Gijs likes driving at night - he does have to slow down for animals...which is part of the reason I hate driving at night. A few years ago our brother (we shall call him Betty Brian) was traveling through the mountains (not big ones but if you live on the Oregon coast and want to get anywhere...) when a deer bounded out of the foliage and totaled their car. Not long before that, the little Mijnheer and I were traveling those same mountains when the sprightliest little doe and fawn nearly caused us to flip our van and did cause us to spin 180 degrees. (No deer were harmed in the event that nearly cost our lives.) I'm always glad that Mijnheer van Voorhees is driving as he his less excitable than this Betty.The Vicar's Daughter references "travellers". What are they? Gypsies or homeless people? Betty Debbie was sort of thinking homeless but this Betty thought splitting the difference and calling them 'tramps' would be more apt. But then, the text makes clear that they
aren't tramps...Maybe it was becoming less PC to call them gypsies, perhaps?The village name is Thinbottom which sounds either hobbitish or Harry Potterish but also would make a great place-name for a slimming spa...owned by Samwise Gamgee and papered over with pictures of Gollum: A Thinbottom Success Story!)
Aunt Flo rubs her chest with camphorated oil. When I was sick as a little girl my parents would slather me with Vick's VapoRub but I don't think it's in the same family. Check out the unintentionally hilarious wiki article on camphor:
It can be synthetically produced from oil of turpentine. It is used for its scent, as an ingredient in cooking (mainly in India), as an embalming fluid, in religious ceremonies and for medicinal purposes.
Now I'm wondering why they don't have instant tanning booths spraying us down with this regularly...
Wedding gift from George is a pair of bronze pig bookends. Clearly George is the best person in the entire world.
Margo asks if there is a speed limit - Gijs replies, yes, but it's largely ignored. When I travel the I-5 corridor up to Betty Debbie's house past Seattle, I have the speed limits down pat...and then I largely ignore them.Corinne is supposed to have an assignation on the steps of the National Gallery. It doesn't get more public than that. I mean, I long for the days when you had to exhibit some creativity over illicit romantic encounters. (Not in Brighton!) But a rendezvous on the steps of one of the largest tourist attractions in England?! Corinne is obviously too stupid for love.
For whatever reason, blogger wanted to erase my text unless I made it big. Enjoy the large print...
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteMy close encounter of the Bambi kind occurred at 8:30 in the morning (!!). And fortunately for all involved, no one was hurt. The silly deer bounced off the driver side of my car (me being the driver), broke the outside mirror off and then bounded away. I pulled off the road and quietly had hysterics in a most genteel Betty heroine fashion. Then I had to finish the drive to work!
I used to love driving at night, but this aging Betty's night vision is not a good as it used to be.
My senior year of high school I rolled a van while avoiding some wildlife. Still not sure exactly what the wildlife was - but it was badger-sized.
ReplyDeleteDr. van der Stevejinck hit a deer once - he missed the first one, but the second one came out of nowhere.
A year ago I was hit by a dog...yes, the dog hit my vehicle. I was driving quite slowly past the local golf course when this idiot of a dog raced out of the parking lot and into the side of my van - it survived...but I nearly had a heart attack.
A few years ago I was driving on the freeway near Pendleton, Oregon when a largish bird (seagull size) slammed into the corner of the windshield. That was scary. I doubt if the bird made it...but I didn't stop to find out. If I was a swearing person, I would have been swearing right then.
Only the van rolling incident occurred at night.
One night my Dr Lynnderlinc and our daughter were coming home from a football game in Pullman on a misty night when a deers head flashed by the drivers window. A foot closer and the deer and car would have been toast. I remember hitting a cow in our Volkswagon Micro Bus (six kids) when I was about 6, dented the car, ejected my dad, never found the cow though.
ReplyDeleteMontana does now have a speed limit (used to be "a wise and prudent" speed), but it too, like Gijs' Holland, is largely ignored. I love Montana.
ReplyDelete