I sent away for a decal to be placed on my driver’s window that would excuse me from paying a toll to use a toll road.  My choices were to pay the toll or not to pay the toll because the decal said I had performed all the bureaucratic tasks required to prove I deserved it because I was one of the selected few who could display the decal on that window.  I drive my wife’s Lexus part time electric and part time gas car so I qualify for the decal.

The decal never arrived but an e-mail did.  That e-mail said “How to use 95 Express toll-free”.  I like the idea of a pass system that is read while you scoot through a toll booth where others are digging for change and dollars in order to pay their way through.  Owning a hybrid car is supposed to open the gates and allow me to drive through without payment or being stopped for the tax to use the new 95 Express lanes which have screwed up driving for months now.

I complied – I did.  I sent in the required information more than a month ago and my decal did not arrive to give me gladness and a free ride.  Poor me.  This new e-mail rubs it in because I did all that was required last month and here there is another set of directions that asks me to apply all over again.

Life is like that.  It seems that our government, the police, and other alert citizens are there to criticize you and remind you to sit up straight, keep your shoulders back (un-slumped) and watch where you are walking.  I have a question for all those self-appointed watchers who catch you slumping and not watching where you are walking or, in this case, driving.  Why can’t we get it right?

I have committed the errors that may be caused by age – not watching and seeing another car on my left while I want to turn left.  I miss a lot in the way of seeing new construction, stores I did not know were there, and other problems because I look straight ahead.  I certainly do not drive too slow or too fast that causes some “watcher” to blast at me with his horn or lean out of the window and make a rude comment on my age or eyesight.

There is really only one answer to my question.  I’ll have to call or send my vitae to the Express 95 people all over again and hope we get it right this time.