Raindrops are falling on the road

The monsoons hit yesterday with a bang. The pool was very close to overflowing, the backyard was a giant mud puddle and the hose to the washing machine burst and flooded the garage. It was a wet and wild day. Driving was near impossible in the downpour.

The car in front of me stopped on a dime and in my daydream state of not being fully alert I slammed on the brakes and came to an instant stop even in the rain. At that very instant I looked up into the rear view mirror and watched my tailgater as they could not come to an instantaneous stop. Their attempt at stopping pulled their SUV into the center of the road. I'm thanking my lucky stars about that center lane.

The scary part is the SUV came to an abrupt stop right next to my vehicle. Feeling nervous and a little miffed I kept my head held straight on and only moved my eyes to look at the SUV parked right next to me. I'm thinking (too early on the morning for that stuff) if not for that center lane that SUV would be in my trunk and quite possible in my back seat. And where would I be? Out the window.

I whisper thank you's to myself but still want to pass the evil eye to the driver of the SUV. Driving the roads is a dangerous hobby and one has to be conscious of the other wild drivers. I can't say - "What if?"

Today the rain has become a drizzle but I will drive to work with a better awareness of the other wackos on the road. And just because one drives a big ash SUV that guzzles way too much gas (who can afford that) it doesn't mean you have great driving skills and you have control of that giant box. The baby car handled impressively.

Butter Me Up

I was out of butter and ketchup so I made a quick trip to the grocery store. $74.00 later I had my butter and ketchup and a few more items. Actually the cart was almost overflowing. It would have been cheaper to fill my car with gas.

I did my weekly grocery shopping on Sunday and today is Tuesday - so where have all the flowers gone? Feeding a teenager is expensive and coping with their emotions is another story in another time.

So why oh why did I even grab hold of that cart and cruise through the aisles? I needed two items -I have two hands. Simply math. I'm not good at math. And why does the store make everything so irresistible? And I do stay on the outside perimeter to get healthy food items.

I did forget the dish washer detergent. That's another trip and I see the dollar signs floating past me. I promise the next time I need one or two items I will march in single handedly and pick up one or two items and leave the cart rammed into that SUV in the parking lot.

I will shop painlessly/panelessly from now on.