I’ve rediscovered what the excitement is all about surrounding vacations.

When Steve and I were first married (43 years ago today – holy cow!) and had started the cable company the only vacation we had was going to see my cousin in Arizona at Thanksgiving. That was pretty much it. We were young, had a young son and had no money – zip. All it cost us to go to Arizona was gasoline for our car. So we’d leave Wednesday night and stay until Sunday.

Since starting the newspaper nearly 15 years ago (another holy cow!) we rarely vacationed – until last year when we cruised to and through the Panama Canal. What an experience.

Well, we’ve been bit by the vacation bug. On Sunday we leave for 16 days of visiting family and cruising the Caribbean. Thank God for Mary O’Keefe, Rachelle Miller, our proofreader Anne McNeill and the rest of the folks who work at the CV Weekly. I leave with the confidence of knowing that they’ll maintain the high standards for which the newspaper is known. I also am comfortable knowing someone is staying at our house, watching the three dogs and making sure all remains well.

Don’t worry – I’ll send my column from the sunny Caribbean skies.

Try not to be too jealous.

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I don’t know about you but what is it with today’s drivers? For example, at the end of each parking aisle at Vons (maybe at every store) there is a stop sign. The people pulling into the lot are given the right of way to travel down the main lane to find the aisle they want to turn into to park. However, I can’t count the number of times that drivers ignore the stop sign and just keep going – right into the lane I’m driving in.

What the heck are they thinking? First, “stop” means “brake” – stop the vehicle. Second, do you not see that I’m driving down the lane?

And this craziness is not limited to the parking lot at the grocery store. I live off a main street. When turning onto the main street, I stop my car to make sure I don’t get hit by another car traveling up or down the road. Apparently this action is an aberration because the idea of stopping at a stop sign seems to be a foreign concept. I cannot count how many times cars come from “feeder streets” (streets like those on which I live that feed onto the main road) without stopping, maintaining their speed and launching onto the main road. I’m surprised my brakes haven’t given out from all the sudden stops I’ve had to make in order not to get hit by one of these nutty drivers.

Come on, folks; stop signs are not merely suggestions – they’re directions. Follow them.