On speed

It was a perfect day for driving: clear blue sky, crisp air, lovely red and yellow fall leaves everywhere. In five hours on the road today I passed Measely Ridge Road, Gravel Wash Road, Tranquility Pike, and Basil Rutter Field, Home of the Bulldogs. I saw plenty of deer carcasses but also a more unusual type of roadkill: teddy bears, at least a dozen of 'em, strewn along the side of I-75. The turkey vultures were more interested in the deer.

It's been a while since I drove on I-75 and I had forgotten that the average interstate driver considers the speed limit merely a suggestion. I was going 70 most of the time and I was being passed by little old ladies in Packards, toddlers on Big Wheels, and sloths on crutches. After all that speed it was good to come to a complete stop.

I'll be visiting my daughter at college for the next few days. I'm writing this from her room in the same dorm where I lived 23 years ago, except it's much nicer now, brighter and prettier and air conditioned, not to mention wired. There's a flurry of activity around me but I'm happy to just be still for a while, to enjoy a three-day detour from the high-speed highway of life. Tuesday morning I'll be on the road again but until then my speed limit will hover as close to 0 as I can get it.