Thursday, May 24, 2007

Get off my A$$!!!


I swear.

I get tailgated just about every day on my way in to work. I have made this drive enough times already that the speed limits are basically programmed into my foot. I know where they change, by how much, and I find myself accelerating or decelerating pretty much automatically as I go. Now, I don't like to speed, I weigh the one or two minutes I'll save on my 10-minute commute against the money I'd have to spend on a ticket, and it's just not worth it. So the most I drive over the speed limit is 4mph, even if I'm running late.

I just don't understand these people. In my humble opinion, if you can't leave yourself enough time to get where you need to be by driving the speed limit, maybe you need to rethink your morning routine. Because as much as I'm used to it, it's still annoying to have someone riding my bumper as I drive to work, then blow past me at 15 over during the small time when there are two lanes, only to be replaced by some other impatient person when the road goes back down to one lane. What is the frickin' rush???? And people wonder why they're more stressed, why more people are having heart attacks. I challenge everyone that reads this. Give yourself five extra minutes in the morning, see if it makes a difference! There's absolutely no reason to be rushing like that first thing in the morning. What kind of a tune does it set for your day if as soon as you walk out the door, you're getting yourself all wound up in that "gotta go, gotta get there NOW!!!!" mindset? My commute is ten minutes, so that's 20 minutes a day I spend behind the wheel. If I'm all hyper-speedy every day on my way to and from work, that's almost two hours a week I'm spending in a bodily state that pretty closely resembles the whole "fight or flight" reflex that our bodies are conditioned to use only in cases of extreme emergency. Can you imagine the extra strain that puts on your heart? And that's just me.. what about people who have a longer commute? I work with someone who drives about 45 minutes to work. That's an hour and a half a DAY.

It's just five minutes, people. In the long run, besides missing out on a speeding ticket or two, I bet your heart will thank you for it too.
Photo courtesy of Fotosearch

12 fellow footsteps:

Callie Ann said...

Wow you must have really been P.O. Happy Day girl

Callie Ann said...

Oh I forgot to tell you, Your site is starting to do the stuff skit's did where I can't view it in IE. What the heck is happening. That isn't fair if your only limited to people with firefox being able to view you. Weird. You Might want to find out what is up, cause I don't know.
Callie

Anonymous said...

I just like to drive fast. Usually, it is not because I am in a hurry. However, because I was once stopped for speeding and don't want that to happen again, I try to limit my speeding to 5-10 mph above the speed limit.
Hmmm..I know someone in your house who drives fast and tailgates.

Carrie said...

Callie - I think it's the template, I'm working on finding a new one that will hopefully work better.

Sara - used to. You haven't ridden anywhere with him driving in a while, or you'd know.

Anonymous said...

heres something to think about: that stretch where its 2 lanes & 40 mph is 1.54 miles long. Doing that stretch at 40 takes 2.34mins whereas at 55 it takes 1.68 mins.

2.34 - 1.68 = .48mins = 28.8secs.

so if you sped too, you'd shave a whole 29 secs off your drive. Whoopee...
If you get a ticket for 15 over in gr its a $125 ticket and 2 points.
Just keep driving the way you do honey and whenever you see someone pulled over laugh vindicatedly!

(note: looking up the city info crashed my IE -twice)
(2nd note: who says you never use math in the real world =D )

Mo and The Purries said...

Asara - could you use one of Blogger's templates (Like I do) and jazz it up with graphics, like photoshopped stuff like I do?
Just an idea.

Mo and The Purries said...

Oh - and tailgaters don't bother me as much as the assholes who pull out in front of you and DON'T ACCELERATE.


mo
FTB
ILY2

Anonymous said...

Morgen - I totally agree with the people that pull out in front of you.
Asara - I enjoy letting my foot off the gas when a tailgater is behind me. It pisses them off when I slowly decelerate(sp?). Of course, tapping your brake is fun too 'cuz it flashes your brake lights.

Anonymous said...

correction: I totally agree with the comment about people that pull out in front of you.

Linda said...

Maybe it's just because I'm getting old or something but I've noticed that there are a lot more bad drivers on the road than there used to be and the vast majority of them seem to be rude, rude, rude! And it's not just the speeding thing, it's the whole deal. Driving used to be fun - not anymore!

Oh, and for what it's worth, I have had no problems at all with your page loading though there have been some others that I visit regularly (not Skittles) that I am starting to have problems with. I use Firefox most of the time.

Just FYI!

FTB
ILY&hearts

Rebecca said...

Well said!!!

Mike said...

I stay at 5 mph over pretty much all the time. I understand about the speeders though. Every morning and when I go home too there are people on the freeway that blow by me. I also hate people that pull out in front of you. We have a stretch of road over here with a mall on it and it's 50mph. People come out of the mall doing 30 and think everything's ok if they pull in front of you. Go figure.