Safe Driving Tips

My wife started a solo road trip this week.  On the second day out she encountered heavy rain and the van started to hydroplane and fishtail.  The cautious and good driver that she is, she pulled over at the nearest gas station and waited out the storm.  Fortunately, the rain let up quickly and she was back on her way without any further incidents.

We know that the tires on the van are getting worn, and will need replacement soon. That is not an inexpensive proposition anymore, because modern technology dictates that all tires be replaced for best results.  Even if we choose not to replace all of them, at least two should be replaced at a time.

The tire problem reminded me that it is getting to be the time of year for me to once again publish some safe driving tips that I’ve learned through the years.  These might very well save your life or the lives of your loved ones, so feel free to share them.

I have a Youtube video to share with you, but I want to caution you up front that it is very graphic.  If you don’t care to watch accidents that obviously resulted in fatalities--no gore is actually shown--then please skip the video and go right to the tips below.

One thing the video makes very clear is that YOU MUST SLOW DOWN whenever you drive in wet, snowy or icy conditions.  Posted speed limits are intended to be observed in optimal driving conditions, but most of the vehicles in the video were being driven way too fast for conditions. On hazardous roads always slow down at least 10-15 miles per hour, and even more if visibility is poor.

There are other ways you can drive safer in winter conditions too.  For one thing, you should not use cruise control or drive in the overdrive gear, the one usually marked with a circled D, when roads are not dry.  Downshifting to a lower gear will accomplish two good things.  First, the gear ratio will be 1:1, which means you have much more control of your wheels.  You will also have the engine to actually help you with speed control and braking, so you won’t have to use the foot brake as much.

Downshifting on steep downgrades will help in the same ways as on wet pavement.  I’ve been on long 6% downgrades where I didn’t ever have to apply any brakes to maintain my optimum speed.  I could hear and feel the engine hold the speed where I started at the top of the grade.  I could also feel the tighter control on curves in the road on the hill.

In some states it is mandatory that you turn headlights on whenever you are using your windshield wipers.  It is always a good idea to do that even where it isn’t the law, as it makes your vehicle more visible to other drivers both oncoming and following.  And don’t use parking lights, put the headlights on for maximum visibility.

Finally, if you get into foggy or blowing snow conditions use headlights on low beam only.  Using the high beams will be more likely to decrease forward visibility.  If your vehicle is equipped with running lights on the front bumper that can be turned on independent of headlights, use them instead and your forward vision will be greatly improved.  You still need to slow down however, and if visibility gets too low, pull off the road completely trying to avoid using the shoulder. Go into a gas station or other parking area or you might make yourself a target for other traffic on the road.

Be safe out there this fall and winter…

Still More Unintended Consequences

Back in April I wrote a column titled, Everybody Out of the Pool.  It detailed the new Americans With Disabilities Act regulations for public-access pools, Jacuzzis and hot tubs.  The new guidelines, which went into effect back in May of this year, mandate that these facilities have permanent pool lifts installed to give access to our disabled citizens. That includes hotel and Motel pools and spas.

The cost for installation of the chair lifts was estimated at $5,000 to $10,000 per unit, but some estimates went even higher than that.

Well, on my trip last week I actually saw my first examples of the new chair lift device. They were at a comfort Inn in Hillsville, Virginia.  The hotel has a pool and a hot tub, so two units were installed, one for each.  Notably, I didn’t see anyone using the chair lift.

I wish now that I had taken a picture of the chair lift, as it would have precluded my need to describe it to you. It is a metal stand about 5 feet high, bolted to the floor at the edge of the pool or tub, with a waterproof chair attached. The chair faces at a 90-degree angle to the body of water, but swivels to suspend the occupant over the water to be hydraulically lowered into it.  The process can be reversed for egress.

I must say that it is a nice apparatus, and I’d like to see it in operation someday, though I have my doubts as to how many people will actually use it—just my opinion, you know.

The reason I wrote this particular column was twofold:  I wanted to follow up on the earlier one to let you know that the new ADA law is being enforced, more slowly than was originally mandated, however.  I also wanted to tell you that I stayed at that same hotel about a year ago for $20.00 less than this stay.

I cannot prove that the increase in price was due solely to the added expense to the hotel owners of two $10,000 chair lifts, but I can speculate that it was a contributing factor. And in this anemic economy, with hotel chains begging for guests, the last thing we need is an increase in the cost of your stay.  

I have no gripe with disabled persons, and Lord knows there are a lot of disabled vets who have defended us overseas recently for whom I give daily thanks.  However, I just don’t think there will be a noticeable increase in the number of disabled people choosing to use the hotel pool & spa facilities now that they are equipped with these expensive aids.

Please prove me wrong so that I can justify paying the increased rates caused by the new law.

The Premature Demise of Social Security and Medicare

(Sorry, Brad, but last week’s short column was one of a kind)

I recently received a letter from an organization that calls itself the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare.  If you are in your late 50s or older, maybe you received the same kind of letter.

The content of the letter offended me deeply, and I know this group is trying to scare seniors about their benefits.  To quote the letter:

“The troubling changes to our country’s social safety net appear to be inevitable, especially now, with never-before-seen political will to fundamentally change Social Security and Medicare!”

If the above statement frightens you, then the letter has had its effect, but it is DEAD WRONG in its inference.  The real troubling facts about social Security and Medicare are that both are broken and will soon be bankrupt unless some fundamental changes do take place. 

However, most plans being proposed in Congress for changing Social Security do not affect anyone 55-years-old or older.  They would stay on the current system. And even those who are under 55 would have the choice to stay in the current plan and collect benefits under the same schedule as current recipients.

You may ask, “How can that happen and not still cause the system to run out of funds?”

The answer is that once the plan is unveiled and put into effect, and the new conditions and benefits are explained, very few younger people will choose to remain under the current plan.  The experience of other countries that have reformed their Social Security system proves it hands down.

For one thing, most proposals call for the funds to be allocated to individuals, much like the IRA or 401(k) plans of today. If the individual dies prior to starting benefits, or before collecting the entire fund, his or her beneficiaries would inherit the difference as part of their Social Security fund.

Back in 1935, when FDR first signed Social Security into law, (a step we now learn he actually opposed and was very reluctant to take) there were no retirement plans and certainly no accounts for people to save tax deferred retirement funds.  The Social Security system was, for most people, the only retirement plan available. 

Over the years since 1935, there have been many retirement plans implemented, and the most important ones are those that enable the individual to save independently of others and keep the funds as part of his or her estate. Anyone who fails to take advantage of this benefit is—sorry, but it is true—a fool! That is especially true when your employer has a matching contribution, which many company plans do provide.

People under the age of 55 have no excuse for not saving for retirement anymore, so Social Security should be only one part of the overall retirement benefit.  No younger person should depend on it as the major portion of retirement income, much less the only benefit.

How do we know that the proposed plans for reforming Social Security will work?  We have a model to look at to see how a similar plan is working out.

The South American County of Chile put a very close proximity of the proposed plan into effect in 1981, so they have over thirty years of experience to relate how well the system works.  I won’t go into the Chilean Social Security plan here, but I invite you to read about it at Chile’s Social Security Model.  I will admit that there are pros and cons on the topic, but the pros far outweigh the cons.

Now, as to the other half of the equation, Medicare, I won’t even try to discuss that, other than to state that I don’t believe the Affordable Healthcare Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) is the answer.  My main problem with Obamacare is that it takes away over $700 billion from Medicare in order to implement the program.  That cannot be good for seniors in any scenario.  I’ll leave it up to you to research the different proposals to reform our health care system, but suffice it to say that some reform of Medicare is absolutely necessary in the next 10-20 years to keep it solvent.

I hope you will share this column with anyone you know who is age 55 and older. They don’t deserve to be scared that their benefits are going to be reduced or taken away under any plan currently being proposed in Congress or in the current presidential campaign.  It just isn’t so!

You Know You’re Old When…

Tuesday evening my quartet sang at a dinner for about 200 guests at a huge Baptist church in Augusta. After we finished we left immediately.

On our way to the parking lot we encountered a lady in her 30s who arrived late.  She greeted us and asked if she was too late.  Of course I responded with, “Well, you missed grace and our performance, but dinner is just now being served.”

She then approached me, smiled and asked, “How old are you?”

What a strange question, I thought.  Am I being hit on by this woman in a church parking lot?  Or, maybe she can’t believe I look so good for a guy with all that gray hair.

I responded, “I’m 73.” (I’m kind of proud of my age)

With that, she said, “Oh good. Would you zip me up?” and she turned around to reveal that her dress was unzipped from the waist up.  I guess she was in a big hurry and didn’t have anyone to help her when she put the dress on.

I laughed and pulled the zipper up to complete the task.  But then it struck me that what she had actually implied was that, because of my advanced age I must be “harmless.” 

I guess that told me how old I really am!

That’s it for this week…

Driving Tips That Don’t Work

I received one of those unsolicited messages this week, which contained advice on driving in the rain.  Since I am a road hawk—I drove 1,800 miles last week on my road trip—I do feel that I am qualified to respond to the advice. I’m going to quote the message exactly, because I want to respond to each part of it in detail. Here it is:

How to achieve good vision while driving during a heavy downpour.
 
We are not sure why it is so effective; just try this method when it rains heavily. This method was given me by a Police friend who had experienced and confirmed it.  It is useful… even driving at night. One method used by Canadian Military Drivers for years.
 
Most of the motorists would turn on HIGH or FASTEST SPEED of the wipers during heavy downpour, yet the visibility in front of the windshield is still bad.
 
In the event you face such a situation, just try your SUN GLASSES (any model will do), and miracle! All of a sudden, your visibility in front of your windshield is perfectly clear, as if there is no rain.
 
Make sure you always have a pair of SUN GLASSES in your car, as you are not only helping yourself to drive safely with good vision, but also might save your friend's life by giving him this idea..
 
Try it yourself and share it with your friends! Amazing, you still see the drops on the windshield, but not the sheet of rain falling.
 
You can see where the rain bounces off the road. It works to eliminate the "blindness" from passing semi's spraying you too.
 
Or the "kickup" if you are following a semi or car in the rain. They ought to teach that little tip in driver's training. It really does work.

First of all, I doubt that any policeman confirmed the method.  And I also doubt that the Canadian Military uses it either, especially if practiced as stated.  IT DOESN’T WORK AS DESCRIBED!  In addition, sunglasses of any kind should never be worn while driving at night.  They would cut down on an already impeded visibility and would be dangerous, raining or not.

The author writes about drivers using high or fastest speed of the wipers, then seems to indicate that the wipers should be left in the off position.  The sunglasses are the only aid referred to in the third paragraph.  Any model will do is dead wrong, as only polarized sun glasses would help, but they wouldn’t make the windshield perfectly clear as if there is no rain, especially if those wipers were left off.

In the fifth paragraph, the writer praises the sun glasses’ effect of “eliminating blindness from passing semis spraying you too.”  As you know, when a semi splashes water up on your windshield, it forms a sheet of it.  No sunglasses will convert that shimmering mass of water into a clear view of the road ahead.  The same is true of the “kickup” that comes from any vehicle ahead of you that drives through a puddle and drenches the cars behind. There is no way that a sheet of water magically disappears when sunglasses are worn.

In summary, I would hope that if anyone takes driver training they will learn the proper driving method for driving on wet, snowy or icy roads. Wearing sunglasses for other than bright, sunny conditions is not safe or recommended. Turning off cruise control and shifting out of overdrive is a much safer tactic. If it is raining hard enough that your wiper cannot keep the windshield clear, pull over to the side of the road and wait it out.

However, if you don’t believe me and you really want to test the theory, make sure you do it on a road that I’m not on, try to make the test when it isn’t raining cats and dogs and be prepared to yank the sunglasses off again quickly when you discover that the method doesn’t work.

Strangers and Friends

I have to warn you that this column is almost, but not quite political in nature, and I promise not to include any endorsement for either presidential candidate. 

I know that there will be a lot of talk in the next two months about religious beliefs, because one candidate is openly Mormon and the other professes to be Christian, though he also has roots in Islam.

I have never, to my knowledge met a Muslim, so I cannot speak for what I believe any person of that religion truly believes.  As in all religions, there are good and bad people in the mix.  However, I tend to give our president the benefit of a doubt and accept that he is what he says he is, a Christian.

The Challenger does come with some baggage, much like JFK did when he ran for and won the presidency.  He was the fist Catholic ever elected to that high position. We’re supposed to keep religion out of politics, but we cannot help ourselves, we do have some prejudices when it comes to those topics.

I want to relate to you my one encounter with a family that practices Mormonism.  It was in Utah and took place on that mountain hike my wife and I took up Mount Timpanogos to Timpanogos National Cave last summer.

In case you weren’t privy to my journal, I’ll tell you that the hike up and back covered about 3 miles, 1100 feet of elevation and 3½ hours.  Judy and I each took one liter of water to drink, but no food.  We learned quickly that we had made a mistake!

On the way up the trail we stopped frequently to rest and hydrate.  What should have taken about 90 minutes turned into a full 2-hour trek.  At some point on our journey we met up with a family of 6 who had stopped along with us at a bench.  The littlest member, a 4-year-old girl, must have thought we resembled her grandparents, as she became very friendly and chatty. The family was from Provo, only a few miles away.

When we reached the cave entrance, we had missed our tour time, but were allowed to go on the following one that wasn't entirely filled to the maximum of 20 people. It turned out that the family we had met, the Locketts—not their real name—were also on that tour.  We all went on the hour-long trip through the cavern.

The exit from Timpanogos Cave is about a half-mile from the entrance and, since cave rules prohibited taking walking sticks or strollers and such into the cave, retrieval of those items entailed a long walk back across the mountain with more ups and downs.  I was content to leave the walking stick behind, but it was not to be.

The two older Lockett boys volunteered to go back up to the cave entrance to get my “cane” for me. They trudged up the trail and returned with the stick in about 10 minutes. I thanked them and then we started back down the trail.

We continued to catch up to the Lockett Family at several rest areas on the way to the bottom of the mountain, and they graciously offered us some of the snacks they had brought with them.  On the second or third offer we took them up on it, as hiking was hard, hot work, we had used up all of our water and I was getting hungry.  We received some granola bars and some juice, for which we expressed our thanks once again.

At the parking lot, we parted ways and wished each other well.  There had been no attempt to proselytize, but there certainly was a friendly and caring attitude. 

I had been told that Utah was a nice place to visit, but if you are not a Mormon you wouldn’t want to live there, as they are very stand-offish.  Well, I certainly couldn’t find anything to be further from the truth when we met and shared this caving experience with the Locketts. They were the kindest and friendliest people I would ever hope to meet.

I have always loved Utah for its scenery and variety of attractions, but now I have good reason to love its people as well.  I go back there as often as I can.

The Strange Life of The Century Plant

This week I have a desert plant to show you that is quite amazing.  If you have never lived in the Sonoran or Chihuahuan Desert, you probably have not seen this plant in its full splendor.  It is called the Century Plant, or Agavacaea Americana.  The reason for its common name is due to the growth cycle of the cactus.  It only blooms once, and while it doesn’t take 100 years for the bloom to form, it does take a long time.

The Century Plant spends 10, 15, sometimes up to 25 years preparing for its grand finale.  During that time, the leaves grow to a height of 4-6 feet, 6-8 inches across at the base, with sharp serrated edges and a spike at the end.  The plant can reach a diameter of six feet.  It is not a plant you would want to run into.

After the long and slow growth of the leaves, the appearance of the stalk is quite rapid.  It shoots up out of the center of the plant in a matter of weeks to a stunning height of 20-25 feet. Some have grown to 40 feet.  The stalk is more like a tree trunk, since it usually has a diameter of 4-6 inches.  Once it has attained its full height, it gets branches with a huge flower pod at the end of each one.  The yellow or orange flowers take another two or three weeks to reach full bloom, during which time they attract bees and hummingbirds.  

When the flowers eventually fall, the seedpods are left to propagate new plants.  However, the Plant grows so rapidly in those few weeks that it virtually kills itself.  Almost from the time the stalk starts to shoot up, the leaves begin to turn brown and shrivel.  The stalk, having no support anymore, falls to the ground within a short period of time.  In fact, many of the plants never make it to full bloom, because they tend to be top heavy and susceptible to wind.  When they do topple, they sometimes take out surrounding bushes or small trees.

The Century Plant is truly a spectacular plant of the Southwestern American desert.  They are used as ornamentals in many yards—I had one in my back yard in El Paso, but it had several years to grow yet.  The last time I visited El Paso in 2010, it was still growing with no stalk.  I hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of the Century Plant.