Bumper Crop Of Advice Letter Of The Week: From May 12

In our impatient dash from here to there, we oftentimes are guilty of tailgating. It’s so darned hard judging distance when careening along at 55, 60 and, now - goody! - 70 mph. Who can accurately estimate just how many car lengths are between us and that car poking along in front of us, placed there by the Highway Gods simply to annoy us?

I’ve some hints that might prove useful for judging when one might be just a teeny bit too close:

You know you’re following too close when you can’t see the bumper of the car in front of you.

You know you’re too close when you can hear the radio in front of you better then you can hear your own.

You know you’re too close when you can read the address label on the magazine lying in his back window.

You know you’re too close when you can count the hairs rising on the back of the neck of the driver in front of you.

And, to that woman in the boxy blue car with the two jumping jacks in her back seat, the one who steamed up my rear window from Spirit Lake to Twin Lakes - you were a little close.

Oh, by the way, I hope that middle finger you flourished with such gusto when you rocketed past develops bleeding cuticles. Marilyn Roberge Rathdrum

xxxx