New Jersey: Where the Weak Are Killed and Eaten

Hello Friends!

As usual, my time in New Jersey has been one of those odd combinations of creeping boredom with a healthy smattering of sensory overload and multi-cultural immersion.

The drive from Philadelphia to my mother's house, for example, was downright frightening.  The lanes are narrow, the traffic is always heavy, and the shoulders were clogged with the snow that had been plowed off the roads.

At one point we found ourselves being squeezed into a concrete barrier by a tractor trailer, and had to take an unplanned exit toward Valley Forge.  After that, I decided to keep my head down and not look at the insanity screaming past us at 70 miles per hour.

Since I flew to the North East instead of driving, I am sadly without motorized transportation.  Though almost anything you could need on a day-to-day basis is within walking distance, the cold, snow, and various psychoses of other residents make one disinclined to wander about on foot.  Something about that metal cage surrounding me makes me feel a little safer.

Unlike in our neck of the woods in Texas, where it seems that nearly all car accidents involve only one car (usually kids joyriding on the dirt roads who eventually succeed in rolling over the vehicle), in New Jersey cars are deadly weapons and even the slightest fender-bender necessitates a police presence and huge insurance claims.

When I haven't been stalking about the house thinking up internet-based tasks for myself, I have been visiting doctors, shopping with my mother, or dining out with my sister and friend.

While waiting to be seated at a table the other night, a throng of people crowded inside the restaurant vestibule.  One young woman turned to my sister and apologized for her closeness, which made me laugh on the inside and say out loud, "This is Jersey -- you're always close to someone." The assembled throng chuckled and agreed, and we all continued our personal space invasion while we waited for the Hostess to call the next party.

Sadly my grandfather fell ill recently and needed to be taken to the hospital, where the doctors discovered his gallbladder was infected.  He will need to have surgery to remove the infected organ, and I hope that your kind thoughts will be with us and him while he is hospitalized.

Thanks for reading, and now I pass the baton back to Casey in Texas for the latest alternative energy news.