Is it really that hard? (Part 2)

Overall, I have a pretty good commute. It's about 17 miles. With no traffic, it takes about 20 minutes, and with heavy traffic it takes maybe 35-45 minutes. Usually, it's about 30 minutes, which I don't consider to be that bad.

What is bad is the way people drive in this area, particularly with regard to merging. There are a number of places on my way home where I have to either merge or be merged into. They are, in order:

• Getting on to US 101
• Getting on to Highway 87
• When Airport Pkwy merges on to Highway 87
• When the right land ends
• Getting on to Interstate 280

There are various other merges on the way, but I'm generally able to avoid those by staying in another lane.

Here's what I don't understand: When the traffic is going 5 MPH and the lanes are both full and merging, why must certain assholes ride the bumper of the car in front of them so that the person trying to merge can't get in? Bad drivers are one thing, but this is just plain ol' assholery. Most of the time, the drivers will speed up to make sure they close the gap before the car next to the can merge. Is being one more car ahead in a 5 MPH line of traffic really going to make your life that much better? WTF? Have you ever seen a zipper? That's how it's supposed to work, dipshit. It's called efficiency. Let me demonstrate:


Do you see how each side takes turns and, as a result, everyone keeps moving at the same speed? This is really not a hard concept to understand.

I need a vacation.

Credit: Zipper image used under the GNU Free Documentation License and acquired from Wikimedia Commons.

Bring on the heat.

It's starting to get hot here on occasion. Actually, it's not really that hot, but after last year's heat wave (see post "Holy crap, it's hot."), everyone gets worried when the temperature cracks 80F. This year we decided to pick up a portable A/C unit ahead of time. So far, it's working great (although we really haven't needed to run it yet except to try it out). Hopefully, it won't melt down when the heat wave hits.

Something is (star)fishy.

I sort of have this love-hate relationship with my fish tank. It's a complete pain in the ass to take care of consistently, but when it's in good shape, it really looks cool.

Lately, I've not been paying as much attention to it. Sometime in the last few weeks, I started getting a bunch of algae growth. Probably high nitrates or something. Anyway, it's really annoying... clogging up filters and such. It really looks bad - all overgrown and you can hardly see through the glass.

Since I've gotten this tank (I had others before), I've owned one starfish. It was a sand sifting starfish and it died more than a year ago - before I moved the tank to our current house.

Last night, I was reminded of one of the cool things about salt water reef tanks. Before heading up to bed, I stopped to take a look at the tank. There lights were out, and moving across the glass was a starfish about the size of a penny. WTF? Who knows if I'll see it again, but it's always interesting to see the random creatures that pop up, seemingly from nowhere.