LEDGER COLUMNIST

No one likes waiting.

At least I've never heard anyone say anything good about waiting.

Waiting in line at the grocery checkout. Waiting in line at the post office. Waiting in line at the bank. Waiting for someone to answer the phone so those annoying computergenerated messages will stop.

Waiting in traffic.

Waiting. Waiting.

Waiting.

It's just not fun. We're all in a hurry to get where we're going or get on to doing something other than waiting.

Wait has several definitions but the most appropriate for this column is: to stay in a place of expectation (ie. "I'm waiting in this line of traffic EXPECTING to move any moment.").

I'm a lot more patient than I used to be when it comes to staying in a place of expectation, but patience is one desirable trait I've yet to fully embrace.

This past Saturday, my wife and I along with our youngest daughter, were on our way to Columbia for my oldest daughter's birthday/housewarming party.

We were in no big hurry and had plenty of time to travel the few remaining miles to be there for the 3 p.m. start.

As any regular interstate traveler knows full well, traffic jams are nothing unusual and so I was not too surprised when we topped a hill a saw cars and trucks backed up for what looked like miles.

It wasn't as bad as being at a complete standstill, but crawling along at 10 mph is no picnic. Still, I didn't lose my cool, stayed in the right hand lane and didn't worry if the other lane seemed to be moving at a better clip. But there was this church bus in front of us that minimized our view and the left lane DID appear to be moving a little faster. So I whipped it over.

Right on cue, the traffic in the lane to which I had just moved came to a dead stop.

Not only that, but just as I moved over, a big truck that had been in front of the church bus and that I couldn't see, moved over in front of me.

So, not only did traffic stop, but my view was even more obstructed than before.

We inched along for several miles and came to a flashing sign perched on the side of the interstate: Incident Ahead - Mile marker 93.

"Which mile marker are we at?" ( I know, I know, never end a sentence or question with a preposition, but that's what I said.)

We were at Mile Marker 92.

As we approached the INCIDENT, traffic on the other side of the interstate began to back up.

As we passed Mile Marker 93, traffic cleared and we all looked for the INCIDENT, expecting to see some massive pileup, "I hope no one was killed," I thought and prayed.

The we saw it. The INCIDENT that had traffic backed up for miles on both sides of I-26 - a car with its hood up and a state DOT highway assistance truck in the median.

What the @#%#?

Why?

What is it about drivers that cause them to slow to a crawl causing traffic to snarl when there's a car pulled over on the side of the road? Was it the sign? Was it the sight of the state DOT truck?

I have come to accept delays in life when there is justification, but this was ridiculous.

Another example of unjustified waiting occurred just yesterday when I was waiting with my son to see a doctor about some tests. This was a follow-up visit from last Thursday so he'd have time to get copies of some tests done previously.

The only purpose of the visit was for him to give us the findings after comparing the two tests.

A little more than an hour after the appointment, he came in and informed us he could not open the CD containing the earlier tests results. It had been sent to his office last Friday.

To me, that is unnecessary waiting. Had he looked at the CD prior to our appointment, he'd have known and could have rescheduled our visit.

I'm not sure I'll ever get to the point where things like this don't bother me.

That level of patience takes years to develop, but I want it right now!

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.