I Can't Drive 55

I know gas is expensive, and everyone is doing what they can to conserve gas. I always turn my car off at the bank or ATM drive-thru. I have yet to start doing that at red lights though. Every article I read says to slow down to save gas, that 55 m.p.h. is the "magic number" to fuel efficiency, and it hardly shaves any time off your trip. Sadly, I'm not patient enough for this, and I still drive around 75m.p.h. on the highway.

I know Schneider Transportation (the orange semi trucks) has imposed a speed limit in their drivers. I don't know if it's a strict 65, or if they lowered it to 60. Apparently, a number of automobile drivers have also imposed a speed limit in an effort to save gas. I drive a lot for work. I am used to seeing people driving at, or just below, the speed limit. In the last month or so, I have noticed a lot more slow drivers. I don't mean people driving 63mph, but more like 54-57mph. I have had to quickly change lanes to avoid an unfortunate rear-end collision.

A couple weeks ago, coming back from a sales call in Green Bay, I was stuck behind a truck in the left lane going 64mph, to pass another truck doing 63mph. Neither was a Schneider truck. My guess is, they have a speed limit imposed by their employer and/or dispatcher. They also have satellite or electronic monitoring of their location, speed, etc. If they go above their limit, they could be reprimanded or otherwise penalized. Why did this truck feel the need to pass the other one? And if he wanted to pass, couldn't he have sped up, just a little, to achieve this? I want to say I was stuck behind this truck, in the left (i.e. passing) lane for 15 minutes! At times, he was inching past the "slower" truck, but often, they were at the same speed. Sometimes the passer was going even slower than the passee.

Finally, the truck on the left moved far enough past the other that he was able to move back to his spot on the right, and I could pass. I suppose, I should be thankful that I saved some gas for those 15 miles or so, but I wasn't. I gave him the one-finger salute as I passed. Just as I don't care to have another's morality pushed on me, I don't like having someone else's frugality forced on me. Someday, perhaps, I'll slow down. but for now, I have places to go, and time limits for getting there.

Same old story

Well, I tole myself, I would start writing more, but it's been close to 2 weeks since I made an entry. Luckily, I haven't told anyone about this blog, so I don't have to feel too guilty. I actually have an entry in mind that I'll write next. That's been my motivation to fire this up again. Hopefully, I'll get one or two more entries this week before we go on our annual camping trip next week.

What's up _________

I was driving to Madison for work last week and saw two funny, yet similar, license plates. One was on a van for Cuz Electric. The license plate was "CUZ", and I said out loud to myself "what's up Cuz?" as I passed him. I know, kinda stupid, but I got a minor kick out of it. Once I got to Madison, I saw another license plate that read "HOMZ", so of course I said to myself "What's up Homz?" Again, another minor thrill. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me amused - wish I had taken pictures of each.

Let's try this again

So SBC (now AT&T) is no longer really supporting their blogging, plus I was having problems up-loading my posts, so I decided to try something different. I'll try this for a few posts before I embarrass myself by telling everyone about it, and then not keeping it updated. We'll see what happens...