Near Heart Attack!

Ok I was about to have a heart attack when I saw the headline today “Poste Italiane diventa un operatore telefonica” (Poste Italiane to become a telephone operator) with a picture of Poste Italiane Mobile next to the headline. I thought they were going to offer a telephone network like Vodafone or something. I was thinking they would have ridiculous fees to receive calls, they would listen in on all your calls (after all they like to open your packages), and to would cost an arm and a leg to call someone. It turns out what they mean is that PI is coming up with a way to pay bills with your mobile phone. A truly good idea but it’s too bad that I fear the people in charge of it. I love the idea that I’m at trying to do some insane Italian paperwork (TV tax, hot water heater registration, apartment rental contract registration, etc….) and they say that I have to pay a bollettino to do it. Then I whip out my cell phone and punch in a few numbers and say, “Ha, it’s paid now give me my dam _____ (insert Italian thing here)”. Of course the big thing is going to be the security of this sending money by cell phone. I don’t know that people will trust it. I don’t, yet. We’ll see.
This morning walking to work I passed the cleanup of an accident. From the looks of it a scooter hit a car pretty hard. I would guess the kid is ok but I bet he has a broken leg. The car had the yield triangles in his direction so I assume he was at fault but I could be wrong. I’m still amazed that cars and scooters don’t hit more. I really think the kids spend so much time on their scooters that they are “good” drivers. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t mean good as in responsible. I mean good as in avoiding getting hit or hitting something. That’s why I don’t have a scooter. I would drive it responsibly and probably get knocked off it every day. The cars would assume I’m going slip in and out and when I didn’t they would be surprised and hit me. The kids drive like idiots but that’s all they know and it makes them tough to hit. I always signal when I’m turning right into my garage but I know one of these days a kid on scooter is going to be sliding past cars on the right and hit me. It’s been close a few times already but then again they always seen avoid the accident. That’s another thing I like about winter. Less kids on scooters.
Also back to the news. I see that Germany believes they can decrease their electricity usage by 40% by 2020 and England is working on lowering the amount used in households by 60% (but they say 80% is possible) by 2050. Meanwhile in the US we give the Green Car of the Year award to V8 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid that gets 22 mpg. Am I the only one that doesn't understand this?
This photo below I made it darker on purpose as I like the outline of the trees on the horizon for some reason.