Over to you, RSA
There is a happy little crew here in Ireland who call themselves the Road Safety Authority.
They are obsessed with the idea of eliminating all road deaths in Ireland. I have no theoretical objection to this objective as it does somewhat fill their remit.
Where I do have a problem with the RSA is their methods. My principal objection is their obsession with speed. To listen to them, all accidents are caused by speeding with no other factors involved whatsoever. They spend vast sums advertising stuff on television which frankly is of little use. Who thinks of television adverts when they are behind the wheel? They also have the meeja involved so that every single accident gets headlines in the news. Every day we are told of some accident and how many were killed or injured, but of course we are never told the cause, the implication being that it was speed.
One of their latest greatest brainfarts is to reduce speed limits everywhere. I very much doubt this will have any effect on death rates. Just as an aside, the photo in the article I linked to says a lot – a speed trap on a wide, well surfaced road with little traffic thereby milking us of more cash?
There has been a spate of accidents in the last while and a lot seem to have factors in common. They seem to involve young drivers with a car full of young passengers who end up in a single vehicle crash. Yes, they probably were speeding, but I would bet the house that the main causes were bravado and sheer lack of experience.
Now another set of figures are in the headlines.
I might add that driver testing is also part of the RSA’s remit.
So there are 74,500 people driving on provisional licenses? I would wager that the vast majority of those don’t bother with accompanying drivers and happily tread the tarmac as if they had been driving for years. Add into that mix the number who haven’t bothered with a license at all? While we are at it, let’s add in all the disqualified drivers who are still happily ignoring the reason they were disqualified in the first place? We are into significant numbers here. I’m not saying that this coterie are therefore the cause of accidents, but I would wager they are responsible for a lot?
But of course speed limits will solve everything!
Averted
Yesterday was a disaster.
A fiasco.
The pits.
I decided a trip was necessary. I also fancied a bit of village air to clear a foggy brain. So I drove down. A big mistake.
I had decided I would have a coffee/tea first in the coffee shop. I have switched to tea there as it’s less harsh on a dicky stomach. Then I would do the pharmacy and the groceries. So I headed into the coffee shop.
Dave [the owner and very good friend] was sitting outside having a coffee and a fag at the only no-smoking table outside. That’s one of the things I like about Dave – a healthy belief in making rules suit him and a healthy disregard for petty regulations. I have inquired about the reason for the only no-smoking table but he just laughs.
Anyhows, no sooner had I sat down when the pain hit.
I have never felt pain quite as bad as that. It was as if every tooth on the left hand side of my face had been ripped out, naturally without any anesthetic. It was excruciating. It left me doubled up in my seat. I couldn’t talk, just aimlessly flap my hands around.
I have had brief spells of this pain in the past but they tend to pass fairly quickly. This one didn’t. Every now and then it would ease a bit and I would start to relax but then it would come back even stronger. It was relentless and unmerciful.
Dave was very worried at this stage and had his Missus phone around for help. None forthcoming. Dave then buggered off, collected prescriptions and did the grocery shopping. I don’t believe in angels but maybe I can make an exception in his case. And he’d kill me for saying that. He wanted to drive me home too but he has a business to run….
I’m a hell of a lot better today. A great night’s sleep and the start of a new regime of medication [from yesterday’s trip].
Things might have turned really nasty yesterday but for Dave. I probably would have ended up as an inmate of our Glorious Hospital again.
Thanks Dave.
You’re a fucking star.
How I feel at the moment
Meh!
Another morning wasted.
Rejected for a procedure yet again.
Really pissed off.
Infected web sites
I just wrote a long post about my health woes.
It came across as self pitying.
I binned it.
Okay, my health has been on a rapid decline over the last few weeks but that is boring news [except maybe for me?] but I have noticed another phenomenon. As the physical declines so does the mental.
I have mentioned before about this compulsion I have to scribble something each day. Normally this wasn’t a problem. I would find a topic and would then do a mental draft. But lately as soon as I try drafting something the brain instantly turns to sludge. It’s worse than writer’s block as the thoughts are there but they are so mixed up and confusing that I couldn’t possibly make any sense of them.
Take for example the edifying spectacle last Friday of the Attack Dogs savaging poor Zelenskyy. This would be pure gold-dust for material but sadly I had to let it pass. My thoughts were too confused. I did have opinions all right but putting those opinions into some sort of legibility was impossible. Sludge. Mental Porridge.
Even now, I’m not sure where I am going with this. My thought process is on a totally different track from when I started.
I don’t know what impact this will happen to poor Rambles.
Can a web site contract cancer?
