Among all of the "givens" in this world, two would have to be: 1. Traffic lights are seldom timed. 2. If you park in the farthest corner of a parking lot, when you return to your vehicle, someone will probably have parked right next to you.....maybe even too close.
These two "givens" were hammered home to me today. I had to leave home very early this morning to drive into a metropolitan area where I knew the traffic would be light because it was a Saturday and because it was an early hour. I seldom drive any speed that would catch the attention of a public safety officer and, as a rule, following the speed limit at most hours of the day can help drivers "catch" more green lights than red on the route that I planned to take.....that is.......if the traffic lights are synchronized. Some municipalities have synchronized lights and others must subscribe to the notion that every intersection's light should be red as often as possible. This morning, most of the lights turned red on my route, even though no other vehicle or vehicles passed through the intersections on the cross streets. Why this constant interruption of traffic flow for the major thoroughfare on a quiet, early Saturday morning is beyond my ken. I guess that higher gas prices encourage the street department , or whatever department controls traffic lights, to help consumers waste as much gas idling as possible. This is a "go figure".
Another "go figure" is the parking lot conundrum of what compels people to park as close as possible to a car that parked as far away as possible, in an obvious attempt to avoid having other vehicles park near the car. This is not an infrequent happenstance, at least from my world-view. It occurred today in the parking lot of a large retail mall. Perhaps these parking-lot encroachers are really lonely people who feel more of a sense of belonging if they find a remote car and snuggle up close to it with their cars. I have no answer to this curious phenomenon, other than to state that I find it annoying and unnecessary.
Just stating the obvious today.
Ancora imparo
