Miles of pounding the highway gives me plenty of time to think.
Thinking can be dangerous if you're given to flights of fancy as I am. Mostly I think about the other drivers; what kind of person is driving that Cadillac Coupe de Ville at twenty below the limit in the middle lane up ahead? Or is the driver of that Nissan Sentra drunk or texting?
Drawing up beside them, I take a surreptitious glance to confirm or deny my choice. I'm at about 90% correct for this game now.
Or I do arithmetic in my head. I like to figure out my passing time at various checkpoints along the way, and our ETA at the destination to the nearest half a minute. Figuring traffic as well (a dark art if ever there is one) I'm not bad at that game either.
My latest cogitation concerns the Karma of Driving, or Highway Karma if you prefer. The short version is that if I drive for two hours at or below the speed limit, I get points towards driving faster than the limit. Because I have been unwittingly driving like this for a while without earning a speeding ticket, I'm thinking I might be on to something. There is likely some kind of ratio involved, such that, say, two hours of legal driving entitles me to thirty minutes of illegal driving.
An extension of this is the Karma of Traffic Politeness. Allowing others to cut in front without reacting - calm, patient, no resentment - builds up the bank. I'm thinking that a full day of that gives me three cut-ins and one standing on the horn, flashing headlights hands in air verbal abuse free card.
It's not Road Rage, I'm just cashing in my Karma. Officer.
Pic from here. [link]
Also published here [link]
4 comments:
i like that The Karma of Traffic Politeness, sugar! i let people in and figure if i wave thanks when someone lets me in, i'm somehow keeping a good balance. i used to think that it was just the concept of fluid dynamics applied to traffic, but now i know differently! xoxoxoxo
(hope y'all are keeping warm!)
Balance.
That's the word. Beautiful, Sugar.
And fluid dynamics, oh my, how close you are to my heart. Supercomputers work years attempting to figure out the best way to construct roads, but I think it comes down to this....if there's less road than car, cars stop.
Like it?
(Yes I am. It is weird to be in FL and have the heating on. You stay warm too!)
I love the idea of the Karma of Traffic Politeness but I'd sure hate to be on the side of the road having a cop look at me while I explained it! You seem a bit smoother than I though so you may get away with it.
Nah, I'm no smoother than you, Don - but I have the accent. On one occasion (back in Seattle) it did get me off a speeding ticket. Aussies are liked, apparently.
Post a Comment