Our youngest son stayed with us after Christmas in 2019. We had just moved into a new house, and he helped us to make it a home. Frankly, we don’t have the skills nor the manpower to do what he did. He stayed on because of the pandemic. He drove to our Michigan home from Los Angeles.

We went to Big Box home goods stores and bought paint and odd bits of electrical switches. I usually rode along with him. We wore double masks and kept our social distance from others in the stores.

He drove his car with ease. However, he was infuriated at Michigan drivers who failed to put on their turn signals when turning right or left. People mythologize Los Angeles traffic. We stayed in Los Angeles for three and a half months after our son had an electric bicycle accident when he was 26. We were amazed by the rules and regulations, the laws, and the fines levied against drivers in Los Angeles. The far left lane was a speed lane that requires a “Fast Pass” device on the windshield. Monitors keep track of drivers using the fast lane. God help you if you drove in that lane without that monitor beeping on your windshield. The lane next to it is a “Commuter Lane”, and it is easy to see if there is more than one person in the car. Get caught driving alone in that lane and your wallet will be thinner. Finally, the next two lanes are regular freeway lanes that can get choked up during rush hours. Merges are controlled by traffic lights. Only one or two cars can merge at a time. The red light green light game is imperative to follow or your wallet will get nicked again. Twenty-four Seven surveillance cameras keep track of offenders and you cannot escape the laws while driving the freeways. On top of that, there is street sweeping. On every other day of the week, all cars have to park on only one side of the road during the middle of the night. This allows the street sweepers a chance to clean the streets free of cars parked on the roads on one side or the other. If you forget and leave your car on the road your wallet will get thinner still.

We have none of that here in Michigan. But to our son, the biggest crime we make is the lack of thought to use our turn signals when we turn.