Those of us who drive long distances to get to work every day probably know the feeling I’ve been having lately: sheer boredom. After years of taking the same freeway, I know every mile marker (visible and missing but estimated), building and tree and have even begun naming the local wildlife. It’s the hit of the morning to spot a deer or turkey vulture going about its life in the natural world just beyond the black top.
I’ve watched trash sit in the same spot and degrade in the sun and snow over a period of months. I’ve witnessed some amazing feats of driving idiocy and survived to tell about it. I’ve sat in two-hour traffic tie-ups and left trucks in my dust. Been there, will keep doing that until I retire.
The car came with Sirius/XM(R) satellite radio, and I’ve grown fond of listening to my favorite stations. The one I enjoy most is Met Opera Radio, with its live broadcasts and archived performances that manage to make the drive seem more like a virtual visit to the opera house. There is a problem, though: the productions run on a schedule so well fixed in place that, when they repeat a performance, I find myself hearing the same scenes every time I’m in the car at rush hour. I’m certain I have heard the final act of Der Rosenkavalier at least five times in the two years I’ve had the subscription. The other acts run while I’m in the office. Well, half a performance is better than no performance at all, I suppose.
For a change, I’ll move the dial to the Broadway channel and listen to some good show tunes. Host Seth Rudetsky has gotten me through a few lengthy homebound traffic tie-ups. Once in a while I turn on Sinatra, but one of his slow tunes can get too relaxing. All those networks are within a few clicks of each other, ensuring my safety at the wheel as I won’t scroll through eighty channels or more at full speed on the highway. When there’s a lull in the offerings, or Rosenkavalier is on again, desperation sets in.
For a change, I bought an audio CD to listen to in my car. I chose Dr. Phil’s newest self-help book Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World. It was a great way to do something constructive while tooling down the road and trying to come up with something to replace the drone of the road in my ears. I’ve listened to it twice through, and I now feel ready to recognize a BAITER (a term for the manipulative people in your life) at twenty paces and keep my well-being in check in the process. In fact, in a moment of pure scientific genius while listening to Dr. Phil behind the wheel, I realized that Emperor Palpatine, the evil overlord in Star Wars, is a textbook BAITER. I could write a paper on it, but I’m sure somebody with a stronger Jedi mindset and the blessing of a degree in psychology has already done so.
The point is, this all keeps me awake while I waste hours of my life burning fossil fuel in a metallic wheeled box. I feel the need to keep my mind’s gears turning as fast as those under me.
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