The things you see when you're out in the world

Happy Friday, my friends, we've almost made it!

I've been making some mental notes, for all of the good that usually does, about things I've seen during my travels that made me pause, or laugh, or feel uncomfortable, or, well, all of the above.  For instance:

I followed what I believe was a food truck for a few miles not long ago, until we both turned onto a four-lane highway and I pulled alongside of it.  I don't know if the name of the entity was in another language or was simply painted so poorly that I just couldn't read it.  I suppose if the food's any good that this would have a following, cult or otherwise, but why wouldn't you want to put the name of your business on the thing legibly?

I was in a town a couple of hours away earlier this week and saw signage for a restaurant.  "Wasabi Mexican and Japanese Cuisine," the sign read.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Outside of the same community, near Lake Cumberland (a man-made lake that opened in the 60's in south central Kentucky) I saw not one but THREE houseboat factories, with all of the parking lots full of cars and trucks.  Just down the road was a shop that promised to repair your bent or broken propeller.  I guess business is good.

In Nashville yesterday I saw two things that made me shake my head at about the same time.  One was a billboard near the downtown area advertising something called Skrewball, a peanut butter whisky.  What?

I'm a long time past my bar days, so this was a new one on me.  I was in a slow bit of traffic considering this when what I would best describe as a cloud of smoke and motor noise passed me on the left, weaving in and out of traffic.

I proceeded north and caught sight of the cloud's center, an ancient Honda Civic that was burning so much oil that the rear window was literally covered with it.  You have to wonder how long that thing will keep going that way.

I was threading my way through an office park after my last appointment in the Nashville area yesterday afternoon and stopped at a traffic light.  Ahead was a small strip mall, whose largest tenant was a restaurant called Big Bad Breakfast.  One would hope they are open very late at night, as this is the very thing my friends and I would say to each other about what to do next after an evening of fun.

As I neared my home city of Lexington late yesterday afternoon I came upon a semi with two flags flying from the back of the trailer.  One was an American flag, the size you might display in front of your home.  The other was a Puerto Rican flag of about the same size.  Interesting.

Since I'm a fairly normal person of modest means, exotic cars are out of reach but I still find them somewhat intriguing when I see one.  This morning I was out for some work and errands and caught sight of a Jaguar coupe with a very long hood.  I thought it was an Aston Martin, but got closer and saw that it was, in fact, a Jag.  Moving very slowly.

Later in my travels this morning I was in the left lane of our local city's circle freeway when out of nowhere a BMW sedan passed from the right and almost clipped my front bumper.  The car was in good condition but had no license plate.  Gotta wonder when you see that.

I reached my next destination, a home improvement store, and was almost run over by another ancient Honda.  This one was an Accord sedan with bungee cords holding the fenders and hood in place.  Needless to say, it wasn't going very fast, either.

Our neighborhood has one of those multiple-box community mailboxes, with sixteen locked boxed on a steel pedestal.  Twice the past couple of years it's been knocked over sideways by vandals.  The first time, I contacted the postal service and reported the condition.  Workers came out and temporarily repositioned it, but it was pretty wobbly and I was honestly concerned it would fall onto someone.  It was eventually repaired by some maintenance guys who welded the pedestal onto a new stand.

That should hold it, I remember thinking.  Not so.

Two or three weeks ago it happened again, there it was lying on its side.  The next day it was standing again, with three PLASTIC clips pushed under its base to keep it relatively upright.  One should not take his life into his hands to get the mail, especially since it's so slow these days....

Luckily, no one was injured in the retelling of these snippets of recent experience.