So, I'm driving to work Saturday morning. I make a left at Woodbine and there's a lady in a minivan plastered with work logos in front of me. At every light, I sidle up next to her, as I'm not sure if she's turning left or not, and I'm interested in going straight for the highway. And at every light, she burns rubber to beat me off the line.
At no point am I burning rubber, just strategizing. It never fails that if I'm in the left lane behind someone, they'll suddenly turn on their turning signal and I'll be trapped behind them and miss the light completely, so, of course, who wouldn't, at every light I slide into the right lane.
Anyways...my point being I've been sensing a change in the current of life. I've been wondering if the odds which have always favoured me have quietly shifted into the opposite quarter. I have mounting evidence all around me. And then on this Saturday morning, another sign of the shift...but this one is slightly confusing.
The woman I've been driving behind burns off the line at Queen and establishes a solid lead. She's in the left lane and I'm in the right lane. Acceleration finished, distance established, she reduces speed and cruises. I'm wondering as I follow behind her if you speed up, establish distance, and then reduce speed to legal limit, if everyone is going the limit, does one maintain that established distance? I'm curious and I'm leaning towards yes, that's probably so...when suddenly, as we drive around the curve leading to Lakeshore, a police officer is standing in the middle of the road on the dotted line with his radar gun aimed at her. He lifts his hand in the universal "Stop...and pull over...right here right now" motion and then motions to me to not hit him as he walks back across the lanes to the sidewalk.
Unbelievable. He got her. Not me. Her in the left lane. Me in the right. Wow. Two things I have never seen before. A police officer with a radar gun on the dotted line on a two-lane one way road. And a police speed trap without a police car close by. For him to have been there, he had to have parked his car either in the parking lot one block away, or in the residential area one block north.
Aha...a new strategy by canny police officers.
So, maybe my luck is changing back. She got the ticket, not me, and I have new information that will save me speeding tickets in the future. Coppers don't always hide with their cars, behind bushes or on roadways or driveways close to the road. Coppers now do speedtraps from sidewalks in the middle of a block, nowhere near any other roadway or driveway. Good to know. It means nowhere is safe. Now I know.
But it was close. It could have been me. So what does that say about my luck?
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Ticking Clock
Have you ever felt like the universe has subtly shifted, and things are going to be different now?
I was walking home the other night and decided not to wait for the lights, but to walk up and cross when the traffic slowed, which it always does. This time, as I stood between two cars waiting for the slow time, I felt uncommonly nervous. There were a lot of cars, more than usual, and the wait was getting longer than I expected. Something tickled at the back of my neck; maybe one of these cars was going to blow a tire, or change lanes into the parked cars...and that car would ricochet, bounce the parked car forward and pin my legs. Just like that, my number would be up. I could see it. It all unfolded in my mind's eye. I stepped back onto the curb, and considered my response.
I've always taken risks and safe choices confidently, playing the odds. If 200 out of 100,000 speeding drivers got ticketed, I always felt that I was happily included with the 99,800 who weren't ticketed. I usually drive 10 to 15 kilometers above speed limit, and never a ticket. Until recently. Then suddenly, three tickets in three years. Killed my insurance rate. But, what I don't understand is that I wasn't driving any differently than I had before, so why all of a sudden was I getting ticketed like crazy ( one was for 6 kilometers over the limit).
And then it dawned on me. The odds. The odds were shifting. Out of my favour. No longer was I in the 99,800. Now I was in the 200 group.
So, is this how it works? Is this how you suddenly get cancer, after being cancer-free all of your life? Is this how a car bounces up and hits you, crippling you? Is this how it happens?
The odds. The odds definitely favour the young and inexperienced. It's called beginner's luck. Really, it's fewer exposures to activities.
I drove the highway for years. Every morning, I'd merge onto the QEW, travel along at 100 - 120 kmh, merge onto the 427 and drive to Dixon. There and back. Every day. I remember thinking, oh, this can't be good.... I'm starting to play the odds here.... the more times I drive, the higher chance I have of having an accident. And then it happened.
A truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and drifted into my car. His truck scraped my car from the back all the way to the front, tearing off my mirror as he pushed my car into the shoulder. I laid on the horn. That, and the sound of scraping metal, woke him up and he pulled away just as my car was being pushed into the guardrail.
I was nervous about driving after that. My husband said, "Well, now that you've had an accident, that'll lessen the odds for you for a couple of years. You've had it...it's done for now. " Keeping that in mind definitely helped as I headed back onto the highway.
And now, after forty years of ticket-free driving, I've had three tickets in three years. Bing. Bang. Bong.
The odds. Can I relax? Have my three tickets pushed me back into the 99,800 group? I don't know. I do know that I can't afford another ticket. No way. So, now it's everything I can do to follow these ridiculously posted speed limits... for cripe's sake, how can anyone drive 30 kph on an empty road? Better yet... 40 kph on a two-lane stretch alongside a graveyard without traffic lights, intersections, or even pedestrians.
While the odds may have shifted back for tickets, I fear they're shifting for other things. I've been cancer-free, illness-free, broken-bone free and Alzheimer-free all of my life. Is that where the shift is going next? How do you know? Can you take your continuing good health for granted ever?
A neighbour once said, "Any day above ground, and in your right mind is a good day." I laughed when she said it. But now....
How do you know when the odds shift?
Not knowing is a b****h. .
Best take all those vacations now. Before my number is really up.
I was walking home the other night and decided not to wait for the lights, but to walk up and cross when the traffic slowed, which it always does. This time, as I stood between two cars waiting for the slow time, I felt uncommonly nervous. There were a lot of cars, more than usual, and the wait was getting longer than I expected. Something tickled at the back of my neck; maybe one of these cars was going to blow a tire, or change lanes into the parked cars...and that car would ricochet, bounce the parked car forward and pin my legs. Just like that, my number would be up. I could see it. It all unfolded in my mind's eye. I stepped back onto the curb, and considered my response.
I've always taken risks and safe choices confidently, playing the odds. If 200 out of 100,000 speeding drivers got ticketed, I always felt that I was happily included with the 99,800 who weren't ticketed. I usually drive 10 to 15 kilometers above speed limit, and never a ticket. Until recently. Then suddenly, three tickets in three years. Killed my insurance rate. But, what I don't understand is that I wasn't driving any differently than I had before, so why all of a sudden was I getting ticketed like crazy ( one was for 6 kilometers over the limit).
And then it dawned on me. The odds. The odds were shifting. Out of my favour. No longer was I in the 99,800. Now I was in the 200 group.
So, is this how it works? Is this how you suddenly get cancer, after being cancer-free all of your life? Is this how a car bounces up and hits you, crippling you? Is this how it happens?
The odds. The odds definitely favour the young and inexperienced. It's called beginner's luck. Really, it's fewer exposures to activities.
I drove the highway for years. Every morning, I'd merge onto the QEW, travel along at 100 - 120 kmh, merge onto the 427 and drive to Dixon. There and back. Every day. I remember thinking, oh, this can't be good.... I'm starting to play the odds here.... the more times I drive, the higher chance I have of having an accident. And then it happened.
A truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and drifted into my car. His truck scraped my car from the back all the way to the front, tearing off my mirror as he pushed my car into the shoulder. I laid on the horn. That, and the sound of scraping metal, woke him up and he pulled away just as my car was being pushed into the guardrail.
I was nervous about driving after that. My husband said, "Well, now that you've had an accident, that'll lessen the odds for you for a couple of years. You've had it...it's done for now. " Keeping that in mind definitely helped as I headed back onto the highway.
And now, after forty years of ticket-free driving, I've had three tickets in three years. Bing. Bang. Bong.
The odds. Can I relax? Have my three tickets pushed me back into the 99,800 group? I don't know. I do know that I can't afford another ticket. No way. So, now it's everything I can do to follow these ridiculously posted speed limits... for cripe's sake, how can anyone drive 30 kph on an empty road? Better yet... 40 kph on a two-lane stretch alongside a graveyard without traffic lights, intersections, or even pedestrians.
While the odds may have shifted back for tickets, I fear they're shifting for other things. I've been cancer-free, illness-free, broken-bone free and Alzheimer-free all of my life. Is that where the shift is going next? How do you know? Can you take your continuing good health for granted ever?
A neighbour once said, "Any day above ground, and in your right mind is a good day." I laughed when she said it. But now....
How do you know when the odds shift?
Not knowing is a b****h. .
Best take all those vacations now. Before my number is really up.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Facebook Experience - Connected and challenged, we grow.
I signed up with Facebook for work purposes. In addition to my day job as an English teacher, I teach fitness classes. I love it. I teach body pump - free weights with step, classic high/low, cardio kickbox, and Zumba. Each of these classes require planning and choreography development. Unless you're a fitness instructor, you don't know how hard some of us work at it. We spend hours researching, developing and practising new moves and routines. Zumba, especially, is challenging that way.
I have to come up with at least two or three new choreographed pieces monthly. This means choosing music, researching choreography, writing up the choreography, practising it, learning it, and then teaching it...flawlessly, if you can. While smiling! (so much of it is entertainment....) My brain can only come up with so much original material at a time, and this is where Facebook came in. A Zumba instructor said, "Go on Facebook, make friends with other Zumba instructors, they usually post choreography and that is sooo helpful." She was right. I went on, made friends with other instructors, and used Facebook exclusively for that purpose for the past few years.
Zumba, being a corporation and seeing another revenue stream, declared that people could no longer post free choreography online if they were using Zumba music, wearing Zumba clothes or had Zumba anywhere in the scene or signage. So much for the professed Zumba love, and hello Zumba Police. Yes, really. People's videos are ratted out and pulled. Yes, really. Not getting much help with my work these days!
At this point, my interest in Facebook and Zumbacorp was waning. Not much choreography to be had, better luck with that on YouTube. And then a few people showed up.
Real people. Real ideas. Real time. Not just work anymore. I slowed in my tracks and gradually looked at what people were talking about. I saw the possibilities.
Facebook became a conduit for engagement and exchange. It allowed free discussion resulting in unlikely cross-pollinations and genetically stronger ideas. It was drawing opinions out of bystanders. They were taking stands. Borders meant nothing.
Facebook has real value. I think it can have real power.
Connected and challenged, we grow, divided, we are lone voices. It is a community...with all the drama, tomfoolery, affection, and occasional blasts of brilliance that is humanity.
Thank you Facebook friends.
I have to come up with at least two or three new choreographed pieces monthly. This means choosing music, researching choreography, writing up the choreography, practising it, learning it, and then teaching it...flawlessly, if you can. While smiling! (so much of it is entertainment....) My brain can only come up with so much original material at a time, and this is where Facebook came in. A Zumba instructor said, "Go on Facebook, make friends with other Zumba instructors, they usually post choreography and that is sooo helpful." She was right. I went on, made friends with other instructors, and used Facebook exclusively for that purpose for the past few years.
Zumba, being a corporation and seeing another revenue stream, declared that people could no longer post free choreography online if they were using Zumba music, wearing Zumba clothes or had Zumba anywhere in the scene or signage. So much for the professed Zumba love, and hello Zumba Police. Yes, really. People's videos are ratted out and pulled. Yes, really. Not getting much help with my work these days!
At this point, my interest in Facebook and Zumbacorp was waning. Not much choreography to be had, better luck with that on YouTube. And then a few people showed up.
Real people. Real ideas. Real time. Not just work anymore. I slowed in my tracks and gradually looked at what people were talking about. I saw the possibilities.
Facebook became a conduit for engagement and exchange. It allowed free discussion resulting in unlikely cross-pollinations and genetically stronger ideas. It was drawing opinions out of bystanders. They were taking stands. Borders meant nothing.
Facebook has real value. I think it can have real power.
Connected and challenged, we grow, divided, we are lone voices. It is a community...with all the drama, tomfoolery, affection, and occasional blasts of brilliance that is humanity.
Thank you Facebook friends.
Monday, 21 February 2011
Getting ready to go to Vietnam
We're getting ready to go to Vietnam. Got the Dukoral and the shots. Arms hurt. Better safe than sorry. Never thought I'd want to see Vietnam, and am surprised that I agreed to go. I don't like the heat, but I'm sure it'll be fine. If you've been to Vietnam, and have some recommendations, I'd love to hear them. Going in March.
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