Talking When Nobody's Listening

For those of you who don't live in places with seasons (California, I'm talking to you), the months of May through August are heavy with construction. This means that basically every road has little orange cones up and slower speed limits.

In residential areas, when those little orange cones take up a third of the street, its just not wide enough for two cars to fit through. So you have to take turns.

Today I was let through first by a gentleman, and as I passed him I waved and said, "thank you." My window was up and so was his. He couldn't hear me.

Why do we do that? (Talk when no one can hear us?) I know I'm not the only one. Some people get frustrated and yell at other drivers. Some people, confused by what another driver is doing might say, "come on buddy." I, personally, catch myself saying, "go ahead" when at a four way stop, without actually waving the person on. And then there's the hesitant inching forward, then stopping to let someone go, only to have them doing to same thing, so you don't really know WHO is going to go but you're both waving each other on.

I think it's really funny that we talk alone in our cars. I used to think it would be smart to install CV radios in all cars and you could just automatically tune in to whoever is around you. That way you could say things like, "hey you go ahead, you look like you're in a hurry," or, "excuse me, but could you please let me through, I'm in a hurry," or, "could you please leave some room on the right so that I can pull into the turn lane? Thanks," or "GET OUT OF THE WAY, MY BRAKES ARE OUT!"

But then I realized what a bad idea that would be after all, because it would probably increase road rage and ultimately cause more problems. Like the two cars that stopped in front of me on my way to lunch the other day. Both drivers got out of their cars and got into a full on contest to see who could yell the F-bomb louder. It was amusing, but I was late for lunch.

So anyway, that was just a random thought of the day. I've been doing more research for my novel and reading up on preparation. Someone had posted a link to this blog, Bibliophile Stalker, which has a bunch of excellent links for writers and readers alike. Check it out.