Random Ramblings [2nd Ed.]

Working off insufficient sleep and excessive creative drain from a heavy workload, I’m suffering from a little bit of writer’s block. So, you’re stuck with another edition of random ramblings…

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Are we there yet?
I am so ready for this presidential campaign season to come to a close… and there’s still another seven months to go. Would it be possible to have a news channel that covers news other than what’s happening with any one of or all of the presidential candidates? I would love to know what’s going on in the world, but I’m so sick of the politics of this campaign, I have to turn off every news station to avoid hearing anything about it. Fortunately, I have the Internet that allows me to more effectively filter my news. What did we ever do without the Internet?!?

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Is it over yet?
After another night of storms this week, I’m ready for a break. Fortunately, it looks like we’re going to get a decent break for the next several days. It’ll take that long to dry out! I may have to outfit my van with pontoons for this morning’s commute. We’ve had a ton of rain in the last 24 hours on top of the buckets of rain we got earlier this week. Typically, I like stormy weather, but not this much at once and not when it primarily occurs during the overnight hours when I’m trying to sleep!

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Is it Friday yet?
This has seemed to be a very long work week. Yesterday felt like it should be Friday. That’s probably symptomatic of the crunch-time workload at the office and so little hours of decent sleep, primarily because of the aforementioned weather. By quitting time yesterday, I was dragging pretty hard. And then I had a commute home that took almost three times as long as normal…

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Why can’t people drive in rain?
It is amazing to me that a little bit of precipitation cause some people to lose all sense. I realize that wet roads are more hazardous that dry roads and that people should be more cautious, but there’s cautious and then there’s stupid. Some people slam on their brakes if they see brake lights, even if those brake lights are, say, 200 yards ahead of them… which causes a chain reaction that invariably brings traffic to a standstill… all because of one person’s idiocy. And rain seems to bring out driver idiocy like nothing else — except maybe freezing rain and ice.

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What ever happened to common sense, common courtesy and common decency?
It never ceases to amaze me how discourteous or downright rude some drivers are — whether it’s the absent-minded and/or distracted slowpoke driver or it’s the road-raged Indycar driver.On the one extreme, you have people who like to drive slower than the flow of other traffic and who seem to find a like-minded person to pace with in the other lane(s) so that they’re holding up all the traffic behind them. They also are the drivers who in the midst of dense stop-and-go traffic leave large enough gaps between the themselves and the car in front of them to park at least two semis; so, invariably, the other lane moves much faster as other drives are able to move past them and cut in front of them — it’s like standing in line at the movie theater and one person in front of you keeps letting others cut in front of them and it makes you wait twice as long. That’s just discourteous to all those people behind them; if you’re that cautious, move to the slow lane or pick another route.

On the other extreme, you have people who tail you so closely that you can just about only see how many wrinkles they have on their scowling face. In stop-and-go traffic, there’s little chance to move out of the way. Yet, they continue to ride your bumper so closely that you constantly brace yourself for the expected collision the next time you come to a stop. When I have the chance to move out of the way, I do… and gladly… but when I’m trapped, stay off my ass for crying out loud! I’m not interested in being that intimate with another driver while trying to drive. It’s just plain rude! These are also the same drivers who force their way into spaces that aren’t quite big enough for them to move into, causing other drivers to slam on their brakes, which helps cause and exacerbate accordion, stop-and-go traffic.

Some days, I just go with the flow and don’t get to worked up about it. Other days, I’m tired and just ready to get to where I need to go and stop wasting my time moving unnecessarily slow in traffic. But, I’m doing much better than I would have done a year ago. Driving in dense traffic has made me more patient and even-keel, even if this rant may not sound like it. But certain things during my commute perplex me, frustrate me or just wear me out. Stop-and-go traffic that moves so dreadfully slow for no logical reason is one of those things that can raise my blood pressure a couple dozen points — and based on the behavior of other drivers, I don’t appear to be alone.

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There is so much more I could write about my daily commute and other drivers, but I’ll save that for another post. That’s enough rambling for one post. (I guess I didn’t have writer’s block after all… I just had to uncork the right lid!)