It's all in the perception

I remember a time when riding a bicycle at 15 mph seemed fast, now I rarely go that slow unless it's up a grueling hill. When I learned to drive a car, truck actually, I white-knuckled the steering wheel at 25mph and forgot to press in the clutch routinely when shifting gears. My father calmly reminded me each time and mentioned something about transmissions being expensive to repair and eventually I got it. I managed to get it figured out without accident or requiring transmission or clutch repairs to the truck as well for the record. Last winter I spent most of my snowboarding time trying to learn to stop so that if I felt I was going too fast I could slow down and hopefully regain control, or at least lesson the eventual impact on the body as it hit the hard packed snow. I still haven't mastered that but there'll be more snow to play in next winter I'm sure.

Now I am reminded once again just how much our perception of danger changes daily. A few weeks ago I was nervous to ride the bike on public streets, now I do it as often as possible. I was slow to get it up to speed on the road near my house let alone do it in traffic. Last night I did just that. I was terrified to go the speed limit on the expressway and this morning actually maintained about 5 mph over the limit on my way into work. I refuse to drive I-96 all the way to Novi and instead got off to take some side roads that are less likely to result in multiple panic-stops due to moron drivers. After the ride down the expressway I actually had to check my speed and slow down regularly on a stretch of about two miles where the limit was only 30mph. Ahh how perceptions of speed and impending danger change rapidly.

For now just call me Speed Demon!