Remember when we all learned that two wrongs don’t make a right? How about when one wrong on yellow makes for two more wrongs on a red?
Yes, I’m talking about drivers in Chatham-Kent. While heading south on St. Clair Street recently, I arrived at the busy intersection at Grand Avenue, and entered the left-turn lane expecting to not be able to make the turn due to the traffic volume.
That and the fact I was the third car in the turning lane and had a strong feeling the light was about to change.
Sure enough, it turned yellow. Note to too many Chatham drivers: That’s the colour that warns you the light is about to turn red and a driver’s response is supposed to be to stop if you can.
On a clear, warm, dry day, a southbound pickup in the left-hand lane could have stopped, but the driver kept going.
Bad driving decision.
And that decision prevented the person in the northbound left-hand turn lane from making his turn on the yellow light.
But rather than back up a little bit and wait it out for the next light, he opted to turn anyway.
Another bad decision.
Meanwhile, the person two cars in front of me turned at the yellow light, because northbound through traffic behaved accordingly, and allowed the driver, who had pulled a ways out into the intersection, to clear out of the way.
Good decision.
And suddenly the guy behind that car opted to turn as well, as the light turned red.
Duh.
I don’t understand people with such habits in Chatham-Kent. When you pull a selfish move like that, chances are you’ll be waiting at the next light when the car that was at the light behind you—the person who obeyed the law – catches up to you.
Being in a hurry around here might save you 30 seconds or so by the time you get to your destination in Chatham. Is risking an accident or a ticket worth that chump change in spare time?
What’s bugging you?
There’s a nasty bug going around. Our daughter caught it last week. She took ill about 9:30 one evening and spent from then until about 4:30 in the morning being sick every half hour.
It calmed down for all of two hours and then started up again.
This stomach flu came with a fever as well.
We were worried about dehydration, and tried to get her to sip Gatorade to replenish electrolytes too. Yes, that was my idea.
Massive stomach pain. We switched over to ginger ale – my wife’s idea from the beginning – and while the first effort resulted in her expelling the Gatorade, from then on, she slowly began to improve.
After 16 hours of being physically ill, that phase stopped and she could finally catch a catnap. Mary did the lion’s share of the parenting on this, being the through-the-night trooper, holding her hair, etc. and stayed with her the next morning. I spelled her off about 2 p.m., bringing the laptop home to be able to continue to work.
But after binge watching Grey’s Anatomy (ugh, I can’t believe her friend Jessie got her watching that soapy drivel), and after her stomach stopped rejecting everything, she finally acquiesced to trying to close her eyes.
I didn’t want to even type to disturb her, and I didn’t want to fall asleep in the chair near her as I feared my typing would keep her awake or my snoring would.
So, I scanned news websites while she actually rested.
She awoke about an hour later, asking how long she’d been out.
She looked over at me and said, “I think I watched too much Grey’s Anatomy. I dreamt I was a surgeon and I was performing surgery.”
Even while ill, this kid still maintained her sense of humour.
Later that evening, after watching the Jays lose, I returned to the living room and discovered she and her mother watching more of that darned show.
Only another 10.5 seasons to go and she’ll be caught up…
Share and share alike
We like sharing everything at our house. And Brenna shared her illness with us, just in time for the weekend.
No vomiting, but serious gut pain and frequent trips to the bathroom.
Even when I felt better on Sunday, as we closed up our pond for the year, I felt extremely light-headed a couple of times. Thankfully Brenna and Mary were out there with me and the job took no time at all.
We retreated indoors, with me plopping down in a recliner to close my eyes, and Mary fighting the sweats.
A beautiful fall weekend wasted.
And to think we wanted to attend the Diverse City Party at The Kent 1874. I heard from people who attended that it was a great event, especially for the participating youth dancers.
