Transgression Thursday 6
My old nemesis, the sun, comes back for another round.
The highway that leads up to my house from the Boston
area has a SEVERE solar glare problem in the late afternoon.
Very strange, since it's supposed to be a north/south route
and I seem to remember learning that the sun sets in the west.
I guess the "engineers" who originally built the road abandoned
their compass and just started following the sun, like a
bunch of flowers. Eventually, the road takes a sudden
"oops, we're supposed to be going THAT way" corrective
swoop to the right.
Unfortunately, the swoop occurs too far up the road to
prevent the daily "rear-ending" festival (not even close
to being as fun as it sounds!). For some reason, lots
of people, when they see a little glare, jam on the
brakes. But - the people behind them haven't seen
it yet, so they just crash into the car that brakes
first. All to avoid....a collision with the sun??
I know SUVs have become stupidly huge, but
they aren't THAT big. Well, maybe their owners'
egos ARE. And nobody wants a singed ego.
I wouldn't even want a singed Eggo...oh, come on,
I had to take that one, even if it was cheap....
One thing you DO avoid on the highway is railroad
crossings. I'd like to know who came up with the
brilliant "This vehicle stops at all RR crossings"
plan. I assume it was a knee-jerk reaction to
a busload of kids getting whacked somewhere
in the middle of nowhere, where there aren't
any signals to mark the tracks. But let's look at
it logically: Who drives the buses? Around here,
it's either ex-cons who can't find work unless their
brothers-in-law in town government (hey, crime
runs in some families) set them up with low-profile
cushy jobs, OR retirees.
When I was in school I don't think anyone under 70
drove the buses I took to school. And they would
NEVER make the corners - the bus would tip
sideways, creating real-life geometry and medical
experiments..."Where is the tipping point?", and
"What is the maximum heart rate of a 12-year old?"
I think there was only one serious bus crash, though,
which made it safer than walking to school - our crossing
guard (a new concept back then) was struck by a
car. After that, I always watched where crossing
guards were working, and crossed elsewhere...
they weren't going to get ME, damn it!
Now THERE'S a nightmare for me: being a kid,
having to cross at the crosswalk with the crossing
guard - next to the railroad tracks on a day with
a more-than-usual amount of glare.
Yikes. Time to stop writing NOW.
The highway that leads up to my house from the Boston
area has a SEVERE solar glare problem in the late afternoon.
Very strange, since it's supposed to be a north/south route
and I seem to remember learning that the sun sets in the west.
I guess the "engineers" who originally built the road abandoned
their compass and just started following the sun, like a
bunch of flowers. Eventually, the road takes a sudden
"oops, we're supposed to be going THAT way" corrective
swoop to the right.
Unfortunately, the swoop occurs too far up the road to
prevent the daily "rear-ending" festival (not even close
to being as fun as it sounds!). For some reason, lots
of people, when they see a little glare, jam on the
brakes. But - the people behind them haven't seen
it yet, so they just crash into the car that brakes
first. All to avoid....a collision with the sun??
I know SUVs have become stupidly huge, but
they aren't THAT big. Well, maybe their owners'
egos ARE. And nobody wants a singed ego.
I wouldn't even want a singed Eggo...oh, come on,
I had to take that one, even if it was cheap....
One thing you DO avoid on the highway is railroad
crossings. I'd like to know who came up with the
brilliant "This vehicle stops at all RR crossings"
plan. I assume it was a knee-jerk reaction to
a busload of kids getting whacked somewhere
in the middle of nowhere, where there aren't
any signals to mark the tracks. But let's look at
it logically: Who drives the buses? Around here,
it's either ex-cons who can't find work unless their
brothers-in-law in town government (hey, crime
runs in some families) set them up with low-profile
cushy jobs, OR retirees.
When I was in school I don't think anyone under 70
drove the buses I took to school. And they would
NEVER make the corners - the bus would tip
sideways, creating real-life geometry and medical
experiments..."Where is the tipping point?", and
"What is the maximum heart rate of a 12-year old?"
I think there was only one serious bus crash, though,
which made it safer than walking to school - our crossing
guard (a new concept back then) was struck by a
car. After that, I always watched where crossing
guards were working, and crossed elsewhere...
they weren't going to get ME, damn it!
Now THERE'S a nightmare for me: being a kid,
having to cross at the crosswalk with the crossing
guard - next to the railroad tracks on a day with
a more-than-usual amount of glare.
Yikes. Time to stop writing NOW.
posted by Mr. L at 7:41 AM
3 Comments:
That's a scary triple play!
maybe we should use disney terminology here and call those responsible for this mess "imagineers." if only they could have imagined the headaches the road would cause!
ugh, that reminds me of my old bus driver. he couldn't take his eyes off the tits of every girl that got on the bus....and he was always scratching at his head like a monkey *shudder*
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