Edition #3, Monday, May 5 to Sunday, May 11, 2025

1. Traffic Safety

2. A Short Happy Video

3. Rockets and Blue Lights

4. The Runaway

Welcome to The Ambler.

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Thank you.

Clair Culliford

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1. Traffic Safety

by Clair Culliford

★ Listen to the author read this entry.★

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One of these days, I’m certain, I will die.

I’ve successfully made it this far, however, by being very careful around automobiles.

When I am close to traffic, I assume that all drivers are about to have an aneurysm, heart attack, or perhaps a huge sneeze, thus severely reducing their competence to be in charge of their vehicle. Any of these mishaps can cause a driver to miss the brake pedal in favour of the gas, swerve abruptly, or—well, I’m sure there are many other possibilities.

This, of course, presumes that drivers are normally competent. Alas, a certain percentage of them are not. Many, though competent, sometimes allow their concentration to slide from the road to other, at the time seemingly more important matters—until the crash comes.

Then there are the vehicular homicidal maniacs, of which, happily, there are few.

Oh, there’s also mechanical failure. The best trained, most alert drivers are little better than children in play cars when brakes or steering fail.

Of the two times I have come disturbingly close to being hit by a car, both were while I was legally (and supposedly safely) crossing at a traffic light.

In the first, a car was about to turn left onto the street I was going to cross. I waited for the white hand to beckon me, began to walk, then stopped and took a step back just in time to avoid the car, which was quickly and illegally proceeding through the intersection.

Though this happened more than 20 years ago, I still remember the driver’s happy smile for me as she almost ran me over.

Nine years ago, I was waiting for a walk signal at another intersection in another town. A small red car pulled up beside me, clearly intending to turn right. When the white hand beckoned, I began to walk. The car turned, abruptly. Once again, I stopped and deftly stepped back.

This time, the driver didn’t smile. Instead, he stopped, stuck his head out, and loudly berated me for stepping out in front of him.

I calmly pointed out that it was, legally, my turn to walk. He disagreed, and I suggested, less calmly and much more loudly, that he get out of his car so I could rearrange his face. He thought better of the matter and drove away.

Just ask Pete and the customers that were there that day at Pete’s Corner Grill in Toronto. I’m sure many will remember the incident.

Here’s my advice to pedestrians. To be safe, it’s best to assume that all drivers are out to get you. That, and be ready to run.

Happy walking.

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2. A Short Happy Video

This is a wonderful video about a fifth-grade class that worked together to raise money to buy adaptive playground equipment for the school’s many disabled children. Thanks to CBS Evening News.

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3. Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) to Warn Steamboats of Shoal Water,

by J. M. W. Turner

This oil on canvas painting was created in 1840. It is 36 1/4 inches x 48 1/8 inches or 92.1 centimetres x 122.2 centimetres.

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4. The Runaway

by Robert Frost

★ Listen to Clair Culliford read The Runaway. ★

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The American poet Robert Frost was born in 1874 and died in 1963. The Runaway appeared in his 1923 book, New Hampshire.

Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,

We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, ‘Whose colt?’

A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,

The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head

And snorted at us. And then he had to bolt.

We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,

And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and grey,

Like a shadow against the curtain of falling flakes.

‘I think the little fellow’s afraid of the snow.

He isn’t winter-broken. It isn’t play

With the little fellow at all. He’s running away.

I doubt if even his mother could tell him, “Sakes,

It’s only weather.” He’d think she didn’t know!

Where is his mother? He can’t be out alone.’

And now he comes again with a clatter of stone

And mounts the wall again with whited eyes

And all his tail that isn't hair up straight.

He shudders his coat as if to throw off flies.

‘Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,

When other creatures have gone to stall and bin,

Ought to be told to come and take him in.’

xxxxxxx

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