Driver's Ed...

We all like to be safe when we are in our cars, and when navigating the roads here in Southern Maryland, it helps to have a few tips.  So besides (maybe) guiding your tastes in food and dining venues, the Feeder would like to provide some helpful suggestions that will aid your journeys to such places..

First a definition to help us (gleaned from the net, so I am not making this up, italics and emphasis mine):

“Merge”:

1.     Combine or cause to combine to form a single entity,.

2.     Blend or fade gradually into something else so as to become indistinguishable from it

Or:

1.     To cause to be absorbed, especially in gradual stages.

Traffic engineers (as a civil engineer by training, I know this to be true), recognize the above concept and help us by designing roads with a lane devoted to that purpose.  At an intersection with a busy road, a lane provided to enable the “gradual” fading into traffic is helpful.  You turn out, and increase your speed to match the prevailing traffic, turn on your left turn indicator, and if some kind soul doesn’t allow you space there is usually one soon available.  And since you are all travelling the same speed you don’t need a huge one.  Easy, you’re part of a single entity..

Unfortunately, local custom has a different concept for “merging”.  That is, you position your car stopped dead at approximately ninety degrees in the stupid so called “merge lane”, often rolling down the window to stick your head out, and wait whatever time is required (two, three minutes, no matter) to allow all the traffic lanes to clear (courtesy of a demon infested light) and then, and only then, go directly across the superfluous lane and turn into the nearest traffic lane and be on your way.

Ah, but to that same enlightened driver, the merge lane provides another wonderful service.  Say you are going home from work from the base and traffic is crawling along all three main lanes.  By golly, “there’s nobody in that other lane that I don’t know what is for”;  yank the vehicle into that, floor it and speed past all the idiots that don’t know any better..  whoa! There’s an island ahead!. no matter I’ll turn right, go through the bank/restaurant/store parking lot and force my way back in with the morons!  Hah!

Other time saving techniques:

If you notice that the light turns red at the next intersection down the road ahead of you and the fool in front of you is just coasting to arrive maybe when it turns green, floor it and pass him on the right/left, cut back in and with heavy braking you can be ahead of him while you all wait for the green!!  One more car down... you win!

As many of our roads are just two lanes, and traverse the county from side to side (such as Hollywood Leonardtown Road, or Rte. 4), getting there in as little time as you can is crucial.  So if the car in front of you is silly enough to approximate the speed limit, you can reduce your arrival time by making sure you tailgate as close as possible even though there are no turnoffs for miles.  Or, you can get on the bumper, then back off, then accelerate to the bumper position, and repeat this as many times as possible as a lesson to the stupid driver that he is obeying the speed limit.  you win!!

A Stormy Day (extra)

As I was sitting here ranting (thinly disguised, eh?) there came the last vestiges of today’s rain storm.  It was nowhere near the intensity of the other day, but interesting nonetheless.   Realizing I could have set up a tripod and done a real “time lapse”, it was nice to watch it come and go.

arriving

 

in progress

 

fading

 

 

And as it departed there was a hint of a rainbow!

 

And finally back to sun!

 

Always something on the river..

 

Road Warrior Update

 

MFO visited the FOJTY's yesterday, and today zipped up to STL to RON and have dinner with the FOJTE's..  Tomorrow she'll point the MOMSTER II toward home and be back Thursday..  House cleaning begins in earnest!!  And of course tonight she will be

 

DFD