Day: September 14, 2006

Uncategorized

It’s Official

Shelly

I looked at the apartment on Tuesday, signed the lease yesterday, and will get possession on Friday. Yay!

It’s two bedroom, with about 90 more square feet than where I am now. The lay-out makes the space more usable than where I am now, too. The bedrooms are big and there are lotsa closets. The appliances (including dish washer!) and carpets are all brand new. There is no washer-dryer hook-up, but there is on-site laundry, which is fine with me. It’s on the ground floor, with a large patio that opens onto a huge, tree-lined field that is perfect for playing with dogs. The sliding glass door will be like big screen television for Miss Brown. She’s a watcher. The neighborhood is quiet and great for dog walking, and it’s close to work, shopping, etc.

In a word: w00t!

Teh Enb.

Crankypantsing

Asshole Driver Two-for-one

Shelly

When I come into town in the mornings, it’s so early that many of the traffic lights are set to flash. On some intersections, it’s four-way red (a four-way stop). On others, it’s flashing red in one direction and yellow in the other. The intersection at Fee & 17th is the latter, so when I cross Fee, I have a yellow flasher (everyone should have a yellow flasher, dontcha think?). I’m always really careful at that intersection, because folks on Fee frequently don’t seem to understand the concept of red flasher=stop.

This morning, I had probably my worst Fee & 17th experience ever. I slowed down a little as I approached the intersection, but then I had to literally stand on the brakes because some fuckwit in a Ford Expedition flew through the red flasher going at least 40mph. The jerk didn’t even slow down, much less stop. So I had to slam on my brakes, hard enough to skid and make my tires squeal. Grrr!

But wait, there’s more! If you order now, we’ll throw in Asshole Number 2 for free! So, I start to enter the intersection, onna counta I have the freaking right of way people, and a second car on Fee, which had actually stopped, started to enter the intersection, too. Just because I had to stop so I didn’t hit Asshole SOB #1 who ran a red light does notnotnot mean that Asshole SOB #2 suddenly has the right of way. I’m pretty sure that is not how it works!

Uncategorized

A doe, a deer, a female deer

Shelly

There have been a few discussions in one of the dog groups I frequent about silly things our dogs have been mistaken for. One of the best stories involved a sighthound that was misidentified as a deer by a clueless stranger. I never could figure out how someone could make that mistake, but now I have a little more sympathy for the clueless stranger.

I took the back road home yesterday. It’s twisty and hilly, and it can be kind of nerve wracking, but the scenery is so lovely that it’s well worth it. While on Hardscrabble Road, near the Quality on Tap water tower (for those playing along at home), I rounded a curve and saw what I assumed was a large dog running down the road toward me. I slowed down, in case it darted into the road. As it got closer, I realized it wasn’t a dog, but a deer. A large fawn, in fact, with only a trace of spotting remaining in its coat. It occurred to me that mamma must be nearby, so I slowed almost to a stop. Sure enough, mamma was on the opposite side of the road from the fawn, and I was stuck in between them. Eeep!

If you’ve never seen a deer in action, their movements are about as predictable as a super ball. When its feet touch the ground, you cannot predict which direction the deer will bounce. Even stopping your car entirely may not save you from having a deer hit you. So I was stuck with having to decide whether to stop and let mamma go around me to get to her baby, or creep along and hope that mamma stayed put until I was well past her. I opted for creeping slowly along, reasoning that stopping altogether wouldn’t necessarily keep my car from being damaged, because there was no telling what mamma would do when she finally moved. If I drove off slowly, there was a good chance I’d be able to get far enough away before she tried to get to her baby. And that’s what happened. As I drove off, I watched mamma in my rear view mirror. She boing-boing-boinged over to her baby as soon as I was out of the way.