Travel | Piss and Moan

Traffic sucks because you’re stupid

Posted on August 1, 2018 by backuphill

red and yellow hatchback axa crash tests

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You know, if you are stuck in a traffic jam because of an earlier accident, maybe you should not tailgate people and pay attention to what is going on around you so you don’t smash the bumper in front of you and cause other people to slow down to see what is going on…just a hint. STOP IT!

I’ll be damned if you people can’t keep from bashing into each other! Holy crap, people, stop screwing up traffic! You morons drive the same route every day and you know what traffic is gonna be like so stop doing stuff that is going to mess it up for everyone.

Stop reading the newspaper. Stop looking at your phone. Stop sending texts. Stop making phone calls. Stop eating. Stop drinking. Stop doing your nails. Stop putting on your makeup. Stop picking your nose. Stop doing your hair. Stop playing with the radio. Stop yelling at your kids. Stop smoking. Stop stop stop.

We spend enough time sitting in our cars, we don’t need you making it worse on a daily basis.

Motorcycle riders are the worst

Posted on July 29, 2018 by backuphill

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Ever been so irritated at something that you just want to scream? Yeah, me too.

Motorcycle riders are the worst. They are the worst because the constantly break the law. They break the law because they feel they are entitled to. That must be the case or they wouldn’t do it.

I commute 88 miles to and from work five days a week, so I am on the roads a lot. I was also a driver’s ed instructor for 6 years and a state license tester for 5 of those years (those were my side gig). So, I think I have a pretty good idea of the law. And let me tell you, motorcycle riders break the law on a regular basis. I am sure, if you drive a vehicle, you are well aware of this already so maybe I am preaching to the choir here…

Motorcycle riders routinely roll through stop signs, because putting your feet down to actually come to a complete stop is apparently to big an inconvenience. Of course, they exceed the speed limit, but not at the same level you are exceeding the speed limit because they have to go faster. They weave in and out of traffic, cutting people off as they go. They lane split (ride between cars on the white line). They ride on the shoulder in traffic jams. They tailgate you when you are too slow, but actually doing the speed limit. They park their bikes in places that aren’t parking spots. I could do on, but I think you get the picture (and you probably already knew all this).

When you ask (or confront) a motorcycle rider about it they almost always come up with the excuse, “It is safer for me if I do it that way.” Oh, ok, so you are more important than everyone else? I get it.

If you are a motorcycle rider, the rest of the commuting world is tired AF of you. You aren’t special. Obey the damn law!

*Yes, I realize some of the things mentioned are legal in some states – all of the things mentioned are NOT in my state.

Buried in junk mail

Posted on July 26, 2018 by backuphill

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Vacation usually means playing catch up at some point. If you were not on a “staycation” that means you were likely disconnected from your normal routine to some degree. As such, there will be at the very least a little catch up when you get home. For me, there was a TON of catch up since I was only able to connect electronically on a limited basis – partly because that was all that was available and partially because it was a self-imposed disconnect.

Anyway, catch up usually involves junk mail. TONS and tons of junk mail. Why is there so much of this crap?

It comes in the very real form of physical junk mail in the mailbox. Stacks and stacks of credit card offers, political campaign ads, grocery store ads, coupon packets, etc etc etc. I think after five days of being gone, I kept seven pieces of real mail (as in something I needed or wanted) out of about 50 items. At least junk mail delivered in this manner has been reduced to some degree (I swear junk mail is the only thing keeping the USPS afloat, but that is a discussion for another day).

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Then there is the electronic junk mail – at home and at work. Again, there has been a reduction of this blight since filters are getting better, but there is still a lot that makes it through. Work email literally took me TWO HOURS to get through! Most of it was dumb crap my co-workers feel the need to share with everyone in the office, but how do you know for sure unless you open it up and look? My three home email accounts, because of limited connectivity, were a little better. I was able to filter some of the junk out before I even got home. But, that still means an hour going through the necessary stuff and deleting the rest. (Three, you ask? Yes, one for main use and two for the “junk” you get from stores and memberships and the like.) I don’t delete emails until I have taken action in relation to it, so while I can sift through most of it there is that follow up that needs to be done for each one I felt the need to keep for one reason or another. That for another day…

Can people just stop talking to me? How about you stop sending me crap too?

focus photo of yellow paper near trash can

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I see how I rank

Posted on July 25, 2018 by backuphill

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I was gone for five days on vacation.

Not a single person at home to greet me upon my return, not even my wife. At least the dog was home, so it could have been worse.

I can see where I rank around here…not important, not needed…at the very bottom.

#smh #guessishouldstaygone

Fishing is not relaxing

Posted on July 24, 2018 by backuphill

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THE activity of vacation was a fishing trip off Vancouver Island, BC, Canada (you have probably heard me talk about this a little this week). It was the whole purpose of the trip, to put fish in the boat and fill up the freezer with as much salmon and bottom fish as possible.

Well, I would like to tell you that fishing is not relaxing and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying…

Early mornings. Why is it the fish only seem to want to take the bait early in the morning? How early, well, for nearly a week it was 4:30 or 5:00am so in my case that is at least 30 minutes before I normally get up for work.

Rough waters. Now, some of you probably fish on the bank of a river or on a nice calm lake. Honestly, that isn’t fishing…if the fish you catch are less that 5 pounds, all you caught was a “water rat.” Anyway, that is beside the point. Ocean fishing involves waves. Rolling waves and choppy seas. You spend much of the time fighting to maintain your balance and the rest of the time trying not to fall overboard. Never mind the rough bouncing and banging of the boat trip just to get to the fishing spot. Yeah, not relaxing.

Stress. There is stress in fishing. Why? Well, because you want to catch fish, that is why you’re there. When you aren’t catching fish, the stress mounts because you aren’t catching fish. Each time you have a fish on and then don’t get it into the boat, the stress builds a little more until finally you’re so high strung that jumping overboard actually becomes an option.

Lost fish. With each fish that doesn’t make it into the boat, you start to wonder what you are doing wrong. “I must be doing something wrong because I’m not getting it into the boat,” you think to yourself. So you try something different, only to not have it work and then you return to what you were originally doing. Let me tell you, those thieving sons of fishies will take your bait in a heartbeat and then spit the hooks like they were tossing garbage to the curb. Frustration mounts.

Cleaning and packing. If you happen to catch fish, then you have to clean them, pack them, then ice/freeze them. The boat has to be cleaned eat night from the saltwater and the fish guts. You have to pack for a trip of uncertain weather and success. You have to unpack from the trip and do laundry, after getting very little sleep all week.

Tell me, where was the relaxing vacation again?

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How do stupid people live so long?

Posted on July 22, 2018 by backuphill

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I was on vacation this last week and went fishing off the northern reaches of Vancouver Island. There was a lot of boat travel involved, including the very large ferry boat to get to the island.

In the adventures of a ferry line, there are all sorts of people. I happened to be in line behind the biggest idiot on the boat. Let me set the scene…

We arrived at the ferry an hour before the appointed sailing time. There were already nine or so cars in the line (including said idiot directly in front of me). We killed time in the shops and grabbed some coffee and then with about 25 minutes before sailing time we headed back to our vehicle so we were ready for the loading announcement (typically they load the boat 15 minutes before sailing). The idiot in front of me had the back of his vehicle open and the bikes that were on the back of the vehicle were propped up next to the vehicle.

The first announcement to return to your vehicles came and people began loading back into their cars. Idiot? Well, he just stood there looking at his phone.

The second announcement to return to your vehicles came and, again, idiot just stood there fumbling around with his phone. Now people’s cars were starting and people were prepared to board the boat.

Cars in the line ahead are now moving and beginning to load onto the boat. Idiot, looks up, sees that cars are moving and finally begins to move. He closes the back of his vehicle, no urgency involved, then proceeds to load the first bike back onto the rack on the back of his car. The cars in the front of the line are now gone and he is holding up the entire line…and now he can’t figure out how to secure the bike. So he fumbles around trying to make it happen. He wife now jumps out of the car, puts here coffee on the top of the car, and tries to help him – only it appears she is just getting in the way rather than helping.

We sit. We can’t move. We can’t go around and neither can the cars behind us, because when you line up at the ferry line you park close enough the to car in front of you that you can’t escape. We sit some more.

Finally, the guy decides that he can’t take any more time (now at 5 minutes since the car in front of him moved) and he just throws the second bike onto the rack and jumps into the car. He wife jumps in and closes here door, only to jump back out and grab her coffee off the top of the car. They are finally moving…

Good grief…the two loading messages 10 minutes before loading were apparently not enough to get this idiot moving.

All I could do was shake my head and wonder how stupid people survive so long.

#smh

Commuting Chaos

Posted on July 12, 2018 by backuphill

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I commute just under 90 miles every day. If that isn’t enough to drive someone nuts, according to surveys and studies, I also commute in the worst traffic in the country. Here’s the thing, it probably really doesn’t have to be.

I’ll just come right out and say it, I commute with a lot of stupid people, which is weird since a lot of them should be smart considering the whole population of Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech industry companies in the area. Because I commute the at the same time each day, in both directions, I see the same people/cars (mostly) everyday. And, because they are doing the same thing as me each day, you would think that they would know better. Thus, they are stupid. This can be the only explanation.

Why are they stupid? Because they are the ones causing the problem. Yes, the roadway is packed with cars. Yes, the traffic moves much slower than the speed limit. BUT, when they drive stupidly and have little to no patience, they are the ones causing the problem. For example: cutting people off, not letting people merge, tailgating, driving distracted, weaving in and out of traffic trying to get ahead…etc, bashing into others, etc…You know the people. You have seen them, but hopefully you aren’t one of them.

Studies also show that when you drive with patience and courteously, traffic moves more smoothly and everyone gets to where they are going more quickly. So, let’s do that people!

PLEASE, STOP BEING STUPID.

Conference workshop boredom

Posted on July 10, 2018 by backuphill

photography of a woman sitting on the chair listening to music

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Every had to travel for work to attend a workshop or conference, only to regret that you went because the boredom is excruciating?

Yeah. That was me yesterday. And I have another day to go. Boring…

To top it all off, I have a co-worker sitting next to me that wants to talk about everything and has to say something about everything. So, not only is the presentation boring, but the person next to me won’t shut up and is annoying.

Perhaps I can hangout with the coffee machine. It at least provides something interesting, and I am going to need it today.

More coffee please!

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I’ve got the power (or not)!

Posted on July 9, 2018 by backuphill

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OK, not really. I am actually kind of a little irritated that I don’t have the power.

I am traveling for work and I am in a hotel (Hilton) for a couple nights. It isn’t a bad room, except for one thing…

The room has all of one USB outlet! Um, hello! How can a modern hotel have only one USB outlet? A newer hotel. Poor planning, don’t ya think? Luckily I have other ways to plug in my devices.

The last time I had to do this, the hotel had six USB outlets in the room. So, I wonder what gives?

What are your travel complaints, irritations, or annoyances?