How Bad Can Auto Emissions Really Be?

So I was thinking about this as I was driving up and down the New Jersey Turnpike the past week going to NYC and Long Island (which lately have been my second home) and I was wondering how bad can car emissions really be to the environment?

I was wondering this as I was looking at the trees lining the highway.  They were full, vibrant trees that have been growing alongside the road for decades.  Everyday they are submitted to exhaust from trucks, cars and motorcycles and yet, year after year, they never seem to suffer from any damaging effects of the pollution that we all hear about coming from motor vehicles. 

How bad can it really be?

Thanks For The Ride!

I know I promised a post everyday this week and I blew it.  I got so absorbed in my regular life that I forgot to post.  Sorry about that. 

So now on to the continuing saga of the Mad Man in Chincoteague…..

In Chincoteague, you can easily walk to almost anywhere.  Main Street and Maddox Blvd are the main streets in town and are for the most part walker friendly. 

I say most part because I almost got run over.

I was walking from the carnival grounds to the closest ATM and on the way back a guy was pulling out of a side street without looking.  I was, at this point, in front of his car and he never stopped.  He kept pulling out even as I was clinging on to his hood. 

So there I was facing the car, leaning over his hood, yelling YO!  YO!  YOooooo!!!!!! and the guy keeps pulling out into the street and never slows, stops or looks at me. 

It was not until I pounded down hard with my fist into the hood of his car before he even acknowledged my presence.  He had the nerve to ask what I was doing.  Oh, nothing, just wanted to get a closer look at the bird shit on the hood of your car in this darkness of night you big dope. 

He then had the nerve to complain about the dent I put into his hood.  Actually, I was proud of the dent.  I was proud that I could dent the hood of the car with such force while trying to hold myself up on his hood and not get run over at the same time.

Anyway, after the gentleman was kind enough to drop me off into the street and allow me to move out of the way of his motor vehicle, I proceeded to let him know what I thought of him and wished him a good night.  He also wished me a most pleasant evening and exchanged hand gestures. 

If that was the only bad experience that I had on vacation I can live with that.  And in reality, this is outside of the norm on the island.  The island is a very quiet and peaceful place.  Incidents like the one I mentioned above are rare, at least from my experience.

Donnaism Returns

I know it has been a while since I have given you, my 6 regular readers, any Donnaisms.  Unfortunately, it has been a while since I’ve really hung out with her.

This weekend I did have that chance to spend some time with her. 

She was telling us how it was time to renew her vehicle registration for the state and how she was confused on how to fill out the paperwork.

I asked what was so confusing and she responded that she did not know what to write for the odometer numbers.  I said that she writes what it says on the odometer and I even explained where it was located on her dashboard. 

“I know that”, she responded, “I just don’t know what number to write down because it keeps changing.”

Folks, I can’t make this stuff up.

I’m Rambling

I really don’t have much to write about in a full post so I am going to post a bunch of quick little rambling comments if you all don’t mind.

• The painting part is pretty much done.  I have some touch ups to do when I get home this weekend (yes, I am traveling again for work in the NYC area) and I have one last window to install that I did not get to due to a friend issue  that ruined my day.  He’s still in jail, by the way.

 

• This new rental car I have for the week has been challenging to me.  Now I am a pretty smart guy but this Infinity G35 has one of those keyless ignitions that proved difficult for me to turn on.  The first three times I got it on by dumb luck before I figured out that you need to put your foot on the brake before bushing the On button.  I also had a difficult time opening the gas tank.  The car did not have any buttons or latches to make it open and I was just about ready to just pour the gas all over the outside of the car in hopes that some of it might reach the gas tank or be absorbed into the car through the cracks and then I discovered, that all I had to do was push on the right top of the gas door to open it. 

 

• I’ve talked about my Sister In Law Donna and the dumb things she says and I even have a whole section on this blog devoted to her donnaisms.  Her latest – wait for it – “Can you burn fire?”  Then, during the same night she was talking about how things are turning bad and said “It’s all down here now” instead of It’s all down hill now.  Yikes.

Like I said, a few odd little rambling items and none of them enough to make a full post but I did want to get them out there before I forgot them.

Talk Radio Anyone?

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately in the car traveling up and down the New Jersey Turnpike.  Work has had me on the road more than I have been home.  I’m road weary, beat up and tired of living out of a hotel, eating out and sleeping alone.

Since I am beaten down I am going to open up a little and let you into my mind. 

I love to listen to music but I find that when I am on long drives, like up and down the New Jersey Turnpike, I find that I cannot listen to music.  Why?  I have no idea.

I just know that I drive better listening to Talk Radio than when I am listening to music.  It could be anything, NPR, Rush Limbaugh, Sports Talk or some radio preacher, I just need some bland and boring talk in the car. 

It is not because I am lonely or crave the sound of the human voice.  It is not like I talk back to the people on the radio, or actually listen to what they say.  There is something about the drone of the talking that comforts me while I drive. 

I have found in the past that I have been driving at illegal speeds when listen to the radio.  I get a great song on and all of a sudden I look down at the speedometer and I’ll be pushing 90 mph.  On the NJ Turnpike 90 is usually the norm.

 Does this make me odd?  Probably.  I mean who listens to talk radio unless they really want to hear what is being said? 

That is the thing about my mind.  I have these totally weird, odd quirks that separate me from the normal. 

What have I learned from the radio?  Jesus loves me because I’m a Democrat hating Republican that thinks that Pete Rose should win the Stanley Cup in Israel because a Palestinian State would help the NFL drug policy become Hannaitized.

You’re all a great American!

In Loving Memory Of…………..

People handle grief in many different ways and people like to remember the dead in their own meaningful ways but what I don’t understand is people that will plaster across the rear windshield of their car a memorial with all the information of that individual which should be placed on the headstone, not rear window of a car. 

Driving into work this morning is a Dodge Magnum with a rear window full of what amounts to an obituary.  It was large writing, contained a picture/image of the deceased, birth and death dates and noting that the deseased was a loving cousin, sister, brother, mother, aunt, uncle, neighbor, homeroom mother, scout leader, gang member, father and animal lover.  

It was almost like it was being shoved down my throat that this person had died and I had better recognize!

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but when something like this is shoved in my face, and no, I really could not avoid it as this vehicle was in front of me in bumper to bumper traffic, but when this is shoved in my face I guess I have to just vent about it. 

If you want people to read about  and remember the dead, place an obit in the newspaper like everyone else.

Kill Me Now

It was not a great start to the evening.  I thought that since there was very little traffic on the road last night that my commute home would be a breeze.  I made it all the way down the I-95 in record time.  Never on a Monday at 4 PM would I be able make the 2o mile journey in less than a half an hour.  And then it all changed.

I felt the slight pull to the left on the van.  As I slowed to a stop I heard the distinct flapping of my front left tire.  After I pulled into the restaurant parking lot I got out and looked and my suspicions were confirmed.  A flat tire. 

It was cold, dark, damp and just beginning to rain.  It was not the makings of a story that would have a happy ending.  The one inconvenience that this minivan has it the location of the spare tire and where it is located.  It is located between the front and second row seats.  These are the main seats that my family all sits in.  As such, all of the kids junk/shit toys and stuff, as well as my laptop and lunchbox all had to be moved.  It was awkward to remove. 

In addition to all of this, as my regular readers know, I have been struggling with some type of affliction that the doctors have not been able to figure out as of yet.  This illness made me cough so hard I tore the cartilage between my ribs. 

Pulling out the spare left me in terrible pain.  I was nearly crying as I struggled to remove the spare from its hiding place.  You might wonder why would I put myself through this agony and not call someone like AAA.  The reason is, I had to pick up the kids and then take my daughter to Brownies.  I had an hour to do all of this.  AAA, while a very good service, is not known for it’s quickness.  That just leaves me, in pain, to deal with the flat.

Cold.  Dark.  Rain.  Pain.  Through all that I was able to change the tire and put the flat into the trunk, which was another struggle.  I made it to the daycare and picked up the kids.  Before I was even able to get them into the car I went into a coughing fit.  I was out in the rain coughing and trying to stop, trying to catch a breath, trying to stand, trying to keep from crying because of the rib pain.  My kids were scared and upset.  My son began to cry.  This attack may have been only 30 seconds but it seemed to last for nearly 10 minutes. 

I was able to finally get in my van and out of the rain where I sat trying to catch my breath.  I sucked up the pain and composed myself and then worked on calming the kids.  I assured them that I was OK and with that I took my daughter to Brownies. 

I am now in so much pain and discomfort that I just want to die now.  The doctor called me in this morning to do more X-rays and tests.  Who knows what they will find.  But whatever it is, I hope they figure it out soon. 

The End of the NASCAR Season

And so ends the 2007 NASCAR season. The 2007 Chase for the Nextel Cup was a dud, in my opinion. By the last 7 races there was not one spark of excitement. What NASCAR had hoped would be a comeback season turned out to be more lackluster than blockbuster.There were more stories about next year than this year for NASCAR. Who Dale Earnhardt Jr would sign with or if Joe Gibbs Racing would switch to Toyota dominated more headlines than Toyota’s racing program growing stronger or Ricky Rudd’s retirement or how all NASCAR events drove with unleaded fuel for the first time ever.

There will be many, like me, that are glad this season is over and begin looking forward to next year and Daytona. With so many changes to the Cup and Busch series one would need Cliff Notes just to keep track of it all. Here is a short rundown:

Nextel Cup changes it’s name to the Sprint Cup
Busch GrandNational Series becomes Nationwide Series
The Car of Tomorrow becomes the full time car for the entire season.
There may be a possible change to way teams qualify for Sprint events.
Dale Jr will leave DEI and drive for HMS switching the 8 for the 88 and the current 88 team becomes the 28.
Kyle Busch leaves HMS to drive the #18 for JGR sponsored by M&M’s.
JJ Yeley leaves the #18 team to drive for the #96 HOF team.

Head spinning yet?

Stay Tuned. There will be more craziness to come over the winter months.

Congrats to Jimmie Johnson, Chad Kanaus and the Hendrick Organization.

Thanksgiving Memories

Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest travel holiday in the nation.  Everyone heads home for Thanksgiving. 

For my family and I we used to just go one town over to my grandparents.  Even though they less than 5 miles away we would have to drive over a small creek, along the woods to get there.  We used to sing the “Over the river and Through the woods to Grandmothers house we go” song because when you are 6 a creek seems like a river.

Now that I am older and with a family it is not as magical as when I was a kid.  We now go to my in-laws and instead of just playing as a child, as an adult I help get dinner ready, help clean up after eating and then get back home to get kids showered and ready for bed.   It is not the fun lazy holiday that I remember.

We never traveled great distances for the holidays as a family, now or when I was growing up.  All my family was local.  I’m not complaining.  I like that they are close.  To be able to have a short drive to get home and crash is nice.  I think I would dread a long car ride home after filling myself past capacity.   

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the day or 4 after.  When I get to eat turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, and anything else that can be made from turkey left overs.  It is the left overs that I really enjoy.

When You Gotta Go!

The traffic light seems longer than usual.  It is like it knows.  It knows your situation and the emergency you need to respond to and yet it plays with you, taking its time changing to green.  You need it to turn green.  You need it to turn green now.  You can’t hold off any longer.  You begin to sweat.

You roll the window down and go through all the presets on the car radio.  Not finding a song that can take your mind off of your problem you look up to the traffic light again and find it is still red.  C’mon!!!  How long does the other lanes need?  When did they adjust the timing?

Green!  Green!  You slam your foot down on the gas pedal and you can feel the wheels on your front wheel drive minivan spin under you as they try to grip the asphalt of the road.   You drive ahead grateful that you are now moving and getting closer to your destination.  You begin to think you can make it. 

No!  Someone in another car pulls out in front of you forcing you to have to slow down.  This other car is driving too slow!  Can they not sense your urgency?  Can they not see you are on your way to an emergency?  You begin to sweat again.

You make the necessary turn into the residential neighborhood.  You curse every speed bump and stop sign.  Your body can sense that you are close to your destination and reacts.  You grip the steering wheel tighter and grit your teeth. 

You are uncomfortable.  This is the most discomfort you have felt in your entire life.  You begin to sense that maybe you won’t make it in time, that by the time you arrive it will be way too late.  

That kid on the bike better get out of the way!

You pull rapidly into the driveway and throw the car into park.  You leap from the drivers seat and make a run for the front door.  You fumble with the keys in your fingers.  You are running out of time.  You don’t have a moment to spare. 

You thrust your key into the lock and in one quick motion you unlock and open the door.  The house is dark.  You don’t even pause to turn on a light as you run through the house and up the stairs.  You are not going to make it. 

Halfway up the stairs the turtle pokes its head out!

You make the sharp right hand turn at the top of the stairs and throw on the light in the room and in a frenzy you undo the button and zipper on your pants and yank down just as your body explodes and just as your bottom makes contact with the cold white plastic of the toilet seat.   

You cry out in joy as a climax of a non sexual nature  overcomes your body.  As this wave subsides you can begin to relax and calm yourself.  You did it.  You made it.  Success!  Success!