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Always drive like you are the only one out there that knows what you are doing.

Focused and adept saves life.

Focused

Like the man said, keep your eyes on the Road and your Hands upon the wheel. There is not one Day that I am Driving that I don’t see at least one Idiot Driving with the Cell Phone in hand totally focused on the wrong thing. Messing with the Android while you are Driving is as deadly as Driving under the influence, maybe worse. The few times that I drove Impaired, I was so apprehensive and focused, knowing that I was doing wrong. I drove better than the sober ones fidgeting with everything from the Radio to the Cell Phone. One of the most Minding boggling experience I ever had was traveling Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania clocking 75.

A Business Woman Driving a Durango, Cell wedged between shoulder and Ear, Note Pad in one hand pen in the other, taking Notes. I imagined her Knee was keeping the Vehicle straight. She blew my Doors off doing 85 my Jaw popped wide open with her amazing multitasking abilities. What People driving oversized Vehicles do not realize is at high speed and making contact with a Compact Vehicle more times than not there are fatalities. Eric was a coworker of mine who always drove like he had a point to prove that he was good, even when he was stoned. One Day this Idiot killed a Woman crossing Queens Blvd mindlessly, regardless of the Pedestria’s fault, I know that if I killed a pedestrian like that, I would surrender my Licence and never Drive again not Eric.

That was forty years ago he probably had Killed again the mindless creature he was. Well my Friend there are many Eric’s out there so you can’t afford to take your Eyes off the Road and be distracted. Eric is Driving an oversized Vehicle at speed above the limit. There are so many mindless creatures out there driving Pickup Trucks like they were Maseratis, it is absolutely scary. What they fail to understand is that the size of the Vehicle compounded with a high rate of speed creates deadly outcomes when involved in an accident. Let’s take it one step further, a Truck in the hands of a Drunk. Three Days ago that scenario played out with deadly consequences.

A Drunk driving a Pickup decided to put the Vehicle in park in the left Lane of I.75, one of the busiest Roadways in the World. That Alcohol driven mentality caused a three Car pileup. They all went to the Hospital, a good Samaritan retired Firefighter/ Paramedic lost his life when he stopped to help the Drunk Driver involved in the accident. He was providing medical care to the Drunk on the shoulder of the road, when a third car hit the Truck. Florida Highway Patrol said the driver of the last vehicle to become part of the pileup failed to see the initial collision. Following the final collision the Truck burst in flames and burned completely.

All this could have been avoided with two principles that I travel by. Never Overdrive, if you can’t see 100 yards up the Road take your foot off the Gas, if you don’t posses Gyroscope Eyes and you can’t see around corners take your foot off the Gas and cover the Break Pedal. Secondly Focus as far down the Road that your Eyes can see collecting Data such as breaklights glares and shadows. Once traveling in Pennsylvania I was traveling at a good clip, focusing about a half mile down the Road I saw a shadow in the middle of the Road, it wasn’t moving. As I got closer my focus became intense.

I never took my eyes off that shadow. Right on top of it less than thirty yards away I realized that it was a Black Bear standing over six feet tall and about nine hundred pounds. I had plenty of time to do evasive manoeuvres, It would have destroyed the subcompact I was driving and there would have been Bear Stakes for ten yards. Being adept behind the wheel save lives. Always focus like your Life and others depends on it, because it does.

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Loves company

When it comes to trouble and problems I am a very selfish and private person. I have been Married for thirty seven years, I know that the Vows said for better or worse, but I have always kept my problems to myself until they were dragged out of me by my demeanor, sometimes I am a moper, not to drag others in but probably self-pity. Remember that a listening ear is a telling mouth. When I got Audited by IRS my wife only found out after I got home from the Audit. Whereas with the average person it’s the total opposite, as the saying goes misery loves company. Not being a chauvinist, even though I have earned the right to be one being married for thirty seven years. I gave respect and was rewarded with Love.

If I had dropped a five Dollar bill in a Jar for all the wrath of mood swings for thirty seven years I would be a rich Man. That is all that I am going to say about mood swings, I would like to stay married, and on that grounds I am not going to say anything about other marital issues. I will forever be quoting my English Literature Teacher ” what is the Author not saying” nowhere more prevalent than Relationships to find out that misery loves company, yet for the greater good, you need to be tolerant and absorb verbal assaults even if they kill you, especially if love is the common denominator. As the saying goes we only hurt the ones we love. I will never understand that phrase, because if you love me why would you even consider hurting me.

While living next door to Henry, one Night I heard the commotion of a violent argument between he and his wife of thirty years. Seems that the argument was centered around one of her Nephews moving in, Henry was adamant she was domineering, it was a Dogfight with tragic outcomes. Silence took over, to be broken by the loud siren of the Ambulance. From all the stress from the Dogfighting, Henry had suffered a Heart attack and died before the Ambulance got there. How Tragic I often wondered how she could live with herself knowing that she couldn’t have done a better job with a knife or a Gun. I kept a secret that if she knew what I knew, it would kill her paraphrasingly. I wasn’t married yet, he took me under his wings and into his confidence, from the counseling he gave me another Man never would have gotten married.

He said you never know when they are going to put you out of the House that you built with your own two Hands. And so in tern he told me that he had 50,000 Dollars stached that she knew nothing about, he called it his Runaway Money. That money was buried with him, I never told anyone about it. We all have done deeds that we weren’t proud of, that was my gift to Henry. From all the failed Relationships that I had seen prior to me getting married, thirty seven years later I still am amazed that I jumped the Broom( getting married) In the middle of writing this Blog, at work I held the Door for a Beautiful young woman and a Man the Man said thanks, I guess she ditto it she never said a word, instead she looked at me as if I were stupid.

I said to myself what an ugly krone, beauty is only skin deep, can you imagine living with that for thirty seven years, I probably would be hanging with Henry. It absolutely behooves me how people can wear their misery on their sleeves. Me I could have just gotten the News from my Doctor that I had one week left and I would still be cordial to all up to my final Hour. Taking ownership of the problem and looking for the solution have always been one of my strong points. Most people wallow in selfpity never owning the problem and searching for it’s solutions. John worked in the same Job for twenty years all the while hating the job his nitwit Boss and himself for sticking it, I guess the Money was worth the Agony.

Each and every Day he got off work he stopped at the same Bar, I call it his first Home because he never went Home and then come back out to the Bar. I know His wife to be a pleasant Woman, but from his Son-in-law she was a Nag. If so be the case my sympathy goes to John, because I have never heard any stories of him being verbally or physically abusive to his Wife or his Children, nonetheless that is mental abuse for the Wife. He is a Man of my own Heart, keep it to yourself no one put you in your predicament, so no one should feel the wrath. There are so many Maladies in Society from People not owning their problems, instead they blame the World, they Nurse their I’ll placed guilt while it eats at them until they blow their Lids and Act Out tragically. For instance mass Shootings and Road Rage violence.

These are people whose Bugs are so far concealed in their Intestines that Psychiatric help would be of no value, some have been grinding Axes since childhood. You can blame a broken Home, an indifferent Parent who showed little to no Love, being abused or any of a hundred reasons, in each Life the Rain must fall. You are not unique, you are not the only one, If I maintained the why me attitude when I got molested by a Teacher at fourteen I should have hated every Gay Person and took part in all the Gay Bashing that transpired after School. If you don’t move on with your life, you are never Happy until everyone around you are miserable, I call that the Jr Ewing syndrome.

That reminds me of one of my Aunts who did everything in her power to shatter the family by telling lies and spreading gossip about every member of the family, having everyone hating the other for no reason. Karma has it that she is now in a Nursing Home not knowing the names of all the people she poked with a Stick.  My Hero Mattie  Stepanek puts it best, my recollection is poor but the sentiment is paralleled. The sharp point of the Arrow delivers a piercing Blow, the Blade of a sharp Sword delivers a mighty Blow but Words delivers the most Devastating Blows. My Hero Mattie died at age thirteen this was one of his final messages ” Live your best Life, be your best self, give what you wish to receive.” They say that Misery loves company, whenever you are feeling sad and miserable with your Life, go and read my Blog Titled My Hero. Its about a Boy who Died at thirteen years old an Author, a Poet and an Ambassador of Goodwill, who didn’t believe in sharing the misery of his Tragic Life with the World, only the Good in Life.