Thoughts on the Road......

Karen and I just returned from a whirlwind trip to West Virginia to pick up our kids, who will be with us for several weeks.  A bit fewer than six hours each way--ugh!  I don't like to drive.  (There's another step toward losing my "Man Card.")

Against my better judgment, both for safety purposes and morally, for most of the drive(s) I set the cruise control at 75 mph, five over the limit.  Yet, how many cars and trucks passed me on the left?  What were they doing--80 or 85?  I always find that upsetting.  So, these speeders have some place to go, to be somewhere at a specific time.  What, do they think that other drivers also don't have places to be?  More upsetting is the dangers they pose to others, namely, to me and mine!  How arrogant they are!  It's been long established that "speed kills."  I guess their own situations allow them to put others' lives in danger.  And that's OK because "It's all about me!"

When driving, most often I don't listen to the radio or tunes.  Sometimes I listen to talk radio.  But mostly I like it quiet.  I'm not afraid of being alone with my own thoughts.  Not Karen, though.  There has to be noise--music.  So, with all that time in the car, I had time to do some analyses.  I know I'll be criticized by some, but......

Many performers just can't sing very well.  To them, the musical scale is not "Do, Re, Mi......"  It's "loud" and "louder."  This I ascertained esp about those who are decent with instruments.  Oh, they are talented with them; they're really good.  But somehow that translates that they can sing.  That is, they can play instruments really well, therefore they can sing really well, too.  They can't.  And, although I received quite a few critical notes the last time I panned some pretty popular performers (note I didn't call them "singers"), some of the most popular ones are just terrible.  Karen was listening to some satellite station that was promoting the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (which I think has become a Hall of Pretty Good according to the names identified as members).   The DJs played hits from Hall members and often I just cringed.  I like lyrics that complement the music.  It makes for better listening.  But many of the lyrics are nonsense.  Maybe they make sense to people smoking banana peels, but not to anyone really listening for meaning.  I really don't care, though.  I don't get my ideas from most music and, besides, if the lyrics go along with the music, that's great for me.  Again, some of those from R 'n' R Hall members were/are laughable.

Of course, I must admit I am one of the worst singers the world has ever seen/heard.  I often scare myself at how bad I am.  But like dancing, I don't care.  If I enjoy it......

I saw a considerable number of billboards in Ohio condemning "Right-to-Work."  There must be a movement there.  I didn't like the recent Supremes' ruling and don't like Michigan's law, both as written and as interpreted.  I don't think workers should be compelled to join unions to be employed.  At the same time, they shouldn't get the same pay and benefits the union members worked and sacrificed for.  If they want the same, then they shouldn't be allowed to freeload.  Funny, perhaps, that many of those who oppose welfare programs as "freebies," that welfare recipients are "leeches," "spongers," etc., support "Right-to-Work" for less.  Why aren't those who don't pay union dues, but benefit from union activities such as negotiations and job security also bloodsuckers and scrounges?  Now, having unions use some of the dues money to support political candidates, well, that's more problematic for me.  Maybe I'll address this later in a separate blog post.

And last week, taking the kids down to a Tiger game, there were several billboards comparing insurance rates in Metro Detroit to other metropolitan areas in the US.  (I remember Phoenix, AZ and Milwaukee, WI as two of them.)  If accurate, and I have no reason to believe they aren't, Michigan rates are about double the rest of the country.  And, why is that?  Could it be the footsies the insurance companies play with the legislators?  Just sayin'......  (And I am still not sure I know what that, "Just sayin,'" means.)

We had a claim last winter.  When our new premium came, the insurance company recouped the entire cost of the claim--with the first year's increase!  When we called our agent, he merely said, "I wish you had called me first.  I'd have told you to pay out of your own pocket [for the repairs].  It would have been cheaper."  Great, just great.  Then why have insurance?  Gee, is it because the state legislators made it a law to have it?  Well, not all the folks in Detroit have it.  According to a Detroit newspaper article, as many as 2/3 of the drivers there don't have insurance.  I can testify that at least one doesn't.  On her cell phone, she rammed into our rear (with all three kids!) on Christmas Eve.  She not only didn't have insurance, but no license either.  And she insisted she didn't hit us, with her car jammed up our......  We were fortunate that a police car happened by; but the officers let her go--no insurance, no licence, talking on the cell phone, smashing our car and she was permitted to drive off.  I guess with a murder a day in Detroit, this women didn't do all that much that was bad.

I wonder how many anti-Trump folks who have rejected this and rejected that, who have "resisted" this and "resisted" that, also refused to accept the savings they received on the tax cut?  After all, if it was part of Trump's agenda......  And, for that matter, I wonder how many folks who've found jobs as part of Trump's agenda have quit them (or refused to accept them).  After all, if the jobs were created as part of Trump's agenda......  (We can discuss who is responsible, but that's for another post.)  Actually, I don't wonder at all.