Friday, September 12, 2008

"Houston, we have a problem"

Ike seems to be bringing Texas to it's knees. Luckily we purchased Gas yesterday, it was $3.54 a gallon. Now with Ike filling up the Gulf of Mexico, the News channels are going bonkers..and predicting gas shortages. Now that is something I know about from the oil embargo back in 1973, it wasn't any fun then, but people were calmer back then. I hate to think of the "road rage" out there if gasoline becomes scarce.

Have you noticed that some drivers are not very polite? We have been struggling with four way stop signs in Park Rapids the entire summer. The road through town is being worked on by the slowest most expensive construction company I have ever seen in my life. You know, two cars can go through a four way stop at once..North/South can go and then East/West can go. Most people don't "get" this. they want their very own turn, and will sit there through their turn..and then someone who wants to make a right or left turn..well that is way too far out for anyone to comprehend, plus I think it messes them up so bad that they forget who's turn it is. A long time ago, before stop lights, we only had four way stops in town. It really is not so difficult.

One day I was in town, the traffic was horrendously slow, well I made it slower. A number of cars were waiting to enter the traffic, well I was already stopped and when the traffic in front of me moved forward I just waved the waiting cars through. It was a Minnesota nice thing to do, I got lots of waves and smiles! The guy directly behind me must have been a tourist, he honked at me. Well that was a bad thing to do. Never ever honk at Farside, It propelled me to not only let all the cars waiting at Pamida to go, but those at Dairy Queen also. It took that "honker" a really long time to get out of town. Oh yes, I suppose they could have given me some type of traffic citation, obstructing the flow of traffic, or maybe "old lady being nice" and I would have had to explain it to the Judge. But there was way too much traffic for the Police to properly patrol the area.

When Far Guy was stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa, we were in a hurricane watch. I had absolutely no idea what to do. I got a quick class in Hurricane 101 from a neighbor, fill the tub and every container you have with drinking water. Go to the grocery store and buy non perishable food, enough to get you through a week. Make sure you have batteries for your radio, and pack a bag. Luckily we only had lots of wind and rain that time, and never lost our electricity. High water, was the worst thing, lots of creepy crawlies were displaced.So Houston has a problem, I don't wish bad weather or flooding on anyone. My friend Charles was evacuated from his apartment in Aransas Pass, TX (Corpus Christi, TX area) ...he has the early stages of Alzheimers, I hope he can remember some of what has happened when he returns to his home. :)

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I enjoyed reading yours. My husband really wants a Border Collie, so it was fun reading about Chance. I don't think my hubby could muster up enough extra energy to have a dog like that right now. He thinks he gets tired raising kids...

Far Side of Fifty said...

Michelle, Glad you stopped by! Having a Border Collie, is just like having an overactive child, but one you can occasionally leave home alone! Chance is a great dog! Chance loves all kids, and would like to have some of his very own, but has to settle for Grand kids. He would have made a wonderful dog to a family with lots of kids, instead he ended up with two old fogies:)