This pandemic lockdown sucks. Really. It’s the worst.

The lockdown, at first, was a relief. Mandatory work from home? Wow, as an introvert, this sounds perfect! No more shoulder taps from coworkers asking for help or complaining. To be honest, it was nice at first, until I realized my wife was stuck working at home also, meaning I actually will never experience solitude.

Then the governor began relieving the city little by little. My wife is going back to work now, but my CEO still mandates work from home. This gives me privacy, sure. Then I realized my only interpersonal contact throughout the day besides my wife for a few hours is the barista at the coffee shop when I pick up my morning coffee. Also, the only time I get to drive, which was primarily the highlight of my day, is when I drive 5 minutes away to get the coffee and come home. Rough. I might be driving 5-10 miles a day?!

What I really, really miss though, is the “night drive.” What is that, you ask?

Normally, when daylight savings time ends later in the year, the sun is down by around 5:30-6:30 PM. For normal people, this is probably bad news, but I am different. I love this time of year. The weather is cool and night time comes earlier. Now, since I recently purchased my Miata, would be the best time of the year for the top-down cruise. Every day after work, for the commute home, I would drive somewhere from 40-60 minutes back listening to my favorite music, enjoying the cool air, seeing the night lights. Sometimes I would take the scenic route across a bridge just for the experience. I would occasionally catch the sun setting as well. It’s these little things many overlook that I absolute adore.

But this is just the beginning. I was in contact with some young folks who liked to rip the streets later in the evening… think 8:30 PM and later. I remember when I was 16-18 years old. I was just learning about auto tuning and had a bunch of friends who looked at tuning Japanese cars. We were small in number, but we “rolled deep” so to speak. We liked to rip the streets and hit up parking lots just to hang out. Watching a movie is cool and all, but hanging out in the parking lot afterwards? That’s where the real fun was. Same if we went out to dinner.

Anyhow, I found this group of folks prior to the pandemic that liked to do similar–hang out in parking lots and rip the streets. Did it make me feel young? Are you kidding? Of course! It was fun just running from gas station to gas station and hitting up all the interstate highways. When the pandemic started, obviously the masks made an appearance and it became taboo to have interpersonal contact for fear of acquiring a deadly virus.

The late night cruises can go one of a couple ways, and both ways are an absolute blast. The first type of cruise is with a large group of cars, typically loud, raucous types. I’m strange in that I actually enjoy the chorus of synchronized exhaust pipes, similar to the sound of professional racing today. Not to mention the associated thrills. The second type of cruise is when you are alone. This is where the catharsis takes place, and it’s really what most folks would think of when you think “cruise”–the top is down, you’re on an empty highway and all you see is streetlights.

I created this movie about a year ago after such a drive when I had my Porsche 911. I haven’t really had any experience like it since, and I do quite miss it. Now that I’m getting older, I find myself tired and ready for bed earlier and earlier, and it saddens me that it’s so difficult to replicate such an experience.

Here’s hoping the world returns to some semblance of normal so I can perhaps enjoy the therapeutic release from such a drive again. Otherwise, I really do just need to get that Tesla and move on from the allure of the combustion engine. But I really, really am dragging my feet in that regard.