Cuba, their road-system and the tarantulas.

I recently went on a week's vacation to Cuba. The tropical weather, abundant flora and fauna, as well as its friendly people contribute to make this a great place to vacation.

Too bad the United States, and their douchebaggery, are preventing this country from being "all it can be" for the time being.

While I was there I saw a bunch of things I'd never seen before, tarantulas for instance, there are plenty. Here in Quebec we have squirrels, chip-monks, seagulls.

Over there they have iguanas, tarantulas and hummingbirds.

I'm not very fond of the tarantulas, yes, I know, they're harmless and will only bite if attacked, and their bite is not lethal like lots of people think.

They are not to be confused with black widow spiders, some of which can be found as near as Ontario. Black widows are tiny black spiders with a red mark on their backs.

Tarantulas are huge, and vary in color. The ones we saw were all black, and huge.

Fucking huge.

If you've never seen a real tarantula up close, imagine the biggest spider you've ever seen, then make it bigger. No. Even bigger than that. Bigger...

Bigger.

I saw two, one touched me (yuck!) on the leg and ran away, but it was a baby, only about as big as a hockey puck. The one that came close to my daughter was even bigger. At first we all thought it was a crab. Yes, a crab. That's how big it was.

Luckily I had had a nice share of local vitamins (rum) and I could handle it. I'd hate to run into one of those, in close quarters, when sober...

Both encounters happened at night, and outdoors. We heard other visitors of the resort we stayed at telling one another that they had a huge spider in their room and they had to call the front desk for them to come and usher the spider out, and that apparently they showed up with a broom, and did just that; ushered the spider out.

Well what else would you do? I suppose to them, who are used to it, having a tarantula in the house is akin to us having a squirrel.

Still, I was disgusted. Other than that we had a wonderful time, the beach was incredible, the water was of the most incredible blue, the sand white.

Awesome.

Also the road system in Cuba is interesting, it's not very modern, if fact, it reminded me of the road system in Italy when I left back in 1979, only older, and with less asphalt.

There are also plenty of Suzuki trucks, mostly Vitaras, which is their version of the Sidekick, and Jimnys. I'd buy a Jimny if it were available here. Consider it a more friendly version of the Sidekick, more rounded, probably with a bigger engine, the one I saw had a 2.0l Diesel engine.




There were also lots of classic American cars, some of which in such impeccable condition that when inevitably, the US borders are reopened to Cuba, and vice-versa, Americans will flock in to buy them. They looked brand new.

Also they had roundabouts. They are practical and would work great in Quebec if the transport minister was smart enough to develop them. Instead of pulling stops at each corner we'd have limited corners and a couple of roundabouts.

But not like the failed one in Vaudreuil which is way too tight to be of any use. Some decent size ones where trucks can turn, not just bicycles...

Television, radio, Internet and paper news suck really badly.

Last week end a video surfaced on the local news, it was a young seven year old boy, driving what looks like the family car, on a dirt road, with the whole family on board. He is driving at a whopping 40km/h, but none of the car's occupants are wearing a seat belt.

His father is sitting next to him with a camera, filming, and on the back seat there are two more children and an adult woman, presumably the mom. Everyone is cheering him on like he is some hero.

It was later discovered that the dirt road is a private road and is thereby not under the jurisdiction of our Transport Ministry, hence, what they were doing was perfectly legal.

As such, I have no problems with it either, they are doing 40km/h on a straight, wide, dirt road. I'll admit that personally I might have been wearing a seat belt but again, they are not on a public road so it's not mandatory.

The kid could have been driving a 4x4 motorbike, or a vehicle so defective that the Ministry will not issue it a registration license, like an old Jeep or maybe a Sidekick, there are hundreds...

Later still, it was discovered that the video, had been on youtube for two years, so now the kid is actually nine years old. So why did it make the news now?

Simple.

There is nothing to talk about if any interest.

In May, we were "promised" a plague that didn't really happen, yes some people died of H1N1 but in terms of percentage, not any more people that would die from a regular flu.

H1N1 is just a normal flu. It can be defeated by our immune systems as long as we are relatively healthy. I can see how someone with lung cancer or emphysema could be in dire straights if afflicted by this new flu, but other than the regular suspects, we should all massively be OK. Regardless of what the news says, we will not all die by Friday, at dusk.

Last summer we had the Listeria alarm, where Maple Leaf almost went under because it was discovered that some of their meats, and also some cheeses at large, were "contaminated" with the Listeria Monocytogenes bacteria.

This summer? Nothing. Nada. No Listeria, no Salmonella, nothing toxic has become loose, not even Kraft Dinner.

There is a serious problem when a boxer, not even a well known one, dies in Brazil, and it makes the top news for two full weeks.

When a chlorine leak causes a few kids to have to rinse themselves off properly at a public pool is the day's top story, it's been a slow news day.

When there is talk of the Quebec Nordiques rejoining the NHL (will never happen), and it makes the headlines, it's been a slow week.

So, because there is nothing menacing, nothing they can use to scare us into thinking that by Saturday morning, we will all be, well, guano, they start digging.

They caught Earl Jones, who was the most wanted man in Quebec for almost a month. More wanted than the guy who kidnapped Cedrika Provencher, more wanted even than a Lamborghini Galliardo, or a Nintendo Wii.

So now?

Can't they all go on vacations?

No, apparently it will rain.

The real reason for speed limits

I was watching Top Gear, which has become one of my favorite shows, and they were discussing the best roads to drive in the world.

They came to the conclusion that it was a specific road, in Italy, in the Alps, it is a sinuous road with no real enforceable speed limit, and no traffic.

They went on in their discussion and Richard Hammond wondered why there hasn't been an evolution in speed limits since the last 50 years or so. He reflected that after all, cars went from a top speed of 8MPH to 150MPH and more.

But then there are many more cars out there, which at speeds in excess of say, 80km/h, don't handle properly, or they do but then the driver doesn't know what to do with them in order to keep them in order.

And then there's something else: Debris.

Just this morning on the way to work, driving a whopping 95km/h, I had to dodge a pail of some type of white gooey liquid, most likely paint, that seemed to have dropped off...

...a Transport Quebec truck.

Nice.

Other interesting artifacts I've dodged in the past include ladders, shovels, rakes, a lawnmower, several mattresses and other pieces of furniture including an ottoman, animals - both alive and not -, pedestrians on highways and once, I dodged miraculously, three bricks that had dislodged from inside a tunnel and dropped in front of me.

Other times though I wasn't that lucky.

Once on the 132 in the South Shore, I was rudely cut off by a cement truck that was coming out of a work-zone unannounced, and I received a complimentary block of semi-dry cement across the hood of my Tiburon. It shattered my windscreen and redecorated my hood.

Another time still in the Tiburon a windblown, metallic garbage can, blindsided me and hit the passenger side of the cockpit, causing minor damage to the side mirror.

So there you have it. The real reason for speed limits is debris. Just ask Felipe Massa.