Bodacious Boomer

The other day I heard a story I just couldn’t believe. A man had driven his $1,000,000+ car off the seawall in Galveston into the Gulf of Mexico. I couldn’t believe any man would do anything so stupid unless he was having a heart attack or seizure. I also had a problem believing that any car was worth over a million dollars. (Well, my mistake on that part). Apparently a Bugatti is over a million dollars, almost $2 million in fact. However, he didn’t drive off the seawall- a good thing since the drop probably would’ve killed him. (It’s about 15′  down to the granite boulders). Instead he drove it into a salt marsh near Galveston.

How did this happen a sane person would ask? Well, he said he was distracted by a pelican. Now I must agree that a low flying pelican can be a distraction. When we were going to Key West 5 years ago, a pelican was flying just to the left of our car perhaps 8′ or so away. I’d never seen a pelican in flight that close up and found it fascinating. However, lucky for us, Doug was able to contain his amazement and excitement and keep our 1991 Suburban safely on the road. Do I think this guy was really distracted by a low flying pelican? No I don’t. I think something else was afoot or perhaps “ahand”.

Awhile back I remember Doug telling me about an NBA player who had an accident due to “unusual circumstances”. In 2006 NBA player Eddie Griffin plowed his Cadillac Escalade into a parked car. Mr. Griffin had a good reason why he couldn’t be expected to keep his eyes on the road. He was watching porn on the DVD player mounted on his dashboard. In addition to watching the DVD, he wasn’t keeping both hands on the steering wheel at the time of the incident. One hand was located in his lap, testing to see how much he really liked the movie- You get it- right? (Email me for a more explicit explanation if you don’t).He received a ticket for “inattentive driving”. What a euphemism!

I can attest that men, at least the men I know, are highly distractable drivers. There have been countless times that I wished that I had a pair of blinders that I could put on Doug while he’s driving and I’m in the car.  He turns his head so often to see what he might miss that if you see him from behind it looks like he’s watching a tennis match while he drives. I don’t hear the Call of the Wild that he hears constantly coming from the side of the road. Perhaps women just aren’t capable of hearing those sounds. (Kinda like a dog whistle that humans can’t hear). Doug’s distractibility while driving is so bad that I panic if he’s out and about and runs really late getting home.

According to the comments that I’ve read online about the Bugatti wreck there are a fair number of people who think the owner of that extremly expensive car might have done this intentionally as part of an insurance scam. I don’t know that for a fact. However, I didn’t see any pelican in the video clip of the accident. Pelicans being such large birds I think if there was one there I would’ve seen it.  I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though. (Perhaps it was on the right side of car).

I know one thing for sure though- that if I was driving a car that was worth almost $2,000,000 I’d be keeping both hands on the wheel and my eyes fixed on the road ahead. But then I’m just a girl.

Stingrays at the Aquarium restaurant

Alright, I know my skills as a videographer suck. In my defense, I took this video with my phone while trying to feed a stingray at the same time. Last Sunday Doug and I were working an event in Kemah, TX. (The event was unwonderful). However, I thought I’d remembered hearing about some type of animal encounter attraction offered at the Aquarium restaurant. Our booth was very close to the restaurant. It was getting to the end of our day and I was more than ready to pack up and go home. (We hadn’t made a dime in over an hour). I was getting antsy wanting to leave so I went over to check it out.

For $5.99 you got to see the stingrays and also were given food for them -4 tiny, 3″ fish. I followed the path which led me into a huge room with a large pool surrounded by a short wall. There must’ve been at least 40 stingrays of assorted sizes flying through the water. Since the wall was only 2″ tall, you could reach in, touch the water and the rays too. (Their barbs had been removed) .They were everywhere! Some of them were 5′ across. However most of the big ones didn’t come too close to the wall, probably just do to lack of manuvering room.

There was a sign explaining how to feed the stingrays. You had to hold the fish between your knuckles, put your hand about 10″ under water and wait for the ray to come to you. I did that and didn’t have long to wait. For them to get to the food their entire body will cover your hand entirely while they eat since their mouth is on the underside. It’s very disconcerting the first time you do it, but it was neat.  The rays would come up and beg for food. To get their mouth near the food, they have to lift the front of their body up and out of the water. This freaked out some of the visitors. When they start flapping their wings while partially out of the water you can see just how powerful they are.

Stingray begging for food.

I was all pumped after doing this and went to tell Doug. He was unimpressed. It seems the only animals that he’s really interested are dogs. Doug didn’t want to feed a white tiger a chunk of meat with a pair of tongs, or pet the black bear when I did that at other places around the country. Since Sunday, I’ve done some research and discovered that you can actually be in the water with rays at some tropical resorts. However, for those of those who are unable to get away this is a really unique experience. I recommend it. Just remember to bring a camera and get someone else to do the filming. Today’s trivia answer- erythrocytes.