Long Drives and Flags at Half Mast

Whew, today I drove 3 hours straight to Kingston, then back to 'Sauga for almost 5 hours. That's like going to Manhattan from Toronto. Yeesh. Man, I really dislike long drives. What a waste of time. Even if there's no traffic and you have enough open road to go 160 to 170 kph, driving that long just isn't fun. I ain't no Sunday driver ... you know, the ones that take their sweet time on the road. Nah-uh. I don't know why but whenever I take a long drive, the psycho drivers come out and try to kill me. What's that all about? A while ago this elderly dude forgot to check his blindspot and almost rammed me from the side. I didn't even have time to honk at him. Now it wouldn't have bothered me if that happened in the Philippines cuz 1) Looking at one's blindspot isn't a popular thing to do, and 2) Your spider sense is working 100% when driving there. But here in Canada, all the easy driving and the general adherence to the rules of the road dulls one's senses. So reacting to wacko drivers doesn't come as naturally. What makes long drives extra annoying is the fact that you have to be aware of the cops. Halfway to my destination, I spotted a cop car speeding along towards my rear. That almost gave me a heart attack. Thank goodness his lights didn't come on, cuz 4 demerit points and a $395 fine don't sound too pleasant. Coppers are quite unreasonable, and they are freakin huge .. even the estrogen filled ones. Sometimes, I wonder if they have anything better to do ... you know, like catch real criminals? They're really good at eating donuts and handing out speeding tickets though. They don't even give you the chance to make up some semi-believable excuse. No tong accepted either. So thank goodness for the person who got caught speeding on the way back. Your thoughtfulness was greatly appreciated by me and my fellow drivers. Long drives and cops are like water and oil, or vodka and Tylenol. They just don't mix.

On the way I heard on the radio about a controversy in Port Perry about the Canadian flag at half mast. On the weekend, a city councillor lowered the flag to half mast in remembrance of and respect for a Canadian soldier that recently died in Afghanistan. Apparently, this is the responsibility of the municipal workers' union as agreed upon years ago in it's collective bargaining agreement with the city. The councillor's actions caused such an uproar that the union filed a grievance against him. WTF!? Hmm ... let me get this straight. Canadian soldier dies. Nobody's working at city hall on weekend. City councillor decides to lower flag. Therefore, city coucillor is a d*** and must pay for his insolence!

Unbelievable.

Guess unions and flags don't mix either.