Monday, June 11, 2007

Traffic Jam

Karen

Man, it’s been another day of moving 2 miles an hour on the 405. Boy do I miss the days of the wide-open road. You are so lucky. All I saw today was about an inch of exposed pavement.

Pet

Wide-open road? Not always. Problem is country roads are two lane and you never know what you’re going to wind up behind. The farm bureau tells us we have as much right to the road with our manure spreader or corn planter, but we should pull over and let impatient drivers pass. Once in while the advice is followed. And if you wind up behind Ma & Pa farmer on the way to Wal-Mart, watch out. The trip, the favorite of other locals, could take all day.

Karen

Passing on the right is a favorite pastime here especially on the West Side. I’ve even seen some people drive halfway up the sidewalk if they think they can get ahead of the car in front of them. Of course that just gets them that much closer to the red light that lasts twenty minutes. Every millisecond counts in this town.

Pet

Yeah, I love catching up at the light in the next town with those who are in such a hurry. Near here we have some mega woods being cleared for housing. Rumor is the owners are going to sell 10-acre plots, so we won’t have to worry about little houses springing up around us, at least not very soon. Traffic problem? Lumber trucks barreling down the two lane country roads. Wow! Get one behind you and you fear for your life, even worse than the livestock carriers, or the milk pickup. Can you imagine what happens when you have a chain accident? You’d be floating on a log down a milk stream with a herd of cows leading the way.

Karen

Well, it’s not much better here. Try tangling with an enormous stretch Hummer limo. Or how about a huge crane? My friend’s hubby almost lost his life while innocently driving to work. A crane with a massive camera rig lost control in the middle of a movie shoot and crashed into his SUV. Luckily it was a Suburban so he had enough car real estate between him and the camera. I’ve heard of interesting ways to break into movies ……………………

Pet

Hey, just thought of another hazard of country driving, no shoulders. We have gullies instead. If one wanders off the road, could end up following the ancient wagon trails. We also have new death-traps on the highways and byways. They're called sinkholes. All of a sudden the nice, clear highway ahead develops an enormous abyss, like 20 by 40 feet. We've only had two of these this month, but the traffic mavens report they were due to the drought we're experiencing and more are in our future. Hmmm. Wonder when the next one will pop up, or pop down that is.

Karen

Here we have potholes. Or what I like to call there goes another couple of hundred bucks down the drain. I can’t tell you how much Angelo’s pay to have their cars fixed from the crappy roads around town. I once was minding my own business talking on my cell phone (an LA tradition while driving) and drove right into a pothole that was a foot deep. Can you say new front bumper and suspension? Well Pet, all this talk of traffic really isn’t making me want to head back out in to lovely LA traffic again but I’ve got to meet a friend for dinner. So wish me luck that it only takes me an hour to go 10 miles.

Pet

Gotta go now and see what DH has cooked up for dinner. He's a gourmet cook and goes nuts with the locally grown produce this time of year. We don't eat my flowers and the only edibles I grow are herbs and tomatoes. We welcome the overflow from an obliging neighbor who plants enough for the whole valley.

18 comments:

ShawnaMoore said...

Hi, Pet and Karen!

Happy blog launch! Lots of cyber champagne is flowing for your special day. [[[clink, clink]]] Keep sharing those big-city and small-town anecdotes with us, girls! The sassier the better! Pet knows I enjoy her spunk and sense of humor :) Hope you two have a fabulous week :)

Smiles across the miles,

Shawna Moore
http://www.grant-moore.com

Victoria said...

Love the blog, ladies!
Can't wait for more!
Welcome to Blog land!
V.

Laurie Schnebly Campbell said...

What fun to get the whole city-vs-country lifestyle story right here on my screen...thank you both!

Laurie, looking forward to more
BookLaurie.com

Wendy Tokunaga said...

Congrats on your blog, Pet and Karen -- a really clever idea and a beautiful picture on the home page.

---Wendy Nelson Tokunaga
http://www.WendyNelsonTokunaga.com

Bon Vivant said...

Yes, traffic seems to dominate now a days, it used to be the weather (of course when it rains in LA it becomes the feature story on the news - we are such wimps.)

http://myculinaryadventures.blogspot.com

Rachelle Chase said...

Great blog topic! And I love the photo. It reminds me of Vermont - where I almost moved to a couple years ago to escape city life. Reading your snippets about country roads made me nostalgic. :-)

Karyn Lyndon said...

Welcome to blogworld! Love your site...

Karen, I'll write more tomorrow when I'm at work.

Dona Sarkar-Mishra said...

This is the funniest blog I've ever read...I need for you both to get published ASAP so I can read your stuff on the shelves.

Unknown said...

I am Pet's baby brother and have lived in LA since my teens...love it here although I do travel a lot and maybe that's why...my favorite things here (besides family - always first!!) is my gym, the ultimately weird and wonderful Gold's in Venice, and early morning bike rides, like today, 630ish, up to the hills near my West Hollywood home, then buy the NYT and WSJ and go to my favorite coffee place, Urth on Melrose near the house, and start my day - all before 8am. Today, later, my pilates class which has changed my life for the better!! Oh yeah - I work in the biz end of the movie biz here, a hardcore independent always. I love country but have always only lived in 2 cities - the other is NYC which now i visit on biz and to see my baby daughter, a lawyer in Park Slope about to get married.

Linda Wisdom said...

Great blog!!

Can't wait to see what you write about next.

Linda

Baltimore City Girl said...

I grew up in the country, but now love life in the city. I enjoyed your contrasts between the traffic and the neighbors-- so many differences, but in many ways so much alike (smog vs. cow smells?) Keep on writing ladies!!!

Cheryel Hutton said...

Why do I keep hearing the theme song from Green Acres?

Seriously, great blog ladies! Congrats on entering the wonderful world of blogs.

Donna Wright said...

Pet,
I think that to be fair, that wasn't really cow #21. It was #23. You're just one of those people who thinks all cows look the same.
Donna
:)

dstress said...

Great Blog what's wrong with a little traffic !!! LOL

Suzanne said...

Hi gals,
Love your blog. The cow photo is priceless.
I can almost smell the "fresh" air.

SUZANNE

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh,Im not a good guest,but that scares me.

Anonymous said...

can I stay with the cow? seems like more fun

Anonymous said...

The fires in San Diego county have now been beaten back and I have returned to work only to find that the CEO of our company lost his house. This kind of sympathy for upper management is a rare thing.

This was far too big a disaster for anyone to start complaining about what could have been done, but I'm sure that kind of thing is going to happen soon. I've heard counts as high as 1,500 homes lost. Many commercial properties have burned down as well. It's not a great day for the insurance companies. I tried to go and look at some of the damage, but the police won't let anyone through. Anybody who wants to go and see their home must go with a police escort.

Here at work I can hear the fire fighting planes flying overhead. Yes, the fires are still burning, but they've been pushed out into the wildlands.

The air reeks of smoke throughout the city, and escpecially near the fires. The skies are a kind of reddish gray. The sunsets are surreal.

Four years ago they found a hunter to blame the big fire on. The hunter got stoned and started a signal fire and wound up burning down a good part of San Diego county. This time there's nobody to blame. The fact that multiple fires started at one time may suggest there is something wrong on a larger scale.