It’s so great to be back home. Road trips are not for the meek. One thing I noticed while driving in Illinois was their reported number of traffic related deaths thus far this year is 731. Which is a significantly lower number than those in Texas, which is 2,644. Of course, the population and size of the two states greatly differ. The population of Illinois is 12,830,632. Whereas Texas is bursting at the seams with a population of 26,448,193. But, what are the real numbers when the results of traffic related deaths are broken down by alcohol-related accidents or even distraction-related ones?
An entire month spent in the mid-western USA made me long for the warmth of a Texas autumn. I suppose I’ve never adjusted to cold weather. And, after years of living in the south, I’ve become accustomed to the Fall here, where some are so freaking hot, that the leaves literally ‘melt’ off the trees. Like a surreal, ‘Salvador Dali’ kind of Fall. I must admit that, up north, I reveled in the beauty of the giant oaks and maples, with their annual transformation in shades of sun-kissed gold, brilliant orange and vibrant red. But I knew that it was just a short time before those leaves would fall. And with the falling leaves would come a brutal winter. This was my cue that it was time to come back home to the lone star state.
I dreaded the drive back home. And my imagination drifted to the new ‘Dorothy’ app. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just click my heels and instantly find myself 900 miles away, back in my own warm nest. Of course, that’s not how the app works. But at least the app did come in handy to get me out of an awkward conversation with a creepy toothless guy. Until that encounter, I thought the dating website FarmersOnly.com was just a myth.
Happy Fall to all of you good drivers out there.
Until next week….
Daun Thompson
Writer / Comedienne / Artist
Traffic Related Deaths – Comedy Defensive Driving