On Many Subjects

OK. so I listen to audio books when I drive under the hope that my brain will expand and the amount of trivial knowledge that I have will ever increase. Besides, it is a good time to engage in recreational reading (or actually recreational LISTENING.) Yesterday, I was listening to Sahara, by Clive Cussler and imagining myself in the role of Eva Rojas and that Matthew McConaughey really IS Dirk Pitt. (Stop it! You do it, too!) I was listening to the part that described a battle on the James River near the end of the Civil War, as a Confederate ironclad ship was trying to escape down the river with all the documents pertaining to the Confederacy and a very special passenger. The ship encountered resistance north of Newport News, and into Hampton Roads and then betwen Fort Wool and Fort Monroe. So, what has that to do with anything, you may ask. I was on Interstate 64 crossing the James River and taking the tunnel under the James between Fort Wool and Fort Monroe at the time I was listeni...

Living in a metropolitan area as I do--I know it is metropolitan because I get stuck in rush hour traffic every day on my way to and from work. I am talking total gridlock because some buffoon's car breaks down and everyone in the State of Virginia has to drive by really slowly because most people here have never seen a broken down car before, thereby trapping the rest of us in suspended animation while we attempt to get to work on time. Hey, I actually did it once last week. There seems to be no difference in my leaving my house at 7:30 am or 8:15 am, I still am just as late to work. This somehow defies the laws of physics, I just haven't figured out how, yet. It has to do with the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel that always has someone broken down in it just as if they try to start their car in the morning, and upon finiing it running really ragged, coughing and sputtering, they decide to take it for a spin through the tunnel just one last time before it dies instead of taking it...