{"id":31,"date":"2004-05-12T12:12:50","date_gmt":"2004-05-12T17:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2004-05-12T12:12:50","modified_gmt":"2004-05-12T17:12:50","slug":"108438296774195380","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/108438296774195380\/","title":{"rendered":"108438296774195380"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"linksframes.htm\">links page<\/a> has been updated a little bit finally; not with particularly <i>interesting<\/i> information, but at least all the links work.<\/p>\n<p>We went to O&#8217;Dowds last night, just to wind down a bit and enjoy the tolerable weather while it&#8217;s here.&nbsp; After several near-death traffic incidents and finally finding a parking place, we had an enjoyable time.&nbsp; While I&#8217;m on the subject, this is probably as good a time as any to share my vast wealth of knowledge on driving.&nbsp; This is not to imply that I am an exceptionally <i>good<\/i> driver, only that everyone else is exceptionally <i>bad<\/i>.&nbsp; So, here is a comprehensive list of driving habits, and drivers, that annoy me.&nbsp; Please make a conscious effort to avoid committing any of these heinous transgressions on your next trip to the store.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phil&#8217;s List of Bad Driving Habits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1.&nbsp; Going too fast or too slow<\/strong><br \/>\nNext time you are meandering down the street, take an occasional glance off to your right.&nbsp; You will notice several white, rectangular signs with big black numbers in the middle of them.&nbsp; These are &#8220;Speed Limit&#8221; signs.&nbsp; (Presumably named because they say &#8220;Speed Limit&#8221; at the top.)&nbsp; Not to play the part of Captain Obvious here, but these signs indicate the approximate speed at which you should currently be traveling.&nbsp; Bear in mind, this number could change frequently!!!&nbsp; If all else fails, just take a look around you; if you find yourself consistently having to avoid running over the person in front of you, or notice a two-block line of cars behind you, you probably need to consider making a speed adjustment.&nbsp; If you&#8217;re on the highway, go whatever the heck speed you want, I don&#8217;t care; just don&#8217;t do it in my lane.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.&nbsp; Any Johnson County driver<\/strong><br \/>\nI try to be a little understanding on this one, as I realize this region is still new to the entire concept of motorized travel.&nbsp; But come on now; when you laid down $40k for that fancy new horseless carriage, did it ever occur to you to find out how to operate it?&nbsp; Read the manual!!!&nbsp; That little lever on the left of the steering wheel?&nbsp; It&#8217;s called a turn signal.&nbsp; I know you probably don&#8217;t have a free hand, with your cell phone in one and your cigarette in the other, but at least make an effort.&nbsp; Speaking of your cigarette, surely if you paid that much for a car, it came with an ashtray.&nbsp; If it didn&#8217;t, you got ripped off.&nbsp; What in the world possesses you to throw your trash out the window when there&#8217;s an ashtray right by you?&nbsp; (Don&#8217;t answer that, I already know.)&nbsp; All those pedals down by your feet?&nbsp; Those are for speeding up and slowing down, and each should be used in different situations.&nbsp; And believe it or not, all those differently shaped signs and pretty colored lights all have significant meaning.&nbsp; The lines on the road?&nbsp; You guessed it, they mean stuff too.&nbsp; Go take a class.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.&nbsp; Plaza drivers, no matter where they&#8217;re from<\/strong><br \/>\nFor some reason I have not yet figured out, all common sense and courtesy ceases as soon as anybody hits the Plaza boundaries.&nbsp; Those are city roads and the same rules apply there as anywhere else.&nbsp; You can&#8217;t just stop in the middle of the road and gawk in the store windows.&nbsp; There are other people on the road trying to get someplace.&nbsp; If you are going one direction, and want to go a different direction, this would necessitate a &#8220;turn&#8221;, and consequently an accompanying &#8220;turn signal&#8221;.&nbsp; See how that works?&nbsp; Just like anywhere else.&nbsp; Now about those crazy white lines at the intersections, and if you&#8217;re really supposed to stop at them like popular legend says&#8230; I&#8217;m indifferent on that one.&nbsp; Go with your instincts.<\/p>\n<p>Believe me, there are plenty more to list, but that will do it for now.&nbsp; I want to allow ample time for these to propagate throughout the city, and then when all these have been solved I&#8217;ll move on to others.&nbsp; There&#8217;s also a lengthy list of items that fall under &#8220;Things that bother other people but not me&#8221; that I could go over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The links page has been updated a little bit finally; not with particularly interesting information, but at least all the links work. We went to O&#8217;Dowds last night, just to wind down a bit and enjoy the tolerable weather while it&#8217;s here.&nbsp; After several near-death traffic incidents and finally finding a parking place, we had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pkenagy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}