Over the past 6 months, I’ve done some random drives around LA. These drives do have some practicality. I need to make sure I drive my car every so often so that the battery doesn’t die. It’s not horrible if the battery dies because I can call AAA (or ask a neighbor for help). But I’d still prefer not to do that. Sometimes I have to drive places for real errands, so I don’t have to do these random drives all the time. But when it’s been over 2 weeks and I haven’t driven anywhere, I usually take my car to just drive with no purpose so that it gets some use.
But these drives also are a bit for my mental health. Looking at just the walls in my house can be maddening. I have said this several times, but I am very lucky that I love where I live. It’s not perfect and it’s small, but I’m very happy. And I have made improvements over time that has made my home even better for me. And even though being so isolated and lonely is a struggle, I also know that I am lucky that I don’t live with a roommate or partner that annoys me. My home is a safe and peaceful space for me. But it is only about 400 square feet and I need to see things outside of it.
So going on drives changes what I am seeing. Even if I’m not driving to somewhere that is scenic, any change is nice. Seeing crowded normal city streets is a change. It is also weird because I do see people doing things that I don’t know if they are safe (like eating at restaurants or not wearing masks), but I try not to focus on those things. I just try to enjoy being outside my house and feeling grateful that I have the ability to drive somewhere in a car that is safe.
I had to do one of these random drives this past weekend. I will be driving my car this week, but I had realized that it had been a while since I had driven and I didn’t want my car to have a dead battery when I actually needed it. And even though I just had gotten a car wash for the outside of my car not that long ago, my car was very dirty. With the fires and changing weather, my car was covered in dust, pollen, and ash. I don’t know if it’s worse than normal or it seems that way because I’m not driving most days so everything is just sitting on my car. But I decided to do another drive-thru car wash to get my car looking a bit cleaner when I did my random drive.
I can’t remember ever getting my car washed so close back to back, but I guess when I’m not spending money on much else it doesn’t matter. And the drive-thru car wash is much cheaper than the nice car wash place that I normally go to. So 2 of the cheap ones still are less than 1 of the nice ones. I guess that makes it not as bad.
I’ve seen jokes online about how humans are like dogs now. We pace around our homes looking for things to eat, we have to be reminded to stay away from others, and we look forward to car rides. I guess this is pretty true (although I don’t need the reminder to stay away from people). Going for a drive really is something that brings me joy these days. It isn’t a chore, it’s an adventure. Even when I’m just driving around the neighborhood and going for a car wash. I’m sure that once I’m driving more regularly again, going for a random drive won’t be as interesting to me and I doubt I’ll do them that often because technically they are a waste of gas. But for now, I see more random car drives in my future so I can continue to change things up.
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