I had my bedroom window open yesterday enjoying the fall weather. My blinds were down to discourage my cats from tromping across my pillow to get into the windowsill. Cam was outside playing with Ray (little boy from across the street - he's a year older than Cam) and Lexi (she's from down the street and a year younger than Cam).
Lexi brought over two smallish turtles - one was about the size of my palm and the other was about the size of Cam's palm. Cam showed them to me through the screen. I went off to fold clothes and came back to my bed to read through some articles for Music History on my laptop. I was about halfway through a riveting article on Hildegard of Bingen when I heard the following through my window:
Cam: "Let's check on the turtles!" Ray: "OK!" (running up the driveway to the porch) (silence - I immediately became suspicious) Ray: "We left them right here..." Cam, hollering: "Lexi!! Your turtles are gone!"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. These kids put the turtles down on the porch and wandered away, expecting them to be there when they got back. Sigh. They eventually found the smaller one, but the bigger one successfully managed to escape. Godspeed, bigger turtle. Please don't stay in my yard and get run over.
I stand corrected. My previous post I said something about "it's just rain". Well. turns out that it was just rain to BEGIN with. It turned into tornadoes all over town. Whee!! I was sitting in a practice room at the piano. The piano sits RIGHT next to the windows, which make up one wall of the practice room. I'd been there since about 8:30, and around 10:45 there's a knock at the door. Jonathan sticks his head in and goes, "Um, Peggy is running around yelling for everyone to get away from the windows - there's a tornado headed this way?" Yes, it was in the form of a question. So I gathered up all the crap I'd strewn around the room and came out to the hall with everyone. We sort of mingled there till the teachers got a call to head somewhere safer than the hall. We were escorted to the basement of the theater, where I've never been and probably would NOT have ever gone to had we not been attacked by this tornado. So at least it was a learning experience, right? Anyway, there were about 50 of us down there...music majors, art majors, drama majors, and poor civilians caught in the music department. We were down there for 15 minutes and were released in JUST enough time for my clarinet lesson. Bastards! So yeah. Check the news - all sorts of stuff is torn up. A day care, Target, downtown, etc. Work is ok - I called to check on my sister. :) Gonna go grab some lunch now that they've canceled classes. AFTER my lesson, of course.
Yes, I'm aware that we're in drought conditions and it hasn't really rained in a long time. That is NO excuse for the idiocy I encountered on the way to school this morning. Honestly, people!
For those of you not currently driving like complete assholes in Pensacola, I will provide a little background information...it rained most of the night and then it got really heavy this morning. There was a LOT of standing water everywhere. Roads, yards, drainage ditches that have forgotten their purpose in the past 24 months of drought... I would also like to apologize in advance for any of my dear readers with sensitive ears (I guess in this case it would be eyes?) as I will be using my "grown up words" often and creatively. Just be thankful you weren't in the car with me.
Now back to the incompetent freaks in my charming home town. Let's review some basic driver's ed, shall we?
Thou shalt turn on thy headlights when it pours cats and dogs. Honestly. It was nearly pitch black outside - how these morons saw their gauges and such inside the car is a mystery to me, much less how they could navigate anywhere in the dark. Ah...I just reread that and realized that PART of their driving problems may have been that they weren't paying attention to gauges and such. Speedometer? Who needs it!!!
Thou shalt NOT pull out in front of people going nearly full speed on a busy highway. Asshat. I was driving 40 MPH down Hwy 98. The speed limit is 45, but under normal condition traffic runs about 55. 40 was as fast as I could go and be able to see the car in front of me, which was about 3 car lengths away. Safety first, my friends. Then this little blue car comes SCREAMING out of Crystal Lake apartments, crossing the westbound lanes into the median. I saw her brake lights come on, so I assumed (my first mistake) that she was, you know, stopping. She contemplated the traffic situation on MY side of the road for about .00000764235789 of a second, then slammed on the gas and pulled out directly in front of me. Oh...the string of obscenities...the horn honking (and my horn honest-to-god sounds like the Road Runner: "Meeeeeeeeeep!")... I stood up on the brakes and skidded, but didn't hit her. Lucky for her, too, because once I pulled myself out of the smoking wreckage and into the rain I might not have been in a very good mood.
Thou shalt not drive through standing water. Moron. "Gee, there's a lot of standing water here in the right lane of Navy Blvd (near the intersection of Old Corry). I don't want to drive through it, so I'll just pull over!" Great thinking...except this person pulled over INTO A DITCH. Know why she didn't know it was there? Because it was FULL OF WATER! The same goddamn water she was driving through on the road.
Thou shalt not pile up a mountain of red clay dirt (for interstate construction purposes) right next to the interstate.This one goes out the local government AND the brilliant contractors doing work on I-110. Good job, guys. Near the Fairfield Dr. exit on the northbound side, there is a gargantuan pile of red clay that they're using to build the new off-ramp. It's convenient to the work site, yes. I was wondering the other day what would happen if they dug it out incorrectly and it collapsed onto the interstate...I'm a regular little ray of sunshine, I know. Anyway-it is literally butting up to the interstate. As I was trucking up I-110 on my way to school I saw a bottleneck in traffic at the Fairfield exit. As I got there, I realized there was a river of red clay running down the road...it looked like blood rapids, in all honesty. It wasn't running so much as churning down the road. As I got closer to what was left of the giant red mountain, I actually burst out laughing. There was clay EVERYWHERE over the interstate. You could see where it had run through the seams in the concrete dividers that work masterfully when it's not raining...but suck balls once things get really wet.
So there you have it...my drive to school today. My music history class is canceled today and I ought to be either practicing or working on my research paper...but instead I thought I'd do something really productive and blog. Two posts in two days, though...y'all might get spoiled. Heh. Gonna go practice...for real this time. :)
I'm not sitting down to blog with any real subject in mind - let that be both a warning to you, dear readers, and an explanation for my subject line at the top. :)
So...I've been busy. I won't bore you with the details, but I will bore you with a few random facts. I've made an A on every test and/or quiz I've taken thus far. I'm pretty sure that I have already met my concert attendance requirement for the term (and it's only half over). I'm enjoying pretty much all of my classes, too. I practiced with the staff accompanist for the first time today. I'm playing the first movement of the Saint-Saens Clarinet Sonata for recital at some point...I'm kind of hoping it will be a jury piece as well as it's really not hard and is very pretty.
The UWF band finished our first concert of all Russian music...let us never speak of it again. We got new music Tuesday, consisting of umpteen Christmas tunes and a transcription of Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov. Yes, more Russian music, I know. It's an ass-kicker, too. I already don't want to talk or think about it, and I haven't had it for a week yet.
That's all I have for now. I'd like to promise that I'll post more, but I don't really think I'm going to get any less busy in the upcoming months. Know what I mean? See y'all later!
Oh...many thanks to my charming sister who passed this on to me this evening. I've laughed until my cheeks and tummy hurt...I hope y'all enjoy it at least half as much!
