a ride in the life

This is an example of what goes on in my head in the car. Inspired by W. Kowalski; I think he posted a similar stream-of-conscience-while-driving note awhile ago on FB.

This is a 30 minute continuous drive, reduced to a handful of discrete thoughts, reduced further to a handful of words.

(Car start)

WHOA! Never saw the oil pressure light flicker like that before. A rapid, random progression of flashing red. It's off as quickly as it flashed on. Maybe it was a message in Morse code. Don't know Morse code, but would bet the message was I NEED OIL!

Oh joy. Now the Check Engine light is on. At least it is solidly lit. What a dumb name for an idiot light. Check Engine. Do you suppose if I got out and checked the engine, it might be MIA? Need to cover that little light with a piece of electrical tape.

The spiral descent out of the parking garage makes me feel like I'm driving down a big piece of dry rotini pasta.

Even if this is the "city of bridges", there are simply not enough river crossings in downtown. Major highways merge together right before a bridge for the sole purpose of sharing the bridge, then split apart after the crossing. And it seems like the majority of bridge traffic needs to change lanes while on the bridge. Who designs this stuff? Must be the same people who put on-ramps and off-ramps right before each tunnel.

Hey there's a truck from that plumbing company we hired. That was way too expensive to swap out a bathroom faucet. Next time it will be DIY.

Ooh cool the WPXI helicopter blades are rotating as it sits on it's pad.

Dee Thompson gets the crappiest assignments from their news directors. They always shuffle his ass out to the most remote corners of the viewing area to cover the most mundane stories. Haven't seen him in awhile. Is he still on channel 11?

WHOA (again!): 30 gallon Rubbermaid trash can bouncing and rolling on its side towards me. Fortunately it's in the far right lane! OK! Glad I was in the far left.

You bastard. Cut me off in the left lane? Bastard!

Engine sounds kind of like a lawnmower. Yeah, better add oil soon.

Sometimes Hannity sounds like a shrill whiner. Sometimes. He's talking about health care. We need to get this right. Costs are way out of control. Something is out of whack, but I'm pretty sure I don't want a government solution.

Why the F does PennDOT block off miles upon miles of perfectly usable highway?

Better get over to the right lane. Apparently 75 in a 55 is not fast enough for some of my fellow suburbanites.

Oh crap. Forgot to text Ed about Pens game.

No dek hockey going on at the I-279 DekStar hockey dek. Why is the dek in dek hockey not spelled with a C in the work dek?

Wonder who will run on the Republican ticket for president in 2012? Palin? Condi? Hip is in, so the Republicans will need to "out hip" the incumbent, somehow.

Darn it's hot in here. Guess we can turn down the heat that we had blaring from this morning.

That bastard is passing me. But again? When did I pass him?

Loving the redesign of the I-79/I-279 merge point. Maybe they could let these engineers solve the bridge problems dahntahn (that's Pittsburghese for downtown).

Too many commercials on talk radio. Time to flip around the radio dial.

Country? Nope. Flip.

More country? Nope. Wait that's the same song that was just on the last country station. What are the odds? Flip.

Classic rock? Eh. Flip. Southern rock? Eh. Flip. Rolling Stones? Eh. Flip.

Oooh, the Jesus channel. Not really in the mood. Flip.

Reach out and touch faith. Personal Jesus? Ironic to find this after the Christian channel. I think this is Depeche Mode. Will do for now.

Well, maybe not. Keep flippin'.

Oh this sucks. Flip.

Sucky. Flip.

WHOA (yet again!): an 8 foot section of 4 by 4 on the ground, laying across my lane. Easy for me to avoid, but not the case for the guy behind me. Oops. He didn't see it in time. Ran right over it but it didn't seem to slow him down at all.

More construction. It's getting old.

Hey - no cop at the usual spot in Cranberry Township. Proceed at 75.

Fiip. Flip. Flip. She's a maniac maaaaniac. Eh, Pass.

Total eclipse of the heart. Turn around, bright eyes... oh that SUCKS! Flip.

Who listens to BOB-FM? Amazing it stays alive.

Flip. Ah, Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody. Love it. He's just a poor boy from a poor family/Spare him his life from this monstrosity.

Will never be able to listen to this song without thinking about Wayne's World.

My exit coming up. Finally.

Flip. Rap.
Flip. Suck.
Flip. Metallica. They get so much air time nowadays. So different than from 1986.
The best radio in Pittsburgh is out of Youngstown, Ohio. 93.3 FM. The WOLF.

There's the lawnmower sound again. I'm now a bit more worried about that.

Ichiban Steakhouse! Would love to have dinner there again. Wonder how the kids would do there? Would they sit though it? They might like the culinary performance, but would they eat the food there? Do they have a Japanese steakhouse happy meal?

Gas prices are up.

More Metallica. Must be a "double shot" or two-for-Tuesday deal on this station.

(Car stop)