Road Worthy...Weary...Back on the Road Again!

Treading Lightly: This particular post, while wide ranging in its metaphorical applications, was actually prompted by light treads, literally! That is, I found myself getting five new tires in one week, while second hand witness to a major blow-out -- four new tires on one car due to more than one person questioning my "executive functioning" (a major topic in psychology, while not formally presented here yet, as far as I remember), given my decision to take chances on tires, treads way beyond their lifespan...and on the another car one tire being replaced at the dealer's expense, apparently due to the misfortune of enough drivers' blow-outs that promoted a recall, trying to forestall drivers coming and 'blowing up' on their car lot, I guess. And the vivid account of a cyclist training for a triathlon, an inner tube splitting apart on a brand new bike, ("ass over tea kettle!" was his account), an inner tube which was apparently manufactured at the same facility as my one tire, which gave me pause a few times while getting up to a pretty good speed on my own bike the other day...about just how much we depend on these things, reflected by a former neighbor's clever quote "the only part of you car that should touch the cement". Reflected also in our reliance while out of our cars, while walking or running, the value we have come to put on the treads beneath our feet, especially of the athletic and/or outdoors sports variety, which we are willing to pay big, BIG bucks for, sometimes to simply look good, not necessarily to run faster or jump higher, or...reflected by a famous college basketball coach's fastidious attention to teaching his players the right way to put them on prior to letting them get them scuffed up. So many applications of tires, treads, the whole concept of automobiles in motion again after being at rest, that I'll run out of pavement here, so in the service of space, time, and your attention spans, I'll just offer a few...

Road Worthy vs. Weary: While all of us are probably capable of returning to previous forms, formats, and forums that we found ourselves engaged in when all of them respectively were shut down over night, followed by protracted periods at home, away from the office, away from school, and away from daily encounters with people at large...we find ourselves questioning our various capabilities in a way that we hadn't prior. Even some of the most disciplined among you have shared with me your bewilderment upon such a sudden change of landscape and other attending circumstances...followed by changes in circadian rhythms, daily habits, and the like, and finally followed by a collective feeling of malaise or...weariness (strong word in my feeling vocabulary). So, it's only natural that, while we are being welcome to finally 'hit the road again', what we were ostensibly wishing for earlier in the pandemic, we would initially back track, put it in reverse, at least want to stay in neutral..."give me a minute here, I need to get my bearings..."

Hit the Road Jack (+3million)...Highway to Hell: A mashup of misery for millions...while organizations within and between states predict and trace the trends of folks hitting the roads different times of the year (e.g., Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, all of which tends to instigate road trips due to most people of driving age who also own motor vehicles getting time off of their jobs, to jump in their cars and go who knows where), there are also organizations (such as a UN subgroup, UNHCR) who document the number of  unfortunate people around the globe who are forcibly displaced by wars, persecution, famines, and other disasters -- they counted 82.4 million in 2020, 3 million more than the previous year, despite the pandemic. And, if you bother to view photos of (refugee) camps and other makeshift facilities that are hastily assembled, you don't see many parking lots to accommodate automobiles and other motor vehicles. And, if you looked even further at the pictorial accounts of their respective journeys, you'll see that most of the trip was accomplished on foot, with very few possessions. We have also been witness, at least indirectly through the eyes of reporters 'on the ground', of many tragic incidents where voyagers have attempted to overload vessels to flee such horrific conditions. So while we, most of whom have the luxury to decide where, when, and how long we will vacation this summer (more than last year, according to most projections, regardless of gas prices), and have to scrutinize what we will carry in our SUV's, we might want to pause and consider...organizations that provide soles for these poor souls (shoes, that is, which you can donate or fund through UNICEF and other websites).

The Road Ahead: While COVID hasn't quite left town before us, and there are still quite a few areas of ambiguity regarding the future with this and other viruses, we have the opportunity to learn from our respective experiences from the past year, while we attempt to regain traction for the road ahead. In the meantime, you might actually want to check the air pressure and  treads (on your cars, bikes...), as well as read your manual to review how to change a tire, just in case, and, if you're ever looking to purchase a new or used car, it's still considered good form to kick the tires...

I send you off with one of the biggest, happiest travel tunes of all time...                                                       hit it Willie: 🎜On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again...                                                   

Happy, safe travels😀Look out for others...visit here again for more roadside assistance...