Today's America. From the side of the road.

I just returned from a bike ride, and had some thoughts while riding.  Instead of my typical research backed musings, I'm going to let you readers find the research you feel supports your counterpoints.   You're likely home on your corona island anyway, so you have the time.  Anyway, modern america summed through experiences in just a 45 minute bike ride:


1. Mile 1.1 While I'm locked into my pedals, stopping and therefore, intersections aren't fun.  Mile 1.1 brings a simple 4 way stop.  I roll up and try to make eye contact or somehow catch the driver of the light blue Toyota econobox to no avail.  She's not paying attention at all to traffic, giving it all to her phone. In an active intersection.  Shiest, I know traffic is light these, but this instant laziness / selfishness is unacceptable.  Fail.  2020 America...generally selfish, unaware, and obsessed with social media.  Maybe I'll post your #drivingfail, Courtney.


2. Mile 3.5 Diesel pickup truck passes me and purposely "rolls coal" dropping diesel soot in my path.  Seriously, what's your deal dude?  I get that you bought the pickup truck even though you have no real need for its utility so that you felt more "like a man", but what's the deal with trying to hurt the environment, hurt your engine, crush your fuel economy and possibly get a lawsuit?  What makes it worth it to you?  Do you know that I can't afford to sue you and likely win as many states now consider what you did a crime?  Do you know that I don't have my mobile phone affixed to my handlebar recording you?  Fail 2020 America...Watch this, maybe I'll get on YouTube. And even if not, I'll feel better about myself since I can put this person in danger or make them feel worse.  And I'm a man damn it, watch me obliterate nature and the place my kids will grow up in.  Hell yeah, git r done, Hunter!

3. Mile 6 Old farm truck is pulling a massive farm implement, yet gives me plenty of room and passes slowly on a straight stretch of road, giving a polite wave as I go by.  Pass 2020 America...Older farmer who worked hard and knows many out there have had to do the same.  Even if I look like an alien to him in full road bike spandex, he just wants to say hi and let me be me.  Nice guy from a mostly nice generation - one that had to live through real hardship and appreciates life and others.  Thanks for your contribution to balancing society, Farmer Jim

4. Mile 7 Didn't take long, but now this Hyyunndayyy crossover utility marketing term vehicle passes me, flooring it up a hill with no visibility and giving no room for any mistakes, oncoming traffic, branches in the road.  Clueless.  Fail 2020 America...mid 40's mom rushing around as if there's some race she'll win if she just gets it all done faster, damn anyone who could get in her way.  Likely a hit and runner if she were to swipe me, and that nearly happened...single digit inches separated her vehicle and my handlebar.  Wake up "I'm sooooo busy" Lisa and realize you're not in a race.  Your car is not for speed, and your life will benefit, even while getting it all done, if you just slow down.

5. Mile 10 Coming around a corner and some red hand me down Chevy Cobalt decides she should just drive as usual giving me zero thought as she goes right through the turn, not allowing me to get out of her way first, which would take all of .01 seconds.  Fail 2020 America...she didn't do this on purpose, but simply had no one teach her the right way to drive.  Driving instruction now is horrendous, and what used to hone driving skills across the multitude of potential situations on the roads was experience.  Experience doesn't come to young people who use the internet to interact.  Young people who use Uber.  Young people who just don't care to drive, and get their helicopter parents to take them everywhere.  It's not your fault, Madison, it's us.

6. Mile 14 Rolling up to a stop light that's turning red.  Gray minivan is right behind me, but we're like 100 feet to the stoplight which turned yellow about 10 seconds ago, and red 2 seconds ago, so it clearly will have at least a minute more of red before it will turn green again.   Nevertheless, driver races past me only to apply the brakes hard and stop next to me.  Fail 2020 America.  What was the point of passing me, older gentleman?  Seriously are you putting that little thought into driving?  You're like the person who changes lanes constantly on the highway in traffic to get ahead by a single car at best.  Start treating driving with respect and even better treat those sharing the road with it too, Ralph

I'm out of miles and experiences, but in this pandemic time, I would hope more people are being forced to recognize their impact on overall society, and what they do to contribute to some of the very things they say they dislike about it.

USA: Driving Instruction Fail

Why aren't we providing decent driving instruction to new drivers in the US.  

Many call the passing lane "the fast lane" and truly don't know the difference, and stick in it causing traffic and accidents.

Many weave right before a left turn or vice versa as if they are driving an 80 foot tractor trailer, or have forgotten they aren't racing at Le Mans that day.

Many feel a red light or stop sign is a green/go for checking one's phone, despite being part of active traffic.

Wouldn't we save far more lives by adequately providing driving instruction to young and new drivers.  Better yet, what about a graduated system as in other Western countries?  

So many people feel they are better drivers than they really are, and given an instructor I've recently talked with, I can understand why this might come about. In my opinion, this instructor wasn't a good driver himself, having learned some rules from a book written long ago without relevancy in a world of smartphones, loud stereos and a majority of drivers that lack expected common sense in an "accident" scenario.

I will find data to support.

Confectioners on crack

What drug(s) were candy makers on when inventing some of the names of popular candies and chocolates?  Certainly some names come from another era when society's lexicon included these unusual pairings. 

I'll return to this one later with some findings on these to start...

Butterfinger

Heath

100 Grand

Snickers

M and M's

Twizzlers

Meteorologist Monkeys

What if animals were able to predict the weather like we do/guess through Lou the meteorologist? 

Would they be ever more efficient at life?

Have humans become more efficient at life, at creating comfort through fairly accurate weather prediction? I think it's fairly easy to argue yes.   So then would this additional this enable some animals to live differently and possibly extend their lifespan?

Are you one of those with the opinion that animals can predict weather?  I think all would agree that animals can feel pressure changes and notice those visible differences in the sky, oceans, and earth, but what about prediction that's more than a day in the future?  Do (some) animals have some senses we don't?  

Daddy Issues

American society falls one more bit behind other advanced societies every time we embrace an inane phrase and proceed to overuse it.  

An example I just overheard "She's got daddy issues".   I would be willing to wager that most don't even know what this phrase relates to, what it really means, and how insulting it is to both those who know what it means correctly and incorrectly. 

Related to this has grown adjacent phrases like "come to papa".  Seriously, break that one down a minute.  Imagine the same cro magnon moron who pokes fun at a woman for having "daddy issues" in the afternoon uses "come to papa" with his wife later that evening. Sick. Stupid. Stupid sick.

6000 Mile Savory Sip

Travel via air from Edinburgh, Scotland to Sao Paulo, Brazil and you'll cover a touch over six thousand miles.  However, if you pick up a local specialty from each locale and combine them deftly with some ice in glass, you may think every one of the six thousand miles was worth it.

I recently met a bartender of bartenders.  Dave was one of the characters you meet in life who has a never ending supply of genuine experiences, all interesting, and all worth telling many times over.   Dave and I were discussing some of finer points of wine and beer, or rather Dave was gracefully keeping me in the conversation, as his expertise was exceptional.

Dave had a particular interest in cocktails of late, and had been experimenting with various ingredients, hoping to add more great libations to his notebook.  We talked about the science of pure ice production, (it's really not too difficult to make perfectly clear ice cubes at home) and soon we shifted to Scotch based drinks.   Dave's mentioned an appreciation of coconut water, which I also have, and before I could say no, Dave had poured two Ardbeg Scotch and coconut waters.  Refreshing and unusual in that it's a Scotch based mixer, which is difficult to mix, as I understand it.  Jamie, another bar patron had now partaken and proclaimed it excellent.

All we needed now was a name.  "Scoconut" sprung to mind, but that really wasn't all that interesting. Although Bobonut (Bourbon and coconut water) and Jojonut (Jack Daniels based) make the trio fun to say if nothing else.  Give one a try, and create some "Dave" stories of your own.

Sarcastic Safety

Little sums the dumbing down of the world more than some examples of "safety" improvements made to consumer goods.   Consider a few recent experiences of mine...

I finally had worn out an old kettle burner - the type one uses to prepare a "boil" like crawfish or lobster or crab. These are the outdoor propane burners that sits under a large kettle and heats whatever is in the 6 gallon kettle above it.   Others use these to boil water and components for beer, as do I, but many others use these to fry whole turkeys in oil.   Whole turkey frying became much more popular in the mid-2000's, and with that, the masses tried their hand at it.   Of course, instructions were ignored, in the name of manliness, wisdom, or hubris, and as a result US fire departments were called to 156,000 home fires in 2011, with many accidents likely self-extinguished.   Therefore, these types of burners were made subject to additional government agency requirements in design to help insure the less intelligent consumers from their own lack of fire safety.
 

Unfortunately, the changes required to outdoor cooking products like these clashed with the drive to lower the cost of these units due to competition.  Most sell for less than $100 USD, and therefore the safety enhancements needed to be added at a minimal cost.  However, these changes such as temperature monitoring and cooking vessel sensors aren't inexpensive, simple improvements.  So, they were done as inexpensively as possible, and in doing so, design and components suffered, thereby making them nearly impossible to make effective.  My experience has been one of safety sarcasm...I spend more time messing around with the product close to flowing gas, ignition sources or flames than I do warming the kettle.   So, in the end, the safety devices mandated for the idiots actually makes the product more dangerous to use.  Hopefully the accident statistics wake up the governmental agencies soon to allow for alterations to the specifications to truly make these things safer.   Until then, the old style, pre-mandate burners will continue to sell for a premium on ebay, and consumers will ignite home fires for entirely new reasons other than dunking a frozen turkey into 200+ degree oil.

Another example of safety sarcasm comes in the form of a gasoline container.  Recently, a product failure in a vehicle I was driving led to my running out of fuel.   As the vehicle's gauge didn't accurately read the fuel level, the engine stopped on a major freeway, at night in a snow/sleet storm.   I didn't have any advance warning, so the best I could do was to pull over as far as possible and set the hazard flashers.   After a long brisk, wet walk to purchase a fuel container, I finally found a large home improvement warehouse with 6 different fuel containers.  Each had a new device on the nozzle which wouldn't allow dispensing of fuel without turning a safety lock and then compressing the nozzle.   Having no other choice, I bought this container, and proceeded to find fuel and return to the stranded vehicle.   In the dark and snow, I located a flashlight to figure out exactly what this new design required to pour fuel.  Unfortunately, the government agency seemingly thought of exactly one requirement when mandating this design on all manufacturers - dispensing fuel into a small machine's tank.  The nozzle required one hand to hold the container (upwards of 40 pounds, full with 5 gallons) and another to hold a safety slide to one side.  It also required that the nozzle be compressed in order to dispense fuel.  I learned all this as I stood within 6 feet of semi trucks doing 75 miles per hour.
 Recall it's 25 degrees F and snowing, and add deafening sounds, blinding headlights, and gusts of passing blowback.

In the middle of this extremely dangerous situation, I'm trying to use a flashlight to ensure I've got the safety slide right, and trying to find something on the vehicle's fuel intake to "catch" the nozzle on so as to allow fuel to dispense.  The problem is...vehicles don't have a catch like this.  So, while my life is in more danger than I've ever been while filling a lawnmower, I'm being "protected" by the safety "improvements" made to the modern fuel container.  I had to stand in that extremely dangerous position for 15 minutes rather than 3 due to this improvement.  Luckily I finally figured out a way to get the fuel from the container into the vehicle's tank without being killed. Again, ebay holds all manner of older options for those that wish to more safely dispense fuel to a standed vehicle.

I hope more consumers raise concerns about these isolated design "improvements", so we can reduce this safety sarcasm, and hopefully prevent injuries.