Room service

ROOM SERVICE:   I don't want to belabor the issue, but I guess I will, just a little.  In my last post I mentioned the traffic woes, or road work woes, of our recent trip to Utah.  This post is about that same trip, but it has to do with motel/hotel rooms.  Or the lack thereof.  Since we are getting a little long in the tooth, or old, as the younger generation will say, we don't make this trip in one day.  We break it up in two days, or even three days, each way.  With this in mind, a couple of weeks before we were going to leave, I called our favorite motel in Moab and ask to make a room reservation.  Nope, can't have a reservation, cause they are full.  Same thing with motel choice number two and three.  Finally was able to make a reservation at choice number 4.  For the return trip, we were staying in the Provo/Orem area, so I called our favorite motel in that area and was able to get a reservation for the night we wanted.  So called #1 in Moab again for a room on the return trip.  Again, no reservations available.  Lucked out with choice # 2 however.  Seems to me that gone are the days of just getting in the car, driving until you want to stop and get a room for the night.  Don't happen.  At least if you want to stay in a town and motel of your choice.  Gotta get reservations in advance.  Sometimes way in advance.  Makes me want to be an Indian.  They always have a Reservation.  And THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK.

DOES SPAGHETTI GIVE YOU INDIGESTION:  My loving wife and I recently returned from a trip to Ewwtah, and we did get a bit of indigestion while we were there.  And no, it was not from spaghetti. But from some one elses dinner plate. How is that, you ask?  You didn't ask.  Well, if you are still reading along, I will tell you any way.  As we traveled along, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah, we constantly ran into road work.  Not road construction, mind you, but road work.  No matter what was being done, it was road work.  And we constantly saw signs that said, and I quote, "End of Road Work."  They were wrong, cause it never ended. Just took infrequent breaks.  Aww, he's digressing, you think.  Not really, cause this is just a preview to what this is all about.   In 1997, or some where thereabouts, a committee of important people in their own minds, announced that Utah in general, and Salt Lake City in particular, would hold the 2002 winter Olympics.  And with that announcement, the State of Utah went into a frenzy of road construction.  Uh, road work.  And it hasn't stopped.  Or even taken an infrequent break.  At least from the time you exit Provo canyon or what ever it is called, at Spanish Fork, and it continues until you reach Hill Air Force Base, or some where in that vicinity.  So where does the spaghetti come in.  Well, if you ever travel those roads, you will see.  These new roads twist and turn and exit across traffic, ( example: try to make a left turn to the Hampton Inn in Orem as you are heading west on University Parkway.)  Can't be done.  First, you have to traverse left into the oncoming lanes about three blocks before you actually get there.  Then when you get to where you can finally turn, you slant across more oncoming lanes.  You just hope the traffic lights never fail.  Or that there is never a power failure. And the streets down by the Inn, where you used to turn left to get there. Oh, they are still there, you just can't use them. Someone was definitely eating a plate of spaghetti when they were designing these roads.   And downtown Salt Lake City.  The have reintroduced street cars. Or trolley cars, if yoiu like.   Oh, they don't call them that, but that is what they are.  And they run with the traffic.  In between the lanes.  And they stop when the cars stop at red lights. Except when they have the right of way to turn across traffic to go somewhere.  Again, I hope the lights never fail, or if you are in the vacinity you will want to call your friends.  Cause they probably aint never seen a wreck like that ones going to be.  So, how do you avoid this mess.  Eat a steak and take the back roads.   And THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK. 

WERE YOU EVER ACCUSED OF SOMETHING YOU DIDN'T DO?  And I would suppose that any one who has graced this earth with your presence for very many years, has been so accused at least once.  By a friend, an acquaintance, someone that you don't even really know.  Or even a family member.  A parent, a child or even a spouse.  Did it make you feel bad?  Angry? upset?  Maybe even aching for revenge.  How soon did you realize that they had made a mistake and you could overlook it?  How soon did they realize it and offer an apology.  And did you accept the apology and forgive.  These are all things for us to think about.  And while we are thinking about them I will tell you a story about a man I work with.  Wanting to pickup some donuts on his way to work, he stopped at the doughnut shop.  They weren't going to open for a few minutes, so he leaned back and shut his eyes, then drifted into a light sleep.  The next thing he knew, someone was tapping on his car window.  It was a local gendarme, or cop as we are used to saying.  And he was falsely accused, and given a citation.  For what?  Why for impersonating a law officer.  Sleeping in front of the donut shop.  So, watch what we do, and watch that we don't accuse others, at least until we know the whole story.  And That's The View From The Ditch Bank.