Light Speed

Today on the morning drive to work it was raining, and when rain and driving mix people somehow seem to get stupider.  People do lots of things in the rain that really bother me. First of all, just because it’s moderately precipitating does not mean we all need to slow down to a snail’s pace. When it starts monsooning, hailing, or pushing your car off the road with gale force winds… we can slow down to nothing. But until then… they invented windshield wipers for a reason, and they actually work pretty damn well.

And on the topic of windshield wipers, I’m pretty sure every car manufactured in the last 20 years has what they call “variable speed wipers” which means exactly that, you can change the speed. Some have low (a.k.a. “I forgot those were even on”), medium, high, and holy shit settings, while others can be more finely tuned for speeds between these such as “misty morning” and “wow it’s really coming down out there.” I hate that squeaking screeching sound wipers make on a dry windshield when they are on too high of a setting for the rain currently falling, which is why for some reason even though I can’t hear the sound myself, it REALLY bothers me to see people driving around with their wipers on holy shit speed when it’s sprinkling.  There is no need to have your wiper blades whizzing noisily past your face at light speed when you have driven out of the storm and it’s not even raining anymore.  I mean they’re right there in front of your face, how can you not notice them? I guess it’s just another way in which drivers prove themselves to be completely oblivious to their surroundings… it’s pretty scary if you think about it.

The last thing about rain that bothers me is the number of people in Virginia (where I live) who still can’t get the whole “your headlights must be one whenever your wipers are” law…thingy.  I mean while you’re there engaging the wiper warp drive why not reach another inch to the right and flick on those lights?  I’m not surprised that people still can’t get this right only because it seems people haven’t figured out the other rule about headlights either… you know the one that says you have to turn them on when it’s DARK! I see people all the time cruising around at dusk without them on, and while yes it’s not pitch black yet it’s pretty dark and if you don’t have your headlights on the lights on your dashboard aren’t on either, which means you have no freaking clue how fast you’re going… again… pretty scary if you think about it.