Mortaine’s Blog

My day so far has been awful.

Leaving Scotts Valley, I managed to get stuck at every red light between my house and the freeway. Turns out, John had the same experience this week; what is with Scotts Valley and red lights?

The elections admin wasn’t in yet, even though she said she would be there by 8:00 to give me my precinct’s materials. Sigh. I got the materials, but it was rainy and I had to slog back and forth in the rain to drop them off in my car and then return the elections dept’s hand truck– and I was therefore cold and wet and miserable when I got back on the road.

I stopped in Scotts Valley to get gas. I’d already heard about the jacknifed big rig Southbound, and knew that would slow things down northbound. There was an SUV sitting at the pump next to mine when I pulled up. It was still there, guzzling down the gas, when I pulled out. Get a fuel-efficient car, you soccer-mom-ho.

I got onto Hwy 17 and found that it was stopped, not just slowed. I turned around at Glenwood Cutoff (which is about 2 miles north of Scotts Valley), though turning was itself an adventure, since I couldn’t see for shit with all the rain and people not turning on their headlights. Fucking fuckers!!!

I went home, surfed the web looking for jobs on this side of the hell, and went back out at 10:45. There are no jobs for my skills, experience, industry in Santa Cruz County– I can look forward to a lifetime of risking my life to get to work.

Why does it take me 10 minutes from the time I turn off the radio to get from my house to the freeway? Whatever– it did. A Costco truck cut off traffic in my lane by abruptly switching from the right lane (which goes only to Santa Cruz) to the left lane (which can go to either). Learn where you’re going, dumb-nuts.

My pet peeve in the rain is not drivers who go fast. My pet peeves are: a) drivers who go faster than they can handle and cause accidents (see jacknifed big rig), and b) drivers who do not turn on their headlights, so no one can see them coming. Here’s a thought: silver (grey) car in (grey) rain at (grey) mid-morning overcast light? As good as an invisibility cloak, turd-breath. Especially when you flash your lights at them and they ignore you, like you’re not trying to tell them about an important safety feature of their car. These are actually worse than the folks who put on their parking lights and drive around; they’re annoying because they think it’s cool and “different” to do this, but at least they’ve provided some illumination for other drivers to see them with. If the wiper blades are moving, your headlights are all the way on, and not on high-beams. Period.

Towards the reservoir, the SUV I’d been following over the hell (which kept speeding up so I couldn’t pass on the right, never got over to the left, and would slow down whenever passing someone on the right, so I could NEVER get past them, and was perpetually frustrated by their driving) suddenly slowed way down next to a truck. I hit the brakes, again, nearly screaming by now, but trying not to because I don’t want to hurt my throat again. The SUV got past the truck, and then it was my turn. Which would have been a simple thing, if the truck had only been driving in one lane of traffic. But, no, it was swerving into the left lane all the time. No, you may not have your coffee “Irish” during delivery runs.

I got past it– only to be held back by the same f-ing SUV again. Oh, just get off the fucking road, already!

I made it to work at 11:20. I have one document to finish TODAY, and I hear I can look forward to some non-software-team dumpage from another manager on Wednesday. Really, I am looking forward to this with a joy that cannot be expressed in words.

I have to make this quick, since I spent too much time reading my Friends page this morning (you are all too very much interesting). Saw Down with love last night– very cute, silly movie! A great date movie, too! I could even ignore Renee Zellwiger in it, mostly.

Today starts NaNoEdMo. Go join if you want to catch updates and progress on finishing and editing my novel. I found a really funny line the other day that I’ll post (it’s not intended to be funny).

Um…. I need 1 stamp to mail out my submission to Tin House; I’m sending them “The Sprawl” (short-short about the funeral of a man executed by the state: POV character is his mother). I also have about 6 other letters and such to mail out, including a circle book for (ee!).

I have to leave here in about 15 minutes because I need to go to the County Building and pick up the elections materials for my precinct. Tonight I need to go through the rosters and mark them with “AV.” My rover called last night (there are people who visit each site to make sure things run smoothly) to remind me that our precinct will probably have observers, since there are 2 people on the ballot who vote there.

Oh, and fiorocet is good stuff. I finally made it through a night without coughing. Well worth the minor drug mis-use that required (fiorocet is for my migraine headaches, not for the common cold).