Driving with the Windows Down
It’s summer time! Like, officially, as of like two weeks ago. I realize I’m a little late on this realization but the rain has been limiting my summer time activities. Thus far I’ve gone swimming once and gotten sunburn on my shoulders. No surprise there, but I’m hoping that once is enough for one summer and I will avoid all sunburn from here on out. That would be nice. Not terribly realistic, but nice. The rain seems to be letting up for a little bit at least. As soon as I say that it’ll start pouring again, but you know how that goes. So this week I plan on making the most of the opportunities I have to drive around with my windows down.
This is one of my favorite parts about summer. I have fond memories of my dad driving me home from soccer practice with the window down and my hand sticking out to feel the air currents. I love the sound of the wind and the flow of air through the car. As long as you have your hair properly secured it’s a good time. My sister and I often prefer to drive with the windows down as opposed to having the AC on. She never has her hair properly secured, though, so it just flies everywhere all willy-nilly in a glorious mane.
This is a point at which my husband and I disagree. He doesn’t like driving with the windows down at all. Something about the noise and the wind I think. I, therefore, try to limit my driving with the windows down to when I’m going to or from my parents place or going to pick him up from work. I can’t drive the whole way with my windows down as it’s a bit much on the highway and we go through some sketchy neighborhoods between his work and our apartment, but I enjoy what I can.
I think a large part of the windows down attraction for me is an association with my first car. Grani, my 1994 Buick Century, was my college car and he only had one working window; the front driver’s side window. After I crashed him a week after his perches even that was a bit rough. So if the window was down, it was staying down until you could properly guide it back up. The summer I drove him to work was one of the hottest we’d had in a long time and have had since. Grani, being very old and not working super great, had no AC to speak of. He was also dark plum and made of solid metal. Basically he was a heat trap and the window was the only option if I didn’t want to fry before I got home. Still, I loved that car, and I still love driving with my window down.
I’m also a little obnoxious. I enjoy turning my music way up and singing loudly along with it. I sometimes feel bad about this when I drive with all the windows open because in order to hear the music it has to be up super loud and then I end up stopped at a red light with people judging me for my musical tastes, which is often Disney music. Nowadays I listen to mostly podcasts, which is a little weird to be blasting in a car, I’ll admit, but I’ve always been a weird one, so I guess that’s okay.
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