I have a secret. My right foot is really heavy. I mean, heavier than my left foot. It drags sometimes. I've noticed that the later I am, the heavier it gets.
Which is why I've come to rely on my car's cruise control.
Usually it keeps me out of trouble. I set the speed for the posted limit (2-3 mph over if I want to push it) and I can sit back and relax, knowing I don't have to keep checking my heavy foot. I can just "enjoy the ride."
Now, YOU may push the speed up a bit, if you’re really worried about getting somewhere on time. Say, when you realize you have to stop for gas or risk running out, and when you’re already running late because the dogs wouldn't come in when you called them. (This is particularly crucial on a morning when you have a big presentation you’re already worried about, one that you were up until 3 a.m. the night before, finishing.)
On a day like that, you might set the cruise at, say, 10 miles over the speed limit. Doing this could cause you to see pretty lights though, so I don't recommend you try this at home.
Going 10 mph over speed limit is bad enough. But then if you have to speed up to pass the bloke who was going just slow enough to make you brake off your cruise control... (Don't you just hate people who do that?)
Then you get a guy like this questioning your motives.
Or maybe this.
Or, if you're not paying attention and you're rooting through your glove box looking for your ID and insurance card, this.
Or, if you're lucky, this.
Even if you're honest about speeding (it goes better for you if you are), you will most likely end up with a $200 fine, and find that now you're even later for that presentation than you were, and you still have to stop for gas. Especially now that you've been sitting at the side of the road for fifteen minutes with your engine idling.
When you stop for gas, if you're lucky, maybe the pump shut off valve won't freeze in the below freezing temperatures and cause gasoline to pour all down the side of your car before you realize that far too much gas has pumped than should have.
And maybe there will be paper towels on your side of the gas station and you won't have to run all the way to the other side (five gas-pump islands over) to get the paper towels, and then run to the women's restroom inside the store (because the water outside is frozen) to wet the paper towels, then run back outside and try to wash the frozen gasoline off your car before it ruins the paint, and all without coat or gloves or hat because a half-hour after you got on the road this morning you realized you forgot to put your coat and stuff in the car which was in the garage attached to your house, so you forgot that it was only 26 degrees and very windy outside when you got in the car.
But all is okay now, because you are back on the road, warm in your car, gas tank full. Maybe you’ll be only slightly late to give that presentation. You are, after all, so diligent that leaving the house in time to arrive ten minutes early (barring problems) means “running late” to you.
As you pull back onto the freeway you notice two State Troopers (on the other side of the freeway) and both have a car pulled over, not fifty feet from each other.
You realize technology is not intrinsically good or bad...it’s what we do with it that defines the outcome. You take it up to the speed limit, tap on the cruise control, take your heavy foot off the gas pedal. No presentation is worth another ticket you think, and you’re right. Technology is there to save you from yourself. Maybe you are a wee bit addicted to it. There are worse things to be addicted to.
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