On Driving, and Aging
Dec. 13th, 2016 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vinceconawayA lot has changed as I've grown older, and my driving habits are a fascinating example.
When I was 24 I spent six weeks commuting between Cincinnati and Tampa, fourteen hours each way. I was in grad school, taking classes Tuesdays and Thursdays, performing at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival Saturdays and Sundays, and driving Mondays and Fridays. It was brutal, and the next year gas prices and creative problem solving encouraged me to switch to airplanes.
As my body has aged I've noticed that my capabilities for such drives aren't what they once were. More importantly, I no longer have the will to force myself to undertake such misery. I'm at a fortunate place where I can afford a few $50 hotel rooms throughout the year, and I schedule around that.
I rarely drive more than nine hours in a day, and never more than eleven. I'm more willing to take breaks than I was in my twenties, enjoying a stroll around a rest area and maybe indulging in a handstand for blood flow to wake me up. And I'm liberal with allowing myself the aforementioned hotel rooms.
Oddly, however, I noticed today that some of these changes don't seem to be one way. I only started drinking coffee in my early thirties, and recent bouts of TMJ-related jaw issues have caused me to quit caffeine entirely once again; apparently my thirties were the buzzing decade. Today I drove over eight hours and I reverted to form, with only a single gas/lunch/bathroom stop at midday. It seems there was a different variable at work.
Now I'm questioning other assumptions about my aging process. This could be fun!
When I was 24 I spent six weeks commuting between Cincinnati and Tampa, fourteen hours each way. I was in grad school, taking classes Tuesdays and Thursdays, performing at the Bay Area Renaissance Festival Saturdays and Sundays, and driving Mondays and Fridays. It was brutal, and the next year gas prices and creative problem solving encouraged me to switch to airplanes.
As my body has aged I've noticed that my capabilities for such drives aren't what they once were. More importantly, I no longer have the will to force myself to undertake such misery. I'm at a fortunate place where I can afford a few $50 hotel rooms throughout the year, and I schedule around that.
I rarely drive more than nine hours in a day, and never more than eleven. I'm more willing to take breaks than I was in my twenties, enjoying a stroll around a rest area and maybe indulging in a handstand for blood flow to wake me up. And I'm liberal with allowing myself the aforementioned hotel rooms.
Oddly, however, I noticed today that some of these changes don't seem to be one way. I only started drinking coffee in my early thirties, and recent bouts of TMJ-related jaw issues have caused me to quit caffeine entirely once again; apparently my thirties were the buzzing decade. Today I drove over eight hours and I reverted to form, with only a single gas/lunch/bathroom stop at midday. It seems there was a different variable at work.
Now I'm questioning other assumptions about my aging process. This could be fun!
