Like a Bat Outta Hell

The one thing I can't help but scratch my head about is how the natives drive down here. They drive like bats straight out of Hell!

I'm not a pokey driver by any means. In fact, I've been known to take right after my dad as far as being an "efficient" driver. I'm usually the one passing people and buggin' right along (no pun intended on the buggin' comment, hee hee).

However, in the nearly 3 weeks I've been here, I've been passed on the road four times already! What the heck?!

Three of the four times I've been passed have been in the morning while on the drive to work. It greatly confuses me, because I go over the speed limit by my usual 5 mph, which is comfortable and quite frankly the thing "cool" and cognizant drivers usually do, to fit in with the rest of the flow of traffic.

I guess it's just that I don't accelerate up to this full speed within 3 seconds down here, which causes people to want to pass me. I accelerate at just-the-right-pace, but still, I find drivers that accelerate and pass me as I am accelerating as well - a dangerous risk to pull off.

There have been drivers that live in the Links of Madison County right by me, so we pull out of the parking lot and drive out together. One time it turned out the driver was going to Nissan just like me. But still, they felt the need to pull out and pass me once we both got on the county highway to drive 2 minutes to work.

As they were passing me I saw the hand of the driver raise up, and the naive Suamico girl in me would like to think they were just giving me a good morning wave. :) After all, people are mighty friendly down here!

One other time, a pickup truck was leaving the apartment complex right behind me, and we both happened to be traveling south towards Jackson. I swear the truck tried passing me as I was pulling out of the stop sign coming out of our apartment community!! The mildly retarded way this anecdote ends? He slowed down to turn right on the very next road, just 1/4 mile away from our apartment community's driveway.

I continued on my way, as I had a bit more of a trek to go than he did. But excuse me sir, I do believe with your shotgun driving style, you left your oil pan that fell out of the bottom of your vehicle back there by the stop sign.....

So, you like to hurry up just to slow down? Or is it that you need the self esteem booster that badly that you must pass me to feel superior? I mean, I know I'm the smallest car out on the road (besides the SmartCar, but don't even get me started on that waste of sheet metal!)...but come on! Let's not bring our first grade bullying skills out to the pavement!!

In the meantime, I'm going to continue to go my speed and style wherever I go. It's healthier for my baby Beetle's engine in all of this heat, and I like seeing that the 12.5-gallon-tank in this car will last me the entire month of June before needing another fill-up! I still fit in down here - I come up on a few slow pokes myself. I just don't need to drive like I'm outrunning a hurricane all the time.







Side Story: I somehow managed to put both contacts in my face today for work, but once I got to work it seemed like my safety glasses were all smeary. I pulled them away to clean them, put them back on, and to my dismay, the eyesight was still smudged. I stepped into the bathroom to look and see if there was something stuck in my eye. Lo and behold, it wasn't that there was something in my eye - there was nothing in my eye! One of my contacts had actually fallen out without me ever even feeling it or having it at least stick to my cheek. I went the whole day feeling lopsided and trying to figure out where the contact went, even though it probably dried up and got all crispy within 10 minutes of falling out.

I checked the Beetle, the sidewalk up to my apartment, the tile floor around the sink in the bathroom. I found it in none of those places.

And just now, as I was ranting about the drivers here in Mississippi, I had to scratch an itch between my toes............and found a dried up contact lense crammed between them.

How?!?!?!?!?!

I think my ditziness has just graduated to the next level...an impressive feat, seeing as how I had socks and shoes on all day today, and never felt the contact allegedly permeate through the shoe + sock or rub against my toe all day.

;)