Unicorns!

OK, so maybe this post isn't about unicorns.

But it's about something I saw yesterday that's almost as rare involving a "Lane Hanger"
A lane hanger is what I call someone who refuses to leave the left lane of a multi-lane highway, regardless of traffic conditions or the lack thereof.  Unfortunately, Lane Hangers are extremely prevalent in the Not-So-Free state. (MD)  I view it as a symptom of our general societal degradation and the "me first, you be damned" attitude that seems to be ever increasing.

As I was commuting home yesterday afternoon, I was traveling on I70 in the left lane.  I saw a MD State Trooper making his way closer as the vehicles behind me moved to the center lane to allow him to pass.  As he got behind me, it took a few moments to get to a clear spot where I too could move to the center lane.  About that time, we came up on a slower moving car in the left lane.  Moments after I moved to the center lane, traffic cleared that allowed me to move to the right lane to clear the center for the Trooper to pass the lane hugger.  To my surprise, the view in my mirror instead was that of the red and blue lights coming on and the lane hanger being pulled over.

Very satisfying, indeed.

It only takes one idiot to ruin your day

Pre-note: Wow! has it really been six months since my last post? Anyway, I digress...

It wasn't my day that got ruined yesterday.  It was some poor bloke truck driver that happened to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time.  But if one wanted to play the game of "What ifs", then it's entirely possible this truck driver saved someone else from having an even worse day.

Let me explain.
I was driving to work yesterday morning, typical routine.  I had passed through Frederick, MD on I-70 and it was around 0430.  Traffic was it's typical relatively light smattering of vehicles.  I was in the center lane of three lanes, another vehicle about 40 yards ahead of me, traveling about the same speed and slowly overtaking tractor trailers in the right lane.
A car passed me with no uncertainty on the right.  The vehicle in front of me changed lanes to the left, even thought there was no one in front of them and no traffic in the left lane.  I can only guess they did that out of courtesy or to avoid the overtaking car from cutting them off as said car was quickly closing the distance with a tractor trailer in the right lane.

As it turned out, this was one of  Murphy's favorite drivers; a 20 year old female.  Don't know if she was distracted by something or simply zoning out, but she almost rear-ended the truck.  At the last second she swerved to avoid the truck, albeit too late, clipped the left rear corner of the trailer which sent her into a spin to tag the truck again, this time on the fuel tank, then zip across all lanes and finally came to a stop against the guardrail in the median.
Did I mention yet that the roads were also wet from sporadic rain?

I also think it's fortunate that the vehicle in front of me changed lanes when they did or she would have taken them out as well.

I stopped, flipped on my emergency lights and called 911.  She got out of her car and was freaking out about the crash.  I was concerned she was going to inadvertently run out into traffic.  She was soon on her phone, apparently calling her parents and boyfriend, because they all showed up before the fire department and state troopers.
Boyfriend took her to his car.  Moments later the cavalry arrives.  Parents and I directed the trooper to boyfriends car, where he finds her smoking weed!
I don't know if she ended up getting arrested for the weed or not.
 
The trooper told me I could leave and he didn't need anything from me so I continued on to work.

The truck had a fuel leak from the saddle tank getting hit.  Talking to another guy at work that travels that route, the clean-up operation had traffic snarled for quite awhile.

It is fortunate that no one was injured.  Or worse.

A different kind of vocabulary

Last night I was talking to the Mrs. and discussing one of my earlier career endeavors back in the late 80's.
I had been working numerous different jobs, none of which I considered to be anything more than "stepping stone" jobs, with the pay range around $7.25/hr.
Being a graduate of a vocational technical high school, where real skills are learned, I knew that drafting and drawing interested me, so I decided to enroll in the local community college's Computer Aided Drafting course.  During the first semester though, I realized that was a zero-sum gain endeavor, as the pay rate for draftsmen was only about $9-10/hr.  In hindsight, programs like AutoCAD and Pro-E made those jobs obsolete anyway.

So all that, just to get back to me explaining computer aided drafting.  Apparently I wasn't enunciating well enough, because she thought I was saying "computerated".  It took a few moments of laughing discussion to clear that up and then we got on a roll of massacring other words.  Larry the cable guy would have been proud.
"You can send me a litter on that computerated thing, cause I'm literate!"
So now I'm wondering, could there be multiple meanings?  Verbs, nouns, pronouns?  Such as;

"I used to use maps, but now I have that computerated thingy in my car."
"I computerated all my pictures into a slideshow" (AKA "Death by Power Point)
The act of being frustrated with technology?  "I am completely computerated with trying to figure out this video editor!"
The digital version of obliterated; "The hard drive stopped working and now everything is computerated!"

I'm most certain there can be other examples as well.

Can't put it down

After a slow start, between just having a lot going on and not quite in the mood for a sci-fi book, I finally got into oldnfo's latest book, Rimworld.
I knew it would not disappoint.   I was not wrong.  Now I have a hard time putting it down to do things.  You know, basic things like my job and going to bed.
I have a dentist appointment this afternoon.  I will put my time in the waiting room to good use.

Catch-up time

Weekends for me are usually pretty busy.  Certainly much different from my typical daily schedule during the work week.  As such, I spend very little, if any time online checking email, reading blogs or looking at the latest non-events on (anti)social media over a weekend.
With many of the bloggers I follow giving much appreciated reports from NRAAM, it's going to take some time over the next few days to catch up.
But I think I'll manage...