I went to Albany on Sunday for a one day quick trip. For the first time in my life I forgot daylight savings time and got a late start, so essentially my agenda was to drive up, return some boots, pick up my very beautiful new bag and wallet that had been mailed c/o my dad’s house, meet my dad+stepmom for coffee, enjoy surprise get together with sarah and kevin and baby ryan at coffee shop.
I had a really distracting drive due to the flooding up and down the thruway, especially around Kingston. The little creeks were out of their banks and in a couple of places pressing their wet noses up against the highway. I am seriously distracted by water. I used to have business meetings in an office building in Albany that overlooked the Hudson River, and I would find myself staring at a little inlet where you can see the tide coming in and going out. So driving over bridges with rushing muddy water underneath was exciting and fun and I wished someone else were driving so I could just stare and stare.
Anyway, I had about 6 hours to think while I was driving around yesterday, and I came up with this list:
very excellent reasons people should drive stick shifts:
* harder to talk on a cell phone and drive at the same time
* likewise, harder to eat big messy sandwiches (a little known cause of traffic accidents) while driving
* stop and go traffic becomes incredibly annoying, and if everyone was as annoyed as I am perhaps no one would drive like a dummy and resulting traffic would be avoided
* they are primo more efficient, plus
* you don’t need a giant engine to feel like you’re driving a sports car, and
* you don’t need a giant engine to merge onto a highway b/c you get extra zip with a manual transmission
* it’s better in ice and snow
* you work out both legs equally when you drive (avoiding the dreaded “driver’s leg.”)
