Too Many Cars on the Road

Every single day there are so many cars on the road. And up until recently all of those cars were being controlled by humans. Google and other big tech companies have already started testing out self-driving and robot cars, but I don’t think we’re even ready for this technology.

According to the research from Dayton, Ohio law firm The Brannon Law Firm there were an average of almost 16,000 car accidents per day across the US between 2005 and 2016. That sounds like a lot, but divided across the 50 states (320 daily), and tons of cities and towns (even less) — just think about how many car accidents (including small fender benders) you see each week while driving.

When you think about the roughly 150 million cars on the US streets each day, that is just a small percentage (0.01%). With all of these cars being controlled by humans — humans who now have smartphones and even more ways to easily be distracted than ever before — it’s kind of surprising that so many of us make it to our destination without any problems.

Back in the day the main distractions were the radio and billboards. Billboards are such a strange concept, especially today. You’re not supposed to be texting or reading on your phone, but it’s fine for some big company to pay a bunch of money to put some giant reading material to the side of the road for drivers?

Have you ever been driving on a crowded highway full of speeding cars and wondered How are we all doing this right now? Seriously, it’s like Olympic synchronized swimming*
Click on the link!

It’s a miracle to see so many cars moving on the same multi-lane highway at such high speeds without everyone running into each other. The only thing keeping us from hitting each other is some paint on the ground which creates an imaginary lane for each car, and somehow that works.

Have you ever driven down a dark one lane highway, with cars headed in both directions, at night? This also makes no sense. You can’t even see what’s coming up ahead unless until right before it’s time to adjust. If there’s a car headed towards you with their headlights on, you can’t really see because they are blinding you.

Maybe you don’t think about these things and it’s just me. It didn’t start until recently. Maybe not driving much during the pandemic has made me appreciate driving on the highway a bit more. Anytime I drive on the highway these days I think, Wow, I haven’t been here in a while. Look at how fast I’m going! And from there I started thinking about the miracle of the highway and all of the cars working together.

If you haven’t thought about any of this then watch this last Olympic Synchronized Swimming video*. Seriously, this is just as impressive as what normal drivers are doing on the highway every single day.


*Sorry, NBC doesn’t allow their Olympic videos to be posted directly to other sites, so I guess you’ll just have to follow the links to YouTube. I hope you enjoy these two videos and please, drive safely. Otherwise the robots will come steal all of our cars and no humans will be driving, ever again.

OLYMPIC SPONSORS (More Sports!)

Rio Olympics CroatiaFL title

Last week, someone posted this article on the Facebook:

“TEAM USA is Sponsored by Junk Food: The Garbage Olympians Wouldn’t Eat”

You can read the article here, if you want. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

If you didn’t read the article, I will tell you what it’s about. It basically states how the TEAM USA Olympic sponsors are brands like Coke, McDonald’s and all these garbage salespeople who make the delicious poison we put in our bodies every day.

I’ve been saying this for a while, but not about the Olympics. Think of any sporting event you have ever been to here in the States (that’s what non-US people call it, “The States”). What did you eat or drink at these sporting events? Probably burgers, chicken fingers, pizza, all the delicious and fried things. You probably washed it all down with an ice cold Coke and a smile, or a Pepsi or some other liquid garbage.

*Side Note:
Lately, I like to stick to Sprite, 7-UP and Sierra Mist because they’re clear. Sometimes I add some grenadine to make a Shirley Temple. It seems like there are less toxins in a clear soda, or maybe they’re just better at hiding it. Maybe it’s all in those tiny bubbles?

*Back to the other thing:
If you’re over 21 you probably drink a bunch of beer at sporting events and before going inside during what we call “Tailgating.” Everyone likes to get wasted on beer and scream at their team. Some like to scream at the other team or their fans. That’s how fights happen and people get kicked out, or banned for life.

Sometimes you don’t get to go to the game, instead you’re watching from home on your TV. What do you see? A bunch of commercials from sponsors, 90% of which are all junk food and beer. Maybe sports should be sponsored by the stuff the athletes eat and drink. Not only are you watching other people exercise while you sit on your lazy butt, you’re also consuming an endless amount of calories while they are trying to burn almost half of that amount.

That’s just my opinion on sports and sponsorships, now here’s what I thought after reading this article. I know what food I should be eating, I know what’s really good for me, but I choose to eat the bad stuff instead. It’s a choice I have to live with each and every day. Maybe I should have eaten a salad for lunch the other day, but Jimmy Jamz sounded way better.

Some days, or just some meals I decide to eat a little better and that’s great. But what is “better” to me, still isn’t good to an Olympian. This guy named many things saying, “Why would I ever put this in my body?” I try not to put things like McDonald’s and Taco Bell in my body. My thirty year old body can’t handle it like my 16 year old body could.

Then there’s other things he talks about that I think of as an “OK” option. Like Greek yogurt, which he says is horrible, unless you eat plain ass Greek yogurt. Have you tried plain Greek yogurt? That stuff is gross! You need the vanilla and granola. (A few weeks ago I discovered the magic that is, Yogurt and Granola. Of course, I’ve been using vanilla yogurt and granola with chocolate chips in it — Not so healthy choice, but it is tasty.)

What I learned from this article is that I could never be an Olympic athlete. Not even for a week. I don’t even think I could eat that clean for 24 hours. Next week, I’ll choose one day to try to eat like an Olympian for 24 hours, let’s see how long it takes for me to buy some E.L. Fudge cookies and eat the whole package (I ate a whole package from Sunday night – Monday afternoon this week, but they were my favorite ones).

kicproductimage-128477_el_fudge_org_.jpeg


Next week I’ll update you with my “Eat Like an Olympian Challenge” and how far it goes… I’m aiming to start on Monday, but most diets usually start on Monday and end by Wednesday at the latest.