The Hooters Car

As I mentioned recently (see below), we have moved. This was a traumatic life-changing event. My wife and I had to travel separately, each of us driving. She drove her car and had our four cats with her. I drove a twenty-six (26) foot Penske truck that was towing my 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport. I feel like I need to mention that I inherited that Jeep from my mom, though we did finance the vehicle Holly drove in my name, so I've come a long way in the past ten years or so.

Anyway, anytime you travel a significant distance, whether moving to a new residence or not, you are going to see and do things that are, often by chance, interesting or otherwise memorable.

Also, driving such a large truck is very difficult. I realize that a twenty-six foot truck is not quite as big as your typical commercial big rig, but it's damn close. I would advise anyone who has to move to try to get the money together to pay someone else not just to load and unload the truck, but also to drive the truck, if at all possible. If not, you should really seek training or any preparation at all beyond what the truck rental company and their retail associates will provide you.

It doesn't take long to figure out how to drive the thing, but I guess there is a heavy existential burden for the driver to bear. You know all of your stuff is in the truck, and one false move and you've ruined all of your stuff. Our two dogs rode with me also. Among other things, I kept my cool while driving by listening to good music and breathing/meditating. I might have totally lost my shit otherwise.

One benefit of driving this truck was that the seat was high enough for you to have a panoramic view of the ever unfolding road. There is a stretch of the highway just past Chattanooga, TN, that dips back south into Georgia briefly, and then back north into Tennessee for good. It was on this stretch of road that I encountered the Hooters Car.


(This image is used without permission from someone's travelpod blog.)

In retrospect, maybe it's not that memorable, but at the time it seemed like a perfect wtf moment. As I scanned the visual field available through my windshield I noticed a funny looking car ahead of me and to my left. It was slowly and smoothly drifting to the right, changing several lanes.

This car was the Hooters car. It was not an art car. It was a corporate official Hooters car, or at least one would have to assume so. I really wish it were an art car only because I really like the idea of a Hooters restaurant enthusiast decorating a personal vehicle in tribute to this vast empire of hot wings and waitresses.

Anyway, the best part of all of this, which to me was already kind of funny enough already, was that as the vehicle drifted to the right and changed several lanes from the left to the right, it had it's left turn directional signal on the entire time.

Somehow, and this may betray my unconscious prejudices of someone who is from Wisconsin, knowing that I was on the stretch of freeway that starts and ends in Tennessee but dips into Georgia, all of this just seemed too perfect. I doubt I would have been able to witness this in Vermont, for example.

This is but one of the many strange and interesting things that we observed on our journey.

The state representative

Recently we received a mailing printed on glossy paper from Peggy Welch who is the Indiana State Representative for District 60. I'm glad to have learned which district I live in by so little effort on my own part, and I guess I'm glad to learn she is a Democrat.

Something that caught my attention was her news printed on the last page of the mailing, which is also the same page where one's address appears, which is often the first page one sees. Under "A Summary of New Laws" appears this:

A Ban on Spice and K2


Synthetic marijuana, commonly referred to as Spice or K2, is now banned across Indiana with a law that treats possessing or dealing it the same as the real drug.

I'm all for discouraging the use of fraudulent substitutes for cannabis, but I object to the idea that they should be outlawed per se, since I think cannabis itself should be legalized. I also object to the semantics of "drug" since in this context one would also think of cocaine, heroin, etc., and cannabis doesn't belong in those categories.

I thought about writing Ms. Welch a letter about this, but it seems to me that it would not be received well.

I had assumed she was a Republican until I googled her just now and saw she's a Democrat.

The noise

I am beginning to believe that if I ever want to do any proper reading (printed words not on screens-- blogs and other online content are not what I'm thinking of here) or writing (this is different unless I chose to write by hand, and I'm really used to typing when I write, so I may be stuck with the machine on this one), I am going to have to turn off the computer. Or at least turn off the monitor. Or at least close everything down except for whatever tool it is that I need at that moment.

the toilet

There is a house across the street (and a little to the left) from our new home that has a toilet sitting out on their front patio, in the open air.

While our neighborhood is not comprised of wealthy families, it is distinctly suburban. Judging by the looks of things, if you were here 30-50 years ago or so, it would have been pretty new. So, while what goes on inside peoples houses stays there, and we no doubt are at least a somewhat diverse group of people, this is just not the kind of place where folks put toilets, cars or any other disused machine on their front yard.

I almost wish I could make myself introduce myself to these people, with the sole purpose of confronting the toilet issue. On the other hand, the reality for me is that it is best left alone. Without this kind of crazy shit in my environment I'd never have anything to write about. More importantly, who the fuck am I to tell my neighbor that it's probably best to not have a toilet sitting in front of his house. And who knows, maybe it will come in handy some day when I'm outside and really have to go, emergency style.

I have moved

I used to live in Athens, GA.

I moved to Bloomington, IN about three and a half weeks ago. I have seen and done many things in doing so. I intend to write some about all that here.

One gets tired easily.

misc

The twitter feed of my postings, to the right, is partly incorrect in that it does not properly reflect and attribute retweeted tweets. I'll see about fixing that.

Yeah, so I'm trying to force myself to do things instead of merely thinking and talking about them. If I am successful in bringing about certain changes in my routine then perhaps I will write more. And if nothing else, maybe I can update the links and whatnot that one sees here.

I'm going to publish this post now so I can drink more coffee and get on with things here.

Shout out to Madmonq!

I was saying that I can be lazy.

I would like to update my links and stuff off to the right here but I make excuses for not doing it.

It's long overdue that I mention a good friend, that I met through Athens Drinking Liberally, Mr. Madmonq: madmonq.wordpress.com

This dude puts together smart pieces of pop cultural and political criticism. He also shares his great sense of humor with the reader, as if savvy semiotic deconstruction of the frightening spectacles that form our world were not already sufficient. Go and read. Make it part of your online reading routine. You can thank me later.

I can be pretty lazy

If one needed proof for this, I think the absence of postings here as of late should suffice.

Rain!!!

Rain today where I was screwed up yard sale...

Wow

Finally an official Blogger app for Android OS. I am typing and posting this directly from my Droid.