Why Do I Do That When I Drive?

I give credit to my parents. We used to get to go in the car when we were little in order to put us to sleep. A quick little loop around the block, and it was lights out. Comfortable, rolling along, car sounds, etc. Good times. I think. I was asleep.

Well - as a young adult, I thought that I had grown out of this trait. Long car trips, attempting to sleep across the back seat were near failures. Early morning and through-the-night shifts became my staples, as I wouldn't get sleepy or really all that slack-minded during the drive. yes. Slack mind. it's when your mind goes numb from driving in the middle of the night, and you stop paying attention, and start to think about your day, or the concept of being sucked into a black hole ... because in terms of direct spacial relationships, it is a pinpoint in space, so you can't really be sucked into it ... you'd be sucked TO it and be crushed to an infinitesimal amount, however, in terms of the gravity and space-time continuum view - you would be falling into an infinitely large (or infinitely negative depending on your conception of the infinite/neg-infinite overlap) hole ... but then in terms of time - since time is relative to the frequency of input from external sources, and you would be floating in space before being sucked in - the only measure of time being your own biological rumblings - then you would possibly not even have a concept of time passing at it's normal rate - and since much of our input comes from what we see - and you would not see a black hole - it's questionable whether you would even know that you were being sucked into it as it was happening - and certainly there would be no way to tell anyone else about it, as all of the electromagnetic spectrum that we currently use for communication is ravenously sucked back into the very maw that you are entering ... beknownst to you or not. And then you almost slam into the back of a mini-van going 50 in the 65 zone - where you have been going 80+ because your lead foot was on night overdrive, and you slam on the breaks, swerve, avoid collision, speed back up to pass them - in the hopes that they didn't really notice you coming out of the darkness like a flaming banshee and sidestepping them at the last minute in a move perfected by American football players nationwide ... or at the very least you went by fast enough that they can't get your plate number. And then everyone else in the car, that has now been jolted awake, is available to chat about your recent metaphysical theories.

And - I had grown out of it. Unless someone ELSE was driving. then I'd be out like a Nintendo Wii at at BestBuy. However ... in the last few years I've started 'feeling drowsy' (read napping) while driving. I usually pull over and pawer-nap it out ... but occasionally there simple is not enough time in the day to afford that 20 minute energy re-boot.

Hence - the teeth brushing. I brush my teeth non-stop during a drive, when I am about to fall asleep. It keeps me awake. and promotes good dental hygiene. The only thing is that recently I have been getting sleepy within the first 45 minutes. and then brushing for the next couple hours ... not the best idea.

not sure if I was really going anywhere with that ... just that it sucks to start falling asleep every time you go on a long drive in the car ... and even worse when it's you driving. I mean ... not to make you feel any less safe on the road ... I'm actually quite a good driver asleep ... I mean ... please ... even asleep I do better than most flatlanders ... ;)