Driving in Silence

The other day I did the unthinkable – I drove to work with my car radio/CD off! Now, for me that is a rare occurrence if I am alone in the car. There was no blaring music - however good it is at other times - there was no radio station surfing, no having to listen to radio DJs trying to lure people to play some dumb on-air games or pranks, and no having to listen to people showing their total ignorance on matters that should be general knowledge. Like I really think one should not call in to answer a Bible Question if you have no clue about some basic Bible verses like John 3:16. I must warn you here though that this my sour grapes rant since I never seem to get through for the “Bible or Not” game on Star99.1 every morning and most of those times the person who goes through seems to have no clues of even the basic Sunday School Bible stories. I feel like yelling at the person “You should have let someone make use of that opportunity!" Ok enough of my ranting.

Anyway, I digress ….so back to the silent ride – I was actually able to notice more things as I drove even the foliage! I took active notice of other cars and motorists. My mind began to wander in the direction of driving in this season. I got the chance to be reminded of Jersey drivers “what’s-a-turn-signal” attitude by a few fools who do not seem to realize that those turn signals are to be used. I remembered that for the last few days and week, I have seen more stalled cars on the roadside than I have in a long while. On one occasion I saw more than 3 stalled vehicles on a short stretch of one highway. Then I started wondering where this has to do with the high gas prices or just the fact that the road trip season has begun. I remembered one “expert” on NPR radio saying that this season we will be seeing more stalled cars on the roads, having run out of gas. Her advice was that if you own a car, you are obligated to gas it up. But after having paid $3.33 per gallon yesterday I am obliged to tell her that I am obligated to nothing but getting to where I need to go whether it means walking or even hitchhiking. I decided that by dire need, I will wean myself from the Jersey habit of driving to a store on next block….

So after the peace and quiet of the ride, and the loud riot of my thoughts on motorists, I turned on my radio deciding that listening to one of those experts giving unsolicited and sometimes unnecessary advice was better for me as it made driving a mind-numbing exercise…of course until some fool cuts me off….!