Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  I made a run to the grocery store yesterday, to pick up the ingredients for Debbie's chicken-mushroom soup (which I will be enjoying later this morning!).  On the way back from the grocery store, in a light drizzle, I was on a stretch of the highway with two lanes in each direction.  Passing through an area where the speed limit was 45 MPH, a pickup and I were traveling side-by-side, with me in the left lane.  Behind me a little car zoomed up to within a few feet of my rear bumper, and next thing I know it's honking at me, flashing its lights, and the driver (a middle-aged woman) was waving at me angrily.

Now that's the sort of thing one routinely sees on the highways of southern California, but not up here in northern Utah!  I was quite shocked, actually, as that sort of behavior is just not seen here.  Maybe 10 seconds after she approached my bumper, the truck on my right turned off the highway, and right away the lady behind me jerked to the right lane, zipped up right next to me, and rolled down her window – in the drizzle, mind you!  I looked over to see a foaming-at-the-mouth angry woman, flipping me the bird, and yelling something that I couldn't (thankfully!) hear.  Then she took off.

I was pondering the outrageousness of this behavior when I saw a police car behind me light off his flashy lights.  He zoomed by me on the right, and pulled over Ms. Outraged.  I pulled over right behind him, thinking I might be able to help somehow.  The cop got out of his car, waved at me in a friendly way, and walked up to her car.  After speaking with her for a minute, he came back to my truck and we had a nice conversation.  It turns out that Ms. Outraged is named Marsha, and she's well-known to the local cops.  She's had two previous incidents of aggressive driving and distracted driving; this would make the third – and the one that would cost her her license.  The cop asked me if I'd be willing to testify if she asked for a jury trial, and of course I said yes.  He took my contact info and a brief statement, then sent me on my way.  With a smile.  I can't imagine that ever happening in southern California!

Yesterday evening, Debbie and I watched The Martian on DVD.  I'd already read the book (which I loved!), but Debbie had not.  The movie did quite a good job of following the book, right up until the very last scene in space where the filmmaker took some liberties with the plot line.  Compared with most movies made from books, this was a small divergence.  As always, though, the book had far more detail than the movie could possibly cram in.  I enjoyed the movie, probably most especially the scenery.  I'm assuming that's all computer-generated, but it's still quite beautiful – even though it doesn't really match the photos I've seen of the Martian surface :)