Hey Freak!

It's that time of year again. Blogathon is coming.

This year, I'll be sponsoring the group of military wives who'll be blogging over at Stale Betty:

Yes. Once again, I must ask you all for your money so that together we can help our military men, women and families. We will be blogging every 30 minutes for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund which just recently began construction on a 65,000 square foot state-of-the-art physical rehabilitation center and advanced training skills center at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam in San Antonio, TX. For those of you unfamiliar with BAMC, it is known for having one of the best burn units in the country. It was already a top of the line hospital but with the added rehab center, it’s going to be even more beneficial to the men and women returning from war with severe burns, amputations and other life-changing injuries. Funding for the construction has been met but donations are still needed to purchase medical equipment and supplies. Any small bit helps. Sign up to sponsor us.

There you go. Real support of the troops. Sign me up.

I really love life's little victories. Some people don't even notice them because they're too busy or whatever, but I couldn't live without them.

Of what victories do I speak?

Here's one... when you go to a crowded grocery store during peak time, and there's an open spot for you, right next to the front door. This place is always crowded, and you're always having to park a mile away, but today? You're the man. You park up front.

Another one... this one happens in rush hour traffic. You know how, when you're sitting in traffic, your lane is always the one that moves the slowest? The lane to the left? Cruising along. The lane to the right? They're moving too. Switching lanes is the only way to get your lane moving, but by that time, you've already switched lanes, and now you're stopped again. Talk about frustrating. But. On some rare occasions, you're in that left lane, moving, and sometimes, you can time all your lane switches juuuust right, and you move the entire time. Everybody's had this at least once, right? Tell me you didn't go "Fuck yeah, I fucking RULE!" when that happened.

These little victories can be really little, too. But still satisfying. Like, when you're fast forwarding past the commercials on your DVR, and you hit play, and you get it "perfect" - that nanosecond between the last commercial and the return of (whatever show you were watching). I love that.

Little victories like this happen all the time, but I think we take them for granted. We think that they're kind of silly, so we don't tell anyone about them, lest they think we're simpletons or something like that. While we definitely don't want people to think of us like that, it's also very hard to not exclaim joy when you, say, "shoot" a piece of trash into the wastebasket that's way on the other side of the room.

But not today.

Today, I want you to tell me your most recent little victory. Today, I want you to exclaim joy over the most inane things. Even if it's something as small as "I went to the laundry room to take my clothes out of the dryer, and I got there just as it finished. No having to come back, and no waiting. Done right now. And I love the smell and feel of a load full of freshly-done, dryer warmed clothes." Because there's probably more people who love that than you think.

And face it. We love to brag. Even about the little things. And just for fun, if you comment, start your comment with something like "Dude, I so totally rule." Or maybe "I'm da bomb," or "I'm the cat's pajamas." Something. Anything. Praise yourself. Again, it sounds silly, but once you type it out, and then read it to yourself, you'll probably think "You know what? I do fucking rule." You may not be king of the world, but at least for today, you're the king of parking. Or traffic. Or remote controls.

So let's hear your stories...

Today, I'm gonna put just a little twist on the "If you had to choose between being blind or deaf, which would you choose?" line of questioning...

You see, I've heard that question a million times. It's a good question, in that it makes you really consider the little things that we take for granted most of the time. I don't think I could live without music, and I don't think I could live without seeing. My answer? I wouldn't want to choose. If I had to, I'd flip a coin or something. Nobody wants to give up a sense.

Or, do they? Ponder these for a moment...

The last time I bought gas before today, it cost me $2.79.9 a gallon. Pretty damned high, don't you think? That was probably five days ago or so. At the most, it was a week ago.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I went to get gas today, and I had to pay $3.11.9 a gallon.

Now, the station I was at is notorious for having prices that are a little but still noticeably higher than most other places. So I looked at the prices at the station by our apartment, which usually has about average gas prices. There, it was $3.09.9 a gallon. Not a big difference at all.

I should note now that these aren't "premium" prices. These are the "regular" unleaded (87 octane) prices.

Did I miss something? When did gas prices decide to jump? And how come nobody's making an issue of it? I certainly haven't seen anything in the newspapers...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not shocked that gas is over three dollars a gallon... I'm just shocked that more people aren't pissed.

Let's do this again... how much is gas where you live?

Just out of curiousity, who out there has seen the highest gas prices?

The place where I go to was $2.91.9 a gallon, but that was yesterday morning. It might have gone up since then. There's another place by my house that's $3.07.9 a gallon. I haven't really looked anywhere else, but these stations are usually about the average for what I can find (not counting small mom n pop places, like Bob's Gas or whatever). And now I heard on the radio that in some places, gas will cost over $4 a gallon... next week...?!?!?

So. Let's find out what everybody's paying. Tell me where you're from, and how much gas is.

Update: I heard that some places in Atlanta, GA are charging more that $6.00 a gallon. Talk about looting...

Joelle and I decided to do a little experiment. A TV watching experiment. Everybody's invited to participate. It'll be easy, trust me.

Here it is:

I'm making this a sticky entry.

I have something to ask of all U.S. residents: take a picture of a deer crossing sign in your state and send it to me (or post it on Flickr and give me the link). Oh yeah, and don't forget to tell me where (in which state) you took the picture. WI people especially - I need a picture of your deer crossing signs. Chicago people? Next time you're up there, like at the Dells or something, find a deer crossing sign and take a picture, please. And yanno, while you're up there, you may as well take a picture of the "Bong Recreation Area" sign, too. Just because, well... it's funny.

Here's an example of a "normal" deer crossing sign, as we're all used to seeing: [here]. WI signs look different (well, at least they used to).

A-HA! There is least one other blogger who's noticed that WI deer crossing signs are different [read post]. See? I'm not crazy. But, we still need a sign as proof.

And yanno what? I think a lot of people are having fun with this, so... what the hell... let's make a collection of any kind of crossing sign that's funny. Bear crossing. Deer crossing. Illegal immigrant crossing. And not just crossing signs. Falling rock signs are usually pretty funny. We'll get a collection together, and I'll make a bigass post, and we'll all have a bunch of laughs.