I Was Wrong

In case you were worried, and I doubt you were, I am still alive. I survived the move to Colorado and have been spending time learning to drive on snow, acclimatizing the Volkswagen, and getting lost around the new town. The move was anything but easy, but seeing the Rocky Mountains from my front porch seems to make it all worth it. A lot has happened since I last wrote and we have a lot to discuss in the upcoming month, but first and foremost I need to apologize. Not for the long absence over the holidays but for being the thing I hate most, ignorant.

I, like many of you, pride myself on being an efficient driver. Notice I didn't say good driver…but efficient driver. Also notice I didn't say fuel efficient driver because that I’m definitely not and never have been. The thing about living so long in Florida is the only challenging part of driving is flash floods and elderly Canadians, both of which slow you down considerably. Over a decade or so in the-land-Canadians-go-to-retire I have gotten comfortable with no ABS or traction control. I would argue at their existence (traction control and ABS...not the Canadians) and think of them as mere devices that allow drivers to pay less attention to driving and more attention to Facebook or a text message. I've always thought they hindered the talent of an efficient driver and gave the car a mind of its own. I didn't want the car to think for me, I wanted to call the shots and make the adjustment for the right circumstance. After all, isn't that what we’re taught in driver’s education? All of one entire chapter is on car recovery and what to do in a slide, and it doesn't include instructions to:

a.) Hit brakes as hard as possible.

b.) Stare at flashing ABS light and not the fence you’re about to crash into.

c.) Tweet about surviving the crash so everyone knows you’re okay.

I always thought of these devices as useless luxuries, that getting rid of them would make roads safer because after a month or so all of the bad drivers would be dead. I thought they served no purpose other than to make a driver lazy and keep idiot drivers driving longer before they got their license suspended for crashing into too many fences. I was wrong and I learned this lesson, like many growing up, the hardest way possible. I was leaving a grocery store late at night and came to an intersection with a stoplight…uphill…covered in ice. Press the gas pedal and no movement. Press the brakes and I’d go backwards. After what felt like a lifetime but was probably only a minute, I managed to get traction (on the wrong side of the road) and made it through the intersection alive. While driving home I kept thinking about if I had had an Audi, I would've been home a lifetime ago and much less frustrated. All the devices I cursed and spit on sure would've made things easier, safer, and more efficient...just like they were designed to do. So I've evolved now...and will only curse them during the summer. 

Photo by oregondot via http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondot/5304870362/