Rant - Should bicycles really be on the road??

So today Hubby, baby and I were driving back from dinner at Zaks in Ballard and there was quite a lot of traffic on 15th/Holman Road. As we came upon a bicyclist we had to slow way down because we could not go around him without getting into the lane next to us, which was packed. So we along with other cars had to slow down and wait to pass him.
This got us talking about how there is not enough room to pass a bicyclist on the roads safely. But if we were to come to a stop light or sign the bicyclist usually always pass the cars and go right beside the car first at the stop light/sign. Which makes it hard to pass them, and I'm sorry but the car will be faster than the bicycle. They should have to stop where ever the last car is.

I'm sure you have all seen the signs on mountain roads that say slow vehicles with so many cars behind them must use the turnout to let them pass. Could we not apply this to our city roads also???

Continuing on our way our light was red as we came to the intersection of Holman & Greenwood Ave. In front of us was another bicyclist, who decided not to obey the light and proceeded to go through it. This is something that is very common among bicyclist I see while driving around town. Seriously I wonder why there aren't MORE accidents between cars and bicycles. I myself have almost hit 2. Neither one would have been my fault but that is small consolation knowing how much damage the bicyclist would have received.

So I ask the question:
So how safe really is it to have bicycles on our roadways which were designed for motor vehicles?

This is a two-fer Rant.
As we were making are way east through the light on Holman across Greenwood a Police Car with it's lights on was traveling west. Due to the cars and lights he decided to drive west on the outside east bound lane. Which is fine for them to do. But as he passed us we noticed he was holding the steering wheel with his left hand while his right arm was across the back of the seat. Is this really the safe driving position especially when you are driving in the oncoming lane at a high speed????

Rant - Angry cops

Today Hubby and I were driving around Seattle. We came to a stop light where workers were working on the road and a worker was holding a SLOW sign and a cop was helping direct traffic. As we approached the sign said STOP which we did. As the worker changed the sign to SLOW we proceeded slowly. Well the cop was waving his arms all in a huff because we weren't moving fast enough. Mind you the sign says SLOW, and we had to move out of our lane into the oncoming lane. As we reached the T intersection the cop said, "do you know what a turn signal is'. No mind you my hubby did turn on his turn signal so maybe our light is not working outside but I couldn't believe he was getting annoyed because we didn't floor it and speed through the intersection. Go figure!

Rave - Zaks a burger joint

Hubby took the day off so we could get ready for our daughter's first birthday next weekend. While we were out and about we decided to have lunch out. Since we were in Ballard we strolled around till something caught our eye. And then we came upon Zaks. There was a little area where we could eat outside in the shade of an umbrella so we sat down.
Hubby ordered a Cheeseburger, fries and an Arnold Palmer. I ordered a Hamburger, onion rings and an Arnold Palmer. An Arnold Palmer is half lemonade and half ice tea. When our order arrived the meals looked great, but would they taste good too? I have to say it was the best burger I think I have EVER had anywhere!! Hubby ranks Fat Burger a 10 and Zaks a 9, but I would rank it a 10.
I've had many burgers in Seattle, Dicks, Burger Master, Kidd Valley, Red Mill (also listed in the order of best to worst) but his is one place I plan on going back to again and again.

Rant - What the hell is wrong with everyone

Reading this story literally made me sick. Judge Reduces Sentence For Man Who Beat Child To Death
Why on earth would this man even have the slightest chance of getting out of prison? Again I ask you what is wrong with our society!?! 16 hours of beatings 16 HOURS and he has the chance to walk around free one day?

On to another sick crime, so it seems Terapon Dang Adhahn will not be put to death for killing Zina Linnik. Our 'fabulous' Pierce County Prosecutor Gerald Horne made a deal with the killer, that if he showed them where Zina was he would not be killed for this crime. I would have said well yes you showed us where she was but she is not alive so the deal is over. I don't want to support this worthless excuse for a human till he dies of old age. Yes he had a rough childhood but that is NOT an excuse. There are plenty of people who had horrible childhoods or had bad things happen to them and they don't go around killing people.

Let's hope Adre'anna Jackson gets her justice.

So if you are as angry as I am let your voice be heard. Here are addresses for our local elected officials. They are suppose to represent us. Are they??? Is this what we want? Child torturers and murders to live and one day walk free? It's not what I want. Check out how the people we elected are representing us. Check out their voting records.

Rave - Seattle Rain is back!!

So over the weekend we had some wonderful rain showers. It was very nice to get back to our regular rainy weather. Some people don't realize that it can get warm here in Seattle at times. The only thing that was bad was our very high humidity. I'm not sure how high it was at our house but it felt like I was back in Savannah, Georgia.

Rant - Hansa the baby elephant dies

Ok where have I been hiding that I missed this piece of information!!! I LOVE elephants, they are my favorite animal above all others. And one thing I hate seeing is elephants in zoos. Elephants are just too big to have in confined spaces, and I could probably be easily convinced that bears and polar bears to name a few should NOT be in zoos.

I know that zoos are doing good things in preserving the animal species but anyone could see that the elephant are at Woodland Park Zoo is just too small for one elephant let alone 3 and a baby!

I would rather see these elephants be sent to live somewhere where they actually have room to roam and be elephants. One of these places here in the States is The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. These people truly love and respect elephants and I ask that you visit and donate to this worthy cause.

The second is The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick is one of my heroes on this planet. She has saved, reared and released over 60 orphan elephants back into the wild to live life again. I have been the foster mother to two of these miracles, Mary and Tomboi.

I know it is a fantasy to think that zoos will no longer cram big animals into their small boundaries....but a girl can dream.

Rant - Another child killed by a sex offender.

So how many more children have to be raped, tortured and murdered before we keep these sex offenders in jail where they belong! And if there are not here legally kick their sorry asses out! I'm so sick of people protesting that criminals have rights to be treated as citizens. What about the children and families that these CRIMINALS distroy!! Where are their rights. Level 1, 2 or 3 it is a bunch of crap, they are all the same and can never change. This non-human was a level 1 and look where we are now. Investigating him in connection with other child kidnapping/killings. I say you take a life you have forefitted your chance to stay alive on this planet. Why do we wait for them to take two more innocent lives?? And is anyone really surprised that he failed to register? Come on when are we going to learn, bad excuses for human beings are never going to follow the law. That is why you can find guns and drugs in jails/prisions. DID ALL YOU LIBERAL WACKOS HEAR ME!!! ROSIE I'M TALKING TO YOU TOO!!!

So when are you going to get angry enough to demand a change? Write your local officials, bombard them, tell them we are NOT going to stand for this anymore! I want someone in this state to take a stand like the Sheriff in Arizona, Joe Arpaio. I want inmates to have a horrible time in jail, it should not be a place where they pass time with more extras than lower class citizens who have not committed crimes have!

Zina, I'm sorry that your rights to live a happy childhood were taken away. Shame on all of you who allowed this to happen, and shame on all of you who don't act on this and try to make it better for the rest of our children!

Rant - KING TV Fireworks coverage

So every year I watch the 4th of July fireworks on KING 5 and every year I am thoroughly upset with the coverage. Why oh why do you need to zoom in on fireworks!!! Every time you do we miss some big firework cause you are trying to get all artistic on us. They are fireworks, they are the artistic element NOT your camera direction!!!

So next year I will probably be watching and pissing and moaning about the camera coverage again.....