I see… stupid people.
I have a lot of pet peeves, probably even more than the average person. After my experience going home yesterday, thought I’d touch on just one.
Anyone who knows me knows I have the utmost respect for a good motorcycle driver. I’m always on the lookout for that one headlight and allow extra following room when behind one. However… I hate those crotch-rocket motorcycles with drivers who are on a suicide mission. I literally cringe when I hear the high-pitched ‘niiiii-niiiii’ of one – I liken it to the whine of a bitching kid. You’ll never go fast enough to please them, they simply have to be in front of you. Cops can’t catch them, and engaging in a high-speed chase isn’t worth the danger to others anyway.
One of the disadvantages of living off a long country road are these underground groups who congregate their whining little bikes and drag race. The act of drag racing changes everything – from putting their own lives in danger to inserting you and I into the mix. That’s my ultimate peeve about the assholes that choose to drive like this, the total lack of respect for others lives.
The long road I was on yesterday maintains an unspoken rule of going 5-10 mph over an already generous speed limit. I’ll go a step further to say I rarely have anyone on my bumper, if you know what I mean. In an instant, two unmistakable whines mysteriously appeared behind me. Just as the dotted line ended (did you expect anything less?) the helmet-less crotchers wizzed by doing at least 100. As they both reached the top of the hill to pass the car in front of me (seriously guys, I can’t make this shit up) the guy in the back ducked.
He DUCKED. Like that’s gonna help him out of a lethal situation. He should know that with this kind of ‘driving’, someone will eventually have the not-so-pleasant task of scraping his brains off the asphalt. I wonder how much that person gets paid? Think I’ll pass on sending in a resume for that position.
Word. There’s a time and place for everything. I like my life, and I want to keep it. If you want to risk play roulette off yourself, have at it – but know that you’re an unspeakable piece of shit if you take my life while doing so. Hey, somebody had to say it.
The waves continue
It’s supposed to snow later today. So once again, I don my scarf. I’m hoping this will be the very last time I have to use my scarf. Somehow, it’s just hard for me to associate scarves with the month of March, although I know many would argue that. I associate March with the coming of Spring, kite-flying, mine and my daughter’s birthdays, and pretty pastel Easter eggs (even if the eggs are just a prequel to the month of April).
The tales of the rescue efforts in the aftermath of the Chilean earthquake are just chilling, but they consume me. I simply cannot stop reading about them. Headline story on Fox News this morning is “Tsunamis Sweep Away Entire Towns in Chile”. There seems to be much talk about the earthquake, aftershocks and rescue efforts – but there’s really not much talk about these gargantuan waves that are still taking lives.
In Talcahuano, a family sat huddled together on the floor of their seaside home. Their only light a lantern, listening to a battery-operated radio – they were warned by firefighters to remain calm and stay inside. No warnings of a tsunami, until it slammed into their house – sweeping the family under water. The home was crushed by two giant containers that came in with the sea, and the family was separated by the currents. A third container actually further prevented more family members from being drug out to sea. The family desperately tried to gather back together, and did – a mother and father, their 11-year old daughter, their 76-year old father, and a sister and their family. But still missing is their 76-year old mother.
Story after horrifying story continues. How about the group of 40 retirees vacationing at a seaside campground in the village of Pelluhue. The bus they piled into was swept out to sea, along with trucks and houses. Only five bodies have been recovered – at least 30 still remain missing. Two waves in this instance were reported to be 6 meters (18 feet) high, and a third being even higher. I cannot imagine the magnitude of these waves.
Reading stories like this just rips my heart out.
Earthquakes aren’t the only events inflicting damage, the resulting tsunamis are sweeping away homes, businesses and entire ports and towns. Through their defense minister, the country has now admitted it was a huge mistake for the Navy not to issue Tsunami warnings. There were port captains who knew enough to call warnings – in doing so they reportedly saved hundreds of lives.
I can’t help but think back to those nightmares I sometimes have of the huge tidal waves. Any issue you may have going on in your life right now cannot begin to compare to the sheer devastation and gut-wrenching grief and despair down in this country, or any country affected by a massive earthquake and it’s accompanying tsunamis. I only have to glance in front of me to see how blessed I am at this moment… and realize how quickly it could all be wiped away – in the blink of an eye.
True Olympians
I have enjoyed the Winter Olympics so much. This year’s winter games seem to have captured my attention in a way they never have before. Unfortunately the tragedies in this year’s games, starting with the luging death of Olympian Nodar Kumaritashvili – will forever be embedded in our minds. My thoughts and prayers still remain with his family and his grief-stricken mother and father, and many friends, family members and fellow Olympian athletes. He has been described as a real joy to know.
The word perseverance has forever been redefined for me. One hell of a lady, this Joannie Rochette is.
The Canadian figure skater has made the biggest impression on me. Most of us know the story by now. Her parents arrived in Vancouver Saturday night, and her mother had a massive fatal heart attack just hours later. Joannie was forced to make the decision whether to skate or not for her Olympic dream on Tuesday.
She made it well-known from the very beginning that her mother Therese was her inspiration and backbone in figure skating. In a January interview with the Monitor, Mrs. Rochette described the approach she took toward her daughter Joannie’s skating. “I always encouraged her to have confidence in herself, to believe in her dreams, to consider the progress that she has accomplished over many years,” said Mrs. Rochette, who conducted the interview in French, via e-mail. “But in periods of great stress, I also have the necessary distance to remind her of a rule she knows well: above all, skate for herself, for her own pleasure.” Later in the interview she says of her daughter, “The hurdles she faces motivate her to rise above them. Joannie has always been naturally determined and persevering.” In 2008, Joannie wrote of her mother, “Even if it requires quite a big deal of humility at 22 to admit you need more of your mother, I expressed it and she drives from home to St. Leonard once a week to come supervise with her unique eyes my training.”
Knowing her mother would insist on her to, Joannie made the decision to skate – her father has stood solidly by her. Last night, she gave the performance of her life in the ladies short program, and held all it together right up until the very end. Watching the raw emotion of her and her father in the audience was, well simply agonizing. My heart breaks for both of them – here is an only child who has just lost her precious mother, and a husband and father who has just lost the love of his life.
I shed a lot of tears watching her last night, the very last performance of the female skaters. It must have been torture for her to have to wait that long to perform. I found my tears still abound as I watched her on the news again tonight, as well as when I came across these pictures of her performance that I’m posting the link to here. Please, if you haven’t already seen, click through them.
I would love nothing more than to see this young lady take home the Gold. No, I’m not abandoning my country. Aafter witnessing her performance last night I honestly believe she deserves it. With her determination and perseverance, I honestly will not be surprised if she takes the prized metal home with her.
Determined and persevering. It is with respect and admiration that I use her own Mother’s words.
Update 2-26-10:
Joannie got the Bronze metal. 🙂
People are crazy
Another night of tossing and turning, I got some sleep but certainly not the amount I needed. Guess I’m gonna have to bite the bullet and take a tylenol pm soon.
On the way to work this morning I heard the song by Billy Currington “People are Crazy”. The first thing that came to mind was that professor Amy Bishop that snapped and murdered 3 people, wounding 3 others. Coworkers. Shot ’em at close range in a boardroom meeting. One by one, in the head. Then, one in the chest. Quoting directly from her closest friend in the boardroom at the time, Debra Moriarity – Bishop unloaded the bullets one by one, then turned to her with “intense eyes, a set jaw” and then fired at her. Click. Empty magazine. Shit.
It was Moriarity’s lucky day.
People are crazy, all right. We never who we’re coming in contact with on a daily basis. It’s probably better that we don’t know. Now the stupid bitch is playing insane. “I didn’t kill anybody – they’re still alive.” Sorry, I’m not buying it. Especially now that it’s come out she shot and killed her brother back in ’86. And what about the mail bomb she allegedly sent to the Harvard professor’s office? Oh, I guess she’s not a stupid bitch after all. With an IQ of 160, she’s actually considered quite the genius…
Yep, people are crazy. In this day and time I don’t think you ever can really say you know someone. Some people, anyway. It’s a scary thing and it blows my mind to think of the many instances of people ‘snapping’. Just chilling.
This weather outside today and the weather we’re forecasted to have the rest of the week is gonna give me and everybody else a serious case of spring fever. Carolina blue skies, and semi-warmer temperatures. Birds are singing (and mating, guess that gives them reason to sing 🙂 ). I yearn to get outside again. It’s been a long hard winter…. I’m definitely ready for some life again.
There-there, dear. Shan’t be long, now…
A new perspective
Police photos have just been released of the World Trade Center buildings from above. They show the building and their collapse as seen from a helicopter as it flew alongside the buildings on that fateful day. I figure the pilot of that helicopter probably wished he had eyes in the back of his head that morning, being that two boeing planes had just hit the buildings.
This day in our history is something that’s always in the forefront of my mind. Even if you don’t know me, if you read this blog you’ll already know that. I feel that once we start losing sight of that day, and the horror and loss of American lives, the terrorists will use that weakness to creep in once again. And it will eventually happen, I know…. but I’ll be damned if I won’t do everything in my power to stay informed and remember those people we lost that day.
These pictures really do bring it all back into perspective. There’s only a couple at the end of the buildings still standing, most are pictures of the ash and complete coverage of when the buildings went down. Why are they just now being released? Apparently the research on 9/11 had yet to be completed until 2005, and ABC just made the request to release them under the Freedom of Information act. There are close to 3,000 pictures total, so we’re only seeing a glimpse.
Another headline-making story this same morning? Iran “is now a nuclear state’ proclaims the head of Iran, Ahmadinejasshole. We knew it was coming. The Bible refers to Iran as Persia, the country remained named so even as recently as WW1. The Bible states that Persia will align with Russia as well as some other north African countries to form an eventual attack on Israel. Trust me, we don’t want to be here when that time comes. I won’t go into this whole shpill again, only to say there’s so much documentation out there you can get your hands on.
It truly pays to be ready.
Life of Bon 
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