Some Sights from my Commute

Here's a tree I pass every day on my commute--it's a great example of an interesting species. It used to be a palm tree, but a fig seed germinated in the top of the palm tree, grew roots and tendrils that surrounded the palm tree, then proceeded to grow branches and take over, but the palm tree is still alive in there; you can see the fronds reaching up for their needed sunlight, out of the middle of the strangler fig.

After I pass the strangler fig, I am in an upscale neighborhood, home to rich people who keep their lawns nice and live in old, overpriced homes, not McMansions. This one house sticks out like a sore thumb, not because the inhabitants are Republicans--I'm sure that's common in these parts--but because they are radical and tacky about it. Their yard is surrounded by a high wall with a locked iron gate. Their flagpole flies the American flag, the Republican Party flag, the Confederate flag, and a pirate flag. Their vehicles are covered in bumper stickers, which leave no doubt about their ideological leanings:

• Fairness Doctrine (circle/slash) IT'S NOT FAIR - IT'S COMMUNISM
• Picture of Hillary Clinton (circle/slash)
• HRC (circle/slash)
• ANNOY A LIBERAL: WORK HARD AND SMILE
• I'LL GIVE UP MY SUV...WHEN AL GORE GIVES UP HIS PRIVATE JET
• (Peace Sign) : FOOTPRINT OF THE AMERICAN CHICKEN
• NEWT 2008
• NEWT 08
• I (HEART) HALLIBURTON
• SAVE THE SEALS--CLUB A LIBERAL
• (PICTURE OF AN ELEPHANT PEEING ON THE WORD "LIBERALS")
• USA LIBERAL HUNTING LICENSE

I've never met these people, but if I ever do, I have something to tell them: It doesn't annoy me if you work hard and smile. Your bumper stickers amuse me. However, I do find it somewhat irritating that you are BLOCKING THE BICYCLE LANE with your big ol' truck: