Driving

I hate to drive.  I get really nervous when I drive because I'm worried that someone will pull out in front of me, weave into my lane, just generally, do something really stupid. I've never been in a wreck during my adult life so I'm not really sure what my reaction would be.   That said, I do a lot of driving people to here and there and back again so I have a lot of time to think while I'm driving.  I'll probably rear-end someone sometime because I'm too busy thinking and not paying attention to what I'm really supposed to be doing!

I think a lot about things.  My day, what I should have said instead of what I actually said, what I'm having for dinner, what I need to get done, those kinds of things. Especially when I'm alone.  When one of my kids is riding, we generally talk.  I talked a lot to my dad when he would drive me around.  He would give me some advice that didn't feel like advice while we were driving.  I learned to look at the telephone lines to see if someone was coming up the hill because the phone lines would reflect their headlights.  I learned what Billy Joel meant when he sang about trojans in his pocket...I didn't have any idea while I was singing it at the top of my lungs! I learned not to sing lyrics of songs that I didn't know what they meant!  Among other things.

I am learning now that being alone in a car is a good chance to casually mention things that you normally wouldn't across the dinner table.  Sitting side by side is easier than sitting eyeball to eyeball.  I've discussed drugs, sex, people from school who's parents are doing things they shouldn't, making good choices versus bad choices and how they can effect you forever and ever.  Among other things.  I hope it doesn't sound like preaching, they don't react like it is.  I remember when my dad would offer these little five minutes of wisdom.  I remember them as discussions, not as a teenager who was being told what to do. 

And most of all...I still remember them!