Greasy Blues

Behold a picture of a scratched CD. A scratched CD caused me severe heartache a few days ago.
My stupid iPod nano busted a couple months ago out of nowhere. This means I have to either engage in thoughtful reflection by my own accord or I have to be entertained some other way. Obviously thoughtful reflection is boring so I have to find some other way to keep my brain happy. So I have been keeping my old collection of CDs (compact discs for those of you born after 1998 ...) in my car. When I was coming home from work, I inserted an old favorite: Stevie Ray Vaughan. What, you didn't know I was a huge fan of Texas Blues? In high school I tried converting some of my friends to Stevie Ray Vaughan but they just laughed at me. Stupid idiots.

Anyway, it had been a very long time since I had last been enveloped in greasy blues music so I decided to revisit those good old days. I skipped to track 6 (from the "The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble Album", Disc 2), "Little Wing." Some of you will not have heard of Stevie Ray Vaughan (known as SRV), but I truly hope that you have heard of Jimi Hendrix. Jimi originally wrote "Little Wing" and this is SRV's version. So amazing.

Here is an embedded YouTube video of the song. Because most of you won't care to listen to it all, I at least ask you to listen from 3:00 - 5:00. I doubt anyone will feel engulfed in the music like I feel, but just give it a shot.

Back to being negative: the first few minutes of this song on my CD kept getting interrupted by annoying skips. I had to fast forward through much of it. About 3:00 in it stopped. I started getting really into it and pretty much forgot I was driving down the highway. I even forgot the CD was scratched. At 4:40 it starts getting really greasy and I started yelling in my car. I know that sounds weird - and it is. But then it started to freaking skip! I was so mad. I was kicked out of my musical bliss. The worst part is that I haven't taken the CD out of my case for who knows how long! How did it even get scratched? Almost all of my CDs are like that. I don't get it.

Maybe I should just go buy a new iPod or something. They seem to make everyone happy. I don't have the money though. Anybody looking to buy someone an iPod?

Stupid CDs.

Are you kidding me??!!

Yesterday, as I drove home from a long day of work, I started thinking about my goals to write something everyday. I thought, "What am I going to blog about today?" Although the day was long and hot, it was very productive and nothing really bothered me. I really didn't know what to vent about ... until I arrived at the following intersection:

This intersection seems to be the most confusing intersection for people in Rexburg. The only exception might be the new crosswalk installed on 2nd W. That will certainly be blogged about some other day. Anyway, back to this cursed intersection. Notice that the intersection has train tracks running alongside the the street that runs north and south. From the perspective here, there are (or should be) 3 lanes: two left-turn lanes and one through/right turn lane. What confused people here?? Well, looking at the picture - where would you most likely stop if you were waiting for a red light? Would you go past the railroad tracks or stay behind them? It is clear that most everyone stops on the other side of the tracks while waiting for a red light. Of course, it is pretty unclear in this picture where you should stop ... I don't see any thick white lines indicating where you should stop.

For a number of months, however, there has been a very thick white line painted a few feet to the west of the rails (just about where the shadow is projected from the railroad caution lights). Does that line indicate you should stop? Yes. To top it off - there is a large sign on the righthand side of the road that says "Stop here on red" with an arrow pointing at the thick white line. Any confusion? Hopefully not.

When I come to this intersection about 20 bagillion times a week, I always stop at the white line. Some people do the same. Most do not. Let us now return to my voyage home yesterday. I approached the intersection in the far left lane and stopped at the white line and noticed a minivan close behind me. He didn't really like that I stopped there I guess. What he did made my blood boil. It was ironically at this moment that I thought, "I don't have anything to blog about today ..." A manly minivan driver swerved to the right, drove across the tracks and past me, then swerved to the left in front of me on the opposite side of the tracks. My jaw seriously dropped. I couldn't believe it! It made me so mad. I almost honked and waved my fist ... but didn't. To make it worse, the next intersection we came to, he blatantly ran a red light.

If you are wondering what state he was from ... it was Washington. Oh, and he had a BYU "Y" sticker on the bumper. If you find him, tell him I want a word with him.