I love driving. Getting my car out on a freeway and cruising for a few hours, listening to my CDs and enjoying the road, that's great. I can sort of let my driving go on automatic and let my mind wander about whatever it wants to think about. Sometimes I can drive for half an hour without consciously controlling my car.

I started driving late. I didn't get my license until Senior year in high school. Once I went to Berkeley, I had no money for a car, and a car is not an advantage in Berkeley. In fact, lots of people get by without cars in the San Francisco Bay Area, we do have an excellent public transportation system.

After I graduated from Berkeley I got a job in San Francisco. I just took the BART (train) to and from work. A couple of years passed by and my company decided to move to Benicia, in the East Bay and not an easy place to get to via public transportation.

So my parents bought me a car (which I still haven't repaid them for) -- a used 1993 Ford Taurus. It's a great car with lots of power stuff that I've come to enjoy. It sat in the garage for a few months until we finally moved, then I started driving it.

Now I was driving regularly, a 45 minute drive each way, mostly on the freeway. I was also going against the regular commuting traffic flow so the drive was good even during rush hour. I slowly got the experience I needed, although at 25 I was still quite reckless.

Back then I drove at 70 mph all the way. I tuned in my radio to my favorite radio station and drove to work and back. This was back before Congress killed the 55 mph speed limit law, but for the most part traffic flowed at 65 so I usually was only driving a little faster than most traffic. A couple of speeding tickets have since made me slow down to speed limit.

Today, I drive 52 miles to work and 52 miles back. It takes me 55 minutes with no traffic, 75 minutes with light traffic, 90-120 minutes during rush hour. Fortunately, my work hours are offset from the normal 9-to-5 so I miss most of the traffic.

For me, it's great driving, it's great to put milage on my car, which is at 129000 miles and going quite well still. I try to take good care of my car, getting an oil change every 3000 miles and regular tuneups. That and the fact that I mostly do highway driving means that my car is in better shape than it should be.

I don't mind the time I spend commuting. People don't seem to believe that when I tell them, but the drive is relaxing and I do enjoy it. I do regret not having the extra time that I could have each day, but at least I'm not hating the drive. Driving in traffic is frustrating, but as I said, I usually avoid rush hour traffic.

That's all I want to write about this. I started this journal entry quite late and my mind was getting fuzzy a couple of hours ago. Now I'm just kind of numb. Anyway, driving is something I enjoy and try to do (without going out and crusing for no reason) as often as I can. It's an opportunity to listen to music, relax, and get my mind off of life and into a more contemplative mode. So I think driving helps me.