Category: Driving

My 111-Hour Holiday Weekend

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date January 17, 2008
1 Comment on My 111-Hour Holiday Weekend

Here’s how I spent the first two hours of my long holiday weekend:

I spent $3.119 per gallon on regular gas filling up my car at Racetrac. That’s a new all-time record high for me – surpassing the previous record high of $3.099 per gallon set on 4 separate occasions in 2006 and 2007. Luckily I only fill up my car with gas about once every 2½ to 3 weeks. It’s cool to to live and work within 7 miles of each other. Just remember that while gas prices may be at an all-time record high here stateside we are still one of the TOP 10 cheapest countries in the entire world as far as that’s concerned.

I saw a movie at the Flagship Cinemas 14 here in Homestead for the first time since last September. I saw “One Missed Call” which falls under the category of ‘horrifying bonechilling thriller’. I wasn’t too scared. I was more confused at the plot than I was scared. There were 3 of us in that theatre. The other two giggled occasionally. I was too confused to even giggle.

I went to McDonald’s after the movie to get myself a large hazelnut iced coffee and two apple pies. It’s the first time that I’ve ever gotten one of their iced coffees. It was refreshingly delicious, and I think that I’ll be back for more in the future.

Driving

New Service Station

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 11, 2007

Check out the new (nearly) 50,000 square foot service station that’s going up at the busy (northeast) corner of Campbell Drive (SW 312TH Street) and Speedway Boulevard (SW 137TH Avenue) at the far-eastern edge of Homestead.

It appears to be an EXXON station, and it will include 8 gas pumps, a convenience store, a car wash, and a quick lube.

Annoyances Driving

The Road Rage Files – Chapter 18

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 11, 2007
3 Comments on The Road Rage Files – Chapter 18

SPECIAL GUEST CONTRIBUTOR –

MY BROTHER DANNY, DALLAS TEXAS

So I’m driving to work on Tuesday morning….It’s rainy. The roads are slick. People are driving 20 MPH below the speed limit.

Everything was hunky dory until I get about 3/4 of a mile from my office building. I am in the slow lane on a road where the speed limit is 45 MPH. I am going around 42 to 45 MPH.

All of a sudden, a lady pulls directly in front of me, RUNNING A RED LIGHT, about 20 feet in front of me, and basically STOPS. I say “basically” because she was going about 5 MPH on a 45 MPH road. Was she “SLEEP DRIVING”? Was she “COLOR BLIND”? Is she from another PLANET where “RED” means, “Go as fast as you can with little to no regard for anyone around you”? My vote was for: ALL OF THE ABOVE.

So, as any normal person would do, I needed to either JAM my brakes on a wet road to avoid rear ending her (and of course it would be MY fault if that happened), or change lanes quickly.

So, I checked my rear view mirror, checked my side view mirror, checked my blind spot TWICE, put on my signal to change lanes, and all of a sudden, a CRAZY LUNATIC IN A MINIVAN going about 65 MPH, immediately got into the lane I wanted to get into, and honked her horn at me for about 30 seconds straight.

Well, I couldn’t get into that lane AND was quickly accelerating towards the SNAIL LADY in front of me (keep in mind this all happened in a 20 foot space), so all I could do was JAM my brakes in the rain. so I JAMMED, the BRAKES LOCKED UP, I braced for impact, thinking I am going to NAIL the SNAIL LADY, and somehow, luckily, MIRACULOUSLY, I did NOT HIT HER!!

Well, rather than count my blessings, the Irish Filipino in me came out and I immediately became very angry. So much so that I did NOT make a right to go into the parking lot of my office. I INSTEAD made a left and pulled into the parking lot of TJ MAXX directly across the street.

I was so mad that all of this happened, that I jammed on my accelerator, and turned my wheel all the way to one side, which caused my back wheels to spin and hydroplane. This manuever is referred to as a DONUT, and that’s precisely what I did. I spun in a circle at 7:20am CT in the parking lot of….TJ MAXX.

Afterwards, I briskly went to my office parking lot, parked my car, and got started on my day.

So to summarize: drove to work, snail lady pulled in front of me doing 5 in a 45, minivan crazy person almost side swiped me, got mad, pulled into empty TJ MAXX parking lot, did a donut to relive frustration, went to work.

And there is MY very first ROAD RAGE FILE!

Danny

Driving

My Chevron: New-And-Improved For 2008

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 10, 2007

This is the 3RD consecutive blog entry today regarding the gridlock that I endured during my Lunch hour, but in this story there is a happy ending.

Since I couldn’t get to Racetrac to fill up with gas (because that portion of Campbell Drive was completely shut-down due to the natural gas leak) I had to go down to Chevron at the corner of Campbell Drive and Useless-One. That particular gas station was my longtime exclusive place to get gas for well over a decade, but then I stopped going there on a regular basis because it started to get frequented by homeless people laying down alongside the building early in the morning and various incidents of near criminal activity. (I nearly got mugged there one time.) If those things weren’t bad enough the gas pumps were literally crumbling before my very eyes. I was scared to pump gas there for fear of either getting robbed or having the gas pump I was using disintegrate or even worse – catch on fire and explode.

TODAY was a different situation. That Chevron gas station has recently been renewed and rejuvenated with all-new state-of-the-art gas pumps. It was a total pleasure to fill-up my Saturn with 10.730 gallons of regular gasoline at $3.099 per gallon for a total cost of $33.25. I’ll be back for more in about 15 days. Just keep it safe for me to do so.