At first glance, one might think this is just a picture taken through the windshield of a car. But, there is SO much more going on here.




First, apparently I have spied the only Jamaican made automobile in the world.

Second, if you are going to add after market turn signals to your rear view mirrors...don't you think it wise to take a few seconds to make sure that you put the left-pointing arrow on the left side of the car and vice versa? And yes, in case you were wondering, verification was made that the right turn signal produces an arrow in the mirror that points the opposite way as well.




Third, the above pictured left hand turn and subsequently referenced right hand turn were observed en route to a Walmart parking lot. Seems timely given the recent surge in popularity of the viral site People of Walmart don't you think?

Lastly, the timing of this photo is one-in-a-million. In the rain, waiting to turn left, it only took 2 tries to get the signals flashing at just the right time.

Yes, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, or at least several seconds of sarcastic mockery.

T

his sign was recently discovered in a Walgreens parking lot. I'm not sure what is more disturbing, the fact that shopping carts get stolen from Walgreens or the fact that they are so valuable that the company has to install an under ground electrical wiring system that renders the cart's wheels inoperable once said cart goes past the official Walgreens perimeter.

Look, it's no secret that $4 a gallon gasoline is the pits. It goes without saying that filling up a car today is a real hardship.

And, this hardship is particularly difficult in the spread-out Midwestern region of the country. Which is why, I'm complaining. Public transportation is great in urban settings, but it's a bit more challenging or should we say, NONEXISTENT, when people live in the country.

This got us thinking about alternative modes of transportation here at Midwestern Meditations eMagazine. All around the world, people deal with transportation in a variety of ways. We've all seen the pictures of people hanging out of and on top of trains in India. And everyone sees video of the herds of Chinese bicyclists who are NOT in the middle of a race.

It can be done. In fact, here at home there has been a boom in the motorcycle and especially motor scooter business.  You can get a new scooter that costs 10% of what a new car costs and it gets 5 times the gas mileage!  When you really look at the numbers, it's a no-brainer.

And then...

...it rains.


"HA, HA!" Or, should I "HONK, HONK" while driving by?

Just think 15 minutes earlier, I was jealous of this guy on his fuel efficient and inexpensive motor scooter.

Schmuck.

Acouple of months ago I was walking through Baltimore/Washington International Airport on business. My flight had just landed and I was feeling a bit hungry but nothing in the terminal looked affordable or even tempting.

However, as I turned the corner from one airline terminal to another I experienced what can only be described as a modern day miracle. There, against a wall all by itself was a lone vending machine. Yeah, that's right, a vending machine. You may recall my disdain for some vending companies with their aloof advertising..."Fresh To You!"

Well I knew right then and there that I had to eat my words from that previous rant / posting about vending machines. Words cannot adequately explain what I saw. So, I took out my camera and stopped in the middle of everyone's way to take a picture of the now legendary machine.

Behold! The FRESH GRILLED HOT DOG & SAUSAGE VENDING MACHINE!

I'm pretty sure I heard angels singing and I can't really recall everything that happened after I took the picture. But I can tell you that it was delicious. Not only was I purchasing a delicious hot dog, but it came from a machine!

No longer did I have to feel obligated to make small talk with a hot dog vendor asking where I was coming from or where I was going.

No longer did I have to pretend to not see the vendor's disdain for me as they slopped together another hastily made hot dog.

No longer did I have to struggle with simple math while trying to calculate the right amount of change to hand over with my bills so that I got only bills back.

The machine didn't take extra change like that. It didn't care where I was from or where I was going. It didn't judge me for my poor addition and subtraction skills.

It reminds me of that fortune teller machine in the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks. In the end of that movie he goes back to being a kid after getting his wish to be "Big". Not me. I will never go back. I'll choose mechanically prepared food every chance I get.

I don't know, maybe I'll see another one someday, but I doubt it.

We have always known that flourescent bulbs are more energy efficient than incandesant bulbs. But, the problem when you get the basics of it all was that most lighting fixtures in, the world, take incandesant bulbs.

So, flourescent bulbs never really took off anywhere outside of industrial lighting or garage shops.

Surely over the years, scientists would be able to develop something to adapt to incandesant bulb fixtures. But alas, that day is probably decades away.

Or not.

Now there is a flourescent bulb that will screw into an incandesant outlet. WOW! They did it! The science and technology behind this must have been nearly impossible to comprehend and develop!





Or, well, I guess they could just twist the flourescent bulb into a curly-que shape and call it a day.



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Midwestern Meditations eMagazine presents...

Horrible mis-steps in architecture.

Specifically, when builders try to incorporate the modern with the old and get it completely wrong.

Item #1

Mmmm...K.

So, what we have here are two houses that have been, well, "joined". I'm sure that building permits and zoning laws were no problem with this configuration.

My only question is, do we now have one big house or three? Builders: You're doing it wrong.

Item #2

Now, I truly love this one. The modern day pole-barn is already such a highly regarded structure. So to mold it around a late 19th century stone-built train depot has to be a "win-win", no?


Item #3



...and

wait for it...

CHECKMATE.

For those of you who don't know, this WAS Chicago's famous Soldier Field. Now, it is the site of the latest sighting and apparently landing of a UFO.


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If there is one thing I can't stand, it's having mailbox problems. I mean honestly, whether it's a rickety mailbox post or one that gets swiped, knocked over, or hit by a car, mailboxes aren't supposed to cause us trouble.

A mailbox is to do nothing but stand at attention, 24/7/365. It serves one purpose and one purpose only, to aid in the distribution of the U.S. mail. So, when someone has mailbox problems it's quite an annoyance.

First you have to devote seconds if not minutes out of your day to do something with your mailbox other than just open it up and take out the mail. You might have to "shore it" up by adding more concrete at the base. Or, if you live in a certain state, you may have to put more sand in the five gallon bucket holding the mailbox post up at the end of your drive.

Maybe, yours is one of those mailboxes held up by a post made from saw blades.

At any rate, when you have problems you may just have to rip out the contraption all together and start all over. When you replace a mailbox you have to decide, classic black sheet metal that says, "I'm a nostalgic American", or the new indestructible Rubbermaid-type one-piece that will still be able to perform its duties after a nuclear holocaust?

I know, it's a lot of information to process and think about. But, how, praytell do you ever come up with this setup?

I mean forget nuclear holocausts, this thing could withstand an M-1 tank for goodness sake. I'm no oracle, but something tells me this guy has had some mailbox troubles in the past.

I'm not sure, just sayin'.

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We've all been there.

Waiting in line for the guy to spin the sign around saying "SLOW" so we can get through the construction zone.

While waiting, it's only natural to think about that guy's job.


Leaning on a stop sign pole while holding a walkee-talkee. Man, now there's a job. Government work. Decent benfits. How hard could it really be?