Lady Lovin’ Her Life: Real world is becoming more like video games
By Paula O’Kray
I have a problem with drive-up mailboxes in the area. Have you noticed that they’re almost never on the driver’s side? This is a problem, since it’s really not singles-friendly. It seems like the post office just assumes you have a buddy along who’s going to throw your mail in the slot for you.
I usually run errands by myself, so I don’t have that buddy handy. I guess that would be a good trick to teach my dog, but like they say – you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – and she’s almost 14.
Maybe they should just install them all on one-way streets? I just think it’s a very odd choice to put them on the passenger side. But maybe that’s just me.
Next rant! I guess there are so many distracted drivers now that we have to ‘enhance’ signage to get their attention away from their cell phones. One example is the flashing lights around the Pedestrian Crossing signs.
Another example are the flashing LED crossing lights to help students cross Division Street at the fire station, and they still get ignored.
But the newest attempt at getting our attention are the new frames around the stoplights in town.
Have you seen these? Bright yellow rectangles around the stoplights to make them more visible. I asked the mayor why we needed them all of a sudden now – after all, they’ve been positioned the same way for about 105 years now, so I can see why people are having trouble finding them.
The mayor told me that it was a new DOT policy. I think the real reason they’re needed is because people have been playing video games for so long now that they can’t relate to the real world anymore, so we need to start making the real world look like video games for these poor souls.
Maybe soon they’re going to add video game sounds as well, which should be really interesting!
My last rant of the day though, is about the new whirligigs on stop signs. What’s that you say? Whirligigs?? Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.
Sometimes a new stop sign will have little flags stuck in it at 45 degree angles to bring people’s attention to it. That makes sense, because it’s a new sign after all. However, I have noticed that many stop signs now have reflective tape on the pole, to make them more noticeable.
But apparently that’s not enough either, for those distracted drivers out there.
Enter the whirligigs!
I’m not kidding. There is a yellow whirligig on the top of the sign that warns you about the stop sign ahead, and on the actual stop sign itself, there is a fluorescent red whirligig to catch your attention.
I’m a little afraid to think of what’s going to be next. Maybe we’ll score points for every time we obey a traffic signal correctly! Just like Mario, jumping for those coins. Bing bing bing bing bing…