Heavy traffic

Have you ever been driving letting your mind wander, and once you reach your destination you realize you have no idea how you got there? I do that all the time. Shouldn’t we worry about this? I mean we aren’t supposed to drink NyQuil and then operate heavy machinery, yet it seems to be ok to go into some trance like state while cruising down the road. I like to think I’m a good driver, but I think everyone likes to think that about themselves.

Have you ever been in a car with someone who scares the living hell out of you? Why don’t we tell them that sitting in the passenger seat of their car takes years off our life? Do they realize that it’s not normal for people to have a death drip on the handle above their heads? I can never figure out how they don’t notice my foot searching for the imaginary break, or the beads of sweat on my forehead.

My dad is one of those people. I think he sees driving as a chance to recapture his youth and his one chance to be in a demolition derby. For me it is an opportunity to relive my life as it flashes before my eyes.

So, there I was today driving down the road and talking with myself as per usual. I suppose that’s almost as bad as talking on my cell phone, but that’s another issue. I saw a man in an SUV just about take out some older man trying to walk across the road. He then had the nerve to honk at the man that was stopping him from making his right turn. Then this same man, not 4 blocks away, stops in the middle of moving traffic to let an attractive woman in a convertible cut across the road. I could see all of this because even though the man was weaving through traffic as if his wife was in the passenger seat getting ready to give birth, yet ended up at the same stop lights as I did. Not that he seemed to notice.

Anyway, my point is that this man almost killed a nice older man legally crossing the road, while irritating everyone else on the road by stopping traffic for some woman that was breaking about six traffic laws anyway. This is also the kind of man that whistles at women as they pass a construction site I’m sure.

You can guess that I became rather irritated at this imbecile. Don’t get me wrong; I’m far from perfect when I drive and I haven’t been accident free. I can get lost going to the store, I am always singing badly or talking to myself, I flash hand gestures that would make my mother blush, and I tend to leave just enough room between my bumper and the car in front of me that I’m prime material to be cut off by another car. I have even been in 3 accidents. Once I was rear ended by a soccer mom, once my friend driving my car rear ended the Police Commissioner, and I was broadsided by a drunk. So I feel safe in saying that despite all of my short comings in the driver’s seat, at least I don’t act like Mr. Jackass, who only breaks for what he considers beautiful people.

My point is that I wish we could all be allowed to give traffic citations to others for stupidity. I would have loved to ticket that man today almost as much as I would love to ticket the ass in the Hummer who takes up three spaces when parking. I just hated that the man would break for only the person he found beautiful. It reminded me of a post written by Elisa which really hit the nail on the head about that subject. I myself would have let the old man cross.

Either way, until the time we are allowed to ticket these people I will continue to drive while talking to myself and shake my head at middle age men that just don’t seem to understand what’s really important.

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” -- Anne Frank