My normally fifty minute ride into work was closer to an hour and a quarter this morning. This was because I was second in line behind a large pickup truck that was going about fifteen miles an hour slower than I usually do.
Traveling the same roads, at the same time every day, you begin to notice certain cars over and over. Some you know are trouble and you’re doomed if you get stuck behind them. The others can be team players and make an effort to keep up the pace.
I didn’t recognize this particular truck, so I was doubly offended- first, because he was driving so slow and secondly because he was driving so slow on roads I had long ago considered to be mine.
It also bothered me that the car between us didn’t seem to be offended by any of this. I figured this to be the case because this guy was not using the internationally accepted technique of bearing down on the other guy’s bumper. I stewed on this as I occasionally flicked on my wipers getting rid of the spray from the car in front of me.
The further we drove, the more my resentment grew. I sensed a conspiracy against me.
After several more miles, the car in front of me, Middle Man, ended up turning off, leaving me directly behind his buddy in the truck. I didn’t know if this was part of some clever ploy or not, but I kept an eye on my rear view mirror- just in case.
A few miles up the road, Big Truck slows down for the rotary as I bear to his right, passing him as I go onto a ramp. Even though it was still dark outside, I craned my neck as I passed him and gave him my patented “you are a moron who shouldn’t be on the road” glare. I don’t think he saw me, but it made me feel slightly better.
I didn’t make the green light up ahead. And as I sat at the red light, I thought about the bad mood I was now getting in, and how I was in a fine mood when I got up, and how, by my calculations, it was all the fault of that truck driver. By the time the light turned green, I had pretty much laid out the scenario for how bad the rest of the day was going to be and how it bugged me that people like him aren’t being held accountable for my bad mood.
Further down the road, I passed a guy hitchhiking. This guy is out there several times a week. I never see him walking. He’s always just standing there, staring down the road- his arm outstretched with his thumb pointing at the sky. He looks like a lawn jockey that had his lantern stolen (The white kind, not the black kind. Let’s not make this a racial thing).
When I first noticed this guy, I made an effort not to make eye contact with him. I always pretended that there was something way more interesting going on on the other side of the road. After a while, I stopped caring. Somewhere along the line, this guy became just another piece of blurry scenery that I passed by on my way to work.
As I passed by him this morning, I had the realization that maybe this guy wasn’t hitchhiking at all. Maybe what he’s been doing this whole time was rating the drivers that pass him by. This made a lot of sense to me and it made me feel pretty good that I was always getting the “thumbs up”. It felt nice to be appreciated.
As I got to the last turn before work, I slowed way down to make the corner- and I almost couldn’t stop.
It turned out that the glaze on my windshield hadn’t been coming from some car in front of me, but it was from a light freezing mist that must have been falling for some time now. I began to think that maybe the truck that had been going so slow, was doing it because it was so slippery out. Ultimately I decided that too much time had passed, and that it made more sense for me to continue my grudge.
As I rounded that final corner, the car fishtailed- but only slightly. I congratulated myself on my professional driving skills and I thought about how Lawn Jockey Man had been correct in giving me a thumbs-up for all these many months.
Maybe, just maybe, the day would be ok after all.
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