No book to read on the bus....

So this morning was an iPod morning, and for some reason, the selections were all titles in the "S" column:

Shivers – Armin Van Buuren
Shotgun Down the Avalanche – Shawn Colvin
Similar Features – Melissa Etheridge
Smaointe - Enya
So Far Away – Dire Straits
[The] Stake – Steve Miller Band

O give me a trough, a nice big wide trough...

Natura vacuum abhorret = Nature abhors a vacuum. Francois Rabelais, c.1494–1553. (Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations)

I've never really understood this, although I seem to have known it for a very long time, as a 'saying' or piece of folksy wisdom trotted out as the occasion demands. However, as we now know, quite a lot of Nature IS vacuum (or, at least, non-atmospheric) - but not according to science nit-picker MSW. However, all this is a roundabout way of getting to the point, which is, that while Nature may abhor a vacuum, she's got nothing on drivers on I-35 between San Antonio and Austin. Specifically that bit between San Marcos and Austin. And this during Spring Break, when a good 1/4 of the regualar commuters are out of town! The 'average' driver (and yes, I use the term as loosely as possible) seems to feel that any space larger than a car length MUST BE FILLED!!! I have noticed that traffic seems to come in waves, and I prefer to be in the trough, rather than the crest, although at least at night it is easier to see that crest advancing, advancing, steadily advancing, to crash down on my poor unseaworthy bark. It seems as if the other drivers are all thinking "There is space ahead, empty space! I must fill it, now!"
Why??????

The Earbud Generation

Last week, while in a public restroom, I was able to hear the music. Not on the usual Muzak system, because the restroom I was in does not have Muzak. No, I was hearing, over the noise of other people flushing, and myself voiding an uncomfortably full bladder, the music of choice of an iPod user, with the requisite earbuds, who was on the other side of the wall, around the corner, applying makeup. If I could give you members of the Earbud Generation one bit of advice, it would be this: invest in companies that make hearing aids. Not the old-grannie ones, but the high-tech stealth ones that your compatriots are going to be buying in mass quantities in about 10 years, when you can no longer hear the person sitting next to you speaking at normal volume. Cause this investment will pay off, big time.