Idle Cars

I pick my son up from school in our car.

I don't have a choice, actually. The bus for kindergarten only goes one way. So I find myself lining up with fifty other cars at eleven oh something.

And I turn off my car.

There are disadvantages to this. For one thing, I can't listen to the radio. No music. And there is no heat. Or, in warmer weather, no air conditioner. And when the line starts moving again I need to restart my car, and then decide if I'm going to turn it off again while I wait the two minutes it takes to move forward or just idle.

Because leaving your car on without moving it forward needlessly spews dangerous toxins into the air and warms up our planet. I believe it does. Even if you don't think this is true, try leaving your car on idling in your garage with the door shut. You'll die. Because it's poison.

And it seems to me that you don't need fifty cars spewing poison into the air right outside OF A KINDERGARTEN. Just a thought, people.

But regardless, I've shown up to pick up my son ten, fifteen minutes early, and had the people in front of me sit with their engines on, drivers yapping on cell phones. WHY? I mean, the cost of gas alone is terrifying.

I read that it was better to turn off your car if you were going to be more than thirty seconds. So there you go. I'm going to keep on. And I'm going to try not to shoot the other mothers dirty looks. Because I want them to invite my son to their kids' birthday parties.