Things That Amaze Me

- Things I wanted to get done this weekend: write 5 emails, do my expense report, get tickets to visit my friend Jeremy, practice for an open mic tomorrow, exchange my shoes, and take pictures of some stuff for my job. That really isn't a long list of things, but I worked so much I didn't get 3 of them done. That's only 50% success rate.

- The smell of Highway 37 today. The first half smelled like someone had taken a wet dog and set it on fire. The second half smelled the dog had been there when he found out what was about to happen to him. Normally 37 doesn't smell like anything. In fact, as you near Vallejo, you cross a river on Richard "Fresh Air" Janson Bridge. According to the California Department of Transportation, "[The bridge was] named by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 68 in 1996. [The bridge's namesake,] Richard "Fresh Air Dick" Janson [,] is recognized as one of the premier decoy carvers in the American West. He worked on his ark near this bridge for most of his life. He died in 1951." (http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/trivia.htm)

- That people apparently lived on arks up until 1951. (Perhaps they meant art, but it's nice to think of him carving decoys to pass the time while he waited for the impedning biblical flood which never came.)

- The fact that people have professionally painted murals on their cars. I saw a black and green custom painted Ford Explorer with this scene on his tailgate: It's nighttime at the beach. We are looking out at the ocean from just inside the mouth of a cave. In the middle distance the Ford Explorer is driving along the sand, its headlights ablaze. Just beyond the SUV, Godzilla rises from the ocean shooting a burst of flame from his mouth. And behind it all, a full moon cuts through the night, reflecting off the waves as they gently break upon the shore. I tried to take a picture but he was going to fast and my exit was coming up. So I ended up neither getting a good picture nor getting off the freeway in time. Ah well Can't catch them all.