Day: February 18, 2004

What a pleasure it is to have a little person have a serious talk with you! My baby was chatty this morning. Granted, only 40% or less of her speech makes sense but today she was talking with long sentences and sometimes serious subjects. She would yammer on and on with these happy eyes and jovial looks then suddenly for just a sentence or two her brow would furrow and her tone would change then she’d continue with the happier parts of the story. There is no better conversation!

The convseration can be frustrating also. At one moment this morning, the 20 mth old really wanted me to understand what she was saying. She made perfect eye contact and repeated her sentence over and over. I just could not make it out. She obviously did not have signs for it either because she didn’t use her hands to help. I really wanted to understand her.

Here’s a thought for you non-parents. How does toilet training begin? This will make your head reel. The word is modeling. Let me tell you! A dog growling at you during a special moment is nothing as disturbing as a toddler handing you toilet paper!

Cool, brisk, foggy morning.

6:30-6:50: The 7 yr old requested milk so I ran to the corner convenience store. The radio djs were talking about a letter to the editor that got my goat the other day. They read this lady’s words that said she had to quit her job as a courier because the law enforcement in Knoxville refused to ticket speeders particularly through construction zones. I missed the phone number or I would have called in. Perhaps it is time for me to write another letter to the editor myself. See. I believe what makes our roads safe is predictability. Predictable driving comes from when everyone obeys the same rules. Everyone obeys the same rules when we have good teaching. Speed trapping causes unpredictable driving. I contend that if everyone is speeding but going basically the same rate, particularly on the Interstate, then nothing is wrong. When someone sees a patrol car and slams on their brakes, an unpredictable change has occurred and the roads have become dangerous.

I was once on the Florida turnpike in a perfect straight stretch of road with miles of visibility. The group of cars were all doing the posted speed limit. We come across a couple of patrol cars and the car in front of me slams on his brakes dropping to 10 miles an hour below the speed limit in a very short distance. I almost tailended him and had to do evasive maneuvers to avoid having an accident. I half expected to get pulled over for wreckless driving.

I’m all for pulling over wreckless drivers. But let’s not arbitrarily say that because someone is driving faster than some posted figure that they are being “wreckless.” Let’s determine wrecklessness by the actions of the driver, the swerving, or the dramatic speed difference compared to the flow of traffic. A person zigzaging in and out of traffic is being wreckless and a person on the Interstate driving below the speed of traffic in the left hand lane is being wreckless as that person causes unpredictable behavior when people are forced to pass on the right.

Just teach people to drive.

A New Day!

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This Morning

* Woke at 4:45 and added fuel to the fire. I could have and should have stayed up but I allowed the bed monster to lure me back into the cosy sheets

* Woke again at 5:45 and rose at 6:05. Got dressed and roused the kids then refueled the fire for a long burn.

I sleep too much.