Made it through another ice storm. Tons of freezing rain overnight and 130000 customers without power in New Brunswick. Luckily our house was not one of them so it was only the minor inconvenience of school cancellation that we had to deal with. Half the town is supposed to have power by tonight with the rest by tomorrow. The rest of the province may be 3 days or so.
The wait at the fast food places was out of this world. Nobody had power to cook so they all headed out to the few places with power. One of my colleagues waited for over an hour in the Mcds drive-thru.
A friendly reminder to motorists everywhere, when the traffic lights are out treat it as a four way stop. This message is brought to you by the Stuff You Should Know By a the Time You’re 16 Foundation.
To be fair, I’m sure some of the jackasses would have blown through a regular four way stop too. What the hell is it about four ways that turn people into idiots?
To be fair, I have seen many people correctly use four way stops. We also have 3 traffic circles in town and people seem to be able to use 2 of them correctly. As Meatloaf said, “Two out of three ain’t bad.”
To be fair, large intersections operating as 4-way stops are a nightmare. If you have 12-14 lanes entering an intersection it’s next to impossible to keep track of whose turn it is, especially when some people (reasonably) proceed when it’s not their turn per se but because their way is clear due to the movement of the vehicles whose turn it is, like if you turn right before it’s your turn while conflicting traffic is blocked by the guy making a left in the other direction.
The biggest problem with four way stops where I live, are freaking old people! They always want to be friendly and let everyone else go first, screwing up the order and throwing everyone off.
“No, after you!”, “No, no, you go!” Like freaking Alphons and Gaston!
I might agree with you except for the fact that I’m not talking about people confused as to whose turn it is and I’m in Moncton where I think the most lanes being affected would be 6. I’m talking about people not slowing down at all or 3-4 cars speeding through without waiting their turn. This was purely either not understanding that a broken light is treated as a 4 way stop or people being in such a hurry that they refuse to yield when appropriate.
What does it take to stop bigotry, hatred and violence? What is so attractive to populists and racists about denigrating and destroying good people living good lives? Why can peaceful people not live without fear of being harmed or killed?
This “new world” people keep talking about terrifies me. My daughter keeps asking me questions that I have no idea how to answer or reassure her. I just keep returning all we can keep doing is being one of the lights…
That seems so pathetic in the face of ongoing and senseless violence.
As awful as something like this is, it’s the exception. The world is NOT a terrible place. Don’t fall for the myth that it is. You can’t let every atrocity ruin you on humanity or you end up a Trumpist.
By any measure, things are getting better for the human race. There is less war than there used to be. The percentage of people living in abject poverty is lower than ever. People are living longer, healthier, and more peacefully. There’s bumps and valleys but it has been a long climb up. Don’t let the pessimists convince you to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
