If all the cars in the world were placed end to end… they'd probably be behind a slow moving cattle truck.
Everyone
is in such a hurry these days they don't have time to waste behind a
Gooseneck filled with cattle. So they pass with no visibility or lay on
their horns, as if that's going to speed things up. They'll risk their
lives hurrying themselves to death so that they can get to their final
destination earlier. And when I say "final" I mean final!
I
prefer a less hurried pace. I hate life in the fast lane with everyone
crowding, shoving, pushing and running over each other. We live in a
fast paced world where we brag about the speed of our Internet service
and agonize over which would be faster, the escalator or the elevator?
Everyone is so stressed out and in such a hurry that I heard of one
housewife who quickly loaded her dirty plates and dishes in the
microwave before rushing out the door only to discover upon her return
that a microwave is not a dishwasher. We have a frenetic friend who
loaded her three month old baby in the baby carrier and then went off
and left it and the baby sitting on the kitchen table.
I'll
never forget my first ranch job out of college when the owner wanted me
to take the bobtail cattle truck and bring back a load of feed from the
mill. No problem, I'm the son of a long-haul trucker and I know my way
around a set of gears. But I was surprised he trusted me that much and
that he didn't want to tag along, but I quickly discovered the reason
when I tried to navigate the two lane road around windy curves with
steep grades and descents. I was soon being followed by a long line of
cars and everyone had one hand on their horn.
The
average driver will honk a horn 15,250 times in their life and many of
the drivers behind me that day were using up half their quota. I'd have
given anything for a bumper sticker that said, "Keep honking. I'm
reloading."
I subscribe to the theory
that you should never drive faster than your age and If I recall
correctly I was about 21 at the time. The speed limit in 1905 was 20
miles per hour and I think that was the year the truck I was driving was
made. I considered driving in reverse up the steep grades because the
reverse was geared lower and would probably have been faster. I was
going so slow algae had time to grown on the tire treads.
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