It happened again tonight.  I was headed into the canyon, windy-twisty road par excellence, doing (gasp) the speed limit.  A car roared up behind me and passed me flying across the boldly painted double yellow lines.  Yikes!  They pulled back into my lane in front of me, almost clipping my front bumper.  Last seen, the tail lights disappeared into the canyon never to be seen again, at least by me.  

I would like to stop and protest here your obvious conclusion that I am an old lady driver.  OK, I am an old lady, but I don’t drive like one.  I do the speed limit and a little more.  I don’t hog left lanes, but I live in the sticks and two lane roads don’t give the slow lane option.  Even when I am driving five over the speed limit (I hope no officers of the law see this confession of speeding), people have passed me on blind corners and around four other cars, sometimes.  It is not safe.

So what should I do?  My choices are a) drive like Jehu* or b) drive a sane speed and make other drivers mad and dangerous.  Seriously, what should I do?  When I can, I “clear my tail” by stopping and letting people by.  Recently I have decided to modify my driving habits and go with the flow of traffic.  Is that the correct choice?  

I am reminded of a poem we learned in elementary school – I can’t remember why.

He was right, dead right, as he sped along,

But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.

*Jehu  –  II Kings 9:20  The lookout reported, “He has reached them, but he isn’t coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi—he drives like a maniac.”