Where am I?

Lost in the depths of retail, I’m afraid. Seeing as I’ve apparently blanked out last year’s “holiday” season, I’d guess that it was almost as bad. Several people have told me this year is worse. One person told me he had seen in person what he had seen only in movies – two cars trying to pull into the same parking spot and refusing to yield. Much hand gesturing.

Myself, it took over an hour to get a parking space yesterday, the dread Saturday-before-Christmas. I’d gone out pretty early and carefully planned my trip to avoid major shopping areas and intersections until I had to. First stop was an independently owned shop where I was one of two customers. I went to one smaller mall and found a spot right away, but then I don’t mind walking. Went in, bought my stuff, was able to check out without a line. Ok, I thought!

Decided to go to the mall I work, with a couple hours to kill, do a little shopping, get a decent lunch and be ready to go. Instead I spent an hour in the parking lot. Finally** I found a less travelled aisle and just put it in neutral and waited. As people got into a car a couple cars away, two cars came down the aisle, one from each direction. I sent out clear and loud thoughts of “you have to be crazy if you think you’re getting this spot” and with that I pulled into it, giving the departing car a cheery wave.

Many hours later I went for a short walk in the mall, just for a snack and encountered a woman I knew from a long-ago work. She was wandering around looking a bit stunned. We had a nice chat about the “want” lists of people. It’s a bit much we agreed looking for cuff links for a young boy who you know is going to lose them. (I wondered to myself who would IRON the shirt that the cuff links go into?)

When I came out at 12:30 AM – yes the mall was open til midnight on this last great shopping day before the big holiday – the stars were brightly reflected in the parking lot ice, there was plenty of parking available, and walked far across to my car listening to other mall workers chatting about their day’s experiences. Happy holidays.

** This post made possible by one of my co-workers who recommended I try listening to Pat Metheny’s new album (iTunes users click here others click here.) Thanks to my co-worker no one was injured in the parking lot and I arrived at work pretty calm and cheery.

Support Anti-Spam Workers and Legislation!

This just in from the folks at KnowSpam who have prevented a whopping 7500 bogus emails from reaching my inbox. (From the messages of others, that’s a real drop in the bucket, but it’s a pleasure to me!). Anyway, in a note about something else, they report

60% of spam comes from just 250 domains (90% of which have never sent a valid piece of email to knowspam).

Read that a few times and when you wrap your mind about the multitudes of emails which bog down systems and steal time and resources from all of us – when you understand it – know that DOING something about it is well within the realm of possibility. It’s not tens of thousands of twerps out there (although they are out there). It’s not coming from mostly legitimate ISP/email services (although some does). It’s from domains that exist purely for the purpose of sending Unsolicited Email.

Tell your legislators and whoever else that will listen that something CAN be done about this irksome problem which costs us all money and time and which assaults us daily!

Since all the cats have found heating grates and warm snuggy places to hibernate in, I’ve switched the web cam to have a view outside to show you the current snow. It will be dark in a few hours, but until then if you’re without snow of your own, you can have some virtually. Click the web cam image at top left.

On my way to something else, I came across this Boston Globe list of “song lyrics and poetry that helped many cope with the grief they felt after September 11″

• Across the Universe, Lennon/McCartney
• America the Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates
• American Tune, Paul Simon
• Change the Day, Alex MacDougall
• Colors of the Wind, Vanessa Williams
• Leap, Brian Doyle
• He Aint Heavy, Hes My Brother, The Hollies
• Jesus, etc., Wilco
• Love and Mercy, Brian Wilson
• Lucky, Radiohead
• Memorial for A City, W. H. Auden
• Musee Des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden
• One, Cheryl Sawyer
• Chorus from The Other Side, Joie Scott and Richard Wold
• The Other Side, Don Conoscenti
• Overcome, Live
• The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry
• Rhymes and Reasons, John Denver
• Rockin in the Free World, Neil Young
• September 1, 1939, W.H. Auden
• Show the Way, David Wilcox
• Song in a Year of Catastrophe, Wendell Berry
• The Summer Day, Mary Oliver
• Superman, Five for Fighting
• There Youll Be, Diane Warren
• Through Your Hands, John Hiatt
• Trouble of the World, Mahalia Jackson
• Try to Praise the Mutilated World, Adam Zagajewski
• Victory in Defeat, Edwin Markham

Driving Do’s & Don’ts

Do’s:

• Observe posted speed limits
• Look to see if someone is nearby before changing lanes
• Use your directionals. Always. No excuses
• Slow down as weather conditions demand
• Keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road
• Stay in the center of the lane
• Learn how to know where the edges of your car are.

Don’ts

• Distract other drivers
• Drive like you’re the only person entitled to get to work on time
• Make sudden turns when actually you could drive to the next road or exit and turn around
• Think that a pick up truck or some 4 wheel drive surburan assault vehicle has some magic power to keep you on the road in snow and ice. It doesn’t
• Make right on red by driving up to the corner on the shoulder of the road
• Think I’m interested in whatever music you’re playing so loud it makes my car seat vibrate

Twice now in two days I’ve been greeted, personally, by drivers in other cars.

The first time it was on a major 65 mph highway. Someone came slamming up behind me, passed me and then put on the brakes to put their car moving alongside mine. And gave me the OK hand gesture. Did he like my license plate or my Apple sticker? Who knows. All I knew was that I wondered if some lunatic driver was about to put a bullet into my car because I wasn’t going 90 miles an hour.

Today I was passed by someone at a gentler speed at the base of a hill not far from home. Again I realized that the car was going along side by side with mine rather than passing. And when I looked over I could see a silhouette of someone waving a cheery greeting.

Now I realize that both times apparently the other driver had good intentions. People, no offense but PLEASE DON’T! First off, you can rarely be seen inside the car. And second, I don’t LOOK inside cars. I don’t really care who’s driving as long as you stay in your lane. No offense, but if you see me out driving, enjoy a moment of “oh, I know her” and just let it go. You can tell me about it some other time. Thanks.