I had to drive a little bit yesterday evening, and some of the “grateful to be alive” feeling persists even unto this morning.
I drive in the dark only a few times a year. Part of it is that I don’t like to. Part of it is that I don’t need to: we’re pretty much always in for the night after the dinner/bedtime routine starts (at, like, 4:30).
I feel like I can’t SEE when I drive at night. Part of this is that I’m a nervous driver, so any changes (different roads, different passenger, different weather, etc.) increases that nervousness. Part of it is that IT IS IN FACT DARK, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but WE CAN’T SEE IN THE DARK. And then, while it’s dark and I’m driving, lights shine intermittently into my eyes. That DOES NOT HELP.
I feel a little emperor’s-new-clothes about it: like, how come everyone is acting like it’s okay to do this already-dangerous activity IN THE DARK? Shall we also now have surgery in the dark? chop wood in the dark? scythe hay in the dark? get haircuts in the dark? rapidly cut vegetables in the dark? How about in the dark AND with bright lights shining intermittently in our eyes?
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I bought four Cadbury screme eggs, and I have not eaten a single one: the stuff inside the eggs is green for Halloween, and that makes me queasy to even think about. (If the regular white filling makes YOU queasy to think about, I beg you not to explain why.) And yet I WANT to eat Cadbury eggs! What a treat to get to have them even though it’s not Easter! I WANT to eat them! Maybe I should eat them in the dark. (And here, shine this light in my eyes.)
I don’t remember seeing any green in the Cadbury screme egg I ate. I was expecting the whole inside to be green but I think there’s only a small green ribbon of color which I missed because I was so busy inhaling it.
i HATE driving at night, and I hate how in winter even if you are still driving at a PERFECTLY REASONABLE HOUR it is ALREADY DARK. ugh. it makes me so nervous nad I always feel I am going to crash. blergh.
Omg, my entire (22 week pregnant) body has been CRYING OUT for Cadbury eggs and I have been mourning that it isn’t Easter. Where did you get them? I’m about to jump in my car (in the dark) and go straight there!
I haven’t even been walking down the candy aisle anywhere bc the smell of chocolate only makes the craving worse!!!!
I <3 u! Thank you so much!!!!
It may just be me railing ineffectually at the reality of getting older, but for me, driving at night is way worse now than it was 10-15 years ago, because headlights have gotten so much brighter. (I’m sure my eyesight hasn’t gotten better in that span of years, but every time I end up looking straight on at a car with old headlights, I breathe a little sigh of relief, because it’s less painful.)
And every time someone gloats to me about how much ‘safer’ their annoying superbright blue-white headlights are, I want to kick them. The lights may help *you* see more, but they blind other drivers. If safety studies were done that incorporated that side of things, I’d be surprised if there was an overall reduction in accidents.
In short: I will happily welcome you at my curmudgeon’s table.
I totally agree about driving in the dark. I don’t like it. I already feel like driving is pretty much the most dangerous thing I ever do.
Aversion to driving at night is something that I have filed under http://swistle.blogspot.ca/2012/07/marks-of-old-age.html
melissa.cureton- I found them at the grocery store—not in 4-packs like at Easter, just individually, next to a bin of individual Reese’s pumpkins. I’m going to look for them at Target, too!
Excellent thanks!
Karen L- It makes me feel SO OLD!
So, are you saying you don’t like green eggs? How about green ham? I may have to send Sam-I-Am over to your house. I hear he’s very convincing, though upon reflection I realize he may be in the employ of the nefarious Cadbury Egg, Inc.
Driving at night, while not my favorite thing, is not SO bad, unless it is also raining. And it seems like half the times I have to drive at night, it IS also raining (and it doesn’t even have to be a downpour, just enough to give everything that wet sheen), so whenever it’s NOT, I just feel so grateful that the dark alone isn’t so bad.
I do avoid it as much as possible, but as the days get shorter it’s hard to get around it sometimes.
I hate driving in the dark too. I had Lasik surgery 12 years ago and I find it very hard to drive in the dark. Recently I went to see my grandma and I had to drive for an HOUR on pitch back secondary undivided highway, with dust in the air from the combines, and a billion little bugs hitting my windshield, and semi trucks driving in the other direction and shining their huge headlights on me. IT WAS VERY STRESSFUL.
I dislike Cadbury Creme Eggs but my husband loves them, so I picked some of those up for him as a surprise. He said the entire inside was green, not just part of it, and there was no “yolk.” He said it tasted like a regular Cadbury Creme Egg.
I feel exactly that way about those eggs. I was really excited for a second and was going to buy one and then I saw it was green and knew I wouldn’t be able to eat it even thought it claims to taste exactly the same. I just can’t do it.
I can’t see at night when I drive. Just trying to find the turnoff to our neighborhood I start slowing down and scanning way to early and my husband is all ‘omg I am terrified to drive with you now.’ also I hate that the way I know I need a new prescription for my eyeglasses is when I can’t read mileage signs. It’s a double whammy of despair: I can’t see and don’t know where to turn AND arg, need to spend time and money on eye health! Boo.
Points to the marketing guy who came up with Cadbury screme. I approve.
Lindsay
I vidited my 92 yo grandma a few weeks ago, and was so sad because she loves Cadbury eggs and just seems too fragile to make it to Easter. I said that to the clerk at the store in her tiny town, and she led me by the hand to the Screme eggs. Jackpot!
The fact that she’s nearly blind is a bonus this time, maybe she won’t notice they’re green!
I’ve learned that if you are driving in the dark and there are oncoming cars, you can point your eyes at the white line to the right of the car, which will keep you firmly in your lane and keep you from being blinded from the lights. As for seeing in the dark, I can’t help you with that.
I saw the screme eggs, but I really love those Cadbury mini-eggs at Easter; alas there is no Halloween version. SIGH.
I have trouble in the dark if it’s raining. For me, that’s awful because I feel like light is bouncing everywhere and I can’t see where I’m going. Anyway, I can relate.
I broke down and at a Cadbury Screme Egg. It is sugary and has dairy, so it’s off limits. It was so not worth it. There was no cream inside, just a weird smear of green on the inner wall on one side. My husband and son said theirs were the same way. I hope mine were defective.
Okay, I’m sitting here trying to figure out how you have no evening activities when you have 5 children, one of whom is a teen already. Can I move to your Shangri-La? I, too, hate night driving, especially around here where – I swear – it seems to be a local sport for pedestrians to dress up in dark clothes and then wander all over our neighborhood roads during rush hour.
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I don’t mind driving in the dark, but at dusk and dawn I feel like I can’t see at ALL. It drives me nuts.
I bought 2 screme eggs yesterday and have eaten one. It was very like the regular kind, except the part that’s usually yellow yolk was green. I’m curious to see if the other one is the same inside now that I’ve read the comments of how varied the experience has been.
They do taste exactly the same. I dare you to eat one in the dark. While driving. :)
Eat the Cadbury egg in the dark! lol!
I saw these at the store and was so excited. But they weren’t on sale, so no for me. I use to be the same with driving, but now live in a huge city. So there are streetlights (almost said nightlights) everywhere and I don’t have trouble seeing now. But I remember one Christmas driving to my cousins ranch in the dark and fog. Could not find her driveway. I finally had to pull into a bar, and use their pay phone. Someone had to drive a truck down and park at the entrance with the lights on so I could find it. I was shaking for days.
my mom, who also can’t drive in the dark, says there is a legitimate thing called Night Blindness that explains/justifies this.
I saw the display at Target and the whole endcap was empty. I said something to my mom and she MAILED me some. They didn’t last a week. Perhaps because they were handled by USPS they were prety much solid pastel-green inside and not white with a green “yolk.”
I maintain that if you can eat a regular one that’s supposed to simulate eating a raw egg, you can eat the green one.
Dear 22 Weeks,
TARGET HAS SCREME EGGS. I saw them on the side of an end cap in the Halloween section.
I actually paid more for some sort of special coating on my glasses last time that is supposed to help with all of the reflection on light at night. I also find that driving west right before sunset a nightmare too. Maybe I just shouldn’t drive.
I hate, hate, hate driving in the dark. I especially hate driving on highways, at 65 miles per hour, having lights directly in my eyes, and be straining to not only see the road, but any deer or antelope that think it might be a great idea to cross the road right then.
It gives me the worst tension headache, and I just want to lay down and go into a coma upon arriving at my destination.
It isn’t worth it.
I love Cadbury eggs and would eat them not matter what color they were inside. YUM!
Also, night driving. I grew up in the sticks where it’s pitch freaking dark and you can’t see your hand in front of your face. I get along with driving in the dark. I don’t get along with driving in the dark while it’s snowing bucket and you gotta go 4 miles and hour. . .that gives me a tension headache.
DB
I genuinely cannot see as well in the dark, I mean, beyond the way normal humans don’t see as well in the dark. Astigmatism.