If I ever wondered what made me move out into the country, if I ever had any second thoughts, all my doubts were erased today, in one trip to the city. And it wasn’t even The City, just simple, unremarkable Santa Rosa. (And I didn’t really have any doubts, but now I never will. It’s nice to be validated.)

Maybe it was just a bad day for city drivers, or a day for bad city drivers. Either way, there were way too many of them on the road. Too many of them didn’t have any idea how to get from point A to point B without stopping at every X, Y and Z along the way.

I guess there are just too many choices in the city. Out here where I live, there are only two roads, and they are perpendicular to each other, so it’s hard to get confused.

Part of the problem could have been me. No, I’m not admitting that I’m a bad driver, no way. But I have to confess I was a little tired and a little cranky and more than a little impatient with the blatant cluelessness rampant in the city. There aren’t any stoplights on my road out here in the country, but I haven’t forgotten that green means “go.”

Apparently some people in the city think it’s a warning of some kind. Have I lived in the country too long? Have they changed the meaning of a green light to, “There’s probably nobody behind you, so there’s no rush. And even if somebody is there, there will be another green light soon. Be sure to look both ways before going through a green light, just in case the lights are green in the other direction, too. It could happen, couldn’t it?”

I’m a good driver, but sometimes I make poor choices. Like when I took the freeway back home. Should be the fastest way out of the city, you’d think. You’d also think that people who live in California would know how to merge onto a freeway from a long, straight onramp with very little oncoming traffic. You wouldn’t think they would slow to school-zone speed and then lurch out in front of a minivan.

Unfortunately, you’d have another think coming. But at least I survived, and I might never leave my house again. People aren’t as crazy out here in the country. That’s probably because there aren’t as many of us.

Mom could be the victim in all this, but I won’t let it happen. I was visiting her today when I ran into so much crazy city traffic (and the fact that there’s never a parking space within half a mile of her building). I can’t let fear and loathing stop me outside the city limits. For one thing, there are plenty of other reasons I need to stay close to home these days, like deadlines and such. But mostly, I just don’t want distance (and bumper car drivers) to isolate either of us from the other.

Besides, maybe I can educate those city drivers. Some of them looked as if they could use a hint (or even a nudge). I know sign language, and I’m not afraid to use it.