Cool Driving

In light of my recent vacation drives to San Diego and back to Long Beach, I decided to update and repost the following.

One arm cocked against the driver’s side window. Laidback. To signal. It’s okay. I’m cool. I got this. The other arm relaxed. A finger barely touching the steering wheel. It’s all cruise control, baby. Chillin’. Shooting down the 405. Cool Driving.

Not like the bad old days. When it was slow crawling 15, 25, if I’m lucky, miles per hour. Both hands tensed. Grabbing the steering wheel in a headlock. Fingers turning purple. Teeth clenched inside my jaw. Crawling north in a time bomb powered by the best Japanese minds. Up the 405 the 10 to LaBrea over Wilshire landing in Hollyweird. Jazz sing-along on the radio while anonymous phone screamers scream into Talk Radio. Lamenting an America that never existed. This is the real America past Gardena, Compton, South Central, Pico-Union. Stay in your lane. Do not turn your head. Is that a gun in your hand, or are you just happy to see me? Shoot across four lanes searching for exits and shortcuts anything to still the boredom of sneaking over thirty miles of concrete and asphalt and steel and painted lines. No one is going anywhere a long line of machine-carrying robots (like me) who dance (like me) the same dance. There was once a thrill to driving a car take you anywhere you want or need. Fantasized freedom wrapped in metal and engineering wonder. Before road rage and rush hours and HOV lanes and clogged arteries that will drop a heart attack on me while I gobble breakfast in one hand and 185-degree coffee in the other, and the steering wheel is wedged between my knees.

That was then. Cool driving now. No Jazz. No Talk Radio. No rush. Just the feel of power under and around me. Laidback. One arm cocked against the driver’s side window. To signal. It’s okay. I’m cool. I got this. The other arm relaxed. A finger barely touching the steering wheel. It’s all cruise control, baby. Chillin’. Shooting down the 405. Cool Driving.

Author: Antonio Pedro Ruiz

Antonio Ruiz is an ex-junkie-alcoholic, former seminarian, one-time radio host-producer, past community organizer, continuing to be a media advocate, retired television reporter, ex-commission executive director, once a street vendor of jewelry and gloves, waitron (waiter to you), a former bartender who drank too much on the job, an ex-motorcycle courier who learned to ride a bike just for the job, ex-airport shuttle driver, former Entertainment news director-producer, the best time of my life, one-time live TV events red carpet producer-executive producer, ex-small business consultant, ex-youth media and journalism mentor, and now a college student who also has been married three times (thirds the charm), and just couldn't help living with two other women because well, that's part of my story. View all posts by Antonio Pedro Ruiz