My Nemesis

Grey Kia is back. I don't know where she's been, and frankly, I hadn't even missed her. I didn't even realize that she was gone- until this morning.

This morning, I was traveling along my dark, winding and rainy route to work, and I was thinking about how, as much as I don’t like the rain, how I’m glad it’s not snow. The commute is long enough, but when it’s snowing, my fifty minute commute can turn into a seventy minute commute.

So, I’m driving along and I'm pretty much alone- at least for the first half of the nearly hour long trip. But somewhere after my half way point, I get behind another fellow commuter and eventually that commuter comes up behind someone else. No big deal.

But then things start slowing down.

One by one, more cars gather behind me. In front of me, the trail of red brake lights stretches far ahead, snaking over the rolling hills like a slow motion roller coaster. “What is going on?” I wondered. “We’re past the point of getting stuck behind a school bus.” I strain my eyes, looking through the rainy darkness to see if I can make out the head of this slow moving snake. And then it hits me. "Oh no! Grey Kia!"

Sure enough, I could make out the dark outline of that cube shaped snail at the head of this bottleneck and I knew I would be locked into a slow motion commute for the rest of my way to work.

One by one, the cars in front of me dropped off- each making their escape to their different destinations. And with each car that escaped to freedom, I got closer and closer to the head of the snake. Eventually, it was just me and Grey Kia- and the fifty or so cars stuck behind us.

It had been months since this last happened. I don’t know where she had been this whole time, but seeing her again stirred up an abundance of mixed emotions within me- emotions like dread, hostility... and dread.

I took this photo of grey Kia many months ago, intending to write a little something about her. But I never got around to it and eventually she completely dropped off my radar. And the thing is, I hadn't even realized it. It's a little like having a festering splinter in your finger that bothers you day after day until one day you realize that it's gone and you can't even remember when it popped out. But this festering sore has apparently popped back in.

Now, I was once again stuck behind Grey Kia, putting along at an extra safe 10-15 miles an hour below the speed limit.

I thought again about the impending winter commute and I wondered how it would be possible to go even slower and still be moving. And I feared that, unfortunately, I'll probably have the chance to find out.