Observations

When you spend most of your day alone in the car, you can't help but observe lots of interesting things.

First, when that time in the car is in the middle of Kansas, there's not much in the way of radio choices. It's classic country and Christian talk. I heard one of the (unintentionally) funniest things I've ever heard on the Christian talk show: general counsel for some fringe gun rights group sounding the alarm that "Obamacare" is a thinly-veiled attack on gun rights. I would explain it if I could, but it was such paranoid, speculative nonsense, there really isn't any substance to relate. It was very amusing, except that the show's host, and presumably a lot of listeners, was falling all over himself to proclaim how serious and outrageous this attack on gun rights is.

I also saw some interesting things on my drive. I saw two people sitting on a couch. On a median. This wasn't on the interstate, but it was on a 4 lane divided road. It was one of those striped, poufy couches that are sold for cheap at the discount furniture stores. And it was just sitting on a median, on the outskirts of two. Two people were hanging out on the couch, despite today's chilly, drizzly weather. They didn't have any signs or any obvious purpose. They were just sitting on the couch. I laughed for the next 15 blocks.

Until I saw my favorite sight of the day: an elderly man with a walker, moving slowly down the sidewalk with his black lab at his side. Picture the walker man in the opening sequence of the movie "Office Space." This dog looked like it should be out running. It looked like it had lots of energy for running at the dog park, chasing squirrels, or playing fetch. But that dog was the most contented dog in the world, ambling patiently alongside its beloved human. That dog wasn't in any hurry to walk faster. It was just walking at his human's slow pace, acting like its life was the best life any dog could hope for because nothing could be better than having a human who would take it for a walk.

I think the perfect end to my long day of driving is sitting on my own couch (indoors) with my own loyal pooch (even though she always seems to think I could walk a little faster). I draw the line at listening to Christian political talk in my home, though. I'll stick to Rachel Maddow here.