Hurray for Indiana’s slow poke law

Let me mention right off the bat that I don’t speed.  I can’t remember the last time I got a ticket for speeding.  Most of the time people say I drive as if I were a grandma.  I try to go at the speed limit or on some occasions maybe a couple of miles above it. 

When I first learned to drive I learned a very important thing, to be courteous to other drivers.  If someone is coming up behind me going faster than I, and I happen to be in the left lane then I pull over to the right lane to let him or her pass.  I have a rear view mirror as do other drivers and I can see what is happening behind me.  I am not a policeman and I do not have to monitor whether they are going at the proper speed or not.  It’s not for me to say.

Lately when I am driving I notice that too many drivers just hang out in the “passing lane”.  They are not turning.  They are not passing.  They are just Sunday driving usually alongside someone going the same speed in the right lane, thus setting up a pretty effective road block.  They are always oblivious to the line of cars that are accumulating behind them.  The line adds up to probably 20 or more cars with the road ahead wide open.

And then a irritated and dangerous driver decides to closely tailgate, flash their lights or to weave in and out with barely a few inches between cars trying to get in front this self absorbed slow poke.  Now that is an accident waiting to happen, when all this person had to do was get over into the right lane.

Actually the left lane is “the passing lane”, but drivers these days don’t view it that way.  Makes me wonder if they ever had any driver’s education.  So now in July Indiana will join one other state that tickets drivers who do not get over for faster moving traffic.  For those of you who feel that this law is not justified, I’m sure glad I’m not driving behind you.

slow poke law

Are you a sun worshipper?

Summer is pretty much in full swing and the sun worshippers are coming out of their winter doldrums.  They are greasing up with oils and lotions and lying out by the pool.  They will have their healthy bronze bodies throughout the next few months and me… I’ll be vampire white like always.

Every since I was a teenager I never liked the sizzling feeling of laying in the sun while my body crisps. While all the other girls my age mixed concoctions of baby oil and lay out for hours, I’d duck in the shade.

I know a tanned body supposedly looks attractive but I had my reasons I would avoid the sun.

1.     I didn’t care for the odor of suntan oils.  Reeking of chocolate and coconut, it seems more appropriate to be lying on a platter than a towel.

2.     I felt like I was on a Bar-B-Que grill, flipping sides as needed.

3.     Judging from some of the older folk residing in the sunshine state, I didn’t care to look like one of the California raisins’ at 30.

4.     It was boring and unproductive.  After about 10 minutes I’d think about all the things I could be doing instead of just lying there and sizzling.

5.     Super hot temperatures make me long for winter.

6.     Finally, I don’t tan, I burn, and although red is one of my favorite colors; it isn’t very attractive on human skin. And seriously, one should only view peeling skin in horror movies.

Now you may think I am full of beans and that a suntan is the ultimate beauty goal, but I’ll bet every single dermatologist agrees with me.  So as I exit my home for the next few weeks I will be slathered in unscented 100+ SPF lotion as I dash to my air-conditioned car. I will walk on a treadmill and practice yoga in a cool building.  I will wear long sleeves and sit under an umbrella during the rare times I am at the beach.  And, sorry about that, but I will look like Dracula’s daughter forever.

Not a sun worshipper?  Well to quote a popular TV show..."Winter is coming."