Sliced Bread FAIL.

So, I haven't ever encountered this before. Regular, sliced loaf of bread from the grocery store. Open the bag to grab a couple slices to make a sandwich. No slices. Just one unsliced loaf. Times are hard, I tell ya.


Okay, not necessarily all that interesting. Mainly just odd. Wonder how many loaves went out the door that day before someone flipped the slicer machine to the 'on' position. D'oh!

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Know Your Parking Lots.

I don't get annoyed very often. With that said, this really annoys me: people who don't 'get' how parking lots work.

It seems obvious to me that there are at least 2 categories of parking lots. One kind has angled spaces and is meant for one way traffic only. You don't have to be a genius to see it. At Northgate Mall tonight, there was an example of the one way traffic category:

See? Designed to be one way. The spaces were angled specifically for cars travelling one way. So please don't come barreling down the wrong way, headlights blazing, looking for a space, okay? Because you are going to cause a wreck. And what kind of crazy turn will you have to make in order to get into the space angled away from your car? Just go to the very next row and that row will be for one way in the opposite direction. This is not hard.

Granted, there do exist parking lots designed for two way traffic. The tip off: the spaces are not angled and the row is bit wider to accomodate the two way traffic. An example of this would be the Durham Costco, if you are ever at that parking lot. Or Target.

Here's a drawing yoinked off the net for illustration:



This isn't about whether one kind of parking lot is better than the other, or whether we need less parking lots. But let's at least learn how to work the ones we got first.

Not so Fabulous

Yikes, on the end cap of an aisle at Food Lion tonight, 16-oz. colorful (Powerade-like) power drinks? Nope. 16 oz. bottles of colorful cleaning fluids. They're Fabuloso! Seems like a products-liability case waiting to happen to Colgate. They'd sure look like bottles of something to drink, especially to a thirsty kid.




Powerade, for instance:


Maybe I'm just being a Nervous Nellie about it, but it sadly looks like an accident-in-waiting.

Oh yuck. Centerfest to be in a parking lot again.

I have always loved Centerfest in Durham since moving here. It has consistently been a fun and easy-going time. A real treat. Last year, however, it was crammed into a big asphalt parking lot near the Farmer's Market. The asphalt was steamy hot, the weather was hot, the people were jammed in, and it was miserable--at least for me and the people I was with. After inquiring last year, I understood that it was held there because it wasn't clear that the downtown street improvements would be finished in time. Okay, I was cool with that. But I just looked on the website and it is still going to be held in that parking lot.

So good luck with that. I was looking forward to it being downtown in the neat CCB (See Say Be) Plaza with Major, and up and down Main Street and Chapel Hill Street, showing off our new merchants downtown and our great looking new brickwork and streetlamps and all. Nope. The map for Centerfest is still directiing people to the asphalt parking lot.

Centerfest 2008 will be held September 20 and 21st, according to its website.

4 Way Stop Intersections

Are 4 Way Stop intersections more complicated than I think?

I learned years ago that one proceeds in the order that one arrives at the 4 Way Stop. The first one there goes first, then the next to arrive goes, and so forth.

Has this rule changed?

It's certainly not a complicated rule, but apparently at the intersection of Watts and Markham, it is a source of tremendous confusion for some. I'm starting to wonder if I simply don't understand the rule anymore and it's now as follows: wait to see if the person waves you to proceed, if they don't, you wave them to proceed.

Don't wave me on if it's not my turn! Let's just stick with the rules of the road, why don't we? I'm pretty sure that's a lot less dangerous for everyone since there's a predictability about who will be moving through the intersection next.

Daylight savings time on March 9

I know that's still approximately a week away, but it's hard to believe it's already time to 'spring forward' an hour. I love it, but I know others who hate it.

In 2008, daylight time begins on March 9 and ends on November 2.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 expanded the number of weeks that Daylight Savings Time is in effect so it is rolling around earlier and lasting longer.

And who can forget this wonderful letter warning about the possibility of another "plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe global warming is real"?