Fast and furious and going nowhere fast

I know that I’ve written blogs on this topic before, but I just couldn’t resist.

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I let off the brake and moved my car a few feet ahead before braking again. A line of red brake lights, two-lanes deep, spread before me in the darkened horizon like a pack of ants crawling in formation.

I had wanted to leave work on time, but I got caught up in a late afternoon “fire” and had gotten a late start. I pulled out of the office a little after 5:30 p.m., smack dab in the middle of the evening rush-hour. To top it off, wet roads and a constant rain; impatient driver after impatient driver; and a fender-bender further slowed the commute home.

I searched my playlist for something interesting to help the time pass with less effort, but came up empty. In my head, though, I blared Sammy Hagar’s 1984 hit “I can’t drive 55” so loud, that in my very active imagination, other drivers couldn’t help but notice.

One foot on the brake and one on the gas, hey!
Well, there’s too much traffic, I can’t pass, no!

I see a lot of things on my commute. I see drivers on a normal day driving slow in the left lane or even trying to pass on the right-handed berm. I see other drivers worried more about the text on their phone than the road ahead of their car. I feel like I’ve seen it all.

I try to keep my temper under control and frustration to a minimum, but I mainly stew in disgusted silence. I wonder to myself: Who are these people?

Gonna write me up a 125
Post my face wanted dead or alive
Take my license, all that jive
I can’t drive 55! Oh No!

When the commute gets to be to be too frustrating,  like times like now, I remind myself that I’m lucky to be moving at all. When I worked in Northern Virginia, my 25-minute commute routinely turned into a 90-minute mess. You could easily get stuck in traffic for hours on end.

I have friends who I work with who routinely have much tougher commutes than me. I feel for them. I see the driver stuck along the side of the road with a banged-up trunk and I’m thankful that I’m safe.

Take my license, all that jive
I can’t drive 55!
Oh, yea!

Forget about the time, the weather can cause problems too. A rare November snow and ice-storm last week turned my trip home into a three-hour skating rink. I white-knuckled the trip home, arriving late, but safe all-the-same.

When I drive that slow, you know it’s hard to steer.
And I can’t get get my care out of second gear.
What used to take two hours now takes all day. Huh!

The trip has gotten tougher over the years, but I’m grateful all the same. In particular, I’m grateful that I get to work from home. Twenty years ago that was a no-no, today it’s not even a second-thought.

Thank goodness for a good laptop; a spare bedroom & desk; a good wifi connection and an endless cup of coffee: Wahoo, I’m working from home tomorrow.

I can’t drive…
I can’t drive 55!
I can’t drive…
I can’t drive 55!