My wife helped manage a dog show this weekend and I went along to help. Because we set out early all three days I was never fully awake until we got on the road, although she was doing the driving and fortunately was way ahead of me. We also frequently keep each other awake when driving, especially on long trips. Anyway not being fully awake I forgot, all three mornings, to take a stack of audio books I wanted to donate to the Live To Run Again program.
This is a program that dog show people started after one of them, driving late and by herself, fell asleep at the wheel and was killed. It was a terrible thing but Live To Run Again has a simple solution: a table with free audio books at every dog show. Anyone who wants an audio book, or several, to help them stay awake while driving can take them then return them later.
The downside is most of the audio books are CDs, and I overheard a couple of women talking about the program. “I’d love to listen to one of these while I’m driving home,” one of them said, “but my car doesn’t have a CD player!”
There are a lot of audiobook websites, plus podcasts, and, heck, even listening to the radio can help some people stay awake, so the lack of CD players isn’t necessarily a problem. This is just a reminder that the message of the Live To Run program isn’t limited to dog show people, or even people with dogs. If you can avoid it don’t drive while drowsy, and do whatever you can to keep yourself awake on the road.
One of the things that snapped me into alertness was saying, Oh, hey, I left those audiobooks on the kitchen counter again.
You always get my attention, Chris.
Thanks for helping me stay awake, Ann.