My Not-So-Mundane Midweek Day Trip With Boyfriend

Boyfriend and I wound up with Wednesday off this week, so I don't have boring work details from the mid-week. Instead, we went on a little day trip to see some sights that Boyfriend has never seen. When he lived in the area previously, he was only here for about a year or so which didn't really give him much opportunity to go to the outlying areas to see some of our beautiful natural wonders. So I decided that today we would take a "Sunday Drive" on our day off and I would treat him to the sights.

Our first stop was Burney, which is where my parents grew up. We stopped at The Alpine, which is a little burger joint on Main Street. If you're ever in town, it's the only pink building on Main Street, seriously. And if you're in town, you really should stop there instead of the McD's down the way. The burgers are effing awesome and you get a pile of food that will fill you up. And if you're in the mood of some ice cream or a milk shake, they make good ones, too. Trust me on this. Every time I drive through Burney, I really try to be hungry so I have a reason to stop in and treat myself to a burger and fries (which isn't all that often, sadly).

After lunch we headed to Burney Falls, which I know I've written about before in previous posts (although I'm too lazy at this point to link back to those posts). The cool thing about the falls is that it is fed by a natural spring that surfaces about a half mile from the falls, pushing about 100 million gallons of water over the falls every single day.

We opted for the shorter trail to the falls, which is all fine while you're going downhill but that walk back up is a complete bitch. Just sayin'. The cool mist off the falls at the bottom felt fabulous on a hot day. No matter how many times I visit Burney Falls, I find it peaceful and amazing and am always in awe of its beauty. And just for bragging rights, Teddy Roosevelt called it the "Eighth Wonder of the World".

After breaking a sweat walking back up the trail, we hopped back in the car with the a/c on full blast to head to my old hometown, Old Station, to see the Subway Cave. Another little thing to stop and see if you're ever in the area - especially in summer as the cave is always nice and cool. It's an old lava tube, so the ground is very uneven, but it's just plain cool. 

The entrance to the cave.

After the cave I showed Boyfriend where I grew up - the restaurant my parents owned, the house we lived in, where we camped all the time . . . that sort of stuff. Then it was off to home where we picked my Granny and G for dinner in town. All in all, it was a good day and Boyfriend enjoyed seeing the sights. 

 

My new home actually has wheels under it LOL

I'm all moved and getting settled in. As settled as one can get in a 5th wheel, anyway. My clothes are spread between some spare space in Granny's closet and the spare room closet. Fortunately for me, Granny didn't part with one of her dressers, and it's been sitting empty in the spare room. Now it's being used, with the rest of my stuff.

Much of my stuff wound up out in the barn. And a few things are in the garage.

Miss Harriet has been having a rough time of it. Poor cat doesn't travel well. At. All. About 45 minutes into the drive to Redding, Miss Harriet decided she needed to poop and stink up the car. Had to pull over and hold tight to her as I used hand wipes to clean the poop out of the carrier (until then, I rolled the windows down so that I didn't suffocate). Luckily she hadn't smeared it around the carrier. Fifteen minutes later the drool started. By the time I reached McArthur she looked like Vampire Kitty with the drool fangs. Once at my parents house, I stashed her in the spare room until we were unloaded. At least it gave her some time to stop drooling and realize the world was no longer moving at 70mph. Or twisting and turning through four mountain passes.

We didn't help her acclamation today either as my parents needed to use the nail gun to put the valance over the bed in the 5th wheel. Miss Harriet decided the closet was the safest place. Until about 2pm when I finally enticed her out from the closet with some canned food. I don't think it helps that her new "home" rocks and shakes just by shaking your head. Poor lil' kitty.

Tomorrow morning (Monday), I'm off to the vet clinic that Dr. J called about last week. Keep your fingers crossed that I walk away with a job!! 

Feaky noises, Libby, and horrible winter storms - Oh My!

I'm house-sitting for the H's tonight (my grandparents neighbors), and I'm completely freaking out. I've been out here two or three previous times, with no real mishaps, no horrific scary noises. However. Tonight is different. The minute I get out of my car, I hear these horrible screeching/squealing sounds. At first I was like, "OMG, who's there?!" Because the sounds almost resembled a squeaky belt on a car combined with squeaking wheels or something. Yeah, I realize my description suck, but you're just going to have to deal with it. Then I start thinking that perhaps it's just a screech owl. Another thought was something is dying. My scariest thought was that I was going to die some horrible Jurassic Park death from horrible monster-beast that was going to come crashing through the guest house. For a little while, this horrible sound was right by the side door into the guest house, which my bed sits right next to. It has stopped since I began writing.

But I'm still creeped out.

Now, I have a Libby update! I've been meaning to update y'all sooner, but I've been busy and had other posts that suddenly took precedent. If you're new here and have no idea who Libby is, please click here.

On, January 6th, Dr. J went back to re-fix Libby's knee. He put in a stronger suture around the knee-cap, which she broke the original, and also the suture to help realign her poor little leg. She stayed at the clinic for about a week or 10 days, with a cone on her head to keep her from getting at her stitches. It took a few days before she started setting her leg down, but she eventually did. I finally took her home to my house and begged Dr. J to let me take her on the road with me to visit her real parents while I delivered the publication. He agreed, so Libby got to go home for one night. Last Wednesday, Dr. R removed the stitches and had me put the dog back on the Tramadol (a bitter pain medicine) since she's still not using the leg. That worked for about two days. Saturday morning I took her to Town for Dr. R to watch her walk and get his opinion since Dr. J was out of town.

Dr. R and I had a nice discussion - he thinks we should just do surgery on the other leg. She's not really using either hind leg at this point, one because there's no support, and the other because it's possibly still painful. Oddly enough, if it was painful, she wouldn't let me stretch her leg out and rub the muscles. I did make a point of reminding him that after the first knee surgery, that Libby was in fact using that leg. I spoke to Dr. J today at work and told him the conversation I had with Dr. R, and he told me he's had similar thoughts. He also is worried that Libby is now just plain used to walking on her front legs (she's become an acrobat), and trying to fix that could become the next problem.

In the meantime, I had Libby until this past weekend, where I went back to Redding again, this time for a dentist appointment. I got Dr. R's permission to let Libby go home, and he thought we should try the Metacam instead of the Tramadol because that is so hard to get down her. Metacam is an anti-inflammatory/pain med and it's given via a syringe orally like a many antibiotics - which is much easier to get down her.

So, for now, our traveling acrobat, Libby, is at her real home with her real parents and my cat and I are happy to be back to normal. Until Sunday. My parents and Libby will invade to celebrate my birthday early, since I have to work on my birthday. They will also visit with Dr. J and maybe Dr. R to see what the options are at this point and to see what they would like to do.

So, here's a bit of what Libby and I did for a week together:

 Libby's first time at Lake Almanor

 Libby and I watching Princess Diaries. Don't remember which one . . . 

 Libby helping me at work.

We also had some very nice weather recently. The word "nice" is dripping with sarcasm. We finally got some good old fashioned winter storms. A week ago today (Wednesday), we had massive wind storms blowing snow off the mountain. It was not easy to feed that morning. I don't usually feed on Wednesdays because I have to be at work at the Sticksville clinic at 8am. However, K had to be on the road that day, so I covered for her. Needless to say, the wind nearly blew me and Papa D over a few times. I had to pull off whole bales at a time off the truck so the wind wouldn't blow all the hay away from the hungry cows.

 I know it may not look blustery, but believe me - it sucked. I had to take my work clothes with me and my hair dryer because I wound up being a sweatball under my hat. Miserable.

My pass was okay on Saturday morning - I headed out for work early because I figured it would be icy or still covered with a layer of snow or something. I was right. It tried snowing off and on all day in Town. It would cover the ground and melt away an hour or so later. And repeat all day. Until it was time to go home. Naturally.

As I started climbing the mountain more snow kept piling on road. I took a quick picture before it got really ugly.

 You can see by this picture that the road is completely covered and I was not so fortunate as to be able to follow in anyone's tracks. Well, not on my side of the road. About a mile ahead of this, visibility reached about 20 feet, and there had to be at least two to three inches of snow on the road. I only knew where the cliff was (directly to my right at all times), and where the mountain was (directly to my left at all times). What did not help matters once I started the real climb was that I had 200lbs of cattle mineral in my trunk for my grandparents. My car is front wheel drive only. Yeah. I'm really wishing now that I could have afforded the All Wheel Drive version of my car. Smalls got me home safe, although I was white-knuckling it the entire way.

The next day, Sunday, I caught a break in the storms and drove to Redding for my dentist appointment and to take Libby home. My pass was still splotchy, but way better than Saturday. The next two passes were clear, although it did start snowing over my third pass, Big Valley Summit. The snow got heavier and heavier as I made my way to Burney. My parents had texted me saying that Hatchet (my fourth and final pass) was clear. I got about half-way up the mountain and I thought, "um. this isn't clear".  Evidently, the CalTrans picture they were looking at was at least two hours old. As I reached the summit a snow plow pulled out and I gladly followed him a little more than half-way down the mountain.

 By the time I got to Redding, it was pouring down rain. But Monday was all sunny again.

Go figure.

My remoteness.

I kinda wanted to show you guys how remote an area I now live and work in. I know some of my followers/readers are from smaller states or smaller countries, where if you drove 10 hours, you'd drive straight into an ocean. Which, as we all know, would be a bad thing.

The largest city I deliver the Publication to is Redding, which is around 90,000 people. It just goes down in population from there. Quite possibly the least populated town I deliver to is population 20 (on the sign on the highway).

As I stated in earlier posts when I was preparing to move to Sticksville, we have no chain stores. No chain restaurants. No Wal-Mart (Thank God), no Target, no fast food, nothing. There are a couple restaurants and a cafe, a book store, one main grocery store (I've met the previous owners and the current owner - the previous owner's daughter), a smaller grocery store, one gas station, a small hospital, a Post Office, and an auto part store. Many of the buildings are historic - I really should take some pictures of them.

Many of these small towns and communities are similar in that they have a local grocery store and if they're lucky a gas station. This region of NE California is primarily ag related - cattle ranching, farming, that sort of thing. If you need a Wal-Mart, the nearest one is at least two hours or more in any one direction. Same for a Costco. Same if you're craving any of the main fast food chains. Many of these little towns (including mine) don't have a physical bank in town. My nearest bank is 30 minutes away. Around here, we do things in bulk. If one of us needs to go to Town to the bank, we ask if someone else needs to run any errands in Town. Being that gas has been sitting $4.39/gallon for two months, you don't make wasted trips anywhere.

Also, as a side note - the vet clinic I work for (as job 3), covers more ground than any clinic I've ever seen or worked for. They pretty much cover an entire county, and filter into neighboring ones as well. They operate a total of three offices - the main one in Town, one in Sticksville and one about an hour in the opposite direction of Town. A vet is in those offices one day a week, and a receptionist an additional two days to sell merchandise and make appointments. The main office in Town is open 6 days a week with a vet there each day. It's quite a busy business.

Anyway, here are some random pictures I've snapped while driving around. Hope it puts it into some perspective as to how spread out it is up here.

Out on a road called Grasshopper Road. Basically, the middle of nowhere.

Coming into the Fall River Valley.

Manzanita Lake in Lassen National Park.

After I've left the cities - about a half hour or so outside them.

Somewhere on a highway. Sometimes there are trees on this highway, but not a lot.

I found this guy in my back yard after dinner the other night.

And this is him on the way out of my yard and into my neighbors yard.



I hope this helps you picture the region of CA that I live in, which is the least populated county in the state, I think. It's kind of beautiful in is desolateness.

My numb butt needs a delivery boy.

So there is one thing about working on the publication my grandparents put out that I don't particularly enjoy. And that is all the driving that is involved. I enjoy the writing, the meeting new people. I still have lots to learn when it comes the ads (making and selling). But it's all the time spent driving around that's killing me.

Today was our third day in a row driving around, picking up ad copies. By the end of the day, I was fending off a headache. My Excedrin have yet to kick in. Just so we're clear, we are driving around an area of California that is quite possibly the least populated in the entire state. The biggest town we pick up ads in is probably Susanville.

It's a lot of driving. On two lane roads. Where you encounter deer, cattle, and of course, all kinds of farm equipment.

What is it about sitting on your duff for 8 hours that wears you out? Maybe it's the getting in and out a few dozen times during the day. Perhaps it's the driving on two lane roads over mountain passes. It could be the kind of car you're driving. In my case it's a van. I've never liked vans. And this one isn't overly comfortable for my legs. Either the center console is in my way, or the wheels are. I can't straighten my legs out straight - they are either kept bent or stretched out in some sort of angle. Makes my knees ache - especially my bad one. The steering wheel is rather thin, not thicker not like newer vehicles.

That and by the third day, my butt goes numb by the end of the first hour. My grandmother actually went and found some sort of extra cushion for my rear end. Apparently I complained a little about not being able to feel my ghetto booty.

Some of these days on the road are easily 10 hours long. Like I said, the area up here is sparsely populated. And even when you get to a bigger town (and by "bigger" I mean around 3000 people), you're making several stops to either pick up ad copies or delivering said publication, and it's in and out of the car countless times.

I swear, by the time we're home, I'm ready to curl up into a ball and sleep for 10 hours. As I type this, it's 8:45pm, and I was ready for bed about two hours ago. Sad, I know. But there's no rest for the wicked. Or weary. I've heard it both ways. Tomorrow is day four on the road for ad copy, plus we have a bull buyer coming to look at our yearling bulls in the morning. I haven't witnessed this yet, so that's something new. I've already been warned to not speak. So unless spoken to, I will adhere to this rule.

It may require duct tape. But I'll try to behave so hopefully that won't be necessary. 

Holy Schnikies, I'm Finally Back!

Oh. My. God. Does it feel good to finally be back online. It has taken over a week, but I officially have internet, phone, and satellite TV. I have missed reading all of your blogs and also, blogging about my new adventures! I have so much to catch up on, so if you start seeing comments to posts from a week ago, that would be me trying to play catch-up!

This is now my view every morning! My grandparents ranch.

So, first off, my move went relatively smoothly. Oddly enough, for a month, Sacramento (and most of California) was enjoying nice weather. Some days it was near 70! Not that I'm rubbing it in to the poor folks from the mid-west on eastward with their blizzard conditions. But, because my luck is ever so wonderful, the storms hit the very weekend I was to move to Sticksville, USA. I was also in massive panic mode, as the week of moving showed up, my two helpers unceremoniously backed out. I was even ignored by some people when I asked for their help, even though they had previously offered me help. Whatever. I begged and pleaded and managed to find one guy to help with the heavy lifting. Bless his soul, he was awesome.

My mom came down the day before the move to help me with cleaning and organizing. We ran several errands amidst a torrential downpour that lasted the entire day. She gave me my Valentine's present, part of which was a gift card to Barnes & Noble. I laughed when I saw it, as I had spent a small fortune there the day before on the damned books I've become addicted to, thanks to my co-worker. The gift card would have been tremendously helpful a wee bit earlier, but now I have it for future use.

We were able to load all my crap just before the rains hit. I bought my parents lunch from In-N-Out. I would have bought my helper lunch, but he could only stay two hours, and was gone before we were all done. My parents and I drove to Redding to break for the night. We went to visit my Granddad in rehab. I previously wrote a rant regarding my Granddad being in the hospital - they finally had him moved to a rehab facility to help regain some upper body strength. He was looking pretty good, and Granny treated me and my parents to pizza after our visit.


The next morning, a Saturday, dawned with more bad weather. We had checked the traffic cameras, and chains were required in many areas. On our way out of town, I bought chains for my car, seeing as how I should have them just in case anyway, considering I'm moving to Snow Central. The first mountain pass we conquered had us all stressed out. I'm wholly familiar with the roads we were driving, as I grew up with them. However, I did not grow up driving them in winter conditions. I followed my parents (who were hauling the trailer) the entire trip up the mountains. Suffice it say we were quite worried about the remaining three passes to drive after the first. We hit snow much earlier than anticipated, and we soon reached the point where it was seriously sticking to the roads. My car slipped once, and my dad's trailer did once as well.


Fortunately, for us, the remaining passes were completely clear with beautiful weather. We were two hours behind schedule however, and the "muscle" that was going to assist in unloading was attending a funeral by the time we arrived. But we got it all unloaded.


Between my grandmother, and my parents, we were able to get my bed frame put together and my kitchen relatively put together. I still have a few boxes of miscellaneous crap that I'm still not sure where to put, but in time I shall persevere and find it all a home. Even that home is a trash can.


I have officially been away from my old job for two weeks and three days. The knot in my right shoulder that I thought had made a permanent home, is now gone. You have no idea how bad that knot was. Just ask my mother as she's had to work it out. Plus, I'm sleeping better . . . albeit a wee bit colder. Thank God for electric blankets! While I miss my co-workers and talking to them, I don't miss the stress I had. I have been informed, however, that the gal that started on my final night, quit after about a week or so. While I fully sympathize for my old co-workers as I know staffing-wise they are not up to snuff, I don't envy them.


I will be posting pics in future posts. This is just to let y'all know that I am alive and well and happy in my new abode! I really have missed reading your stuff and getting your comments. I never realize how much I miss the blogosphere until I'm forced away from it. I did have internet access at my grandparents place, but they'd been told that blogging sites can sometimes invite viruses or other such atrocities to one's computer so they asked me not to blog. Now that I am officially online at my place, I'm free to blog on my laptop!

This is for Jewels - every time I see icicles I think of you! lol

 

Just a couple random vacay pics

Here are a few random pictures from my vacation that I forgot to send to myself via my cell phone. I'm such a dork with technology, really.

My grandfather's dog, Brandy. She's a real cuddle-bug. Sweetest dog ever.

Meet Goldie. FATTEST. CAT. EVER. Loves belly rubs.

I found me a couple stray horses! LOL I stumbled upon these guys after crossing my second mountain pass, to see a Palomino colored horse literally trotting down the highway. He didn't get pictured, as he got pissy, tried to kick my car, and darted off the highway.

Vacations and Decisions

Finally, I get around to talking about my vacation! Well, it definitely wasn't long enough. But then again, they rarely are. I'm apologizing in advance, as this turned into quite a lengthy post, but I just wanted to get it all out; I didn't want to do it in parts.

It was a nice, relaxing weekend. The weather wasn't always great, and when they have visitors it's almost like a vacation for them, too. I helped my grandmother feed and she explained her morning ranch rituals. I helped them move their main herd to new pasture, and sorted out a bull that no longer need to be with them. He proved to be easy, he sorted himself into a corner and we just shooed the cows into another pen before leading them to new pasture with a bale of hay on the feed truck to entice them. And my grandmother on the ATV behind the herd so we didn't lose any cows along the way.


My grandfather, who also puts out a monthly publication, started showing me little things about it. I learned that apparently, when it comes to publishing, everything is done on Mac. Hmm. I own a PC. Macs are expensive. PC's can be relatively cheap. Anyway, he handed me a couple pieces of paper and a pencil and told me to make up an ad for a local restaurant that doesn't advertise in his publication. I've never made an ad before. I'm just glad he gave me a pencil. We'll leave it at that.

Later he showed me how he does it, and he makes it look easy. And his looked way better than mine. Of course he's been doing it most of his life. He could do this stuff in his sleep! Then he asked me to write an article or story for his publication, the history of another north-eastern California town. I agreed, and he gave me some stuff to use for resources. I shall begin work on that today, as it's my night off and I can actually focus on something instead of worrying about what time I need to get to bed by. I'm hoping to have it done and emailed to him by Monday so he has it in plenty of time for the December edition of his publication.

It stormed all day Sunday. Like, heavy winds and pelting rain kind of storm. We stayed inside and watched recordings of The Closer. Had a potluck lunch of leftovers from the previous couple days. For dinner we went to the hottest restaurant ever. I don't mean hottest, as in "it's the place to be!"; more like, wood stove heat kind of hottest. I nearly had a heat stroke before my dinner arrived. I practically ran outside when it was time for us to leave. When I awoke the next morning, I found snow in the mountains near their house. There hadn't been a drop of snow until that night. Explains why I couldn't get warm my last night there. Because it was freakin' freezing. And the first pass I had to climb over, was that frozen, snowed in pass. Yeah. Lovely.


Now, here comes hard part. If you haven't read my previous post regarding a very important matter I've been toiling with, please read it here.

All of your comments on that post meant so much to me. (even those that commented about it on Facebook). I didn't respond to them because I couldn't. I didn't know what to say. I still don't, actually. They made me shed more tears - not in a bad way. But all of your thoughts echoed in my head. I honestly cannot express how much I have thought about this and how many tears I have shed.

Mostly because it scares me. Dropping everything I have here in Sacramento, and making such a life-changing move. Not that I have a ton here in Sac-town, anyway. Like I've stated before, I live paycheck to paycheck. I work graveyard, which throws a nice little curve ball in my attempts at a social or dating life. I'm not overly happy with my job. While I like most of the people I work with, and I kind of like what I do (I'm still helping animals and veterinarians), I don't love my job and there are several people that have a tendency to bring out the bitch in me. And overall, I'm not particularly happy where I am.

I wasn't in my grandparents house more then 15 minutes before my grandfather started asking me questions regarding this possibility. The possibility of moving to cow-ville and taking over one or both of the businesses. I wasn't expecting it so quickly, and I felt a little like I was on a job interview . . . that whole being put on the spot thing; a little out of place. We talked a little bit about it, then my grandmother came back from working on an ATV. They told me their ideas and what they'd been brainstorming, and wanted my input.

They took me to the trailer, which is a mobile home they purchased awhile back and is used as a guest house. According to them, this is where I would stay. (Sorry, I really didn't take any pictures of it, because you can easily use your imagination). I would get the master suite, and the second bedroom would still be used for guests. They would allow me to live there, rent-free, in exchange for help on the ranch and their publication. This place is quite large. Now, here's where the imagination comes in: the 70's called and they want their decor back. Not kidding. The rotary phone is older than I am. (And if you have no idea what a rotary phone is, Google it. This also means you're far too young and sheltered. Also, side note - when did Google become a verb?) The carpet and linoleum are new. Wood paneling everywhere. The paneling in the master bath is white with gold inlay. Yeah. But it has double sinks, because every girl should have two sinks. It has a huge bathtub, and wait for it . . . the tiniest shower on Earth. The "family" room or eat-in area overlooks the ranch, which is kind of cool. The spare bath has a baby-shit yellow shower/tub. There's a nice little storage area just off the back door. A nice little carport for my car, just off the back door. A huge formal living room/dining area that can be completely shut off from the rest of the house. It has a nice front porch, and a little lawn (which gets mowed happily my grandmother's dad).

The things we hashed back and forth was that I would require at least a part-time job somewhere in order to make my car payment, and insurance. I pay an arm and a leg every month, so this is my biggest concern. Not that I'd have to drive to the ranch to work there, the trailer is about 5o yards down the road. I could help out on the ranch, my grandmother would welcome the help. My grandfather's health prevents him from helping as much as he used to. They would teach me the ropes of the ranch, and also their publication. I would help write stories and possibly attempt to sell ad space and meet the people with which he has formed relationships with over the years. I would help distribute the publication all over north-east California, and they would give me the Redding route so that I could visit with my family there.

They also said that they would help with my car payment and insurance until I could find a job. You could have knocked me over with a feather. When I tried to sputter out that they shouldn't have to do that, they basically wouldn't take me arguing it at all. Jobs aren't overly easy to come by in this economy, even in Sacramento. Moving to cow-ville and it's surrounding cow-towns, jobs are even more scarce. Where they live, it's sparsely populated agriculture area - farms and cattle ranches. There are so few people in this county that all households have the same prefix. Not kidding. Redding alone has about 4. At least. And that's just one city.

At lunch one day while up there, my grandmother asked me, "Going off your gut feeling - just your gut - what does it tell you?"

My answer?

"Move up here."

So, that's where I'm leaning. It scares the shit out of me. It will be a huge lifestyle change for me. But this is not something I have taken lightly. I didn't think about it for 5 minutes before I gave any kind of an answer. I thought about for a month. And to be quite honest here, this idea (or something similar) has crossed my mind off and on since I was a small child. I just never acted on it. Even as I wrote this post, I shed tears. And I'm sure they won't be the last I'll shed over this agonizing decision. I know my family and friends will support my decision, even if I decided to stay in Sacramento. All they want is for me to be happy, which is all I want for me, as well. But when I look out my sliding glass door into another person's apartment, I don't like the view. When I looked out the sliding glass door at the trailer, I saw my grandparents ranch; the horse pen right across the street. I woke up to see my horse, O'My, every morning while I was there. That alone made me smile every morning. That alone made me start crying again. (Someday I shall tell you about my horse.....)



By February, I could have a new address. And a day job. More than likely.

Take a picture, it'll last longer.

On my way home from work today, I stopped by the grocery store for one particular item - sour cream. I had forgotten to purchase some during my last grocery shopping escapade because I'm a ditz and I really needed some. I parked my car, went in, bought the sour cream, and got back in my car. As I got in my car, a car pulled in the space directly in front of me. I continued to get ready to go home - I put my seat belt on, turned the car on, etc. This guy in the space in front of me just keeps staring at me. I wasn't staring at him, so I couldn't figure out why he was staring at me. I put my car in reverse and looked every which way to make sure I don't wreck my gorgeous new car.

As he gets out and locks his car, this guy is still staring.

I doubt he heard me, but he might have been able to read lips when I said out loud, "Dude, take a picture, it'll last a lot longer."

But it got me thinking. People do this. They stare at you. Why? I have no idea. But it'll freak you out. Makes you wonder if you have a booger the size of Rhode Island hanging out of your nose. Or if you somehow have "idiot" written on your forehead. Lipstick smeared across your face. Toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Anything. It doesn't matter. All that does matter is some random stranger is staring at you while you're in your car.

It could be in a parking lot, like this morning. It could be at a stoplight. It could be anywhere.

Stop it. It's unnerving. And creepy.

Stowaways

Did you ever have a bug on your car that apparently just felt the need to go for a joy ride? And it seems to hang on . . . at least until you get on the freeway? Call them the unconventional stowaways if you'd like. Or hitchhikers (without the thumbs, obviously). It's kind of comical to see a fly hanging on for what appears to be dear life on the driver's side window. What, did it's wings get tired? Seriously. Lazy, worthless insects.

Anyways . . . today I found the most unconventional stowaway to date. And I never knew it was there, until I came home. After work, I got in my car, drove home, parked, got out of my car, happened to look down as I pressed the alarm button. And laughed. The poor little guy never saw it coming. 70mph down the freeway. A freeway change. Several stoplights. A close encounter with a driveway gate. And as always the scary entrance into my parking space. It was probably the scariest, most exhilerating experience of it's life. Because when I looked down, clinging to the front bumper, I saw . . .

. . . the snail.

Round-a-bouts

I'm just curious as to when Americans decided driving the in the wrong direction was acceptable? Did miss I that headline on Yahoo? Did no one forward that piece of junk mail to me? I'm only asking because apparently many who live in my apartment complex think it's legal to go the wrong direction in the round-a-bout at the entrance. Now, yes, I do understand that it's only an apartment complex entrance and there isn't a ton of traffic. However, we do still live in America and the last time I checked, we still drive on the right side of the road. Now, Wikipedia has this to say about round-a-bouts:

"Round-a-bouts are safer than both traffic circles and regular junctions - having 40% fewer vehicle collisions, 80% fewer injuries, and 90% fewer serious injuries and fatalities."

Yeeaaahhh. They'd be safer if you went in the right freakin' direction, ya jackass.

Would you believe once that a Mini Cooper attempted to run me down? (Did I mention that I drive an SUV?) And last week, I nearly got into two accidents . . . from people who think its okay to go the wrong direction in a round-a-bout.

So, the moral of the story? Remember folks, that we live in America, home of baseball, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Rachel Ray and her 30 Minute Meals, and driving on the right side of the road. Remember that the next time you happen across a round-a-bout. Even in an apartment complex. My new car thanks you.