{"id":4972,"date":"2015-10-13T23:01:29","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T03:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=4972"},"modified":"2015-10-14T00:05:58","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T04:05:58","slug":"why-do-you-wash-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=4972","title":{"rendered":"Why do you wash? Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"carlots\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You just never know.<\/p>\n

Today, after my normal set of \u201cvisits\u201d in town, I decided to wash my car.\u00a0 Not by hand, mind you.\u00a0 But I like to go into one of those bins, where the big arms automatically move back and forth, spraying the vehicle with the soapiest soap, and the wettest of water.\u00a0 Moments later, you come out smelling like a rose.<\/p>\n

But you have to put money in the little slot to make it work.\u00a0 I was in the middle of such action\u2026. when the following event transpired.\u00a0 Truly.<\/p>\n

Of course, my window was rolled down, so as to operate the money-taking-car-wash-machine.\u00a0 I heard, at a distance someone yelling\u2026 frantically.<\/p>\n

Finally I could make it out.\u00a0 \u201cLady. Hey Lady.\u00a0 Are you alright?\u201d\u00a0 Over and over again.\u00a0 I checked my surroundings, and my mirrors, but I could not locate the voice.\u00a0 Then, I thought I heard what sounded like running footsteps.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, and I mean SUDDENLY\u2026 a head popped into my window.\u00a0 \u201cLady!\u00a0 OH my GOD!\u00a0 Are you okay?\u00a0 Can you hear me? Are you ALRIGHT?\u201d the head squealed, as its pop-bottle-bottomed glasses blinked wildly at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just fine, thanks.\u00a0 And you?\u201d\u00a0 (Of course, the look on my face probably looked ANYTHING but alright….. because I was in a state of semi-panic-fear with this sudden talking-head in my car window.)<\/p>\n

The woman in my window, WHO was not THAT much younger than I\u2026 then started a scattered explanation… about 14 decibels too loudly.\u00a0 \u201cOh, OK.\u00a0 I just\u2026 well.. we were driving\u2026 and it was a car identical to yours\u2026 and we were right at that intersection over there\u2026 and an old woman in a car just like yours\u2026 ran right into the back of us\u2026 and then she kept driving\u2026. and I \u2026 I was just making sure she was okay\u2026 and she hit us pretty hard\u2026right into the back of our car\u2026 and we are all okay. But she kept on going.\u00a0 I wanted to be sure she was okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHOOOOAAAA.\u00a0 Back up there a minute\u2026 little Nellie.\u00a0 Did you say OLD woman?\u00a0 OLD dang woman?\u00a0 Is that what just came out of your babbling-brook-of-a-mouth?\u00a0 OLD WOMAN?\u00a0\u00a0 And you are confusing me with her?<\/p>\n

I am sure my mouth was wide open at this point.\u00a0 My jaw had dropped well bellow my knees.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure of it.<\/p>\n

I could not speak at first.\u00a0\u00a0 And then I uttered\u2026\u201d I\u2019ve been visiting my Mom at Greenbriar Nursing Center.\u00a0 And I just pulled into this lot, from over there.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh.\u00a0 Okaaaay.\u201d\u00a0 And the head disappeared from my window, just as quickly as it came.\u00a0 I looked in my side view mirror, and noticed the woman was wearing a rather sturdy back brace as she scampered away.\u00a0 No doubt, a result from the last time an old woman rear-ended their car.<\/p>\n

Way too much drama, drama, drama\u2026 for one little car wash\u2026 I\u2019ll tell you.\u00a0\u00a0 Somebody asked me the other day why I liked to keep my car so clean?\u00a0 Well frankly, I am beginning to wonder if it is worth it.<\/p>\n

And tonight, when I arrived home from my last meeting, I checked my Google News Feeds, as always.\u00a0 Apparently an MIT professor says that cars\u00a0 should never be fully driverless.\u00a0 He continues\u2026 \u201cIf the problems that robotics encounters in extreme environments are any indicator, then self-driving cars are a bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guys is David Mindell.\u00a0 He is a professor of the History of Engineering at MIT.\u00a0 And now\u2026 he is the author of\u00a0 Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy. \u00a0 And Davey-boy said his argument against fully autonomous vehicles isn’t based on principles, but on history.\u00a0 There have been a lot of mistakes and a lot of errors.<\/p>\n

Based on today\u2019s history, I would say this fella\u2019 is right.\u00a0 If we can’t sit motionless while waiting for a carwash without being accosted while scouring our purses for quarters… … .. how can we EVER expect our robots to?
\nBut that is just one OLD LADY\u2019S opinion.<\/p>\n

I have to go to bed now.\u00a0 Right after I have my warm milk.<\/p>\n

There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.<\/strong><\/em>
\n— Napoleon Bonaparte<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.<\/strong><\/em>
\n— Thomas A. Edison<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.<\/strong><\/em>
\n— Mark Twain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You just never know. Today, after my normal set of \u201cvisits\u201d in town, I decided to wash my car.\u00a0 Not by hand, mind you.\u00a0 But I like to go into one of those bins, where the big arms automatically move back and forth, spraying the vehicle with the soapiest soap, and the wettest of water.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4972"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4981,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972\/revisions\/4981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}