Driving with the Sound of Silence

For several years back in college, I drove a car that didn't have the benefit of a radio. A few years after I got a job, I was able to buy a second hand unit and this went well until a year after, when that radio went kaput in the big storm that sunk my car. That meant a few more years of driving in silence. Now the office gave me another car and this time it did have a radio, but the thing is that after a few months of tinkering and playing that radio to my heart's content, I now find myself getting comfortable with not turning the radio on.

There's just something about silence while driving alone that gives me satisfaction. Maybe it's just that I am able to meditate on the road, or it's more relaxing that way. I'm not quite certain, but I do feel a lot better about the silence in the car. Oh, and if you're thinking of a few minutes commute to the office and back, well that's just not the case. I live about 40 odd kilometers from the office, that means an hour commute on a good day and double that on those particularly rotten, traffic-infested nightmare. A lot of people I know can't even sit still for that long a time, and yet I am happily thinking a lot of thoughts to myself even in the midst of the heaviest of gridlocks.

Maybe its a psychotic defect of mine, or maybe old age. I can't stand the 'noise' of the radio, specially those long lulls in the programming when the deejay just rambles on and on about some topic that they decided to blabber about. Then you switch to the next station and the people there similarly decided to ramble. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

Mondays are specially problematic. These people just talk and talk for 20 minutes at a time when all you want is to hear some song. I brought CD's into the car for that purpose, but then you soon get tired of the same old songs and want to hear something new that you never heard before.

Well, that's not a problem when you turn off the radio. It's just you and your thoughts, and of course the hum of the road underneath your tires. This is what I enjoy specially on those long drives of mine.

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Speaking of long drives, I've got one coming up on Monday. Going north up to Pangasinan to visit a prospective client, a 6 hour adventure. I can't wait to sample the highway there once again. I'm thinking of burning a special road trip CD for that purpose but with my 'procrastinative' tendencies I doubt if I'll ever get to do that at all.