crazy dog! crazy dog!

Fire Circle
Here are our newtype DST issues:

1: Our ancient TiVo gets no software patch because DirecTV's response to not being able to dial in for the patch is "sign a two year service contract and get our (non-TiVo) D15 PVR for Free!" Problems with that are 1) it's only $99 retail, fuck you and your two-year contract, and 2) the reviews have been universally savage. It's good that I was put off by their rush to get me to accept a new PVR - they really wanted me off that TiVo.

2: Also, we have an old VCR we've kept around and it does not seem to be dealing well at all. It even turned off its tuner, presumably its equivalent of going LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU at the Channel 9 time signal it normally uses to set its time of day clock. We had to unplug it and leave it unplugged for five minutes to get it to turn the tuner back on, and it's still not picking up the time.

3: Anna's Windows Mobile (né WinCE) frob went blithely along thinking it's still Pacific Standard Time. She's working at getting that fixed.

Otherwise, things seem to be okay. Our servers all did the right things and our workstations so far have all checked out. The house thermostat is not smart enough to know about this alien thing you call a calendar, so has not gone splody.

Thursday's miles: 2.0
Friday's miles: 1.6
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1555.7
Miles out of Rivendell: 1098.7
Miles out of Lothlórien: 643.7
Miles past Rauros Falls: 225.8
Miles to Isengard: 240.9

Okay, so I was driving to the Norwescon concom meeting yesterday, and southbound I-5 before the ship canal bridge was its usual clusterfuck. Meanwhile, the people in front of me were alternating flooring it (up to, maybe, 30) and slamming their brakes to stop dead, being, you know, morons. Homey don't play that, so I was doing my usual traffic-smoothing average-it-out speed, which meant about 18-20mph. So I'd be right up with them, then five car lengths back, then right up with them again - but without the slamming of the brakes or the tailgate or, you know, danger. It's better for your brakes and better for your gas milage and better for your not dying, and you don't lose any time.

Anyway, I was doing this when this apparently crazy woman in a large minivan - a very Mary Kaye Cosmetics dealing type of driver, if you know that look - tried to pass me on my left side. That's all fine except 1) I was in the leftmost lane, 2) there was no left shoulder, and 3) Even if there had been, there wasn't anyplace to go. No shoulder on the left, stopped cars in the lane on the right, almost-stopped car in front of me. I noticed this when she had to slam on her brakes to keep from crashing into the barrier on the left side of the road after starting her bizarre and pointless passing attempt.

That's when she apparently decided that it was All My Fault, Everything In The World, and started waving her arms and screaming at me, tailgating me, and leaning on her horn continually. I realise at this point that I'm the target of her crazy, and flip her off, doing the "what the fuck am I supposed to do? There is a CAR in FRONT OF ME" handwave thing, which really makes her explode - I mean, seriously, if we'd been more stopped, I think she'd have leapt out of the minivan and charged me. But I was going a nice 18mph, so she couldn't. Instead, she just tailgated me as closely as she could, alternating between little explosions-in-place and exaggerated head-on-hands-I-cannot-believe-this pose and the horn. Most importantly, though, she was tailgating closely enough that I couldn't get her license plate number. Dammit!

Once traffic did clear up a little and the exit to 520 eastbound opened up, she whipped around me to get onto the exit ramp and screamed at me and gave me at least one, possibly two fingers, gesturing wildly, leaning across the passenger side of her minivan at me to press her finger up against her window, horn blaring somehow - presumably with her elbow or something? - and steering, one has to presume, with her knees.

It was pretty amazing. I wasn't angry; I was just kind of boggled, and kind of amused, too. I mean, aside from the fact that I wasn't slowing her down at all but was, instead, making traffic better, there's the whole thing that by the time she was trying to cut around me on a shoulder which wasn't even there, had I started driving the stupid way she wanted - tailgating, floor-it-and-hard-brake - she'd have rear-ended my car. I can guarantee that.

I just wish I'd been able to get her license plate number. That, or at least had one of those LED Mooninite signs for the back window. That'd have been funny. "I'm doing this as hard as I can! Do not make me double your pleasure!" Of course, spazzkat says she'd have just started ramming my car with her van at that point, and I'd have missed the meeting, so it's probably better I didn't.

But I still wanna. ^_^