About Me

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Andrew was born in London, UK, raised in Toronto, Canada, and cavorted in Ohtawara, Japan for three years. He is married, has a son, a cat named Freddy and a dog named Shaggy (after the dudes in Scooby-Doo). He has over 35,000 comic books and a plethora of pioneer aviation-related tobacco and sports cards and likes to build LEGO dioramas. Along with writing for a monthly industrial magazine, he also writes comic books and hates writing in the 3rd person. He also hates having to write this crap that no one will ever read. He also writes an aviation blog: Pioneers Of Aviation ( https://av8rblog.wordpress.com/ ) - a cool blog on early fliers. He also wants to do more writing - for money, though. Help him out so he can stop talking in the 3rd person.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Speeders

Do you know what I hate?

I hate speeders.

I'm what is known in the parlance, a nice guy. Damn near everyone likes me upon meeting me.

Now, I'm going to admit to you that in my youth, I have been a speeder. I was Lightning McQueen before there was Lightning McQueen.

I wanted to be A.J. Foyt, the Mad Texan who won a ton of Indy 500 races - just because we shared the same two initials! True.

I've driven fast. Very fast. Scary, holy cow, what the hell just passed us fast. I've used a Laser/Radar detector. I've driven my then new Hyundai Tiburon to the point that I was pushing it past the point where the speedometer stops counting.

Despite the reckless abandon I showed, I was a very good driver. I did not swerve in and out of traffic, I signaled even if there was no one around me (just good practice), and I never, ever hi-beamed anyone to get out of my way. I never sped during rush hour, and certainly never (almost never) sped during the day time. I never sped on city streets, either. If I sped, and when I sped, it was at night when the roads were clearer.

To me, it was like playing a video game, though I never, ever raced anyone - and while I am an extremely good video game player, I am aware that you get multiple lives. Just not in real life.   

And... despite all of this, I never got a speeding ticket - except twice for going 62 in a 50 kilometer per hour zone. I used to laugh, thinking how they should have seen me hours before doing nearly 200 kph more than that.

I admit this here, because I acknowledge how very wrong I was. In my youth.

I was reckless, and not only could I have killed myself, I could have injured or killed others. I was stupid. Very stupid.

My car was not tricked out. I didn't have roll bars. Special tires or brakes. At any point in time in my activities, I could have lost control or had a tire blow out on me. And then it would have been game over.

And then I became a father.

All of a sudden, I discovered a lane on the roadways that I had previously called the pussy-lane. Yes, such colorful language. The slow lane.

Hunh. Here, I could go the speed limit or just below it, if I chose. Cars did not expect me to move over, and no one could begrudge my legal speed - and no one ever did/does.

Thank to my son... I slowed down. And stayed there. I was immature, and now, at the very least, if not mature, I am less immature.

Now I ride in the slow lane and watch people whip past me at 30-70 kilometers over the speed limit and I shake my head in amazement that anyone can be that stupid and reckless.  

I am one lucky stupid son of a bitch. And I aim to keep it that way by continuing to drive the legal speed limit and obeying all the traffic laws.

So, by mentioning this here, if you are like I was - slow down. I was lucky once upon a time... but one's luck can run out when you least expect it.  

And so it may seem as though I hate myself, well, I hate the way I used to drive, and my lack of respect for others on the road.

Hopefully, I haven't lost your respect, and even if I have, that's okay, I deserve it. But...

Do you know what I hate?

I hate speeders.
   

2 comments:

  1. On a semi-related note, those same kinds of people who get RIGHT up to your bumper when they can't pass you, simply looking pissed at you for daring to to view a speed limit as more than a halfhearted suggestion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed. Speeders suck.

    ReplyDelete

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