Open Letter on Driving

 Fellow Residents of Augusta:

Can someone PLEASE explain to me what is so difficult about NOT driving like absolute idiots?

I'm not saying I'm a perfect driver, but I guess learning to drive in the Western US did not prepare me for this.

1. Turn Signals Are On The Car For A Reason.  That being said, the mere act of turning your signal on doesn't mean it's good to go. 

2. Lane changes off the freeway - a lot of these lanes are short, so don't play the dipshit game of not letting people out of a lane that is ending.  Also, playing the speed-up-slow-down game with your fellow drivers really is one of the most annoying things ever. 

3. Also, if everyone in front of you is trying to get out of a lane (maybe because one of your poorly maintained vehicles has broken down at the intersection?), how about letting them?

4. DO NOT BLOCK INTERSECTIONS.  If you can't clear the intersection, even if the light is green, don't enter it.  How about not blocking driveways and turn-ins while we're at it?

5. Lastly, running red lights is NOT cool.

DV

A News Story Hector and Penelope recommend...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22784854/

Stowaway kitten makes it home again

Man who picked up the wrong suitcase returns the missing Florida tabby

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Cat in a bag Jan. 25: Al talks to the owners of Gracie the cat, and the stranger who found her in a pile of luggage after her accidental flight.

updated 12:22 p.m. ET, Fri., Jan. 25, 2008

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - How many lives did kitten Gracie Mae use up when she crawled into her owner's suitcase, went through an airport X-ray machine, got loaded onto a plane, thrown onto a baggage belt and mistakenly picked up by a stranger far from home?

"She's got to be at four or five now," Seth Levy said after his 10-month-old pet was returned Sunday night by a kind stranger who went home to Fort Worth, Texas, with the wrong bag and Gracie inside to boot.

The last time Levy's wife, Kelly, saw Gracie was before she took her husband to the airport. The 24-year-old went back to her house in Palm Beach Gardens late Friday to find the bottom step, where Gracie would usually be waiting, empty.

She tore the house apart looking for the cat, who had been spayed just days before. She and her dad took out bathroom tiles and part of a cabinet to check a crawl space and papered the neighborhood with "lost cat" signs.

Then she got a phone call.

"Hi, you're not going to believe this, but I am calling from Fort Worth, Texas, and I accidentally picked up your husband's luggage. And when I opened the luggage, a cat jumped out," Kelly Levy quoted the caller saying.

Rob Carter said he made it home with the suitcase before realizing it was not his — and there was a big surprise inside.

"I went to unpack and saw some of the clothes and saw it wasn't my suitcase," he said. "I was going to close it, and a kitten jumped out and ran under the bed. I screamed like a little girl."

Carter said that he eventually was able to get the cat to come out from under the bed.

"In the morning, I got close enough to see its collar and the phone number on it," he said. "So I called the number and got a hold of the crying wife of the traveler."

The tabby made the 1,300-mile trip home on an $80 plane ticket. Carter said he considered keeping the cat before he knew she had a home.

"We were going to name it Suitcase," he said.

*** *** ***

 

So, call me paranoid, but the fear of something like this happening is why part of my ritual before leaving to go somewhere, especially on a trip, is to visually verify the cats are NOT in the luggage.  I accomplish this, of course, by using the Charm of Cat Summoning (ie, rattling the kitty treats in their container).

TSA, great job on that one!

Poor kitty - I am very happy she got home safely.

 

DV