Pet Peeves

[dai bread]

I like to drive close to such people. It scares the daylights out of them, especially if I can rev. the engine while I'm doing it. (Difficult in an automatic).

[DavidS]

Never mind jay-walking - I often encounter pedestrians walking along the roadway in places where there is no visible reason not to use a perfectly serviceable pavement (footway/sidewalk). If I come up behind them I slow down, overtake them carefully, & then cut in sharply in front of them going as slowly as possible, so they have no choice but to get back to where they belong - on the pavement. If they are walking against the traffic direction I slow down courteously (not moving out of their way) and give them a fair opportunity to go on to the pavement.
Cyclists riding the wrong way and/or carrying a friend unsafely on the crossbar and/or two abreast and/or without lights at night are a more complicated problem...

[Giant Communist Robot]

Pedestrians crossing the street whenever and whereever they like

Same story in Waikiki. Tourists without respect. One time I stopped my son from walking against the light (even though no car was in sight and a bunch of tourists were crossing anyway) and asked him "If we substitute our own judgement for the law, what good is the law? And what does that say about us?" A little snippet of Aristotle I picked up somewhere.

[Schmeelkie]

Normally I don't complain about the weather here in upstate NY (we don't get hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, floods and only the occasional tornado), but fall and spring bug me with the radically changable weather. Summer is generally summer-like, and winter is generally winter-like, but then in fall we get 4 day periods like this: Friday - 65, sunny - I'm raking in short sleeves; Saturday - 53, rainy on and off all day; Sunday - 42, windy, occasional rain and snow showers; Monday - 34, lake effect snow (which meant that I hurried out before enough snow piled up that I had to clean off my car, but less than 10 min down the road (~3 miles south), sunny and a flake or two here and there). Sometime it changes even faster than that. Think I wore 5 different coats in the past week to keep up with the weather. Tend to lose track of my car keys when I do that....

[Shapley]

Sometime it changes even faster than that. Think I wore 5 different coats in the past week to keep up with the weather. Tend to lose track of my car keys when I do that....

One afternoon during the time I was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Base, North Chicago, IL, a group of us gathered in the line waiting for the mess hall to open. It was about 68 degrees. As we stood there, the wind picked up, and we began to huddle together for warmth. After about half-an-hour, we sent one of the group to the barracks to get our jackets. Is was probably in the 50's by that time. By the time he returned with our jackets, we wished we'd asked for something heavier, as it was in the low-to-mid 40s. By the time the doors to the mess hall opened (about an hour after we took our place in line, it was 34 degrees. Just a typical Spring day on Lake Michigan, I'm told.

I'm glad I don't live there....

[Serenity]

I just can't picture you as Popeye the Sailor Man......

[Schmeelkie]

Shap - I remember days with a temp range like that - not quite that quick a change. Guess I'm just b*$ching because I'm not ready for winter yet. Had to clean about a 1/2 inch off the car this am and took almost 35 min to do my <20 min drive. Everyone paniced and no one remembered how to drive in the snow...Ok, one section of the highway obviously hadn't been salted well recently so it was piling up between lanes, which to me = drive about 30mph on the highway - we barely got above 20mph for about 4 miles. grr. then the snow tapered off as we got further south and the road was just wet - up to 50mph. I'm sure there were a bunch of accidents caused by yahoos who were driving too fast - but I didn't see any. People around here usually figure it out after a few snowfalls and we only get accidents when it's really bad. Anyway, looks like we should get some snow all this week, so it should be interesting driving!

[Shapley]

I just can't picture you as Popeye the Sailor Man......

Yep. That was me. Buljgy arms, squinchgy eye and all.... Even down to me pipe.....



Of Course, that was then, this is now:

[Shapley]

When I was stationed in New York (Saratoga Springs), I drove up there in February. There wasn't much snow 'til we got close to Albany, then there was plenty. We came in up through Schenectady, on Highway 50, rather than the Interstate. (I don't remember why, I think it was because our orders listed Balllston Spa as the duty station, and that was the quickest route there.)
They had plowed the roads to two lanes, except at the intersections, where they widened them out to about six lanes, presumably one left-turn, one straight, and one right-turn, or so I would have thought. However, when cars arrived at the intersection, the people going straight would fill all three lanes. When the light changed, they'd all rush to be the first to get into the single lane on the other side. Being a southerner, I had inclined to slow down and let the knuckleheads in the left and right lane in, but I quickly learned that that got you in a lot of trouble, since the people behind you took offense if you didn't join the demo-derby and try to stake your claim on that lane. Every intersection, it was the same. I was glad to get out of Schenectady, though it was the same in all the rest of the communites along the route.