the pace of life

I love Tennessee. This state is a great state to live in. My biggest complaint since living in Middle Tennessee has been the lack of snow. Though I still complain, we actually have snow on the ground. Sure it’s only an inch or less but… its snow. It’s white, powdery, and scary for those not use to driving in it.

The thing that drives me crazy about semi-bad weather is the people who drive in it. Now I understand grandma is a little nervous driving her Cadillac when there is some wet stuff on the roads. What I do not understand are the countless number of people who pay top dollar to buy massive SUV’s and still drive like their going to spin out of control at any minute. I want to shake them and say, “you paid $40K for that all terrain vehicle, what are you scared of?” Vehicles like Hummers were created to drive in any kind of weather. After all, the Hummer commercials show the thing going underwater.

Now, I’m not calling for people with SUV’s to, “drive em like they stole em,” I’m just asking them to move it along a little bit. There are many places in this great area where the roads are legitimately bad. Just today I saw two vehicles off the road, one was a diesel truck. What I am complaining about are those driving on highways and interstates. They salt the main roads well before it even snows. Move, move it along a bit.

Bad driving or not I love the snow. It slows things down a bit. Life is too fast. We move from one task to another, from one scheduled appointment to another. Days feel more like hours now. Hours feel more like minutes. Life is moving at the speed of broadband so it’s great when something like a snow storm can come in and stop everything. If you walk outdoors it just feels quiet, calm, and soothing. I complain that people are driving to slow because I still feel rushed. I find myself unable to slow down regardless of the weather. I have no reason to rush other than the fact that moving at break neck speed has become the norm for me. I have to learn to pace myself.