It seems that some lead has been found in the paint on the fenders.

My answer: ” Anyone who goes around licking motorcycle fenders deserves to remove themselves from the ‘gene pool’.”

How far is too far?

During my recent travels I drove along a highway in western Florida where some road construction was underway in the median strip.

It was a four-lane Interstate highway with the wide median strip the level of which was below the center of the highway lanes.

During the last decade it seems that no one is permitted  to dig in their yard or anywhere else without driving some stakes into the ground and attaching sheets of black plastic. I am not certain who established this requirement but it appears that the purpose is to prevent rocks and water from going somewhere where they are not supposed to go.

It doesn’t matter that this thin plastic barrier permits water to flow under it or stones to roll through it and knock it down. What puzzles me is that the plastic must be installed higher than the level at which the work is being done.

I have yet to see stones or water to run uphill but nevertheless, that is where the plastic must be.

As though that wasn’t sufficient, hay bales seem now to be required along with the plastic sheet.

Getting back to my Florida trip, I saw miles and miles of black plastic along that particular stretch of highway. In some places it went through the woods and completely around the off ramps as far as 200 feet away from the actual digging site.

What I found particularly bizarre is that this construction area had a double row of black plastic separated by about 18 inches.

This made the cost of the pointless black plastic installation double what a single wall would have been.

At that point I was determined to find out what company has convinced highway departments that this nonsense was necessary to protect the environment.

What I found: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is one of the world’s 10 largest petrochemical manufacturers. The company is among the world’s market leaders in the production of polyethylene.

So, more US dollars flow out of the country not just for oil but for useless plastic that further fills our landfills and will probably still be intact long after the spent radioactive waste from our nuclear power plants has cooled down.

To quote Harry Golden’s book title: “Only In America”.

Which, by the way, is a good read along with his “For Two Cents Plain”

With that, I expect, most will be spent by us to buy products from China.

Perhaps the Columbian drug dealers would like to get in on this deal also. I’m certain that they have money to loan. 

As George sat staring at an empty RADAR screen he noticed a fly on the window on the other side of the room. Any movement, on the RADAR screen or on the window was cause for immediate response.

On closer observation he counted a total of 5 flies, 4 having missed the original detection because they were stationary.

George, out of boredom, wrote a formal memo entitled, “The Daily Fly Count in the Status Room” and circulated it throughout the base as any other official US Government Document.
After about a week that too became boring so he discontinued the report.

Several days later he received a Letter of Reprimand from one of the base officers as to why he had not received the Daily Fly Report as expected.

What made me think of Georges’ story from so long ago was when I woke up this morning I wondered who reads my blogs and why. What would happen if I suddenly became bored and stopped writing? Would anyone care? Would I get nasty notes?

I’m not willing to risk that so keep checking to see what “pearl of wisdom” will drop out of the shells.

Thanks for reading.