Tag Archives: driving

On the road day 2

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The start of day two is a good one except it it obvious that the warm days of New Mexico are behind. I find a restaurant that has a good breakfast deal. Sitting down at the table the cool breeze from the air conditioner is a little to cool for me. About ten minutes later, I ask if I can move to another location, one that does not seem to be under the refrigerator door. The waitress taking care of us tells me that is fine with her. It seems that refrigerated air is big at this place, and there is no place that is not cold to me, so I settle into the table I am at.

The weather did not look that good and looks were not deceiving. About forty minutes into the morning drive it started raining and did not stop for over three hours. At some points I was down to forty miles and hour, because the rain was so hard it was difficult to see the road. The rain stopped almost as fast as it started but the sky remained overcast for a big part of the day. The rest of the dirve was pretty uneventful, and I ended the days drive in some little town on mid Iowa after swerving to miss what was left of deer on the highway. Deer and vehicles travelling at high speeds do not mix well.

I enjoy watching the lanscape and the slowly change from sand, rock, and cactus to rich soft earth, rolling hills, fields of wheat and corn. When travelling from the southern end of the US north the people also change. The Hispanic and Indian peoples become fewer and fewer and the remaining people become taller. Once the halfway point is crossed some women are as tall or taller the the average male in New Mexico.

The food also changes, New Mexican cooking now becomes something that looks like Mexican cooking, but tastes like something not quite Mexican cooking. Not that it is bad, just different. The staple foods become more English looking in nature, spiced with an occasional dish from Germany, Poland, or a dish from the Nordic countries. I am guessing because the weather is colder in the winter and more humid, Mexican cooking is not as good a choice for meals as what is served. I know I am going to start wanting hot food and not be able to find it.

Being in the center of Iowa the damage from the flooding is not as apparent as it is on CNN, but there are still signs of too much rain. Some of the fields are soggy and lay barren, other fields have wide shallow ponds in them that will eventually become muddy spots. I do not think we in the rest of the country will notice the effects of the flooding until this fall, but even from a roadside tour in the middle of the state it is obvious the harvest will not be what it normally is. We won’t notice the shortage too much because the increased cost will probably be blended with increasing gas prices, but third world countries will certainly notice there is less food to go around.

I always appreciate just how big our country is when I travel. Even though most of us are homoginized by chain stores, we all have a unique perspective on what we need for our country depending on where we live. I live in a large city in the south and my views are a lot different than a farmer living two miles from his neighbor in the midwest. I am sure their views are split up again depending on what they are growing and what price the crop is bringing. On the coastal cities the views are flavored by the ocean industries. Somehow we manage to pass laws and do things that either make us all unhappy together or marginally satisfied.

Lunch and dinner were prety uneventful, but filling. I spent the night in one non-descript hotel that had seen it best days in the sixties. The room was spotless and the price was right. Once the lights are out, I sleep as well as I would in a three hundred dollar a night suite. In the morning, the showers are always hot and and the towels soft and clean. I didn not see a continental breakfast, but for the price difference I can live without it.

Day two ended on a tired note. After the second day of driving, I am tired but not sleepy. It is times like these I really appreciate long haul truck drivers. I have had a few friends who used to drive for a living and said they loved it. I find the thought of knowing how many minutes to a destination hundreds of miles away from whatever bush is in view a little on the boring side. To each his own, although I always have a fondess for truck drivers, as they are the lifeline of our country.

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Driving, and life choices

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I was driving on a four lane city street with a center turn lane. The speed limit on this street is thirty-five, and at this moment there was my car, and a second car in the lane behind me about sixty feet back. No other traffic in either direction, and we are between stoplights.

I turn on my right blinker to inform the car behind me that I am going to be make a right hand turn into a local cafe. I did this about four seconds before the turn, plenty of time for the other driver to notice me, and switch lanes. The parking lot entrance is above curb level, and there is a  short ramp to go up from street level to drive into the parking lot. I had to slow way down to make the turn.

The car behind me did not change lanes. As the car came closer I saw there was a woman and at least two children in the car. She was still in the lane behind me, but now she was forced to slow down. The woman slowed, and instead of changing lanes, she starts honking her horn, yelling behind closed windows, and flipping me off!

Normally, I am a pretty laid back happy type of person, and I didn’t give her behavior much thought. Instead of her simply changing lanes as she should have done, I wondered, why she chose to slow down, yell, and flip me off? Her changing lanes would have been much simpler. My first thought was maybe she had been drinking? Drinking seemed a remote possibility for her, as she would not want to draw attention to herself if she had been drinking.

After thinking of a few possible responses I flipped her off. It was not done with malice or anger on my part, just flipping her the bird in return. It was the best response to her anger. Once I flipped her off, she swerved out to the next left lane, still angry, and yelling at me through the closed windows. Now however, she seemed happy with the result. I felt bad though for the children, wondering if this is how most daily conflict is handled by their parent(s)?

So often we feel we know the right thing to do. We turn the other cheek, or act above someone else, and many times this is the right response. In certain types of situations people expect a different payoff for their behavior. I could have responded with anger, but it was not a correct choice for in this instance. So I responded with the action this woman wanted, but not the emotion that goes with it.

Sometimes, doing the right thing means giving the other person what they need even though it goes against how we think, or would like in return. As we have expectations of how people treat us, other people should be treated in a manner they wish to be treated. There are situations and people where unfortunately the best thing to do is something you may feel least comfortable doing. In these situations, I have found, other people want a payoff of a certain type. As odd as it sounds, my giving this woman a response she solicited, instead of myself taking a different path, gave this woman something she needed to help her with her life, which is the right thing to do.

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Lowriders, life in the slow lane

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Almost everybody when driving, speeds to some extent going from one place to another. On the streets today, there are [usually] street legal Japanese cars that have been highly modified. Generally the modifications were at a considerable cost to the owner, although easy to install. Once completed these cars can complete a quarter mile at blazingly fast speeds. Of course American muscle-cars have never really gone away. Some are very fast right off the lot, others are modified by their owners. Drivers of both these types of cars sometimes compete in illegal races right in your home town, for big money, and for car titles. Racing for titles means the loser of the race also loses his or her car to the winner. The idea is nothing new, and has been going on for decades. Only the characters and the cars have changed.

There is another subgroup out there. Dollar wise they are in a heated spending war with the the very fast cars in how many thousands of dollars are spent per vehicle. For these cars however, the money is spent on their creation, and normally not on their horsepower. They compete in events too, but in a very different arena. These cars are owned by groups of people who compete for cash and prizes on a different level. These folks define themselves as Low Riders!

Lowriders trace their beginnings to New Mexico, Arizona, East Los Angeles, or Chicago depending on who you talk with. In their early days, they bought old cars cheap, built anywhere from the 1930′s forward. They loved nothing more than take an old classic car, strip it down to the frame, and spend every free penny they earn in making their own personal, one of a kind, luxury show machine! If you are fortunate to live in an area where Low Riders are popular, you have probably driven by or seen cars that would trade even money with many new cars on almost any car lot in your city. This shows how much importance some folks put into their cars.

Lowriders are now world wide, there are Lowrider clubs in over 30 countries, and claiming as many nationalities. LowRider Magazine has grown from a rag magazine to one of the most carried and sold car Magazines in the world! Now you know just about everything I know about Low Riders. I have never owned one, but I have seen a few I would be been proud to own – if money did not get in the way.

What I find special about Lowriders is not really their awesome cars, or tricked bicycles, but something different associated with driving them. I am impressed with the Lowrider’s view on driving down the street! In years past, and probably today on some streets, Lowriders were notorious for slowing traffic. Idling along at five or ten miles an hour to the frustration of other drivers behind them. Lowriders do drive considerably slower than the average driver, but for different reasons. Lowriders, love the cars they drive! They love sitting in their flashy creation, cruising down the street. They simply enjoy riding around in cars they essentially built from hand with love. For a Lowrider the drive is at least as important as the destination, maybe more so.

I think it is enjoyable, driving with a Lowrider perspective, slowing down and enjoying the drive! It is relaxing knowing I do not need to speed, and l will arrive at my destination in time. Of course over the years I have slowed down or stopped other areas of my life to have this time available to enjoy.

Let’s face it, most of us are not so important that the world will come to a halt if we were to be late. So leave a few minutes early and re-learn what it is like to enjoy the getting there! Be a Lowrider for a week, and see how your life changes for the better. At the very least you will find you have dropped out of the never ending get to the next stop light first competition. You will enjoy slowing down, and enjoying the ride!

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Grateful but not on Sunday, stop lights, tail gating, and breakfast

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Today is my Sunday, or for most people on my schedule, my first day off for the week. Because the Monday through Friday work week never materialized for me, changing my Sunday rest day in this way this has been a boon for me.

Having my first day off as a rest day, makes my ‘Sunday’ rest day special. I am tired from working through my week, so I relax and enjoy the day. I have time to reflect on my previous week, and remember the things that happened I am grateful for. I have the whole day to make the transition from working and business thinking into relaxed, easygoing thinking patterns. I have a whole day to think about what was important to me this week, and take of those elements of the previous days that need attending to and arrange them in order. I have a real break between working for someone else, and doing what is important to me. I can complete a chore I dislike without thinking this chore feels just like an extension of some unpleasant task my job requires of me.

One of things I am grateful this week is for the woman who cooks my breakfast. I start my day at 5:00 am, and my normal breakfast is about 9:00, so that is when I like to eat when I am at work. She is there at her grill almost every day. Most days she works very hard for her paycheck. Every day she makes sure my meal is prepared with care and attention. That makes my breakfast special to me, and it tastes better too, than some slapped together Borg food. This lady does not have to care about what she does, but she does care and that makes her cooking special. Her caring makes herself and the food she prepares for myself and my fellow employees first meal of the day taste better. Everything is better when the person doing it for you cares about what they are doing for you, meals, haircuts, or checking your purchase out at the local store is more enjoyable when people care about their work.

Stop lights all seemed to turn green just as I was driving up to them this week. Along with the lights, drivers around me were not as aggressive as I know they can be, so driving was more of a pleasure and less of a hassle. There also were no tail gating drivers three feet from my back bumper as I drove along near the speed limit in the far right lane.

I have lost three distant relatives who seem to be extraordinarily wealthy, whom I never got the chance to meet because they died before I was discovered. The representative acting in their behalf of liquidating their estate assures me that there is quite a fortune waiting for me. I am sure there is because it appears that my recently passed relative was rather thrifty, and having people around them who can read and write well was not up their on the priority list. I explained to the last one, that as soon as I receive my money from the first two I will be ready to claim my right to this most recent estate. It’s only been a few years now, so I am sure the check will be here any day.

Also I read in my email, that more personal areas of my life are not going that well either. Also my choice of materials to view is not all that it could be and these people are concerned about that. Finally there seems to be an unfounded rumor that I am wetting my pants because a few emails this week, are concerned about it. For a price the authors of the emails are willing to share with me the secrets for stretching various parts of my anatomy, of which they are sure would be a cure for my rumored condition. These are all a part of being grateful for what has happened in my last week, or at least the high points.

Life is better when you are grateful for the little things.

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