Where Is The Local News?

I woke up the yesterday with national news on our television covering the damaging hurricane Irene that travels in the path from the south all the way to the north path of the east coast, from Bahamas to South Carolina and all the way pass New York City the following day or today. They cover the path of the hurricane extensively from state to state. In a glimpse of few seconds, a fire in Yosemite caused by an explosion of a mobile home profane tank caused a 3,000 acres in the Yosemite area, and that caught my attention because we are currently here in northern California, just few hours travel to Yosemite. I decided to tune in further to the national news channel in case they give more details about the Yosemite fire, but majority of the news they talked about is the hurricane in the east coast.

We decided to head to a local news channel to see if they cover more about the Yosemite fire that is currently going on since its a local news so we assume that they cover more local happenings, more than they cover other state news. To our dismay, the local news are fixated talking about hurricane Irene as well, which is on the opposite side of the United States. Having a 3,000 acres fire near one of the most popular national park in the world is a huge news and need to be concern about. Unfortunately, its hard to even learn more about it in the local news channels, when they prefer to cover more on the hurricane Irene. We do specifically watch the news two days in a row to specifically know about what is going in with hurricane Irene, but knowing that there is a big fire in northern CA that came up, its good if the local news will cover that news too, so local people will be informed, be safe, and know what is going on in their own backyard. 

Planned Grocery Trips

With the growing concern of high gas prices, there is no reason to have multiple trips several times a week going into the grocery store whenever you want or need to buy something. If possible, plan in advance all incoming trips and try to merge them into one single trip and save a lot of travel gas and time! Whenever you run out an item in the kitchen, put that item in your shopping list right away. Once you have enough things on your list that you cannot live without for another day longer, then maybe it is time to run to the grocery again, buying more things in the list, instead of buying them one by one. If you plan to shop at multiple groceries stores in a day, it is best to plan the flow of your iterinary inorder to get the maximum things done shopping at the least amount of time.

Drive Safely

The reason why I need to talk about driving today is because we just had a heart-pumping experience in the road today! We somehow thankfully managed to escape from a non-attentive driver today, who almost hit us simply because he was using our lane not his, in a two lane road. We were driving towards a blind spot of a winding road, when an incoming big four wheel drive truck was coming towards us very quickly and the truck was more than half in our side. In short, the driver of the truck was using around three feet of our lane. Thank God that both cars were able to swing away from each other before any head-on collision occured. So I am extremely grateful that nothing happened, and everyone is safe in both cars.

I just hope that all drivers out there will always be responsible and always be careful in the road. If you are tired, sleepy, drunk, or dizzy, big favor, dont drive! Better safe, than sorry, wait until you can safely drive and can stay in your own lane. Remember that in a road full of cars, there are lives in each one of them.

New Teenage Drivers

I was flipping a recent copy of Wall Street Journal today, and I came across a whole page ad of All State Insurance. It is a simple, mostly text ads with a catchy red ribbon on the upper right corner of the page ad. When I started reading the ad, it provides a sample Parent-Teen Driving Contract, which provides space for both new teen driver and her/his parents to come into agreement between different driving scenarios agreement, and what are the consequences will be if the new teen driver will fail to comply with the agreement. The contract form covers topic like speeding and tickets, crashes, drinking and driving, driving with distractions like talking in the cellphone and eating, wearing the seatbelts, curfews, having passengers, and other road rules.

I personally think that an agreement like this is not only good for the parents side but to the new teenage drivers as well. Getting a drivers license is definitely a big step to freedom, but driving is a gift, not a right. We could really use more responsible new drivers nowadays for a safer and more harmonious travel all around. Having a contract like this, Parent-Teen Driving Contract, will be a great reminder to the new teenage drivers that they are enjoying their freedom (to drive and go wherever) because they earn it and they deserve it. And contract/agreement like this will allow new drivers to appreciate their freedom, but at the same time be aware that if you break the rules, you could get hurt, you could hurt somebody else, so it matters that new teenage drivers are careful and follow the rules, to be safe and to avoid the consequences.

If you are a parent to a new teen driver, having a contract like this will not only give you peace of mind knowing that your kid will be safer because she/he knows the rules, but also knowing that your kid is aware of the contract, work on complying with it to avoid the consequences. And if you are a the new driver or teenage driver, why not suggest this contract to your parents, this is definitely for your own good, it will be a great guide and reminder for you to always drive safely and follow the rules.

Check out this link: Parent-Teen Driving Contract