Traffic: Theme Thursday

Image from http://www.inhabitat.com

Do you ever imagine your life as a mega road trip? Think about it.

Your trip begins by learning how to navigate your parents' car up and down the driveway to get the feel of the car.

Then you graduate to driving in parking lots and back roads.

The first time you navigate an actual city street, your heart is in your throat. You have to remind yourself to keep breathing.

U-turns and K turns present challenges, but nothing you can't eventually manage. Parallel parking becomes the ultimate barrier to gaining the coveted driver's license, your graduation to being a grown-up. Hopefully, years from now, no one will care how many times you had to take the road exam for your license.

Eventually you learn how to merge onto a main highway and sail away, gaining confidence. You become one with the car, sailing on cruise control.

There are many exciting places to go, people to see, adventures to enjoy!

Until you get to the dreaded "Construction Ahead" sign. Then things start to s...l...o...w down.

Do you do a U-turn to go back and find a more manageable route? Or do you forge ahead, switching over to four wheel drive and weathering the bumps and dents, laughing all the way? Do you see this bump in the road as the making of a great story? Or does it immobilize you all together?

You may feel like you're back at the beginning and it seems like you'll never advance. But then you discover that it was just one of those merge situations, where two lanes of traffic were vying for the same lane. Once you're past the merge point, things speed up again and you sail away.

Hopefully you go through life without any accidents, but every once in a while the inevitable happens. Boom! You're hit head on by some disaster. You won't know until the dust settles whether you've escaped intact and unscathed.

One way or another, you make your way back home again. Whether you pull the car safely back into the driveway in one piece, or barely make it (with the engine sputtering and choking and the bumper hanging) is still a mystery.

So where am I on this ultimate Road Trip of Life? Hopefully, only midway. What I do know is that my car reflects my life. She's got over 150,000 miles on her, there are a few dents and dings and the rust is starting to form around the wheel wells. I've been over some rough roads, but she's always gotten me to where I wanted to go. The engine is still sound and there are many more miles left in her before she's relegated to the scrap heap.

Wait! Hold the phone! What is this schlock that I just wrote? It sounds just like Dr. Seuss in Oh, The Places You'll Go! Oh, crap! Pretend you never read this... it's just too humiliating. (But it was such a cool traffic light picture, I just had to use it.) Damn Theme Thursday!

For a much better Theme Thursday post, go see Otin's... deliciously creepy!

Tune in again next Thursday for something that will hopefully be more entertaining and far less sappy.


P.S. I'm off to mind my friend's critters for a few days... dogs, cats, birds, fish & chickens... so I apologize in advance if I don't get to your posts in a timely fashion. Perhaps I should use the formal apology.