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A few weeks ago, I was driving home from Laguna on the 5. There was moderate traffic and I was about a third of the way through my hour long drive. All of a sudden, I see a traffic cone off into the distance. I think to myself, “Oh great, they closed off my lane for no reason… I have to change over to the slower lanes… Slow traffic… Add another half hour on to my drive home… Thanks CalTrans!”. But as I got closer, I saw it was an individual cone, not a line of them.

Just one single tall traffic cone on top of the divide between the carpool lane and the fast lane. While I pondered on why its was even there, I got the inclination to knock it over. Not with my car, of course, because I am not driving around a bucket anymore. I had enough time to roll down my window and stick my hand out to clothesline that thing down. I, however, made the huge mistake of hesitating. I must have been mulling through any of the repercussions or something, because I completely froze. And before I knew it, that opportunity went right past me. The rest of the way home, I regretted not knocking over that cone more and more.

Now I drive down that same freeway and I am always reminded of that day and not knocking over that cone. It would have been so funny and so satisfying to hear that “DONK!” of the cone hitting the road. I would have had that same mischievous smile I had when I was a kid. But all that did not happen because I hesitated.

I am sure there is a life lesson somewhere in there, but I have yet to realize it.