Blinker Blankness

Several years ago I got into a conversation with one of my coworkers, “Carol,” about Utah drivers. She had lived in several other states and countries, and had experienced the driving habits of drivers in each of those places. Her dearly held opinion was that Utah drivers were the worst. I agreed, but asked what her reasoning was. So Carol mentioned that she knew someone who did not use his blinker. When confronted, that person mentioned that if he were to use his blinker, it would “burn out more quickly.”

Really? What on earth is the blinker for, if not to signal that a person is changing lanes or turning a corner? As a different coworker of mine mentioned a few weeks ago, “Driving is more than getting from point A to point B; it's getting from A to B in a predictable way.”

Well, less than two weeks after the conversation with Carol, I was traveling to work in my carpool when my carpoolee, Trent, noticed another coworker traveling to work on the freeway.

“Isn’t that Jason?”

“Yes, it is. I didn’t know he lived down here.”

“Let’s follow him to work. Maybe we can get him to join our carpool.”

As we started following Jason, we noticed him changing lanes…without using his blinker. Why was he doing that? Trent and I decided to confront Jason at work and find out.

In response to our query he stated, “I don’t signal because my blinker would burn out more quickly.”

Aha! Caught! I almost burst out in great guffaws of laughter right there. I only hope that I restrained myself well enough to not be offensive.

Jason joined our carpool, and--at least while we were in the car with him--he used his signal much more frequently. Not too difficult to achieve, since he'd set the bar so low.

Regrettably, a couple years later he retired and shortly thereafter passed away. At least his driving wasn't the cause of his demise.

Every time I tell this story, I always have a tinge of guilt because I don’t like to speak ill of the dead. But the story is just too good to keep quiet.