Wed, May 10 2006

Driving home the point

I loved Chan Lowe's political cartoon, which shows how at least one family finds out how much gas costs. We used to live in an apartment complex near a young man who had an evening habit that was almost a ritual. He drove home, had dinner with his family, then drove about three blocks to the grocery store and came home with a pack of cigarettes. One night he was chatting with us and excused himself so he could get to the store before it closed. I decided to just ask him why he didn't buy a whole carton of smokes at a time. "I'm trying to quit," he said as he drove away. To this day I'm not certain whether he meant he wanted to quit driving or quit smoking.

posted at: 15:02 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry

Suspicious package too close to propane

My spouse's commute takes him to the city of Scotts Valley these days. This morning's drive was interrupted for many commuters when police cleared the streets near the Shell gas station at Mount Herman Road, just off Highway 17. Someone had apparently put a box on top of some propane tanks, so the bomb squad was called in to investigate. It sounds as though the box turned out to be empty, but caution has become the word of the day now whenever such an item seems out of place or suspicious.

Sparky is our county's trusty bomb robot. I hate the fact that they have to use one at all, but it's nice to know that Sparky makes a potentially dangerous task a lot safer for sheriff department personnel. And I'm glad the commute on Highway 17 was only snarled and not interrupted with something more catastrophic. Going to work is getting a little to exciting in all the wrong ways lately.

posted at: 11:11 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry