{"id":591,"date":"2007-03-05T06:54:45","date_gmt":"2007-03-05T12:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=591"},"modified":"2022-01-02T07:38:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T12:38:26","slug":"the-highway-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/?p=591","title":{"rendered":"The Highway of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"speeding.jpg\"For the most part, I drive the speed limit. Okay, okay within 5 mph of the speed limit anyway. I was thrilled when the speed limit on Alabama interstate highways was raised to 70 mph a few years back because I had always found that pace to be a comfortable cruising speed. Add to that the 5 mph cushion that most cops will allow as a margin of error, and I never really felt the need to go much faster, especially with young drivers and drivers-to-be scrutinizing my every move from the backseat.<\/p>\n

But yesterday while driving back from Orange Beach, it was brought home to me anew just how slowly I drive compared to my peers. On the way down during Thursday’s bad weather, most everyone exercised appropriate caution and slowed down for the dangerous conditions. But yesterday with a nearly cloudless sky and dry pavement the whole way, Interstate 65 suddenly resembled the backstretch at Talledega.<\/p>\n

With the cruise set at 75 mph, I often would move into the passing lane, seemingly with plenty of time to spare, to move around a slower vehicle. Invariably, before I could complete the maneuver, I would be overtaken by a driver doing 85-90 mph who would then ride my bumper, sometimes with lights flashing annoyingly, until I moved back in the right lane.<\/p>\n

Now the way I see it, I have two options here: a) I could move very quickly and apologetically back into the right lane, or b) I could take my good sweet time and wait several seconds and then very sloooowly move over, tipping my hat to the Dale Jr wannabe who seems so eager to swap a little paint with my ’98 Toyota minivan. Care to guess which option I exercised?<\/p>\n

For me, it’s simply a matter of exerting a little bit of control over a life that is notoriously “nasty, brutish and short.”<\/a> Who knows? Maybe the other drivers will even take the time to reconsider their actions and slow down enough to take in the scenery and smell the roses.<\/p>\n

Heh.<\/p>\n

So, when you’re traveling the highway of life, what do you do under those circumstances? Or, pray tell, are you the Dale Jr. wannabe with visions of checkered flags dancing in his head?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the most part, I drive the speed limit. Okay, okay within 5 mph of the speed limit anyway. I was thrilled when the speed limit on Alabama interstate highways was raised to 70 mph a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,40,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-southern-culture","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9661,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/9661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ocularfusion.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}