Weekly Off Topic Thread #295

[hpmsrm]

Gosh....here it is, Friday night.  Guess it's time to start #295.

Coming up on 10 PM and it is still 84.3 degrees out there. Some small storm cells popping up and fading away out to the west of the Kansas City area.  Doubt if we get any moisture.  But we sure need it. 

We ate our first home-grown tomato for 2013 today.  Yummmmmm.  But no BLT's yet.

I was driving home from the super-market around noon today.  Popped up over the crest of a hill...doing 5 mph under the speed limit (thank goodness).  And there in front of me was another senior citizen plugging along in the middle of my lane on one of those battery powered chairs.  Not a golf cart.....not a small car.....but a battery powered chair or...as we see on the TV ads from the "Scooter Store".  He must have been doing all of 2 miles per hour.   I was able to get slowed down OK.  But oncoming traffic meant that I could not pass this guy.  Vehicles behind me were screeching trying to get slowed down to a near stop.   At 40 mph I could have easily have hit him and even killed him.  So I'm counting my blessings tonight.   I should have called the cops but I did not until later.  He was violating the law because his "vehicle" was not properly equipped for driving on the street.....a county highway in fact.   Had he been on the shoulder it would have been OK.  Well....no one hurt but it was closer than I like to come to having a potentially deadly accident.

That was my excitement for today.   I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

[spd2demun]

Glad you are okay, Phil!  We have a stupid law here that says bicycles get to share the road the same as motor vehicles.  Many city and county roads have bike lanes, but if they don't, they ride right in the lane in front of cars.

IMO, if you're riding on something on the road, you need tags and inspections (yes, tax fees!), DOT-approved headlight(s), taillight(s), and turn signals, side mirrors and a driver's license!  I've seen the scooter people here, too, but not on main roads riding with traffic (yet).

We have people on 3/4-wheelers that pull out of a non-road from the reservior all the time, vehicles that are off-road and should not be on-road.

[hpmsrm]

We human beings get to thinking pretty highly about ourselves and how important we think we are in the scheme of the universe.  Well......have a go at the images on this web site.    Earth.....from 900 million miles away....taken by the Cassini space craft:

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-earth-cassini-photos-20130722,0,1800495.sto...

Hmmmmm.  I don't feel very important anymore.  Kind of puts things in perspective.

[spd2demun]

Well, Phil, you already know what I think about most humans.   We're just little specks of dust in the universe!

[dhascall]

Even if you don't follow NASCAR, you should watch SPEED tonight for NASCAR's return to dirt.  The Truck series will be at Eldora tonight for NASCAR's first major series dirt race since 1970.

[oufanindallas]

I was watching practice a little yesterday, expect lots of wrecks.  I have my DVR set already. Should be lots of fun to watch this. Talk about changing track conditions.

[dhascall]

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@oufanindallas wrote:

I was watching practice a little yesterday, expect lots of wrecks.  I have my DVR set already. Should be lots of fun to watch this. Talk about changing track conditions.

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That is the beauty of dirt.  They usually start off tacky (VERY grippy), and as the track starts to dry out, they get slick and then it gets hard / slick.  ARCA, which is a stepping stone to cup, races Gen 4 NASCAR style Cup cars on mile dirt tracks, twice each year and they have surprisingly few accidents.  There is talk of maybe a Nationwide race on Dirt, too.  I want to see a 500 lap CUP race on a Richmond sized dirt track.  Srsly!

[spd2demun]

ME WANT!

We could take up a collection and send it around the country (for those who paid in)...like a TV timeshare?

Now, how is this not going backwards, as in rear/front-projection? 

[Anonymous]

That's frickin awesome!!  Just don't have a place to put it.... too big

[oufanindallas]

I have a wall that would fit on.  Of course my viewing distance would not be optimal anymore.  Need to win the lottery just to afford it though.