Good morning, readers and riders… mountain roads are free of obstacles today. I may be the only person to whom this fact is distressing, as my job description specifically outlines that I must provide some words to you, the readers, that fall into a sequence that serves as a road report… and when there’s no fog or ice or snow or rocks or deer or wrecks to report on, well, I’m not left with much. Sure, later today, we’ll have Caltrans working on Highway 18, on the downbound side, probably in between Panorama Point and Lower Bonnie Canyon Bridge, and they’ll probably have the right lane closed… but other than that, there’s not much to offer you.
I did notice that both my AM radio and my XM satellite receivers were having difficulty picking up transmissions today. I’m told that this is due to the, “sun’s pot activity.” Hmmmmm… okay. Didn’t even know that was legal up there, but I suppose you can’t get much higher than that.
I ALSO read today that many astronomers are now concerned about an impending “Ice Age,” which is supposed to kick in around 15 years from now. My guess is that this will coincide with the impending, “Global Warming,” invented by Al Gore (who also invented the Internet AND algorithms) which may kick in around that time. We’re going to have it really rough, if we have global cooling AND global warming, simultaneously. I just hope that Mother Earth doesn’t ALSO get a terrible case of “Thermal Neutrality,” too… that notion gives me cold chills of sweltering heat that average out to medium mediocrity.
Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to mention that if you go to a certain car dealership, in Hemet, and you attempt to purchase a vehicle, there’s a strong chance that they will play “sales” games with you. With some customers, they will run a credit check (without the customer’s approval, even if said customer is PRE- approved, and does not need/ want financing, and has emphatically and carefully stated so many times to the salesperson), and they will even tell the customer, “We’re not running a credit check… the information we’re collecting is a new requirement by Homeland Security, in order to check your names against the terrorist watchlist.” I suppose that some customers are profiled at this dealership. I WILL say, though, that if you MUST purchase a vehicle there, the method I most recommend is to eventually do some hollering (cursing may even be effective, but I suggest it as a final resort), followed by walking out the door. This method seems to get salespeople into an “apologetic” mode, one in which they will cease their lying and manipulation and attempts to rip off the customer, and will allow the customer to simply purchase the damn car, as it SHOULD be. It’s really a lot of work, very exhausting, very annoying, and very time- consuming.
Or, you can simply avoid this dealership, and save yourself the hassle. Just sayin.’