May 8 - Pet Peeve Monday

My Pet Peeve this week centers on driving again, or ironically the lack there of. I drive the 275-east loop from Ohio into Kentucky about three times a week. And about three times a week I see someone parked on the side of the road picking up rocks, stones, or boulders.

As the sign states, the highway berm is reserved for emergency stopping only. It is to be used for people running out gas or getting a flat tire. It is to be used by dads to show the kids they weren’t kidding about “stopping the car and coming back there.” It has also been used at times as a nature break for things that cannot be held until the next exit. Note, it is still good form to pantomime as if you ran out of gas.

The “rock gathers” create possible horrific results should an accident occur. How many times have you read about people running into a “disabled vehicle on the side of the road"? And why, so they can save money, by stealing rocks instead of paying for them. I say let them as the sign says, “Adopt the Highway.” This would give them full and exclusive use of one-mile of interstate.

They could not only collect as many stones to complete that nice walkway in front of that double-wide, but they would have unlimited access to mystery meats for the family stew. Was that opossum, deer, or Toto?

Additionally, they would have to clean up their mile of any trash or debris. The irony is that is that they will probably be cleaning up a random stretch of highway anyway as penance for their next DUI. The positive is that they could plea bargain to clean up their personal mile of highway rather than a HTBNL, (Highway to be Named Later).

I’m just trying to turn my Pet Peeve into a positive. As always, I’m part of the solution, not part of the problem.