Leelanau Whippersnapper

Finally, I’ve had a reasonably relaxing weekend.  Of course tomorrow I head back in to hell for what will likely turn into a 6 day work week.  We begin a major re-set in my department tomorrow morning, there is a ton of work to be done and only 1 week to do it.  I’m going to have to be a cheerleader most of the week and that is indeed exhausting work.

Today I packed up the dog and headed out to the lake.  The sun has been out for the past few days, something exceedingly rare this time of year and I figured I would take advantage of it today by bringing my camera along.  I ended up going down to a beach I had not been to in quite some time.  It was further south than I usually go but still on Good Harbor Bay, just down the road further.  It was quite nice.  There were a few people out today but because of the Super Bowl and my complete lack of interest in sports, it was pretty quiet overall.  Gavin was able to run around off the leash for a while and I spent some time trying to capture a few good pictures.  I’ve uploaded a new gallery at leelanauphotography.com, just click the picture below to check it out.

The folks are off to Iowa for about 6 weeks tomorrow morning.  They’ve decided to spend some time away from here this winter since it’s easy to get really stir crazy this time of year.  We still have a good 3 months of shitty weather before spring starts to hit, I really hate this time of year up here.  Luckily, my job keeps me quite busy so it’s hard for me to care much.  Mom and Dad will be staying with Sarah, Brian and Christopher and I’ll be interested to hear how that all works out.  I love my folks to death but given the choice, I would not choose to have them live with me for any extended amount of time.  I’m pretty sure my folks would say the same about me. Our family dynamics are a bit much to tolerate day in and day out.  And, at my age, and their age, that’s the way it should be.  Christopher will be spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa for 6 weeks, and, that’s the way THAT should be too!  He’s a lucky kid, even if the only words he can say are “doggie” and “LOOK”.  We’ll see if Grandpa can teach him a few words during his stay.

I have made a new purchase since my last entry in this blog.  Last week, I broke down and bought a Wii so that I too could join the ranks of 30 something’s who are sick of being out of shape but who don’t want to join a gym.  I have always enjoyed video games even though I suck at them and I like the concept of being more involved in them rather than just sitting on a couch with a controller.  The Wii promises to at least get me off my ass for a little bit each day.  Eventually I’ll buy the Wii balance board and Wii Fit Plus game so that I can actually start getting in shape.  Sadly, they are sold out nearly all over the country and it’s going to be several weeks before they get back in stock.  Oh well, I’ll be busy enough at work.

Bonus time at work is fast approaching.  Profit Sharing checks are handed out Feb. 16th and my Managers bonus is due in mid March.  Crazy thing about my job is that I make more in the first 3 months of the year than I do the next 8 months of regular work just because of bonuses.  It’s nice to get big fat checks but it’s also dangerous because it’s easy to just go out and spend it.  If I had this job at any other time in my life, I’d be broke all the time but fortunately I’ve learned how to manage my money in much healthier ways so I’ll be able to save what is necessary but I’ll also be able to go out and get a few toys to play with.  This year I am buying a keyboard and I’ll write more about that when the time comes.  So for now, enjoy the new gallery.

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Seems all I do on this blog is complain.  Oh well, this is my outlet to bitch since I’m too nice to actually hit you in the face.  Up here in the north woods we are hunkering down for another winter event.  More 50mph winds and blizzard conditions and yet again I get to wake up at 4AM so I can allow 2 hours to get to work on time.  This is why I am moving closer to town after this lease is up.  Not only are the people who live out this way HORRIALBE drivers (more on that in a minute), I have to get up way too early to get to work.  When you get up at 5AM, drive 2 hours to work, THEN work a 12 hour shift, drive another 2 hours home (assuming the bad weather has not changed but only gotten worse) thats 16 hours I have tied up in a day where I might only see 5 people in my department at work.  NOT WORTH IT.  I need the sleep.

Back to the dip shit fucking drivers up here.  Right now the roads are all passable but all the intersections everywhere are solid ice.  I’m driving down 669 towards Maple City and out of nowhere this jackass in a WHITE MINI VAN races up to the stop sign sliding most of the way up to it and nearly into the intersection.  It’s past 5PM and he/she/it IS DRIVING WITH THEIR LIGHTS OFF, no turn signal indicating which way they are going, talking on a cell phone, kids UNBUCKLED in the back seat far to young to NOT be in a car seat.  This driver scares the piss out of the guy I’m following and then has the audacity to glare at me as I drive by next as if this person is somehow better than everyone else on earth.   He/She/It peels out behind me, clearly out of control on the ice and not going anywhere at all becuase like I said the intersections are all solid ice and that van wobbles back and foth a bit and eventually catches up to my bumper.  So for the next 5 miles up to Maple City this van is riding my ass, again with no lights, he/she/it clearly more concerned about her fucking phone conversation than about the kids in the back seat of her/his car.  I keep my distance from the guy in front of me because I know that as soon as we get to the stop light in Maple City there are going to be problems.

I slow way down mainly to piss this person off at this point.  We roll into maple city and I’ve been able to pull ahead several feet by  this point.  The guy in front of me slides right through the intersection but maintains control of his car and continues on.  Fortunately, the other people one the road are paying attention.  I was going slow enough to come to stop at the light and then I proceed on.  The WHITE MINI VAN screams up to the light, hits the break to stop, slides right through the intersection, spins around in the road and ends up on the OTHER side of the road facing the WRONG WAY.  STUPID FUCKER.  I got a laugh out of it, I don’t know what happend after that, he/she/it didn’t follow me the rest of the way home.

Now you wonder why I’ve taken the time to write this all out.  THIS IS BUT ONE EXAMPLE OF HUNDREDS OF DIP SHIT DUMBASS DRIVERS IN LEELANAU COUNTY.

GENERAL HINT:  IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, DON’T GET BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR YOU CLEARLY CAN’T OR HAVE NO DESIRE TO CONTROL. 

Driving is a privilge, it should be harder to get a license, and it should be a LOT harder to keep it once you get one.  I’d like to see mandatory classes every 10 years for ALL drivers to keep their licenses and if poor driving skills are demonstrated, that jumps to classes every year before you can renew your tags.  YOU fuck ups are the reason I have to pay out my ass for insurance.  You can bet that if there were consequences for poor driving people would take the responsibility a LOT more seriously than they do.  I think it’s just fucking funny because I went to the Sears driving school.  Pay $200 for a 2 week class and bang you are done.  I consider myself a good driver, knowledgeable, able to read conditions, and I know what it means to be a responsible driver.  Most of my peers and really most everyone else has spent nearly an ENTIRE SEMESTER in their public school taking drivers ed and they SUCK.  How can you have MORE time to practice and learn than me and SUCK so bad at driving?????

Are you bad drivers because you are living examples of the picture below????

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