Manholes, Drivers, and a Different State of Mind

I was thinking about this the other day and now that it's DST, I was able to verify my suspicions that the road adjacent to our house and the one I take to get the freeway have a plethora of manholes... not potholes, as someone tried to correct me with, but manholes. In fact, these two streets have groupings of varying sizes, surrounded by a boarder of concrete so they look like crop circles... what's up with that?

I really wish I had had my camera with me just so I could show you how ridiculous it is. Seriously! In one small area alone, there are at least 6 manholes in a precarious grouping that makes about as much sense as people wearing knit caps in 100 degree temps... it doesn't and you're left scratching your unadorned head and asking why?

I swear I'm going to have an updated picture just so you can see that I'm not joking AND to explain why I'm so perplexed. It's just weird.

Which brings me to drivers here in UT. Having lived in CA for all but the last 8 months I'm used to people proclaiming that CA drivers are the worst. Granted, there are douches behind the wheel all over the world, but after driving the freeways and city streets in this state, I have to disagree with that assumption. I have NEVER seen people ride other people's asses SOOOOO closely at such high rates of speed in my 35 years of driving before moving here. Not only do people butt sniff to where you cannot even see the front end of their car in your rear view mirror, they also fail to use their blinkers, attempt and often succeed in squeezing their ginormous SUVs in less than a car length's space, race ahead to prevent YOU from pulling in front of them, and they love their UT road blocks... This is when three people (one in each lane) are traveling at the same rate of speed so NO ONE can maneuver around them. I am often amused and befuddled by this behavior. Oh, and God forbid YOU use YOUR blinker!! That's just an invitation for that driver to speed up and mess with your flow!!

I got pulled over by the nicest Lehi police officer for failing to use my blinker. Personally, I think he saw the CA plates and wanted to ensure that there weren't any shenanigans going on. If I was not so respectful of authority, my smart-ass nature would have quipped that having just moved to this state, I thought failure to use a blinker was the norm... but I didn't. He let me off with a warning. I think he was from Canada.

Anyway - last night as I was trying to go to sleep, my thoughts swirled in a bazillion directions. I have so many thoughts that need to be expressed, but I am somewhat reluctant to barrage you with everything. It really is unfair to drag anyone into my muddled thoughts. The benefit of writing things out is that you have the ability to edit, to re-read what you've written, and potentially delete things that may curl the hair of the baldest person in the room. That doesn't always happen in real life. In real life I've blurted out things that I thought were funny without really weighing the sensitivities of those around me (or their moral standings) and often these comments fall to the ground like a meteor without the oohs and ahhs. They tend to be met with that awkward silence that sucks the air out of the room. I cannot help myself, tho', and it happens more often than I'd care to admit.

I also have to consider that my parents will read this, as well as my children (who already know pretty much what to expect from me). Once I hit "publish" - it's pretty much set in technological stone, so after my many attempts to hush my brain and go to sleep last night, I realized I need to approach this whole venture with SOME responsibility... Believe me, I have diarrhea of the mouth and brain and am quite capable of unleashing all sorts of things on you, the poor unsuspecting reader, but after a long day at work, the perplexity of the plethora of manholes, and the continued prayers of thanks for getting me to and from work safely, I think I may have to be a smidgen more reflective in what I want to post (btw - smidge comes up with a squiggly red line but smidgen does not... who the hell really uses "smidgen" when they mean smidge?).

Tomorrow, perhaps over the weekend, I really do want to blog about my good friend, Thomik, who passed away late last year and left us way too soon. He has been one of the reasons my mind has been on overdrive when I'm trying to go to sleep... I need to express how much he means (meant) to me and the effect of his passing. It's been plaguing me for a while.

On that note, I'll bid ya'll a good night!