Rain, Rain...

Rain, rain, go away.

It's been raining here for the last two days. As it likely does most places, it brings out the best and the worst in people in South Florida. A huge white SUV let me out of a driveway today, so that's a total wave! Then there were a few other cars that just dashed back and forth, in and out of traffic on wet streets. Definite honks.

So - I figure once or twice a week, I'm going to feature some waves and some honks. Waves at the cars whose drivers I witnessed being courteous, and honks to the well... jerks. 

Waves so far this week:

1/29, 8:30ish am - A red van (didn't get the make or model) let a few people turn onto the main street during rush hour.

Same day and approximate time - a tan Chevy, I think a Malibu. Just being nice, using signals, let someone over, didn't hog the road.

Best of all (Gift card contender when I get some more!) - A white Mini Cooper with black stripes on the back of it. Soooo nicely done!

And the Honks:

Today - too many to name.

We can only hope people will use their heads, but I don't hold my breath anymore. A new truck is going on the Honk page for a week, too, so check there.

All for now!

:)

First Contact!

So I did it!

I actually approached a police officer this morning about my Crusade! 

There is an intersection right before I turn in where I work where a police officer is usually monitoring in the mornings. It is rush hour, after all, and I see someone there pretty much every day now. Yesterday, being the first day I had my cards, I was all excited and - no one was there. Probably he was pulling someone over who needed a ticket.

But today, he was there. I sucked up my courage, pulled into the parking lot closer to where he was, and walked over to him. I asked if I could give him something, and held out the cards. He took them, and then of course, wanted to know what it was about. I told him the mission - to make the streets of South Florida a more pleasant place to drive. And then he asked me how I planned on doing that.

(In the interest of "fairness" ha ha, I feel obliged to relay that he was, well, *super* good looking.  :D  He may or may not have been trying to flirt, too. I don't really think he was, but I am going to let myself believe it for the rest of the evening since it's Friday, after all, lol.)

He seemed entirely serious, so I told him my plan. He didn't tell me I was crazy or anything! He pocketed the cards and we talked about traffic and such for a while. I finally had to go so I wouldn't be late for work, but he totally empathized with my plight. 

So yep - that was pretty dang awesome! I have no idea if my plan will ever come to fruition, but the groundwork is steadily being laid. Gonna get my letters done this weekend, in English and Spanish, printed, and get them to someone with the ability to look up addresses. Then... it will be in their hands. 

But I'm excited! At least one police officer is supportive! Or at least, didn't try to dissuade me. And you know - that's something. A start, at the very least!

:)

Another Piece Ready To Go!

Hey - take a look at these bad boys:

That's right! Those are the business cards I ordered. Apparently there is this awesome company called Vistaprint ( vistaprint.com ) who will send you 250 business cards for $3.99 shipping only. I kid you not - that's what they charged me for them.

Of course I got the plain ones. You could go fancier for more money, order more for just a couple more dollars, etc. But since I have no idea how any of this is actually going to work out, I decided to go plain and simple and inexpensive.

Let me tell you what else - when they sent my confirmation, the estimated delivery date was January 27th. Today is obviously the 22nd - *five days early*!! That's some service right there. And guess where I'm going again if I need more of these cards or some other ones. That's the point and I know that, but it worked for me  :D

So I have been asked why I need business cards for this endeavor. And I will tell you.

First - I plan on putting a couple in each of the letters I send. Kind of a "hint", if you will, that they should maybe try to pass along to other people the idea of driving more courteously.

Second - I am going to try to put a few in the hands of any police officers I see, kind of for the same reason. Maybe they will pass them along and spread the word that no one is in so much of a hurry they can't drive nicely. 

Third - I will give them to people I know, again, hoping to get the word out, and recruit people to my crusade. 

This weekend I am going to finalize my letter, print copies of it, and get them ready to mail. Then Monday, throw myself on the mercy of someone at the local police department. Wish me luck!

All of this could come to naught, but at least I can't say I didn't try to change my world for the better, even if it was just something as minor as traffic. Any little bit helps, right?

:)

Progress Update

Progress is being made!

I have ordered business cards with the name and address of this blog. The plan is to both hand them out to people so that maybe they'll take a look here and consider driving better, ha ha. Also, I'm going to put them in the letters I send the good drivers, so that hopefully they will come here and leave a comment that they got it. That part is a long shot, but I have hope it will happen!

So that's some progress.

I have my gift cards, and already four recipients for once I have everything ready to take to the police department. That's some more.

This three day weekend I plan to finish up the letter I want to send so it will be ready to go. Wish me luck, haha.

What watching out for good drivers has done for me, I think, is one - kind of slowed me down. I'm impatient on a good day, but now I am certainly slower. How else can I see names of trucks and others driving well?

I've also calmed a bit of my road rage. It was never anything more than hollering at people, and had already been getting milder. But so much of the time, all it takes is one stupid driver to muck it up for all of us. There's no point in getting mad at everyone else stuck because of an idiot. 

So yeah - it's been a journey (ha ha - forgive the pun!), even in this short time.

Another plan is to make more pages with different subjects, like Jargon I'm creating, lol, things that drive me nuts, other stuff that I think is awesome of drivers to do. And anyone reading this is always welcome to comment on any and everything!

So all for now, but keep checking back. Progress is being made!

:)

Lots of Waves

I owe a bunch of people in Downtown Miami a wave of waves, for sure.  :D

Every so often on a Saturday I have to go down there. It's not someplace I frequent otherwise (impatience at traffic being one of the contributing factors. I kid you not). But I had to yesterday. I always use my Mapquest app on my phone and that GPS *always* gets me where I'm going. As I tend to get lost kind of easily, that's a good thing.

Except yesterday, I got stuck behind some other cars, and then realized that - my GPS had been taking me all around out of my way for blocks for me to get to the Interstate! Because as I sat there, behind two cars that clearly wanted to move into the left turn lane (and blocking one of the regular lanes), I saw a sign with an arrow.

*sigh*  All this time, and it was that easy! I had just decided to wait them out because I didn't want to pull in front of another car, etc.

So I did it. I turned into one of those people that annoys the crap out of me and sits there throwing themselves on the mercy of others (or is just an ***hole and pushes their way in). I don't know if the people downtown were just used to tourists and the like doing it all the time, or if they were silently cursing all of us for not being prepared enough to know where we were going.

Either way - someone let me in! Nary a honk or anything! So of course, I waved my thanks (I don't know if they saw it or not). And that happened two more times as I navigated the busy streets of Downtown Miami. Everyone was just... nice! 

It was a great driving day. And this week, I am going to relay my own opinions on what's courteous, and what's just rude, pure and simple. They will be my own subjective opinions, of course, but anyone reading this is welcome to comment. 

For now, however, I am going to bask in the niceness of my journey yesterday.

:)

The P-L-A-N

I said before that I had one, and I do! Looking at other blogs, most likely I will need an "About" page for this one (assuming my idea even takes off, ha ha!), to explain all the terminology that's been simmering in my head and all. However, that's not the main plan. 


This is the main plan:

Whenever I see a driver who I feel has been super courteous (above and beyond - yes, I realize this will all be very subjective), I am going to, if possible, snap a picture of their license plate. And mark down the date, time, and street/road/highway.

Now don't jump to conclusions!

I have most of a letter written (well, in my head, ha ha!) that basically will say something along the lines of "On such-&-such a day at such-&-such a time, I saw you driving very courteously. I would like to personally thank you for making my driving experience much more pleasant."

There will be more of course, but that's the basic gist.

Also - I am going to put in $5 gift cards. Right now, I have four of them to Subway to start this baby off. And before you comment about how am I going to pull this off, well... a lot is going to depend on making friends, ha ha. I plan to take my letters, my gift cards, stamped envelopes, sticky notes with license plate numbers, and business cards with the address of this blog to my local police department. 

And there I will throw myself on the mercy of someone working there. I will explain what I want to do, and leave the letters and stuff (I'll even stuff the envelopes in front of them, so they know I'm not a weirdo - haha! No comment on that!). And leave them with that person and hope that they will actually look up the license plate number, put the address on the envelope, and mail my stuff.

It's a dream, I know. Chances are my gift cards will end up in the purse or pocket of someone in that office. But I choose to believe the best will happen!

So then, as I have a few bucks here and there, I will get other gift cards and send letters to drivers I see that go above and beyond in the courtesy department. I know it will be slow going because, well, for a lot of reasons. But I learned in Psychology 1101 that Variable Positive Reinforcement is the strongest motivator for positive behavior. 

I have other stuff I'm going to do with this blog, but for now, I figure that gets my idea out there, like I promised the one person who viewed this blog yesterday, ha ha!

So here's wishing you all safe and courteous driving!

:)

How *This* One Started

I live in a very large city in Southern Florida. I mean - large. As in, a lot of people. And that brings with it a lot of, you guessed it!

Traffic.

I hate traffic.

It's not the worst thing out there, I know that. But I do have to deal with rush hour traffic every morning (not in the afternoons, thank goodness!). And it just seemed that it was getting worse and worse by the day.

Or maybe my patience was getting shorter. (That's probably it, I'll admit that, ha ha!)

For a while I've had this idea I've been meaning to propose to a police department. Or several of them. But I've never gotten around to it, go figure. 

And then a couple of weeks ago, I saw this guy in a big, black pick up truck (who, in my experience, are generally some of the most obnoxious drivers out there) and he was just the nicest vehicle in my vicinity! It was rush hour, on a very busy thoroughfare. And he used his signals, did not get up on anyone's bumper, let a big semi truck in front of him, didn't zip in and out of lanes.

And that just kinda made my day. And I wanted to tell him so. So I decided that *I* was going to implement my idea.

So here it is: My Own Personal Crusade for Courteous Driving. One driver at a time.

My next post will outline my plan. First though, I need to spruce this baby up! haha! I'm workin' on it...

:)