The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Our community no longer observes (with days off) Veterans Day. Instead when they created MLK day they traded Veterans for MLK.

Yah, I don't get it. Some businesses around here give the employees the option of taking off Veterans Day (if it's a weekday), or the day after Thanksgiving. We don't get either, unless we take our own vacation time. And this option had been in place before MLK Day even came about, so it has nothing to do with that day, at least around here, that is. (Side note: the vets who work at our hospital are allowed to take time, with pay, to attend any veterans' ceremonies anywhere they wish, however.)

I do know that at least through the time I was a young adult, we always had the day off and there were parades, etc. Where I live now, they have a small parade on the weekend.
 
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Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
They don't test parallel parking in Wyoming, either....or they didn't when my husband went to get his license when we lived there. But yeah, there are a lot of things people don't know. I suppose it doesn't help that we don't require lessons from a qualified instructor there. Anyone with a license can teach you, and that person may or may not know what they are doing.
That's true here as well. There are stringent rules and paperwork involved with training a young driver, but except for a couple of hours of in class training, all driving is being taught by parents. Some of those parents are perhaps the worst drivers on the road. I have a grandson that is currently being trained by his father (my SIL) and his father has had countless accidents, not a moment of defensive driving thought, just forge ahead. Never check you mirrors cause he heard someplace the you must keep your eyes on the road "in front". You got the right of way... you go.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I have held a drivers license for almost 54 years. I have driven a lot of miles over those years, many of them as a professional public transit bus driver, and to this point I have never been in a single accident. Not even one that wasn't my fault. I am tired after a long trip, because frankly, it is a lot of work to try and anticipate every fool action that the "others" are going to do. However, doing so has, I really believe, kept me out of accidents. Tiring but worthwhile.

A good thing to also remember is that insurance companies are very aware of the "right of way driver". Even if the only accidents you have ever been involved in are the "fault" of the other driver, if you have enough of them, your insurance cost will rise. Why? Because you seem to have a knack for putting yourself in the danger zone instead of avoiding them. They consider that to be partial blame if it happens often enough. Most people do not know that.
 

Pixieish

Well-Known Member
I saw the report on TV, not sure what station. But I did just do a quick Google search, and here is a paragraph below from Forbes (Sept. 13, 2017) . (Also, not stated in this paragraph is that even though commercial carriers are retiring the 747s, they are sought after for cargo planes, and that will continue on.)

Another tidbit I heard the other morning was that the engineers who designed the plane were pleased and astonished that it continued on 40 years after they figured it would have been replaced by something else! :) How's that for good work?!!

P.S.: I don't know about any overseas carriers that use the 747--have no info. on that.

From Forbes --

Boeing's 747 jumbo jet has been a staple of long-haul flight for more than 50 years, but as new, more efficient aircraft have reached the market, the onetime Queen of the Skies is slowly being replaced. This year, both Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are retiring the aircraft within their liveries, effectively winding down the entire commercial fleet of 747s owned by domestic, commercial carriers. On Sept. 7, Delta flew its last commercial domestic flight with the aircraft. Now, United has scheduled its own final flight -- and it's going to be a party.

If you guys are into planes, there's a really interesting series on Netflix about commercial aviation.
 

Pixieish

Well-Known Member
That's true here as well. There are stringent rules and paperwork involved with training a young driver, but except for a couple of hours of in class training, all driving is being taught by parents. Some of those parents are perhaps the worst drivers on the road. I have a grandson that is currently being trained by his father (my SIL) and his father has had countless accidents, not a moment of defensive driving thought, just forge ahead. Never check you mirrors cause he heard someplace the you must keep your eyes on the road "in front". You got the right of way... you go.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I have held a drivers license for almost 54 years. I have driven a lot of miles over those years, many of them as a professional public transit bus driver, and to this point I have never been in a single accident. Not even one that wasn't my fault. I am tired after a long trip, because frankly, it is a lot of work to try and anticipate every fool action that the "others" are going to do. However, doing so has, I really believe, kept me out of accidents. Tiring but worthwhile.

A good thing to also remember is that insurance companies are very aware of the "right of way driver". Even if the only accidents you have ever been involved in are the "fault" of the other driver, if you have enough of them, your insurance cost will rise. Why? Because you seem to have a knack for putting yourself in the danger zone instead of avoiding them. They consider that to be partial blame if it happens often enough. Most people do not know that.

Parents teach driving up here too, but they test both driving skills and rules of the road knowledge (there's an actual book), so if your parent is a craptastic driver, chances are pretty good you're going to have to pay to take the test more than once. My mother almost caused me to fail during my road test because I was doing a 3-point-turn and she kept trying to signal to me to keep backing up. o_O
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Parents teach driving up here too, but they test both driving skills and rules of the road knowledge (there's an actual book), so if your parent is a craptastic driver, chances are pretty good you're going to have to pay to take the test more than once. My mother almost caused me to fail during my road test because I was doing a 3-point-turn and she kept trying to signal to me to keep backing up. o_O
There are books here too, but, the flaw is that if the parent has a different "opinion" about how things should be, they will override the "book" every time. Teens just learning how to drive have two major fears. One is doing something wrong out there at high speeds that can be fatal and secondly making their parent teacher yell at them because they are not doing what the parent thinks they should do. That is why intensive independent driver training should be in place along with a strong emphasis on driving practice and how to keep it in mind while fighting off outside influence. (parents) Let's face it... all of us consider ourselves the worlds greatest driver, which is why we need to just be intensely aware of all those others out there and what fool thing they might do. It is surprising how much better a driver one becomes once the focus is on that.
 

Pixieish

Well-Known Member
There are books here too, but, the flaw is that if the parent has a different "opinion" about how things should be, they will override the "book" every time. Teens just learning how to drive have two major fears. One is doing something wrong out there at high speeds that can be fatal and secondly making their parent teacher yell at them because they are not doing what the parent thinks they should do. That is why intensive independent driver training should be in place along with a strong emphasis on driving practice and how to keep it in mind while fighting off outside influence. (parents) Let's face it... all of us consider ourselves the worlds greatest driver, which is why we need to just be intensely aware of all those others out there and what fool thing they might do. It is surprising how much better a driver one becomes once the focus is on that.
Parents overriding the book to me is a mind-blower (although that could just be because to my mother, books are mightier than anything else on the planet, so she NEVER would have done that). She DID, however, scream at me out of nervousness when trying to teach me to drive, which in turn made me refuse to let her teach me...so I did two things - had my boyfriend teach me while off-roading in his truck, and took school-offered drivers' ed.

Adding to this, I do think everyone should learn how to drive a car with a manual transmission. I didn't learn until I was 19 and bought my aforementioned Nissan 300ZX, and my now-husband basically brought me to a dead-end housing development (after bringing me to pick it up, lol), stuck me behind the wheel and said "have at it". I sort-of knew what I was supposed to do, I'd just never actually done it before. Once you have the knowledge of driving a standard-shift, that knowledge is transferrable to automatics and downshifting can really save you in a pinch (slippery roads, faster-braking in traffic, etc. etc.).
 

betty rose

Well-Known Member
Good morning, we are having sun today. Yesterday was snowy and cold. I was on last Friday. Friday evening, son-in-law invited us to watch the boy's soccer games. We went all day Saturday, in the cold wind....it was blowing 60 mph. I woke up on Sunday with a major migraine. Daughter invited us to brunch...we went and had a very nice time. We got Thanksgiving ironed out. Yea! We will be with SIL and the boy's noon until 5 p.m. then on to daughter's for the evening. So I had a headache for Sunday, Mon. and Tues. today I feel much better. Now, I have major ketchup to do. The snow and ice probably kept the headache going for longer and changing the clocks didn't help either. Missed you all. Now, on to Christmas.....what to do? ;););) Have a great day, I will be doing ketchup this afternoon. It's time to fix breakfast. I skipped dinner last night and went to bed early, so with the headache gone, I'm really hungry! @figment423 hubby brought home some rice cakes for me. Something I can eat when I don't feel well. Yea those will go for breakfast!
 

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