The J Tree

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We’re back from our Wedding #2 extravaganza bonanza.  We travelled to Buffalo, then by car to Washington, DC for a total of about 10.5 hours of riding in bus + riding/driving in car.

What turned out to be a nice wedding and some sight seeing got me thinking about car culture just a tiny bit.

Mostly, the dead animals.  We saw, and I estimate on the numbers:

4 dead white-tailed deer

3 dead groundhogs

3 dead raccoons

2 dead skunks

1 dead porcupine (!)

1 dead possum

1 dead snake (maybe a water mocassin or a rat snake?  Big and black…)

2 dead birds (one was a crow, the other I’m not sure, but it was big)

and, probably millions of dead insects…

I know I hit a little bird, not sure if it survived or not, didn’t see it behind the car, but also didn’t see it in the grill.  All the rest of these creatures were killed by other drivers, and it makes me sad.  Probably the worst was one of the deer was a spotted fawn.  Or maybe it was the porcupine, seeing as how I have never seen one in the wild and this is the second I’ve seen dead on the side of the road.

But the variety of animals we saw dead was what got me…  driving across the US a few years ago I saw lots of the same.  Even some dead pronghorn antelope, which you could see living off in the distance in huge herds throughout Wyoming and Utah.  I wonder what the statistics are on dead animals on roads in the US and in Canada??  I also wonder how it affects drivers, children, passengers, witnesses who see from other cars?  I know that many people die from hitting deer or moose or other things, but of those who survive — what are their responses to running things over in their cars

Wedding 1 of 7?  Level complete.

For some reason, between June 1st 2009, and June 1st 2010, we will be witness to 8 weddings (if we make it to all of them).  8 moments of bliss marking day #1 of the rest of the lives of the people involved.  I have to admit, as a gay *American man living in Toronto, Canada, no, as a rather socialist, critical academic…  no, as a quasi-Buddhist…  well, as me, I find it difficult to understand weddings truly and deeply.  That is not to say that I don’t understand MARRIAGE, just weddings.  And not even the celebration itself per se, although its related…  more, just, the money.

S and I talked at length several times about the amount of money to spend on a gift for instance.  We had already spent quite a large sum of money on an engagement present, which, I believe were crystal vases.  No idea why, but apparently they REALLY NEEDED them.  I haven’t seen or heard about them since.  Truth be told, we didn’t have time to organize and get my typical wedding present of “door knocker with engraved last names” and now I’m glad we didn’t…  the bride kept her last name, so it might have been presumptuous.  Still, that meant I stuffed cash in a card and actually spent more than I intended to because of some small social pressures that I always swear I will not give in to.

Its interesting to look at people’s weddings as a commodity-driven endeavour, and I did the entire ride down to Buffalo.  I ranted, I raved.  I imagined how much money was spent, for instance, on just the invitations — which, truth be told, doesn’t everyone have an e-mail address nowadays?  Wouldn’t that be free and faster?  Do people really need magnets for their fridge?  How about an e-mail reminder?

I may have pre-emptively prepared for an excessive outpouring of “look how much we spent!”  But in the end, I had a GREAT time.  It was actually, truly, really, just about the people that were there, my wonderful friends and their penchant for ripping each other apart when they leave the room.  Still, I’m sure the next wedding, a family affair, will have me returning to the fixed diatribe of capitalism’s permeations into social endeavours.  Just ‘cuz its an 8 hour drive following a 3 hour bus ride, and I’m entitled to a little complaining.