Whew, it was a busy weekend. Tammy and I spent all day Saturday and a smidge on Friday night at Camp Soundview for the Alpha weekend away. We had a terrific time. The facility there is very comfortable and makes for a great retreat setting. Tammy cooked 4 meals for us and received a well deserved round of applause for the effort.
I've been planning to dedicate a post on the topic of tailgating. Dan used this subject in his sermon this Sunday so I took it as a sign that it was time for me to give the topic a good thrashing.
I've never been one to put bumper stickers on my cars. There are all the obvious reasons like damaging your paint or lowering your resale value. However, the primary reason for me not declaring my political affiliation, particular breed of dog fancy, clog dancing enthusiasm, crocheting club fondness, or demand for ethno-religo-poli-unity is my behavior. People almost always judge a message from the actions of the messenger.
I know that regardless of how hard I try to drink my own "blog-aide" I will still manage to do some of the things I rage about on this page. We all make mistakes behind the wheels of our cars. My hope is that when it's me, my fellow commuters see it as oversight on my part not selfishness or worse maliciousness. Until car manufacturers provide some form of onboard apology system I'll refrain from putting a "Follow me to Jello Shooter Night at Rick's tavern and House of Tranquility" bumper sticker on my car. Rick would probably say I was "harshing his mellow".
I really do wonder what's going through the mind of people who tailgate. I can only imagine two scenarios and I'm not sure which one scares me more. At 60+ MPH they have their 4000 lb car so close to the rear of my 4000 lb car that a single sheet of notebook paper could be suspended between the vehicles without the proximity of the bumpers actually qualifying as "touching". The tailgater, both hands on the wheel, one eye closed as if aiming carefully, is having the ultimate drive by brail experience and through their brain is running one of these thoughts:
- If this guy doesn't get out of my way soon I'm going to run them off the road, rip his head off and mount it to my hood.
--OR-- - Gee, I need to get some bread. Aunt Susie, call Aunt Susie. That American Idol contestant sure is dreamy. Dreamy is a funny word, word, waaurd. Werd up. Getuppa get on uppa. Got yoga tonight and don't call the instructor Yoda, that's only funny to me. Hair cut, yup, Fame! I'm gonna live forever…
Either way I always scratch my head when the crazed tailgater zooms by me and they either have an Ichthys mounted on their trunk lid or have a Coexist bumper sticker. Neither of the ideas represented by these doodads jive well with tailgating, at least not the kind that occurs at speed. I guess for some, tolerance doesn't apply to people that have the nerve to impede progress on the freeway.
Perhaps they should try the other kind of tailgating; the kind that occurs in the parking lot of stadiums during football games. In fact, if these folks embrace the concepts implied by their bumpers, tailgating could turn into a learning experience for both parties and probably a heck of a good time.
Don't drive angry! Drive weird!
I tried putting a bumper sticker on my car once. Thankfully, it was the magnetic kind, so I didn't have to damage any paint to learn a valuable lesson. People will actually speed up and get inches off your bumber just so they can read it! Once I realized that people were actually driving worse behind me due to its presence, the sticker came off the car immediately. No need to be encouraging that sort of behavior.
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