Somethings Wrong

Today's Thoughts 6/18/11 Somethings Wrong

"Somethings wrong with the word today, I don't know what it is." Or so goes the song sung by Aerosmith. I guess I've been thinking about this for a while now. Well. I guess since about the Memorial Day weekend. On holidays that are set aside to specifically honor our war veterans, I always like to find an old vet are two that are stuck out on the highway like I am and sit down close to them and strike up a conversation.  I guess mostly to get a chance to throw in a thank you or two but also just to find a little human interaction for myself also.

The thing about this visit that I remembered most were about this guy was that the old vet that had one of those tubes in his throat that he had to talk through. I have no idea what they are called but he was holding his own just the same. We were watching the TV that was propped up high in the corner so everyone in the restaurant could see it. On it was a news story about how the state of California was forcing someone to take down the American flag. Seems it was against some rule or regulation to fly it. I recounted a story that I heard a few weeks back that California was not allowing the American flag to be flown at a Park and Ride location.

As I was both apologizing and thanking him for his service, another guy walks in and sits across from me. Everyone has this weird look on their faces and he is wondering what he has done to cause that. So we explain the news story and the old vet leaves and I continue to talk with the new guy about the state of the world today. We talk about the flag and the state of our country today. How too many people are just taking advantage of the system and how we need to fix that problem before we can move on to all the other problems that we as a country have to fix.

Along about this time a lady truck driver walks in and sits down between us. She says hello and we add her into our little group. She is on her way home and her boss is letting her go out of route so she can stop in at the house on Sunday for the holiday. Even though she is a truck driver, she has no map book and is upset because the store told her that they were not a library and she could not borrow new books and put them back on the shelf when she was done.

I've been thinking about these people over the last few weeks and how they viewed the world when yesterday morning about five I started my trip and met another driver out on the road. I had not even got up to highway speed yet when I found myself blocked in behind him on level ground in a blinding rain storm. I figured he had slowed down for the rain being it was extremely hard and I decided to pass him because he was moving to slow to be safe from my point of view.

As I get about even with him, we start down a hill and the next thing I know we are doing about seventy and he will not let me pass. So I back out of it. But so does this truck I'm trying to pass. Traffic behind us is getting inpatient so I slow down enough to get in behind him and let the other traffic move along. But this guy in his big truck slows all the way down to less than fifty miles an hour and now I'm blocked in tailgating him in a heavy rain storm. So I try to pass again when traffic clears. He does the same thing. Pouring down rain and every time I try to pass he picks up speed and we end up running side by side in a pitch black heavy rain. Finally though, I get around him. And I mentioned how unprofessional and unsafe I thought his action were.

So I find myself wondering, is there something wrong with the world today? Or is it just me?

I both apologized and thanked the old Veteran for his service. Thanked him for fighting for our freedoms and apologized for those that are trying to destroy them.

The other guy that walks in and sits down enjoys a double bacon cheese burger with fries and a soda pop. Then he gets up and runs out without paying.

The lady truck driver is aghast at my point of view that people that produce books and sell them have just as much right to get paid for the hard work as she a truck driver does for the work she does.

And the driver that was racing me in such unsafe conditions blamed me for the situation because I did not ask him to find out that his truck was not running right and I should be more considerate of his problems. The fact that he was even out in those weather condition with a truck that had no pulling power and I'm guessing his flashers were broke too because he was not using them, really did not have anything to do with the situation. Weird.

I don't know. Maybe I just have a weird sense of what's right and what's wrong. Or maybe there really is something wrong with the world today. Well, whatever the answer is, I'm still going to do that which is right even if it does piss some people off. It just seems to me that sometimes, just sometimes, you have to think about how your actions affect those around you. Kind of makes for a better world, don't you think?

Jeff Head.
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