Shake Shake Shake

I was in the office after lunch talking with my coworker. Then the building started to shake bad. We are on the top floor of the building. I took a look down the hall and saw everyone coming out of their office. The shaking stopped. I ran back into my office, pulled my computers out of the wall, and hurried to the stairwell leading down.

Everyone else was doing the same as me. There were many people on the stairwell. We were backed up all the way up to the 4th floor. I was thinking that these people had better move before we get an aftershock or another earthquake. Eventually I got to the bottom. The guy in my office asked me to wait for him outside so he could make sure I made it out alive. Silly guy. I told him to hurry down and worry about everyone else later.

Most people were just standing around outside the building. I got in my car and headed home. I thought about whether I should chance it and drive on the highway. Fate made the decision for me. It was early, but the highway was all backed up. I took the back roads home. There were not many signs of the earthquake at home. Some thing that were standing up fell down in the house. No real damage was done. I waited for the rest of the family to get home to see how they fared during the 5.9 Richter scale earthquake.

Bearly

I hurried through my tasks at work today. We planned to take a couple hour drive to visit another college for Kit Kat. I tried to get the family to eat lunch at my favorite pizza place. I was outvoted. So Momoko treated us to Chinese food.

The traffic was not bad for the road trip. We had to pass over many mountains. The car, like others, struggled to climb the steep inclines. I got up early so I was dozing off in the car. Momoko and Kit Kat started talking about some animal on the side of the road. At first they could not identify it. Then they realized it was a young bear. It was the first bear we ever saw outside of the zoo. Whew. The bear wanted to come on the highway. But it changed its mind.

We did a dry run by campus before the tour. It felt small. You could not drive through the heart of campus. Most roads were one way. There were lots of restricted parking lots. For dinner Momoko found a Western Sizzler. I thought this was like the Sizzler restaurants we used to have. Nope. Turns out it is more like the old Ponderosa. Tomorrow we return to campus for the tour.

Driver Fail

After work I needed to do some shopping. That's ok. There is a Walmart and Target one exit down the highway from my work. So I start driving down the highway. I must not have been concentrating. Before I knew it, I missed my exit.

It was a total fail, because after I missed my exit,
I hit a traffic jam. I thought I could just turn around at the next exit. No luck. There was a traffic jam on both sides of the highway.

After shopping I was running out of gas. I spied a gas station out of the way with 87 octane going to $2.89 a gallon. That sounded good until I started pumping the gas. The $2.89 was only valid if you bought a car wash. That's the last time I am going to that gas station.

Windshield Woes

It has been a number of weeks since my windshield got a big old crack on it. Finally I scheduled some time tomorrow for the repair guy to come replace it.

Momoko got a crack in her car windshield too. She immediately got it replaced. I blame the bad weather. My crack started with a pebble. Then the thing opened up wide.

Today I was unable to talk Kit Kat into doing any driving. She is still recovering from yesterday's highway drive. We will have to get back on that road tomorrow. And I am trying to get her to drive home from school on Friday. Come on Kit Kat. I know you can do it.

Kit Kat is Driving

During our Spring Break vacation, Kit Kat studied the driving laws of our state. Yesterday she passed the test to get a learner's permit with a 100% score. Now she can drive with an adult.

Little Kat and I spied on Kit Kat as she practiced driving Momoko's car in and out of the driveway. Late last night the family went for an ice cream run to McDonald's. I had Kit Kat back Momoko's car out of the driveway and turn it around.

Today is the big day. I am going to have Kit Kat drive me to her friend's house. Luckily Kit Kat's friend only lives about 3 miles from our house. Kit Kat is a bit nervous because we need to drive on a busy street (she calls it a highway). But I think she will do fine.

Dangerous Stunts

Little Kat and I went to visit my mom. We did not stay long. So we headed home by highway. We saw two cats on motorcycles. They guys slowed down and were motioning to each other with their hands. At first I thought they were deciding on where to go.

In my rear view mirror I figured out what the commotion was about. The one motorcycle cat popped a wheelie. He must have been going 65 miles per hour. And he rode it for a long time. I told Little Kat to look. But he said he could not look, expecting the guy to fall off and be crushed by highway traffic.

This is where the weird part comes in. The cat rides a wheelie right off the highway onto the off ramp. Whew. Good thing he needed to exit. Little Kat and I drove on. Later one of the motorcycle pair zoomed past us going 90 to 100 miles per hour. Those cats just don't want to live long.

Absolute Gridlock

The big boss at work said my team needed to meet him. Of course his office is at headquarters, which is on the other side of town. Traffic is evil if you live near a big city.

I got up super early. Was on the road at 6:00am. There were still times I was stopped still on the highway due to traffic. But I made it to headquarters in good time.

Somehow I got trapped at headquarters. I could not leave until rush hour. That meant I got stuck in traffic, or the highway parking lot as I put it. I could not make it back home in time to see my mechanic, who was changing the oil in my truck. Tough day I tell ya.

Killer Traffic

I got tied up at work the other day. So I did not get to leave on time. That's ok I thought. I would just drive home and have a nice dinner with Momoko. As soon as I got on the highway, I knew I was in trouble.

In fact, I knew I was in trouble well before getting on the highway. The thing was a parking lot. It took a long time just to get from the on ramp onto the highway. I turned on the radio. Apparently they shut down a few lanes on the highway. If you do that in rush hour around here, traffic just halts.

In the end I somehow made it to the right hand lane. Then I inched by for an hour. Eventually I just drove off on the shoulder and took the next exit. The back roads got me home a lot faster than if I had to wait it out. It was still a very long and painful ride home.