Saving the Planet, but Endangering the Blind

I was driving to work in my lovely hybrid car (currently averaging 48.3 mpg) and I heard a news clip that blind people were having trouble detecting hybrid cars on the road. This news article expands a little more on it, but the takeaway is this:

A test was done at the National Federation of the Blind's Headquarters with a Toyota Prius and a Honda Hybrid. Testers said the Honda was quiet but they could not hear the Toyota at all.

"I never heard the car until it actually touched me, I was shocked," said Pare.




When I drive I definitely scare some people (ha ha). I had a cyclist that I was following at a safe distance, and he looked back at me and almost fell of his bike. He didn't know I was there. A woman with two kids walked out in front of me when I was in the Food Lion parking lot. I had my window down and I heard her say to the kids, "Mommy didn't even hear the car." A couple of years ago when I rented a Prius for the weekend, we were driving around the Ikea parking garage and no one would get out of our way and they kept walking in front of us. They simply couldn't hear us. I actually find it a little annoying and definitely see the danger in it...though I love that it is so quiet. Just thought this was interesting.

An Interesting Couple of Days

First of all, the reason I posted the picture of Yukon was two-fold. He ran away on Saturday night and we didn't find him until yesterday. We spent many days calling his name in the woods, leaving out food (only to find out that we have a raccoon friend) and spending many nights awake being sad that he was gone. I also made several trips to the animal shelter and put up fliers around town. Yesterday, we went on a door-to-door neighborhood canvas, and talked to people and got varying stories on the whereabouts of our baby boy. At one house, this mom and her little girl were talking to me and the little girl said "Well, I saw this kitty at the bus stop this morning. He was headbutting one of the kids in the leg". I asked her where this was and Mircea and I headed over there. There was Tons-of-Fun, just chillin' under a tree, looking as relaxed as could be. That quickly changed as we came towards him and he ran like the dickens off into the woods and eventually this nice little girl said "He just ran under that house". After lots of searching, we found an entrance that was "people sized" to this crawlspace, and Mircea went in to find himself faced with a total of three cats, one of whom was our baby boy. We scooped him up and took him home. He was so sweet in the car, giving kisses and headbutting. I gave him a bath and we just hung out the rest of the night. He was so cuddly! I love that little boy and I'm so glad that he is home. The girls were all ok with him being back, and Fernie was sniffing him like "what in the world is that stench?" Lily is the only one who complains. She has taken to sleeping under my desk...which is about 6 inches off the ground (the little footstool part). She's a weirdo. But all three girls slept with us on Monday night, so it was an interesting couple of days.

Mircea's birthday was Tuesday and we had a good time. His mom had a steamed crab feast at her house for him, and we had a blast. The food was super yummy and great. I'm sort of going backwards in time. On Friday of last week, I finally bought the Prius! I love the car. Love love love love love it! I didn't get gray like I wanted (Fernie colored), but it's white and it's beautiful and it has bluetooth in the car so I look like a crazy person talking to myself but I love it! Love it!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I had the worst week I've had in a long time, but I'm on cloud 9 now. Woo hoo!!