The Q-word: A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018

I'm not superstitious about black cats crossing my path, walking under ladders, the relationship of broken mirrors or open umbrellas and luck, or even most other things....I  even like Friday the 13ths--most of the time.

However, I do have a healthy respect  for full moons and the Q-word.

Psych Wards, Emergency Rooms, and Labor and Delivery all see a rise in activity during the full moon. It has something to do with  the gravitational pull of the moon or tidal waves, or something scientific.

Saying the Q-word has a similar effect, only it has no  scientific basis, and it's not limited by dates, time, or  the aforementioned hospital areas.

I have never said, or heard someone say, the Q-word without also watching plans falter, stable patients crash, and every piece of technology either go bonkers, or worse--freezing--incapacitating everyone and everything relying on it.

I have been known to scold educate total strangers who use the Q-word in my presence, on my Ward. The scoffers soon learn. Sometimes they learn right away. For others, it takes a few times uttering the Q-word and reaping the consequences of  really bad days, before they learn the connection.

But eventually they learn.

I think the Q-word phenomena is isolated to the hospital.  I hope it is.  Listening to a local Traffic Report I've frozen in my tracks and actually shuddered and winced when the Q-word was used to describe the morning commutes on Highway 190 and Interstate 35. Both highways are problematic on good days. It's so bad, TexDOT, in the guise of I-35, has taken out billboards telling us, "You're going to love me when I'm done."   I laughed outright and told the billboard to prove it to me.

That was several years ago. The construction congestion continues. And the new sections of roadway are already showing signs of wear and tear in need of repair.

It.will.never.end.

For instance, Highway 190 is almost always slowed by accidents--many of which are deadly.   And I-35, along with most of the surrounding streets, is in constant construction congestion, complicated by accidents, and flooding.

I really have to wonder at the intelligence behind performing all needed road work on all the major roads in the city at the same time--in addition to coinciding with the highway construction.

I avoid the highways and construction laden roads and take the long scenic route to work. I only have to contend with slowpokes, and two-lane no-passing zones.  If road construction begins on my route, or the Traffic Reporters start using the Q-word in conjunction with it, I may have to helicopter in to work.

No use tempting fate.