My wife and I are on a bit of a road trip. We travelled to Nashville, Tennessee yesterday to meet with family members. The trip consists of about six hours of actual drive time and then you add in the stops for various and sundry things. That gave me over seven hours of time to let my mind wander. My mind wandering is kind of like a three year old at the mall - flitting here and there and no knowing where he is going next.
One of the things I was thinking about was writing a post about the trip, so I traversed hither and yon with different comments based on the journey and travel in general. You will have to trust me when I tell you some of it was GREAT - because I don't remember any of the details of it. We had our usual bathroom trials and tribulations, but I have done that. If you are not aware of what I am talking about -see this:
http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2009/03/to-pee-or-not-to-pee-with-apologies-to.html
People have, and do, think I am weird (correctly so, in most cases - but I digress). I sometimes make myself laugh with the thoughts I have. My mind goes off on tangents sometimes that amaze me. I can laugh because it is not a conscious thing I do. I have a part of my mind that is always working on a punch line. Thankfully, I do not verbalize a lot of the thoughts, because I would have been shot, jailed, or otherwise penalized many, MANY times in my life. This part of my brain is like the guy in school that always had a comment, out loud or under his breath, about every thing (which, thinking about it, was ME). Those particular synapses are firing off wise-crack after wise-crack to the other more civil part of my brain - constantly.
One example of this (and one where I laughed out loud at the thought) was yesterday after about three or four hours of driving. I looked out and saw a van with markings on it for a "fenceless animal containment" service. Otherwise, one of those "invisible fence" things. The wise-acre in my mind started working on it. I won't bore you with the ten minutes of one liners; I just want to give you a small glimpse at the one that came out on top.
How about a new "fenceless animal enclosure" that also helps the economy and can clean up the street a bit? You buy this system and you get four homeless guys with cattle prods! Have a big yard or a lot of animals, we have the deluxe system - add a former bank manager and a few out of work auto workers to the four homeless guys - give them all cattle prods and BINGO - coverage for the largest jobs. Your pet or livestock is secure, formerly unemployed types are productive, and no messy digging.
Someday I know I will probably be on medication for this. Oh well...
Here is another thing that is bothering me - I am tired of people whining about gas prices. Gas was never free!! When people whine about "$40 to fill my tank" they forget that even at $2 a gallon it was $25 or so to fill it!! Here are some numbers: The average car in the U.S. is driven about 12,000 miles a year. If you get 20 MPG (hey if you are driving a Hummer, getting 10, I don't want to hear it!) That is 600 gallons of gas a year. Most people would be estatic if gas was at $2 a gallon again -SO, that is about $600 a year (for the extra $1 a gallon) or $11.54 a week. Now I know there are a LOT of folks that were struggling to pay the $2, but the average person I know was not. Here is another way to look at it. How many Starbuck's coffees or lattes have you had lately at $$37.33 a gallon? ($3.50 for a 12 oz one) How about a beer on an airplane at $53.33 a gallon? ($5 per) Then there is bottled water at $10.66 a gallon. ($1 a 12oz bottle -and it can be MUCH higher...
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