The Cure for Boredom is Curiosity.

I've observed a strange collection of people this weekend or at least encountered something linked to someone who probably is very strange.

First - the note left on the car telling me that by driving a SUV that I don't live up to the bumper sticker on the car. (The worst thing in society is ignorance.)

then, the chick driving the hybrid who literally passed me, got back in front of me and slammed on brakes for no apparent reason other than to make me notice her "SUV = Death" bumper sticker.

Here's what I would like to say to them - Ummmm, yeah, I drive an SUV. It's paid off. It's in good shape considering it's age. It gets better gas mileage than the Ford Focus I owned. It's also shared between two people and it gets driven a lot less than your hybrid. And I walk or ride my bike to most of the places where I've already seen your bumper sticker.

Lastly - I drove to Safeway yesterday afternoon to buy a few groceries for the next couple of days. I pulled into a parking spot and noticed that there was a man standing in front of the car across from me. I was very intrigued watching this man as he carefully pulled a cigarette from it's pack, lit it and began to smoke. What I found so interesting was that this man was smoking a pack of very American red label Malboroughs just as he was dressed very deliberately in what I would call the "American boy next door"fashion. Fascinating. It wasn't like he was just standing around smoking a cigarette and being dressed in a polo shirt and khakis, the style and brand was very deliberate. And he was smoking the cigarette James Dean style.

Then he pops the hood of his car. He's messing around under the hood (Look ma! more apple pie American details.) and he takes out this white filter looking thing. This is the point where I realize that I believe he drives a hybrid because under the hood doesn't look similar to gas engine cars, so I continued to watch him. (He was really fascinating) He starts shaking the white filter thing - far away from his body so he won't get dirty. It looks at it every so often and I guess it wasn't getting as clean as he wanted it to be. Yes, he is still smoking the cigarette. I see him get this thought in his head about how to get the filter thing cleaner. He looks at the car in front of him (the one parked beside me), looks covertly around and smacks the hood of the car with the white filter thing a couple of times. Oh no he didn't! Yes, he did. I guess he didn't notice me in my big American SUV. I couldn't believe that he decided it was OK to clean his filter on someone else's car. No, I didn't say anything to him, I was too busy being the fly on the wall observing. What can I say, people are strange especially when they don't think anyone else is looking.

Most of the time I think the internet is great. I love email. It makes keeping in touch with people so much easier. Less hassle, no trying to find a stamp or leaving countless messages on voicemail. But sometimes, sometimes the old ways are better.

For the record, I love mailing cards and writing letters. Most of the people I write hardly ever write back. Which I guess should make me not want to write them ever, but I know it makes me feel good when I get letters in the mail. Hmmmm, I think some of these people should get a clue. Now given that I've known most of them since grade school and one (I won't name names) wrote back once out of every 10 notes passed, I should be used to this. Before I digress into a rant, I'll move back to my original thought.

Last week I mailed out a ton of Mother's Day cards. Most of them were picked out for Ronette's side of the family. Aunt Kathy was "tickled pink" to get a card from us. Apparently, her own kids didn't send cards. (This info is from Mom Patty.) And Grandma, who is staying with Aunt Kathy, was pleased to get a card too. I also sent one to Ronette's sister and with her mom's package. Now get this, Grandma sent a Thank You card. Which I thought was so nice and unexpected. Very telling of the era she grew up in too. I'm thinking that I'd like to be more thoughtful in similar ways. She didn't have to send a card, no one else did. I'm very sure she didn't send it because she "had" to. The older she has gotten, the more difficult it is to read her handwriting, so she often skips doing the "polite thing". I'm digging this idea of actual reciprocation. Now if I can only teach a couple of old dogs some new tricks.