Why I'm thinking of moving to Idaho

As I mentioned a few days ago, I live very near a community college. There are a lot of students and plenty of traffic in the area during the day. This much I can deal with and accept as part of living near a college. What I can't abide is the students' insolent, sauntering attitude that is exhibited as they cross the street to any one of the fast food places across the street. And starting their walk after the light has already turned yellow.

Yesterday I had to go out for a little while to do some errands. Should not have taken more than an hour. So I wait my turn through two signals worth of sauntering students. First stop, the post office. No parking available. Just one driver trying to parallel park. Oy! Okay, I'll come back later or just drop my stuff in an on-street box. So on to the market.

Plenty of parking at the market. But they don't have any reduced fat cheese. I can live with that. Shouldn't have it anyway. I bought some frozen entrees. I never buy those things but these were on sale and would be handy for when I really want something warm but don't want to cook. Not enough cashiers for the size of the crowd but I get out of there, finally. Back to the post office. No parking. So I find a box and drop off my envelopes. On to the bank.

No parking. Drive around the block, dealing with construction vehicles and workers. Still no parking. Okay. I'll just drive to another branch on the other side of town. Have to drive through the sauntering students again. Get to the bank and there are people driving the wrong way, clearly marked by the way, and blocking people trying to exit, the right way. Find a place to park. Notice all the handicapped parking is occupied by cars not bearing appropriate plates or tags. But I don't have to wait at the ATM. Things are looking up. Try to back out but the drive is blocked by someone turning around so they can exit the wrong way. Finally. I'm on my way home.

I get to my street. It's blocked by a police vehicle. I look up the street and see four firetrucks plus miscellaneous emergency vehicles. So I'll just drive around the block and come in from the other end. It's also blocked. I talk to the officer who is sweating profusely in his heavy uniform. (It's only 82 degrees, for crying out loud!) He says it'll be another five minutes or so. I decide to go to Rite Aid where I only nearly got run over by a lady talking on her cell phone. I kill about 15 minutes there, just for a little margin.

My street is still blocked. So I figure I'll go buy some gas. Being a good and considerate citizen I drive forward as instructed by their sign. That pump won't accept ATM cards at the moment. Drive to another pump and pay $2.11 a gallon for regular. It's still hot outside and I'm getting a little concerned about my frozen entrees.

I drive back through the sauntering students and drive up to the other end of my street and wait for another 15 minutes. People are entering the street while the officer is explaining to other drivers that they can't get in. People are exiting the street. Finally, he gets on his motorcycle and leaves. So I figure everything is okay.

Well, I do manage to get home and park after squeezing past all the emergency vehicles and an on-coming police car. I put my groceries away. The entrees seem to be okay. There's still plenty of activity across the street. This goes on for another hour before all the trucks are gone. There are still people milling about. I've been gone for over two hours. And I never did find out what the commotion was all about.

My brother lives in Northern Idaho. He took me for a drive during rush hour. There were about five cars on the highway. He was so smug! But then he lives near the Aryan Nation stronghold. There are no sauntering students, however.

I did spend a few hours knitting last night. I'm working on a cotton sweater for myself. I have about 10 rows to go on the back but had to stop because my arms and shoulders were starting to ache. I'm going to try to finish tonight and cast on for the front. I'm going to saunter through two and a half inches of K2P2 ribbing.