet door and drawer openings, and toward the end, he put in two stitches, but has no way to clip the threads. The other dentist searched the entire building for a simple set of scissors. "SO sorry about this, haha , being the dentists we're missing the nurses, you know, say it and it magically appears. we don't know where this stuff is !"
I had to laugh, becasue we had really put them on the spot by our call, then having them wait an hour for us to get there, then having to figure out where the equipment was, and cleanup.
There was one last "I dunno" at the desk before we left, as they tried to write us up. Essentially they left a note of details for the desk gals on monday.
Ironically, the kids had regular exam appointments on tuesday. That also made for some interesting chatter. The nurses asked immedietly how I was feeling, MUCH better, and we fixed up all the paperwork we hadn't done saturday. I let them know, not to let the guys take them for granted, they were sorely missed !
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