Driving In The Rain

Today I drove in the rain. I’ve done it before. I’m not unused to it. But today was different. I’m used to driving in the rain in Los Angeles. Which means it takes you 2 hours to go six miles because there’s a five car pile up on the freeway and four lanes are closed.

Driving in the rain in Oregon is different. It rains a lot up here so I don’t worry as much about people rear-ending me. But because the people are used to it, they go a lot faster. There were points when I couldn’t see out the front window but the big rig hauling a long load (3 trailers) was going faster than me. I did worry about getting rear-ended because there was a car behind me that wouldn’t slow down when the traffic did. The truck in front of me almost spun out so they wouldn’t rear-ended the person in front of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a pillar of proper driving etiquette. I got a speeding ticket back in June when I was driving to San Francisco. But it got me thinking, what’s so important that makes us drive that fast? Why are we so obsessed with getting places a second sooner than we could? Sure we get there early but it stresses us out. Things can happen in a split second and we’re dealing with the consequences of that for years.

I don’t know where it comes from but I’m going to be more aware of it. If I’m going to be late somewhere, then I’ll just be late. Or better yet, I’ll just leave earlier so I don’t worry about it. Life’s already too short, there’s no reason I need to make it even shorter.