Harmless Rantings

Covered Bridge Road

There is a 5 mile stretch of road that I use to travel home from Raleigh every day. It's called Covered Bridge Road, which is sort of a misnomer because the only bridge on the road crosses the Neuse River and it's not covered. But that's not the point. Still, it's a beautiful windy backwoods road that has tall trees on both sides in many areas. These trees have branches that extend across the road giving you the sensation of driving through a tunnel. But that's not the point either. For the most part the road has a speed limit of 55 miles per hour. And it's quite fun to drive during the day. If your car is clean you feel like the image could be used for a TV commercial. But at night, it's a different story. It's not lit. And there are deer. And they hate me. They stand on the side of the road and stare at me. Black beady eyes and all. They never actually stand in the road at night, but they get as close to it as possible. There have been plenty of times where I didn't even see them until I thought I was going to smack them in the chin with a side view mirror. It makes me wonder if they are playing a deer version of the game chicken amongst themselves. Or if they are trying to scare me into swerving off the road and into a tree. I don't know, but they are there every night. Usually two or three per trip. Oh, I see them during the day too, but on those occasions they are running across the road much further ahead. Like normal deer are supposed to. But not at night... these ones are evil. They stare. With black beady eyes. I mentioned those black beady eyes already, haven't I? I don't drive the road at more than 35 miles per hour at night. I'm not going to fall into their trap. Whatever it may be...

Parking In the Shade

Getting to work is becoming a race. We don't have a parking garage, but what we do have is a row of 20 spots under some trees where you can park your car for the day in the shade. And if you get to work by 8:25 you have your pick of the spots. If you get to work at 8:30 you're getting one of the final three spots furthest from the building. And if you get to work at 8:31 you're parking in the sun. And parking in the sun is not fun. There is nothing worse than coming out of work and opening your car door only to be knocked 5 feet backwards by the blast of heat. Why am I mentioning this? It's supposed to be 99 degrees here today. And 101 tomorrow. And 103 on Thursday. And this isn't wimpy Arizona dry heat. This is heat with 95% humidity. At least in dry Arizona sun when you sweat it evaporates cooling you off. Here, it just sits on you. Making you hot. And making you sweaty. And I got to work at 8:32.

Cell Phone

I feel naked. I left my cellphone sitting on my kitchen table this morning. If I ever got important messages on my cellphone I might get one today and miss it. And then what would I do?

Scratch Removers

I think they are misnamed because they don't work. They don't remove scratches in paint. I've bought two different types now to remove some small key scratches on my car, and instead of removing the scratches all they do is leave a waxy residue in the scratches making them more noticable.