Traffic safety laws

Traffic safety laws

This morning in the Star-Ledger, one of the editorial columnists was complaining about a couple of new “traffic safety laws” our estimable governor has approved.

One is a ban on cell phone use while driving, and the other lowers the blood alcohol limit for DWI to .08.

I pretty much agree with Paul Mulshine most of the time, although he considers himself a conservative and I don’t think I am, but I have to say that I can see a bright side to these new laws.

Right now, all of our police are stationed at specific points on the road, just hangin’ out with the radar gun.

This leaves our drivers free to pursue truly dangerous driving activities like tailgating and changing lanes wildly without even a hint of a turn signal or a glance to see if there’s already a car in the space they’re aiming for.

With all the cops tied up at speed traps, the best they can do is show up after there’s already been an accident.

At least if they have to get out on the road to collar someone chatting (because someone with .08 BAC will probably not be driving erratically enough to cause suspicion) they might see and stop some of the real troublemakers.

Not that I suspect they will, of course, but every little bit helps.

When people see a police car on the road, they suddenly become exemplary law-abiding drivers.

Really slow drivers, but at least a little less aggressive.

Confusion

Confusion

Here are a couple of things that confuse me when I have time to think about them.

First of all, why do day-of-the-week panties come in packs of six? Who decides which day you go without underwear, and how do they decide it? Is it some kind of religious thing? (I usually think of this while folding laundry, which happens at least 5 days a week.)

Also, why is it that when people cross the street when a car’s coming, they run until they’re actually in front of the car, and then slow down to a leisurely saunter?

Home repair

Home repair

Right before Christmas, hubby decided to fix the slow drain in the upstairs bathroom.  Company was coming, many parties were planned, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

As we’ve come to expect, we’d be in trouble if the previous owner had done any repair work, and unfortunately, he had. 

We were in trouble. 

Snaking the drain didn’t work, so he decided to take it apart, clean it, and put it back together again. 

Well, part of the drain wasn’t really drain, just duct tape painted to disguise it as a drain, so putting it back together was out of the question. 

It’s a good thing we’ve got four other potties in the house. 

Old walls were knocked down.  New plumbing and wiring was installed.  New wall was installed.

Then it was my turn.  Carolyn, who is the primary user of this room, decided on an undersea theme.  I picked out colors to match to shower curtain, and did a faux finish on the walls, then got that Ralph Lauren paint with the sand in it and redid the floors.  It really does look like it’s underwater. 

The paint companies would have you believe that you need all kinds of additional purchases to do this kind of stuff, but really all you do is paint a background color all over, then dilute your next color 50% with water and arm yourself with gloves and a whole bunch of Bounty paper towels.  Experiment with different styles on cardboard or (if you live in a fixer-upper like we do) leftover pieces of drywall. 

Soooooo. . .finally the paint is done, we get the sink and the commode installed by our wonderful neighbor who’s a plumber, and the only thing left to do is put the little fish we cut out from the wallpaper that matches the shower curtain all over the walls. 

Yeah, maybe a towel bar or two would help.