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…yeah I know you did not ask!
I walked out the back door and looked around. I then said thank you Jesus for the beautiful flowers, the wonderful trees and the green grass.
Jesus smiled and said, “De nada, volveré la próxima semana”, as he handed me the bill.
When I first purchased my 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata, I purchased a set of WeatherTech® All-Weather floor mats. They worked fine for many years. Eventually the mat on the driver’s side wore through. So I jumped on the Internet to find a 
replacement set. I did so at AutoAccessoriesGarage.com. I plugged in the year and make of vehicle, and up popped a set that appeared to be the same as the set I was replacing. I ordered them.
They arrived in a timely fashion. Upon opening the box in preparation of replacing the old I discovered the mats were minus the retainer holes that the retainer pegs go into for the driver’s side mat. I thought about returning them, but returning something is a hassle. I thought at worse it would be a minor inconvenience, so in they went.
I rock along for a few weeks, occasionally having to reposition the mat, but for the most part not thinking about them. One day as I was accelerating hard to get onto the freeway, the car’s engine would not stop racing or accelerating. I bumped the gearshift into the neutral position to give myself some time, Continue reading “A Company That Does Things Right”
I heard the book, Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto by Steve Almond, being discussed on NPR: It prompted the following comments.
I was never a huge football fan, but I did follow the Cowboys and OU football. The Cowboys I first became enamored with when we lived in New Jersey and they were a new NFL expansion team. Dallas was close to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma was one of the few touchstones I had in my young life as a rolling stone. It is difficult to live in Oklahoma and not root for the Sooners, or at least the OSU Cowboys.
Another reason that I feigned a large interest in football was because it was the manly thing to do. All my male peers seemed to love the game and to have something to discuss with them a basic knowledge of football current and past events was needed.
I had a brief decade in Arkansas where I was able to grow a little moss, and I became interested in Razorback sports. If you know nothing else about Arkansas know that they are Razorback crazy. You see the red hog everywhere you go in the state.
The winds of time changed, Continue reading “Against Football”
I think the Buddha had it right, when you are chopping wood, chop wood. We spend so much of our time living in the past or worried about the future, that we miss the here and now. The Here and Now is all we really have. We need to be present in the present. I frequently remind myself of this when I am doing mundane tasks with some degree of boredom and/or resentment. It is amazing how pleasant even a task like cleaning the bathroom can become if you focus your being on what you are doing. I’ve been known to say to myself, “When you are folding t-shirt, fold t-shirts.” The results are always better with the change in perspective. We spend so much time multi-tasking that we never really concentrate on chopping wood. And that my friend is my nickel philosophy for a Saturday, Be Present.
As an aside that sound you hear is Robin saying, “Why don’t you practice a little of the Buddhism you are preaching, and clean the bathrooms.”
I left work a little after 1730. I started to encounter traffic not far from the garage where I park. This is unusual as the garage is the last stop before the road next to the Mississippi River. Usually, what I see are tourists lost, not knowing where to turn.
Then THEY started to appear. First it was a stray pair or two. Then I started to see groups of 3 and 4. The groups began to coalesce into larger groups of a dozen or so. As I turned the corner and drove past the back side of the casino I saw more and more groups. What was scary was that they were walking far more rapidly than I was used to seeing. They were walking with a purpose! And not a one was walking head down, thumbs all akimbo, eyes lost in a micro-world of a smart phone.
As I approached the lights before the Edward Jones Dome the groups swelled to a tsunami. Everywhere I looked it was teeny-boppers with far too few clothes on. Yeah there was the occasional mother, and I did even see one teen boy of questionable gender.
It dawned on me that there must be a concert tonight in the Dome. So I looked it up when I finally arrived at the house. One Direction is playing tonight. To perfectly honest I have no idea who they are. From their website they look like the boy band de jour.
I’m under the opinion that for the most part women/girls dress for other females, except when they are obviously trolling. There must have been several thousand young girls, obviously trolling, with a fantasy that they would attract the attention of whoever their favorite of these boys de jour was.
Strange sight.
…yeah I know you did not ask!
I’m not much of a sports fan. I used to follow college football some, primarily the University of Oklahoma. Mainly because it is difficult to live in Oklahoma and not follow them, like it is difficult to not follow the Cardinals when you live in St. Louis. However, I have noticed a trend the last few years… guys who are not interested in sports and who are not afraid to say it. It used to be that you were less than manly if you could not cite the latest win/loss record of whomever. What a nice trend. There is more to life that sports.
…yeah I know you did not ask!
Blondes – The ultimate public servants, allowing the rest of the world to feel superior.
…yeah I know you did not ask!
I passed an AT&T company car this morning going to work. I so wanted to get the driver’s attention, make the sign of phone by ear and then point at myself. I resisted the impulse.
…yeah I know you did not ask!
I do not know if this inability to observe and learn or an overestimation of one’s driving abilities and reaction times. 
According to the State Farm website a safe following distance is the 3 second rule, 4 seconds is better. That is when the car in front of you passes an object start counting. You should be up to at least 3 before you pass the same object. Rush hour traffic in St. Louis moves between 0 and 80 mph. I try to get no closer than 2 seconds. Primary because at 62 going on 69 I know my reaction times are not what they were. Even at this separation, I have folks pulling in front of me all the time, or trying to whip around me because I am going too slow. Never mind that I maintain a constant separation with the vehicle ahead.
The percentage of all accidents that are rear-end collisions (termed a shunt in UK) is between 23 and 30%. I drive 50 plus miles round trip commuting from Chesterfield to downtown St. Louis. I almost never have a round trip without seeing at least one accident. Frequently I see multiple accidents, and the accidents frequently involve more than two cars. My estimation of the rush hour traffic accidents being rear-end collisions is in the high 90s. Rear-end collisions are almost always caused by following too close.
Let’s get back to my opening statement. I would think if you see this type of accident repeatedly happening a bell would go off somewhere. I will vouch that it does not. Tailgating is an awful problem in St. Louis rush hour traffic. Maybe there is a reason humanity keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over, century after century. Meanwhile I will maintain my 2 second separation and if you get too close to my bumper I will start slowing down.
“He is an engineer, not an idiot.”
So many things that could be said.