I reset the Ninja’s trip odometer every Monday morning [or most Monday mornings]. Why? Because I am a nerd. And occasionally a bit OCD. It’s okay, my little bits of OCD don’t [usually] hit people over the head or cause them to tiptoe around me. [I don’t think.] [Except when I rant about keys not being in the basket.] Resetting the trip odometer at the beginning of my work week is one of the things I dooooo. When I remember. When I don’t remember, I have a moment of panic, followed by a moment of silence, and then I move on.

Usually when I get home on a Monday afternoon, the odometer reads 18 miles. That’s eight miles over and 10 miles back. Today? Well, I forgot to look when I got home but it was something like 48.9 miles when I was at the S. Maple / Pauline intersection and that’s a couple miles from home.

Yes, I drove a LOT today. Don’t ask. After it was all done and I had been back at work for a while, I realized that my little black summer-weight cardigan sweater was INSIDE OUT! Why didn’t anyone tell me that? I dunno. Maybe because we are all geeks who couldn’t care less what people are wearing and no one noticed?

Oh. My. God. My trip[s] to and from work today involved the new and dreaded State / Ellsworth traffic round-about. I want to like round-abouts. I get that they can make traffic flow more smoothly. I get that they minimize the risk of t-bone style accidents. We had one at Moo-U back in the day [anyone know if it’s still there?] and I got along with that one just fine. In fact, once I went to some kind of crazy student-made film thing at the planetarium where somebody was filming while riding around in a car on campus and the car stopped in the round-about. Right behind The Poochie! All the drunken college students I was with recognized The Poochie and raucous gnoffing ensued. (If you are related to Bugs and Horsey, you may remember The Poochie. I certainly do.)

Anyway… The State / Ellsworth round-about is not finished yet but today the traffic signals were down and people were trying to make their way through it without crashing into anybody or anything. It was terrifying and I don’t think it’s ready for public consumption yet. I can’t even tell you why. I couldn’t figure out where the heck I was from the get-go, between the construction signs and poorly marked lanes and the PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS!!!! Man oh man, I am a frequent pedestrian and I understand the need for safe pedestrian crossings but that intersection is a pedestrian no-man’s land as it is (and there are VERY FEW pedestrians (and the ones that *are* there are guerrilla type pedestrians — like me)) and this round-about is not going to make it better.

That is about all. If you don’t live on The Planet Ann Arbor, you probably don’t understand any of this. Come to think of it, I *do* live on The Planet Ann Arbor [plus I wrote this] and *I* don’t understand any of it. Good night.

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