Day 2236

When I was having breakfast this morning, I noticed at least five different men having breakfast with their kids. This got me thinking that I almost always see more men having breakfast with their kids than women having breakfast with their kids at this restaurant. I don't think social roles have changed that much. It's more likely that the men are just unemployed. The women tend to come in earlier. They are dressed nicer, often in a hurry, and typically just order coffee and a muffin to go. The men linger. I could be wrong. Maybe these men aren't unemployed. They could all just be web designers like me.

It appears that something has changed on my auto insurance policy and that I'm not covered anymore when I drive someone else's car. When I called my agent to find out what is going on, he said not to worry, explaining that just the language in the policy had changed. When I read him the paragraph in question, he paused for a minute and told me that maybe I didn't have coverage after all. He said he'd research the situation and get back to me. This is the modern world. Nobody has a clue what is going on. Someone makes a decision somewhere, but by the time it filters down to the people who are supposed to implement it on a local level, it gets lost in translation. Corporate bureaucracies. Government bureaucracies. They are all the same. Confusing car insurance policies are just the tip of the iceberg. Health care is where it really starts to get messy.

Everyone, including me, is perplexed by the road repairs currently going on in the neighborhood. The old road was full of potholes and needed to be replaced, but instead of just putting in a new road, the construction crews are cutting out damaged sections of the old road with jackhammers and concrete saws and pouring small little sections of concrete all over the place. The road looks like a patchwork quilt. This must be the preferred method of road repair these days because I've seen this technique used all over the city. It is very labor intensive, disrupts traffic for weeks at a time, and looks like shit when the work is finally finished. I keep thinking that it would be easier, and perhaps even less expensive, to start over and just put in an entirely new road.

The road repairs didn't deter the garbage truck this morning and my trash got picked up again. This was great, but it makes the odd Wednesday trash pickup even more of a mystery. I didn't actually see a garbage truck on Wednesday. Maybe someone just stole my trash. Nah. That would be too weird. If somebody actually did steal Wednesday's trash, all they got was a bunch of dog poop.

The very last Land Rover Defender rolled off the assembly line in Solihull, England today. After 67 years, there will be no more. In an unrelated note, Paul Kantner, one of the founding members of Jefferson Airplane died today, continuing the demise of rock icons that defined my youth. We are approaching the end of an era. Most of the original Mercury and Apollo astronauts have already died. All my college professors have died. It's frightening now many rock legends have died this month alone. I find it interesting that the first Land Rover Defender was assembled at the Solihull factory in 1948, the same year I was born. Nothing lasts forever I guess. I'm going to look on the bright side though. As long as Keith Richards is still around, I think I'm fine. When the Stones go, I'm going to start to worry.

Spirit is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day