Yesterday as I was waiting for the bus to come, I looked out at the traffic going by, peeking into all the different vehicles zooming by. After a while, I realized that it seemed like an awful lot of people were driving around in these huge metal contraptions alone; $26,000 of modern technology and gallons of refined petroleum to move one person from place to place. Not trusting my biases, I whipped out my notebook and started counting. Then I made some observations.

1. Of the 135 cars I counted going by, 101 bore no passengers. 25 carried one passenger, and nine carried more.


2. Lots of drivers were talking on cell phones, but only one did so while someone else was in her vehicle.


3. Some of the young men without passengers in their vehicles leaned out of the window to stare at young ladies jogging by. Or walking by. Or standing at a stoplight.


4. That reminded me of a letter someone wrote to the student paper in June, remarking how she had just started jogging outside after a long break, but was extremely disturbed by certain unsavory male behaviors. I guess it's more of a problem than I realized, me being a geekish young male and all.


5. Bethany Ryan: on behalf of all the men of Ames, I humbly apologize. We suck.


6. For the purposes of this survey, dogs counted as people, because people usually treat them as such. Children were often not so fortunate.


7. "American Gothic" is still alive and well in the heartland, as old people in pickup trucks can attest.

I sound gloomy, but really, who am I to talk? Just now, I drove to Friley--alone--to do my laundry and some typing. What can I say? It's a car culture. Besides, my survey had flaws--counting heads in moving vehicles, the dubiousness of how representative the sample was, etc. I wouldn't try to write a op-ed from it, just a reflective weblog post.

Going to see Ozma and Nada Surf tonight, then lots of homework and clean clothes. And now, the money-without-food experiment.