Going Hornless

Yesterday morning I woke up to a nice winter wonderland, a thin coating of snow laid gently like a blanket over a small child.  Then it turned to sleet, and then to rain.  It was still nice to look at, just not so nice to drive in with a work van.  Luckily I have my little four wheel drive Jeep Wrangler to get me around in inclement weather.  Especially in the snow, it out performs my van a thousand to one, plus, it is much better on conserving gas.  If it weren't for the fact that the majority of the time I need ladders and a plethora of supplies, I would take my Jeep everywhere.  So as I was driving around yesterday, getting cut off by idiotic drivers who felt the need to drive as if it was sunny and 75 degrees out, I came upon a small blessing that up until that point, I had never considered.  But before I continue, let me back track a few weeks to the last snow storm we had.  During that last snow storm, my wife and I went down to see my parents and on the way back had to deal with, you guessed it, idiotic drivers in the snow.  At one point while driving, there was a car of teenage drivers on my right who decided that the perfect time to change lanes would be right as I pulled up next to them.  No turn signal, no indication of changing lanes, they just slowly started drifting over.  I went to honk my horn and very faint sound, one you might expect from a dying duck hooked up to an oxygen tank would make, issued forth.  I went to honk the horn again hoping it was an anomaly and the same thing happened.  At the time I was a little frustrated and pissed off as I like to utilize my car horn to notify people when they are being stupid and could potentially involve me in an accident.  I let it go, not thinking too much of it and, quite frankly, forgetting about the dead horn that resided in my Jeep, waiting for me to fix it.  Well, after yesterday, part of me wants me to leave it broken, dead, a relic of the Jeep that used to be (for the record, my Jeep is now 18 years old and still running fairly well, despite the lack of a horn.)

So lets jump forward again to yesterday as I was driving around, being pestered by idiotic drivers.  (I'm sorry, I just can't stop calling them idiotic, its just what they are).  I was stopped at a red light with one car in front of me.  I could see, even from behind, that he was involved with some activity on his cell phone (now illegal to do in CT).  Well, the light turned green, the rest of the cars waiting around us started to move while the gentleman in front of me remained ensconced in his cell phone, oblivious to the changing color of the light.  As I was about to depress the horn placed conveniently in the center of the steering wheel, I remembered that it didn't work.  A quick burst of frustration quickly dissipated leaving me thinking instead.  Why was I in such a rush to get this guy moving?  It was nasty out, the roads a little slick, and rushing anywhere could be a bad thing.  Instead of getting all ticked off that the guy wasn't moving, I just waited patiently till he did (which luckily didn't take too long).  That little sliver of patience that slipped in got me thinking even more about the ultimate use of a horn.  First and foremost, a car horn is used to notify people that they are doing something stupid and could potentially cause an accident.   Alternately, and it seems more prevalent these days that someone would choose this latter option, a horn is used in anger either to get someone to move out of the way that is going slow in front of you, or to try and exact some sort of feeble vengeance for a perceived wrong enacted upon a driver.  I have used the latter option myself more than I have used the preceding one.  That first blast of the horn in anger does nothing to relieve me of any anger directed towards the other driver.  In fact, I think it sometimes ramps up the anger to the next level, not satisfying in its own right we seek to find an alternate means of venting our frustration and anger.  Enter road rage.  If we ever move past the mere honk of the horn and perhaps the often times accompanying hand gesture, we can start to act stupid ourselves, getting extremely close to the car and driver we are angry at, perhaps swerving, and for some, the stalking for miles on end till the other driver gets frantic and exits the roadway.  I myself rarely get involved in road rage, just the angry honk of the horn. 

I think that part of why the horn drives some to road rage (yes I know this is perhaps a tenuous connection at best) is the obnoxious sound of the horn going off, grating on your nerves, a cacophonous disruption to what might otherwise be a peaceful drive.  I understand the need for the horn to be obnoxious.  For those that utilize it to alert someone to their own stupidity or prevent an accident, the sound does wonders.  Despite that, it is still incredibly annoying to hear.  Whenever I hear a car horn while driving, it always makes me look around to see if I am the recipient of the noise.  Perhaps if they replaced the obnoxious horn sound with something more melodious, people would not use it in anger as much or if they did, it might even have a calming effect, make them laugh, and snap them out of their anger and frustration.  I know we will never go that route, but it is interesting to think of a world where car horns sounded like a flock of finches.  This is for sure, it would definitely make for a more interesting commute in the morning.  So what am I actually getting at with this whole theorizing on car horns, their meaning, and their sound?  Essentially, I don't think I am going to fix the horn on my Jeep.  Instead, it will force me to be more patient on the roads, consider those around me and what they are doing more, and just let the little annoyances that pepper any commute on the roadways to dissipate without bothering me.  I am sure I will still get those small pangs of anger and frustration, but when I go to honk the horn and realize it doesn't work, I will just sit back, take a deep breath, and remember to enjoy the ride and not let someone else ruin a perfectly good day.  If you want to try this yourself, its as easy as pulling a fuse in your car.  The unfortunate part is that sometimes the horn is tied into other electrical devices and pulling a fuse that controls the horn could disable some other necessary function.  In any case, I suggest giving it a whirl.