Toll baaje...

This maybe much ado about nothing. But, hey, I *OWN* this blog! :P

The new toll road (Loop 1 and SH45) are now open in Austin! I am thrilled and excited. I took the toll way yesterday (Of course, we are not yet paying tolls. An oft practiced clever ploy - the government wants to have a 'test period' to make sure their toll systems are working right. In the meantime, they hand out TxTags to all and sundry they see on the street (or the Slanted E campus, as the case maybe). People started using the 'free' toll ways and get addicted to them. Two months down the line, the government concludes that 'all systems are go' and puts the squeeze on the 'crap, it's 7.45 and I'm still stuck in traffic and I have a meeting at 8' commuter. Bravo!)

Anyhoo...roads and bridges and such are monuments to human thought and progress and ability. (In fact, Golden Gate is one of my most favorite spots in the contiguous United States. I am told I will fall in love with the glaciers in Alaska, so I have added Alaska to my excel spreadsheet of 'places to visit'.) It's an ode to their vision, to their dreams and aspirations. Little do we realize that this new toll way is the culmination of months and years of blood, sweat and tears of men, women (and those in between). Kudos to them all. Roads and bridges hold a warm place in my heart (yes, I am weird. But, I don't think there was a debate about that anyway!) They connect people, dreams, hopes, ideas, thoughts. Every new road and every new bridge is the extra yard we are making in human progress. In fact, that's one of the reasons I love travel as well. You get see new places, people, experience new cultures, the whole nine yards. Stimulating to say the least. I digress again...

Driving along the tollway was pure pleasure. I could now get from parking lot to parking lot with a median time of 12 minutes. I suppose anything that's new and fun always holds that special intrigue and fun factor. We are all explorers and most of us love to try 'new things', whatever it may be. The 'flavor of the month' syndrome.

I was on some elevated roads on the way. I began to see the same old strip malls and the same old apartment complexes in new light (or, I guess, in new elevation! :P ). It reminded me of how new and different perspectives of the same place, situation or people refresh your mind. You start to notice things you never had. You appreciate what you previously had not.

That brings me to a related issue. Perceptions.
Isn't it amazing how we meet someone and in a short time frame, form opinions about them or have a certain perception about them. Perhaps we are so quick to judge them or categorize or box them into a familiar category that we do not allow that person the liberty of being himself or herself. Let people be. Do we fail to do that?

Since the recurring theme about this piece has been digressions and abrupt transitions and the like, I shall conclude by saying -
Ok, I will get off my soapbox now.

Drive safe!
PS: I think this is my longest post ever. I know a few who will not make it past the first two paragraphs. For the ones who hung in there, pat pat.