Posts Tagged ‘car’

Hail(storm) to the Bus Driver

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

The OC Transpo bus drivers union is on strike, and I take the bus to work.  Which means I woke up at 5:45am this morning just to make it to work on time.

Working in down town Ottawa means that there’s not enough parking to go around without busing.  So get there early or don’t get there at all.

Just to help things we got dumped on with 20+cm of snow over the last two days.  But thankfully my little Honda Fit (with all-season tires, no less) somehow managed to make it.

I’m not a happy camper with the strike or the timing of it.  I realised that the job isn’t exactly that great but this really rubs me the wrong way.  And every time their union head talks I want to hit him.  Seriously, I’ve got no sympathy for the union on this one and (for now) I’m perfectly willing to get up at 5:45am.

I’ve been listing to CFRA (of all things…) just to try and get news updates and I’m hearing a lot of things I’m not liking.  That the city’s Auditor General is saying that the city’s services are abusing overtime and other things.  They also implied that some of the changes in the contracts are to try to curb some of this – and that’s what the strike is over.  Just to add to that, CFRA’s morning blow-hard hand picked this quote to read over the air:

I don’t care who the mayor is.  The mayor doesn’t run this city, I run this city.

Which was, we were told, what the top guy for all the city’s unions said after the last election.  It wouldn’t surprise me that this could have been taken out of context, and the way it was intoned on the radio made it sound like a line from a mob boss in a movie, but it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth.  The inmates are running the asylum.

When trying to leave the city centre today the streets where jammed so we decided not to add the the chaos and get something to eat before joining the roadway fun.  We walked down Elgin past City Hall and there was a picket line there.  While we were walking by (on the other side of the street) some guy just started shouting at them.  Really laying into them.  It wasn’t just swearing, he was just going on and on but I only caught a few words, stuff like “contributing” and “producing”.  As in – they don’t. I wish I had been closer so I could have heard it clearly.  And the whole time everyone walking by were just glancing at the picketers in some kind of silent agreement.  It was weird.

It was also, however, awesome.

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A new definition of “Crime TV”

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

What the hell was that?!?!?!

The premier episode of Knight Rider was terrible.  I mean, really, really, really terrible.  The kind of terrible which can only be made when that much money is involved.

Straight off, the “Ford Rep” who insisted that it was necessary for force a Ford (F-150?) pickup into the show needs to be shot.  Preferably dragged into the street, beaten soundly, then shot.

Next, the drunken producer who felt the show needed a little “sex” and dreamed up the contrived excuse to get The Girl in her underwear…  First, good job.  Second, may you never work in show business again.

Finally, whoever wanted to add “mystery” by having Mike not remember his past (“Oh yeah, you asked to marry me 3 years ago.  Did I forget to mention that?”) I simply ask that the reproductive sterilization is complete.

Seriously tho, it’s freaking Knight Rider, it shouldn’t be possible to get this wrong.  Yet, somehow, they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

This should be taught in classes as an example of less is more.  It’s like children making television.  Everything is turned to 11.  I could be fine with KITT changing colour, that would have been fine – cool even, but no – he has to change into a freaking pickup or the ugliest muscle car ever seen.  One moment KITT is doing 377MPH, the next – he can’t catch a sports car.  What?  What kind of supercar is KITT suppose to be?

The writing on this show amounts to a legacy assassination.  I loved Knight Rider when I was a kid and so did you.  (Don’t lie, you did.)  I know it was 80′s television pap but in my mind’s eye it was awesomeness given shape and corny dialog.  What I needed from the new series is something to stand up to that.  And don’t tell me it can’t be done, Battlestar Galactia is a prime example that it can.  And it would have been simple.  Tone everything down to the point where we can believe it’s true-ish and it’d be remarkable.

The last shot of the car sums everything up perfectly.  You have the blood red of KITT’s scanners, the emerald green of the LASERS(!!!) and the deep blue glow from under the car.  Primary colours for toddlers.

If I had been there, I could have saved it.  I could have told them, I would have told them – “That’s stupid”.

And that might have made all the difference.

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SMB/RC

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Just wow.

Why is nothing I do ever as cool as what you find on the internet?

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Just remember, he walks away.

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

When we were walking home from the bus stop this afternoon there was a young puppy running down the opposite side of the street. An older woman was chasing after him yelling something along the lines of “Stop!”. It might have been in French, I’m not sure.

The puppy thought this was a game. He’d stop or slow down, wait for her to start to get close and then run off again.

This was kinda scary as while the puppy kept to the side of the road there were cars coming in both directions. Some cars on our side actually stopped and pulled over just in case. Others who got off the bus at the same stop were walking up that side of the street tried to get the puppy to come to them.

Only he wanted to keep playing. So the little gray puppy darted out into the street.

In front of a oncoming little gray car.

I don’t know how the woman driving didn’t notice the stopped cars, the gathered people, or the obvious gray doggy against the green grass on the side of the road. Maybe some people just get tunnel vision when they drive. (I am seriously jinxing myself with that…)

Now, she did hit the breaks. Not soon enough, but she did use them.

I am thankful beyond words that I couldn’t actually see anything because of the stopped minivan. Regardless I turned away and shut my eyes tight. Anita actually let out a small scream at the dull thud and the screech of the tires.

This was one of those moments where seconds are suppose to feel like hours.

I’ve got to be honest, I lied before. He didn’t walk away.

Before I could have a moment to imagine the horror of what lay behind the minivan out pops this little gray bullet. No longer playing, but not sure what to do, he ran back up the street from the direction he had come.

The woman who had been chasing him was kinda lost. I think she was dumbfounded that he was still moving. The woman who was driving the minivan said she’d get him and tore off up the street. Those who were trying to catch the puppy were talking and, I assume, comforting the owner.

We continued up the street till we saw the minivan woman walking back down the street with the puppy in her arms.

With nothing left that we could do we headed home. The woman driving the car hadn’t really moved for a while but as everyone gradually dispersed she slowly drove away.

I could do with less days like this.

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