Small sweetnesses

Driving home from work on Friday, traffic was horrid. It seems to be particularly horrid on days that i need to be home by a certain time--say, something slow-cooking without a timer (my crockpot doesn't have a time-bake feature) and company due to arrive. The classical music station DJ for the late afternoon commute usually makes me smile with his Classical Anti-Road Rage Melody, or CARRTune. However, when he said that the 605 was backed up from the 10 to the 210 in both directions for no apparent reason, he was only half-right; and even his jovial voice couldn't make me un-irritated. There was a Caltrans maintenance vehicle making some repairs on the side of the road, and everyone and their brother has to, of course, put on their brakes, fully swivel their necks, stare for a second, and then slowly accelerate onward. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!? Not even a CARRtune could make me not mutter and question people's rights to having a driver's license.

The 605 usually--usually--isn't too bad. I'm going against the main course of traffic to get to work or go home. Once i hit an east-west street, though, it's a different story. Whittier Boulevard can be quite nasty before 7 p.m. and it's even worse when there are two accidents. Two accidents, not on the bouleveard itself (a mercy) but when two or three lanes of traffic merge themselves over into one messy line along the curb, thrice, it does slow things down. On top of that, someone was doing construction! During rush hour! In the middle of the road! And taking away two of three lanes! GRRR. My sanctification was being sorely tested.

But then, as i waited, far backed up from the light in a single-file line past the construction, i noticed a woman standing on the sidewalk. It was at a corner mini-strip mall sort of place, and she was with two children. One was a girl, about nine, standing a little further back from the street. A small boy stood in front of the woman, who had one arm around him, and he watched the Caterpillar and backhoe with the sweetest little-boy face: a look of awe, curiosity, and a wee bit of hesitation as he held his hands together and watched.

It made me smile like no CARRTune could.