Thoughts at Stop signs

Mood: Good
Hair: Clean, blown-out AND curled (the Apocalypse is sure to begin today)
Today's musical lineup: "Best of Ladysmith Black Mambazo;" "Wide Open Spaces" (Dixie Chicks); "Soy, Como Soy" (Ana Gabriel) [I'm not scheduled on desk duty at all today!!!]

My drive to work takes me to at least four intersections with 3- or 4-way stops. There is just one traffic light. So I guess I'm in a small town, eh? ;-)

I spent several minutes today in the left-turn lane at one of the unsignalled intersections. I love 4-way stop signs. They always cheer me up. As Shakespeare said about something entirely different, there can be a lot of

"...tale[s]
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing"

...people swearing and gesticulating at each other in annoyance. That makes me laugh, sometimes even at myself while doing it. This, by the way, was not happening this morning; today was a clockwork day.

The reason I like these interchanges is the sheer absurdity of people stopping and following the rules. Even when we're in a hurry, even in bad traffic, even when everyone else on the road is an idiot, there is almost always a moment of unconscious courtesy as we wait our turn to go through the intersection, or wave someone else through first.

I like that people can be nice. I also think it shows the herd instinct, but that's ok. Sometimes we need to be herd.

Ahem.