My darling daughter feels that no holiday meal can be considered complete without stuffed artichokes. What kind of Italians were we, when we neglected to have those on Easter? This situation had to be remedied. Yesterday I made stuffed artichokes and today I delivered them to her at college.
Apparently there were a lot of fellow college students who planned on helping Theresa eat them. We shall have to obtain a report on whether or not the kids liked them.
Driving back & forth to the college requires going past a few railroad crossings. Naturally I happened to hit it exactly when there were trains passing by, both going there and coming home. Previously, I thought only school buses were required to come to a complete stop before crossing the tracks. It seems that trucks also are required to do this. On the way home, there was a gasoline truck in front of me who stopped. As he started to cross, the barriers starting coming down, bells started ringing, and red lights started flashing. You would think the truck driver would have been in a hurry but no; he proceeded at a snail’s pace.
It’s amazing how many thoughts can flash through your mind within a matter of seconds. Among my thoughts were: What happens if the barrier comes down in front of him? Will he crash through it? Will it be strong enough to stop him so that he’s stuck on the tracks? (Clearly not an intelligent thought but hey, weird things go through my head!) What if the truck gets stuck on the tracks and the train crashes into the truck? That truck is loaded up with gasoline. He’s going to explode and I’m directly behind him.
Obviously there was no explosion and the truck made it through. I do wish I could say I made it back home without further incidents but, unfortunately, that was not the case. There was a close encounter with a Time Warner Cable truck who felt he could ignore a stop sign. I showed him, though! You could hear me honking that horn for a good half mile away.
