Since You've Been Gone

Great apologies for my lapse in posts. I've been traveling a little more with work, going to bed earlier because of Seminary and battling back the onslaught of fleas that is rampant in my neighborhood (not fun).

In the interim, I do have a couple human behaviors to uncharacteristically whine about. I suppose they could be newly found pet peeves. And, I ask forgiveness prematurely if you fall in one of these categories.

1. I noticed this in Lynchburg and now in Richmond, and suspect it is part of a larger parking lot conspiracy - - - people who park in reverse so they can pull out in "drive" when they exit. This takes far more time to get into a parking spot (usually frustrating a line of people waiting behind while the driver navigates a 7 point turn into the spot). If they are worried about backing out of the spot into blind areas, I send a proverbial question into the wind, "Wouldn't you rather back into a much wider area than the spot you just backed into with your reverse lights on the back of your vehicle then pull out blindly forward with no extra exterior signal on your car?".

2. I've been against most local and state ordinances pertaining to the use of cell phones while driving because I think they are a. nearly impossible to enforce and b. impratical. But, as citizens, we can still make the decision to focus on the road. I am SO tired of coming upon a driver on the freeway that is either going 20 mph below the speed limit in one of the left lanes and causing a back up and people try to get around them or slowly drifting into my lane going 60 mph. WITHOUT FAIL when I look over at them to give them my "I don't appreciate you" glare, they are on their phone.

True story, and not an isolated case in my life - I was driving from Lynchburg to Charlottesville sometime earlier this year. Through my rearview mirror, I noticed the car behind me was closer to my rear bumper than I was comfortable with. I had been using cruise control for a good 20 miles already, but sped up slightly to increase the distance between us. The other car stayed right behind me. (I should interject at this point that we are both in the right lane and the passing lane is wide open). I then tried flashing my brakes a couple times. No change. I sped up again. No change. I slowed down from 60 mph to 30 mph! , figuring they would finally pass me. But, no. By this point, we had driven about 8 miles or so with our cars about 6 ft. apart. I was fuming. I finally slowed to a stop in the middle of 29, with the other car stopping with me. As I prepared to step out of my car the girl looked in her rearview mirror and pulled out around me to pass. She was, of course, on her phone. Turns out she off in la-la land on her phone and spacing out staring at my bumper apparently. She never noticed I had fluctuated my speeds from 70 mph to a stop. Argh.