No really it was…we had a big wind storm last night. We even lost power for a few minutes which is unusal as normally we never lose power. On the other hand the folks that live on the hills around me do lose power even when the wind blows a little bit. I guess that is to be expected when you live on a hill.

The big tree in my front yard was rocking back and forth pretty good and I have a fear on day it will decide it no longer wants to get pushed around by the wind and will fall into my house. I also have two skylights which make all kinds of racket when the wind is strong. Since I have been having problems sleeping none of this helped me as each new sound caused me to wonder if I was going to be picking a tree out of my house in the morning. The racket got particlualrly bad this morning and when I got up to let Tara out I noticed that the window in the room next to my bedroom was wide open. Go figure no wonder the racket kept me awake.

Oh well the house survived and I guess I did as well. The title of this post is from a famous author…any guesses

There is a reality show on the Canadian version of the Discovery Channel which puts some of the worst drivers ever?, well maybe the worst ever through a series of tests to show how bad they drive.The purpose of the show besides being very entertaining is to hopefully teach these horrible drivers something so they will improve their skills. I am not really into ‘Reality Television” but when I saw this show I figured I would give a whirl.

I caught the second episode of Canada’s Worst Driver and the idea is their are 8 contestants and as the show progresses and each contestant shows some improvement they “graduate” and get their car keys back. The last contestant will be crowned Canada’s Worst Driver, I am not sure what that person gets for achieving such a dubious award. Hopefully they lose their license and there will be one less menace on the road. A panel of experts are the judges who determine when a contestant graduates. To be on the show each contestant is nominated and the person that nominates them joins them as they complete each test.

The tests this week included driving through a course which included a set of arches which simulated driving through a tunnel. The drivers had to complete the course at 30 kilometers per hour and 60 kilometers per hour without hitting any of the arches. This was quite comical and none of the drivers made it through without any hits. The second test was a course in a figure 8 which two drivers at a time had to back through until they reached a point where they had to pass the other vehicle and then continue through the course. As the obstructions were spaced at odd angles the drivers had to go slow and sometimes stop and pull forward to allow them to achieve a better angle to get past any obstructions. To prove that the course was able to be completed without hitting anything the hosts of the show completed the course in just under 4 minutes. While for the most part each of the drivers was amusing to watch as they tried to go through the basic course one of the drivers Colin, was particularly funny and at the same time very scary. A twenty year old who has been pulled over more than 40 times in three years, had his license suspended for speeding and racing and continued to drive while his license was suspended. What is amusing is Colin truly believes he is a good driver and he is in college studying to become a police officer.

All of these drivers scared the crap out of me I cannot believe that they actually were given their licenses and I think that each of them should go through another road test and when they fail take their license away from them. I have known that their are some pretty damn shitty drivers on the road but I could never guess that they are this bad. It makes me think we need to make the licensing system tougher and hopefully weed out some of these drivers.

I usually dream each night and most of the time when I dream I remember some pieces of what happened. On a few rare occasions I have what might be termed a nightmare and on even rarer occasions I will wake up in a cold sweat. Most of the time my dreams are pleasant episodes where I am in a place such as a beach or on a trip somewhere. Some of my dreams consist of me talking to a faceless person, no not like X-Files faceless just that I cannot recognize whom I am talking to or the focus is not on their face. Of course some of my dreams I am not able to write about as they are not ‘G’ rated.

This leads me to a dream I had last night which caused me to wake up with a start very early this morning and I was not able to get back to sleep. The dream started with me talking to a faceless person and they were asking me how I was doing and how life was treating me. My usual answer to this question, no matter how I am feeling range from “I am OK” to “I am doing well”. I find it easier to tell people what I think they want to hear and I know most people do not want to hear you are doing Shitty. In the dream I think about the answer and decide to be truthful and tell them I am doing crappy. My friend inquired further and asked me why I was doing crappy. I thought about how I was going to answer and was not sure at first I wanted to expand on my answer. After some more discussion during which my friend encouraged me to let them know “where my head was at” I continued with some trepidation.

When you hear that someone in their thirties or forties who seems to have a lot going on in their life and seem to be successful commits suicide and you wonder why. They appeared to be successful, they were healthy and their did not seem to be anything within their lives that should cause them to take their own life. Mainly you wonder why someone so young would take their own life. You think what a waste, they had so much of their life ahead of them and they had so much that they could do with their life. My faceless friend was concerned and asked me why I would relate such a story. My explanation…..since I have been unemployed for the last year and half and have had some pretty low points recently, I had a lot of time to think. One of the things I thought about was I now understand how someone who seems to have so much in their lives could end their lives. Desperation sometimes causes rash actions. I reassured my friend not to worry while I understand why someone would take their own life I would not contemplate it.

Strange dream and very vivid and I am not sure why I dreamed about such a thing. I wonder what I ate to bring on this dream because I do not want to eat that again.

It is not that I am perfect and sometimes I will do something which someone else will consider rude. Having said that when I am looking at something on a shelf such as in a video store I would expect someone who walks in front of me to excuse themselves. Now even though I do not like when this happens once in a while, I really get pissed when it happens multiple times within a few minutes and even more rude when it is the same person.

I was in the local video store looking for something to rent and as I was looking intently at the selections available a rather large woman walked between me and the shelf. I figured maybe she did not notice me as she was talking loudly to someone behind me, so I let it go and continued looking only to have her again walk in front of me about 2 minutes later. At this point I looked around to see where I was standing and there was more space behind me then their was between me and the shelf in front of me. This made me a little bit perturbed so I decided to take a step forward and continued to look. As I was reading the back of a DVD box I was not paying attention to my surroundings and all of a sudden I get nudged aside by this same woman as she is looking at the same shelf I was looking at and she very rudely tells her companion that I must have gotten the last copy of Over the Hedge. I said pardon me in a very sarcastic manner, shook my head and walked away.

Since I had found something I went to counter two things occurred to me, anyone who knows me knows I am not that small so when you walk in front or bump into me you must either be blind or just cannot walk and think at the same time. The other thing which gave me a chuckle is I did get the last copy of Under the Hedge.