Defensive driving FTW
Tonight is Platelet Night. I also have a fun thing happening on Thursday - I signed up to be a judge for a science fair. Yippee! Kids and science! But I now realize I have no idea what age group to expect. *checks* Okay, the fair is at a middle school, so likely that's the age group. Bring on those Life Cycles of The Frog posterboards!
I made a totally super delicious chicken recipe last weekend for Sunday Night Dinner. It was amazingly easy.
8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp seasoned salt
salt and pepper
Preheat to 350. Combine the liquid ingredients (honestly, I didn't measure. I just squirted in some Dijon and dumped in some Worcestershire), and in a separate dish combine the dry (I had to make more dry because I ended up with GINORMOUS chicken breasts). Dunk the breasts in the liquid, getting them well saturated, then dredge in the dry, coating completely. Place in a baking dish and bake for 40-45 minutes until done.
Now on to the day's random topic.
My dad had one of those careers that he sort of invented out of whole cloth. When I was little he worked as a bus driver for the city, then on the weekends he drove charters. He has funny stories about those charters. Eventually he was promoted to director of operations, then later assistant manager for the transit system. Then he couldn't go any further and eventually he left the transit system and started doing risk management directly for the city and all its departments. This led to cognitive dissonance for me during the two summers that I worked for the city's Streets department, because on occasion while I was at work, I'd see my dad walking through the garage doing some kind of inspection or bugging people about orange vests.
But it was while he was still at "the bus company" (as we called it) that he started doing a lot of driving instruction for bus drivers. I remember they used to have this yearly event called the Bus Rodeo, which was basically a competitive bus driving event. The bus drivers would get together in a big empty parking lot and they'd have to navigate this cone maze and do all sorts of bus driverly things. I imagine that the whole idea was to make the bus drivers safer drivers.
For that reason, Dad sort of evolved into an expert on defensive driving. He imparted a lot of these lessons to me when I started driving. It's a lot of stuff that's part of regular driver's ed but with an emphasis on being mindful of other drivers. The real take-home lesson of defensive driving is to always, ALWAYS assume at any time that it's possible or even likely that another driver will do something either batshit insane or colossally stupid. I do this constantly when I drive. I'm always thinking "She could change lanes any time and I'm in her blind spot. He could pull out suddenly. She might not stop at that stop sign. He might swerve."
I thought about this during my commute this morning, when I witnessed a near-miss of what could have been a VERY bad accident involving a large SUV, a sedan, and...a semi. It wasn't. It ended up just being some angry honking. But man...I think SUV-guy ran a red light but stopped when he realized what he'd done. Sedan and Semi were both approaching on the cross-street in neighboring lanes. Both of them stopped in time, but if either of them hadn't been paying as much attention, one or both would have T-boned him on his driver's side. Sedan Guy would likely have come off the worse in that scenario, but of course SUV Guy would have been totally creamed by the semi.
I had this vision of that happening. It was so clear. I saw Sedan Guy dying a horrible death, and SUV Guy arrested, and then me having to go to a trial and tell everybody that yes, SUV Guy had been talking on his cell phone and he totally ran the red light.
Happily none of that happened. But it could have. Good thing Sedan Guy and Semi Guy both practiced defensive driving.
I made a totally super delicious chicken recipe last weekend for Sunday Night Dinner. It was amazingly easy.
8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp seasoned salt
salt and pepper
Preheat to 350. Combine the liquid ingredients (honestly, I didn't measure. I just squirted in some Dijon and dumped in some Worcestershire), and in a separate dish combine the dry (I had to make more dry because I ended up with GINORMOUS chicken breasts). Dunk the breasts in the liquid, getting them well saturated, then dredge in the dry, coating completely. Place in a baking dish and bake for 40-45 minutes until done.
Now on to the day's random topic.
My dad had one of those careers that he sort of invented out of whole cloth. When I was little he worked as a bus driver for the city, then on the weekends he drove charters. He has funny stories about those charters. Eventually he was promoted to director of operations, then later assistant manager for the transit system. Then he couldn't go any further and eventually he left the transit system and started doing risk management directly for the city and all its departments. This led to cognitive dissonance for me during the two summers that I worked for the city's Streets department, because on occasion while I was at work, I'd see my dad walking through the garage doing some kind of inspection or bugging people about orange vests.
But it was while he was still at "the bus company" (as we called it) that he started doing a lot of driving instruction for bus drivers. I remember they used to have this yearly event called the Bus Rodeo, which was basically a competitive bus driving event. The bus drivers would get together in a big empty parking lot and they'd have to navigate this cone maze and do all sorts of bus driverly things. I imagine that the whole idea was to make the bus drivers safer drivers.
For that reason, Dad sort of evolved into an expert on defensive driving. He imparted a lot of these lessons to me when I started driving. It's a lot of stuff that's part of regular driver's ed but with an emphasis on being mindful of other drivers. The real take-home lesson of defensive driving is to always, ALWAYS assume at any time that it's possible or even likely that another driver will do something either batshit insane or colossally stupid. I do this constantly when I drive. I'm always thinking "She could change lanes any time and I'm in her blind spot. He could pull out suddenly. She might not stop at that stop sign. He might swerve."
I thought about this during my commute this morning, when I witnessed a near-miss of what could have been a VERY bad accident involving a large SUV, a sedan, and...a semi. It wasn't. It ended up just being some angry honking. But man...I think SUV-guy ran a red light but stopped when he realized what he'd done. Sedan and Semi were both approaching on the cross-street in neighboring lanes. Both of them stopped in time, but if either of them hadn't been paying as much attention, one or both would have T-boned him on his driver's side. Sedan Guy would likely have come off the worse in that scenario, but of course SUV Guy would have been totally creamed by the semi.
I had this vision of that happening. It was so clear. I saw Sedan Guy dying a horrible death, and SUV Guy arrested, and then me having to go to a trial and tell everybody that yes, SUV Guy had been talking on his cell phone and he totally ran the red light.
Happily none of that happened. But it could have. Good thing Sedan Guy and Semi Guy both practiced defensive driving.