Day Six - Layover in Houston, TX

Lazy day so far catching up with sleep and ensuring my bacon count is high enough.

American coffee sucks. There are no two ways about it. It's black water. Weak, flavourless and utterly pointless. No wonder so many places give refills away for free - it would be criminal to charge for it. Having drunk a bucket of the stuff for breakfast I am now off to plug into Starbucks and get a hit of the real stuff before heading into Houston central to see a client on a social visit and then GET ME AN I-PHONE. AMEN.

I considered Darwin's theory of evolution last night before sleeping and came to the conclusion that there is a new way of testing his theory on the highways of the USA. Road Kill.

I have been closely monitoring the road kill on the roads so far and have seen dogs, cats, rabbits, small rodents and numerous Armadillo. (Is Armadill-i the plural of Armadillo? Does anyone care?).

By my reckoning the Armadillo has evolved the least and fundementally failed to adapt to its environment based on the fact that they are leading two to one against any other species in terms of becoming road kill across the US.

Indeed Armadillos must be only marginally less dumb than the bald headed, tattooed truck drivers who squish them with their 48 wheeler monsters which tear down the highways like weapons of mass destruction.

Incidentally, in Missouri there were road signs on the side of the Freeway stating the following:

Do not hit workers.
Fines of $10,000 or loss of licence

I was shocked that the average American motorist had to be REMINDED not to run down innocent labourers fixing the highway . . .

"Homer, remember not to mow down any workers today while we drive to the West . . . "

"Doh! Oooops - sorry Marge."

"Homer! I guess it was only one, so it doesn't matter."

Even more alarming is that the penalty for hitting a worker is just $10,000 or losing your licence! No jail time or public persecution - extraordinary. [On a side note, I was reading USA Today this morning and there was an interesting article about a young man who was sentenced to ten years in jail in Georgia when he was 17 years old for "receiving oral sex" from a girl aged 15. What a country! Run down a worked on the highway and get a $10,000 fine. But a blow job and its 10 years in jail. . .Jesus wept.]

Fortunately I have not seen any "workers" joining the ranks of the Armadillo - but then the trip ain't over yet!

Now, that i-Phone . . .