iMood Wednesday Aug 11

A beautiful Wednesday top-down drive in this morning, full of the kind of early morning-ness I most enjoy.  Crisp air, blue skies and pockets of fairly thick fog-already-burning-off, bird singing and calling, and light traffic.  What's not to like?

Two observations-cum-questions:  First, it intrigues me how many people pull up to within inches of the car in front of them when they stop.  Some roar right up and stop at the last minute, others slow down a ways back, but keep rolling forward until they get to within inches before actually stopping.  Is it a form of agoraphobia? They like to stay huddled close to others? Maybe an addiction to exhaust fumes?  Are they worried a very skinny bicyclist might slip in between them and the car in front?  Folks that do this do it every time, so it's not just distraction––it's a practiced driving habit. I just don't get the reason.

I'm talk about the average joe/car here.  The guys driving the massively over-sized trucks who do this, I get their deal.  It's all about size and in their grill comparison.  Driving a very small car I get this all the time.  That crowd will, more often than not, pull right up on my rear bumper (when they don't with other cars).  Makes 'em feel big or something. The more after-market kit and chrome the truck has the more likely to engage in this compensatory behavior.  Frankly, they don't bother me, providing they don't actually make contact; I get the psychology at play here.  But all the other folks who pull up so close––that "why" intrigues me.

Second: the number of drivers who drive in fog with no lights on––what's up with that?

Oh, and in case you were wondering, a lot of people still smoke.  In a convertible you can really tell, and it is a rare outing when I don't have someone in front of me smoking.  Very rare.  Not this morning, though - just crisp clean morning air!

My iPod's mood this morning:

• The Bad Plus: Silence is the Question
• John Barry: Body Heat
• Charlie Haden & Hank Jones: Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
• Wilco: Side with the Seeds
• John Denver: This Old Guitar
• Yusuf Islam (FKA: Cat Stevens): I Think I See the Light

That last one was especially true, as I came through the last of the fog and into the bright blue skies of what promises to be a very nice day here in our mild PNW town.