Road Rage and Bad Drivers

A really bad episode of road rage occurred Wednesday on 270 near Frederick. Two people ended up dying after being ejected from their rolling vehicle. They weren't wearing their seat belts. Apparently, an angry driver put on his breaks right in front of the couple, and they swerved to avoid him.

NCAA Tournament

If you enjoy watching March Madness like I do, then this is your time of year. Jim Nance is always good (plus we get to hear him pump up the Masters). Dick Enberg is also a good commentator. CBS traditionally does a good job covering the games. If Gus Johnson is the commentator, however, be sure to get acquainted with the mute button on your remote. He makes Mike Tirico sound calm!

Germantown Life

So, what is life like in Germantown? Well, there's a lot of traffic in certain spots. The worst is 270 with all the commuters... towards DC in the AM, and towards Frederick in the PM. The 270 exits in Gaithersburg and Germantown get a bit backed up during rush hour, too.

Since I moved here, the most prevalent crime story has been people getting hit by Metro buses in DC. I see a lot more car accidents here... about 3 in a week. The speed limit gets lax enforcement in general. It's 55 mph on 270 down here, but the flow of traffic is closer to 70 mph.

There are several huge recreational complexes around town. The towns of Germantown and Gaithersburg sort of just run into each other, so it's hard to know where the borders are. One way to tell is Gaithersburg has green on white street signs with a "G" on them.

The biggest laugh is how quickly schools get delayed or canceled. North Dakotans can hang their hats on trudging through 6 to 12 inches of snow. Around here, schools close if there's a couple inches. Part of the deal is that the snow is the wet sticky stuff that leads to icy roads instead of the light fluffy stuff that blows everywhere.

Germantown itself isn't much larger than Grand Forks. There are little shopping complexes on the main corners. For example, Milestone Center is pretty similar to 32nd St. There's a Kohl's, Target, Wal-Mart, Giant (grocery), Best Buy, Pet Smart and other shoppes and businesses.

A few opinions on Grand Forks

After living here for 5.5+ years, I'm leaving for the warmer confines of Maryland. Here are some opinions I have about the city...

1) History passed you by... I think Grand Forks COULD have been a "grand destination city". When founded along the meeting of two rivers, the shipping industry could have led to manufacturers setting up shop here. Also, when the railroad came through town and with the big switching yard here, you would think that perhaps numerous businesses would come set up shop. Grand Forks did grow nicely back in those days, but it never came close to Minneapolis. Grand Forks didn't get any favors from the glacial period either... geography put the city in a wide flat valley with no lakes or hills, limited trees.

2) The weather... You can dress it up however you like. Sure, towns thrive in Sweden, Norway, and Winnipeg is thriving to our north in COLDER weather. Maybe blame it on the river flooding every year or the long winters or the mosquitos. I don't know how to get around it, but face the music... why would a major corporation want to move to Grand Forks when they could operate out of say, Des Moines? Unless, of course, they are a wind turbine manufacturer... but good luck to LM Glasfiber finding 500 skilled people who want to live here.

3) Neighborly and helpful? Yes. Friendly? Not exactly. Don't get me wrong, my neigbors have been nice. Folks on my block take their snowblowers and clear the entire sidewalk and occasionally other people's driveways. If your car breaks down even in the middle of nowhere, a passing farmer will go get you some water for your radiator. But when it came to developing a social network here, it was hard for me. As an outsider, I got involved in many different things and met a lot of nice people along the way. But, I only made friends with a few people. Where are the married couples in their 30s?

While I was gone

Boy, not only did it snow, but the temperatures are outrageously warm. Slush is everywhere. Interesting how the quality of street clearing dropped off as soon as I hit the city limits last night, and today is a slushy nightmare in many places.

Election Day

Did you vote? I wonder how many North Dakotans exercised their civic duty today. I voted. There's no excuse for not voting, other than serious illness.

Problem Drivers

Have you ever wanted to say something downright mean? Well, tonight's one of those nights where I feel the need to rip on local drivers. I don't suppose a disclaimer would soften the glaring ridicule I am about to spew forth, but yes, I am aware that not ALL drivers in this region or in this town are inadequate. This rant is intended towards the GUILTY.

Just once, could you please get in the freakin' right lane instead of hogging the left lane with your 30mph driving in a 40mph zone!!!

Ever learn about signaling your intentions? You might want to get acquainted with that little plastic piece of machinery dangling from your steering column!

Maintaing lane discipline when executing turns? Just a common practice that you must have slept through during Driver's Ed.

And no, I'm not sorry I honked at you this afternoon. I do like steak, but that kind of T-bone is not what I'm looking for, and you should never repeat that delicious maneuver. Next time it might be a drunk, or worse yet, one of the aforementioned stellar drivers we all know and love.

Now it's time to rant on the stretch of road known as 32nd Ave. This little gem of a thoroughfare is sinking slowly into the depths of hell... it's an incident of road rage just WAITING to happen.

It was an explosive demolition

If Ramzi Yousef (sp?) can try to place a small bomb in the WTC in 1993, then why couldn't a well-funded terrorist cell place more powerful bombs under the towers 8 years later and try it again? No, instead we get served fantastic collapse theories that defy the laws of physics.

Rather and Jennings knew an explosion when THEY saw one. I just wish the media would stop with the phony baloney already.

Cops on cell phones

I'd like to say this to the female cop driving north on Cherry St. this evening...
Driving while talking on the cell phone, I believe, sets a bad example, unless of course you don't care (or GF police don't care) about drivers using their cell phones.

Vacation

I just got back from a very long vacation. I traveled through Montana, Idaho, and Washington. I enjoyed the magnificent mountains and forests, as well as a trip through Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. It's too bad that North Dakota got the short end of the stick.

Not Ready for Prime Time

So, there are several blogs going on in this town. The Herald has a blog and links to several local blogs. I have to admit, I snicker whenever I see "culture" and "Grand Forks" in the same sentence, but landing Cirque du Soleil is an impressive feat, that is, if they don't cancel! Anyway, my blog isn't ready for the big time, as I'm not mentioned anywhere other than by my coworker. It's not like I do much blogging, so I don't mind much. Also, I may be revising this blog, getting rid of irrelevant content and also putting more effort into it. Like, at least weekly entries would be good.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

So why is it that John Rocker got 28 games and a $20,000 fine (later reduced to 14 games and $500) for offering his opinion concerning the diversity of the occupants of a New York subway but Ozzie Guillen only gets a fine for calling a sports journalist a perjorative name?

Tiger Woods is not a robot. He can't just show up on the PGA tour after that long a layoff. Not only did he recently lose his father to cancer, the first event he plays is the US Open on the weekend of Father's Day. And in New York to boot.

Speaking of golf, I broke 100 this year. If I could avoid the disaster holes (quad-bogeys), I'll start doing it quite often.

My garden is doing okay so far. It's been very dry, so the soil is starting to dry out and harden. I guess I'll have to use my new hose a lot this summer. I just predicted a warm, dry July-September for my climate outlook today. Maybe that means that just the opposite will happen (HA HA!). You never know!

UND has decided to move to Division 1 athletics. I think this is a big mistake. I don't know if there's enough money to cover the cost of traveling. Only the hockey teams have been D1, and I don't see the baseball, swim or tennis teams EVER being anywhere close to competitive. But what do I know? I'm not from here so I probably don't "get it"... <----- SARCASM, in case you couldn't tell.

The US soccer team should just avoid Europe like the plague. No victories! How does freakin' Australia make it to the knockout round? All I can say is Group E was very tough. Certainly no freebies! I wish I could be in Deutschland right now and experience it. Oh well, maybe I can go to Europe one of these days.

Michelle Wie is an idiot!

So, Michelle Wie is going to try to qualify for the men's US Open. I just don't understand why she wants to play against men when she can't even win an LPGA event! She should follow the path that Annika Sorenstam took. Annika has been dominant in the LPGA tour for years and tried to play in, I think, the Western Open on the PGA tour. She did well, but if I remember right, she missed the cut. Anyways, the point is, Michelle Wie should focus on winning tournaments rather than participating in publicity stunts.

Commentary, Part 2

It will be interesting to see how high the Red River crests this year. Our snowfall is about normal and the snow-water ratio isn't outrageous, but I'm betting it will be over 40 feet this year.

Commentary

Okay, I admit it. I don't write nearly enough to call this a "blog", but it's not like anyone reads this stuff anyway. So, I will comment on recent happenings.

Topic One - Team USA and the World Baseball Challenge

It drives me nuts that the media (newspaper, TV, etc.) comes from some sort of perspective that because it's Team USA, it automatically means we should expect a gold medal. It's as though nobody else plays baseball or that no other team can have a better day than ours. It's so egocentric and plain wrong. Just because you put a team of multiple all-star players together doesn't mean that team will win every time. It's a classic case of "Steinbrenner Syndrome". He thinks he can BUY a championship for New York. What few people acknowledge is that there is more to baseball than having the best "talent".

In baseball, you need to have the players string hits back-to-back in order to produce runs. Every guy in the lineup can go 1-for-3 on a given day, but if those hits aren't strung together or no homeruns are hit, there won't be any runs on the board. This wasn't entirely a group of underachieving prima donnas (like Team USA basketball, for example) either. You have to have timely hitting.