Sticker Shock Redux

One summer I was on a road trip to Maine to retrieve The Boy. He had been vacationing with his aunt and cousin as he had several times during several summers of his youth. His dad's family has owned property up there in the boondocks for generations and it is pretty much their family tradition to summer on Flying Pond (the name is deceptive, it could well be called Flying Lake but perceptions are different up there). I'm big on family tradition and Maine is a glorious place to while away the summer for a body of any age.

So I'm cruising along a highway in New Jersey (the Garden State Parkway if memory serves). I was driving my old gray Toyota station wagon proudly displaying my rainbow sticker. Both Cosine and Detail were with me (summer on the lake in Maine is also great for dogs). It was a glorious day in New Jersey and I had the window open with my elbow hanging out speeding down the highway singing along with the cassette tape, thinking about nothing except the joy of being alive in the space I currently occupied.

Suddenly my reverie was broken as a car came speeding up out of nowhere, passing on the left and honking madly. I looked up and the driver, a young lady, was wildly waving at me and displaying the thumbs-up sign as she careened by. I smiled at her. I wondered why she was honking and waving and such but then took note of the rainbow sticker on her own bumper.

Now I'm not one to honk and wave when I see another car with a rainbow sticker. I will glance over and if eye contact is made, I'll smile and maybe nod my head. But I did enjoy being honked at that day in New Jersey. Kindred spirits on the open freeway, passing in the night so to speak, but sharing a bond nonetheless. It made the day even brighter.