Friday 13 January 2017

Pet Peeves and A Bunch of Other Stuff

 I'm not a good driver which means I have to drive very carefully.
 I set everything- mirrors, sunglasses, temperature, music, etc. before putting the car in gear.  I can't handle reaching to twirl buttons and staying in my lane at the same time.  I do believe I'm a considerate driver.  I always signal well in advance when I'm going to turn.  I move over when I can see someone wanting to pass me...go for it.  I keep up with whatever is the posted speed limit.  If I have to turn off the road I'll try to do it as quickly as I can so the driver behind me won't be slowed down too much.  I guess just the usual things most people try to remember to do.

 Anyway, I do have a couple of pet peeves about other drivers which I share with a lot of you.
It is annoying when people put on their signal light when they're basically already making the turn.  Depending on the road, this can also be dangerous.
Driving too close to me.  I wish I had a sign in the back window I could switch on to say stay back.  It makes me a little nervous because I know if I have to stop suddenly, we are both going to be in trouble.
  This happened to me.  On a two lane winding road, a large truck carrying mattresses was following me much too closely. I turned a corner, had to brake because the police had pulled someone over and the mattress truck had to swerve wide into the opposite lane to avoid hitting me. Lucky for us all there was no oncoming traffic.

And lately I've gained a brand new pet peeve but this one has nothing at all to do with driving.

Since I've happily gained readers in Europe and the Netherlands and I don't speak Russian, German, Dutch, Swedish or any other language, I have to rely on Google Translate to read messages and posts.  It is very frustrating because so many of the translations are terrible.  Sometimes it reads as pure gobbledygook; sometimes I read certain lines out to Hubby because they are so laughable.
 And it leads me to wonder how my words get translated back.  You would think by now, Google could have come up with a better system.  Anybody else share this particular pet peeve with me?

And to put pet peeves completely into perspective.

This week we went to the funeral of a friend who was a year older than myself.  We'd visited him in hospital ten days ago and now, just like that it seems, he's gone.  What a strange feeling and long day we had.  They held the wake, funeral and reception all in the same day because many people had a long drive.  We were totally beat. We hardly spoke. Completely drained.

How Wolves Change Rivers

Meanwhile with some better news, it is nice to hear good news about the ecosystem.  Though I've read this video oversimplifies the contribution of the wolf, there is common belief they have greatly helped portions of the park revitalize in just the ways this video purports.



I have a little reading to do on the weekend.  Partway through The Perfect Girl by Gilly MacMillan.  A fast read that's for sure but enjoyable.



I hope to have a number of stitchy things to show you next week.  I have a few projects all poised at the same stage...the almost done stage. This is good because I'm getting there.  I'm dangling all my new projects I might start in front of myself like a carrot.  They look so good.

I'm casting about for a dessert to make this weekend.  Have several possibilities in mind.  Are you in the kitchen this weekend?

Finally a little listening sweet music, Vivaldi's Four Seasons and this is Winter with Julia Fischer. The beautiful violins start around the .39 mark and Julia's playing is amazing.



Hope wherever you are this weekend, in the kitchen, out and about or in your Pet Chair, you enjoy every minute.

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