Drive Time

   I drove well over 100 miles today, most of it in the rain. Boring and depressing enough, considering the reasons for the drive. So, as is my custom, I need to take my mind off the unpleasant and transfer my thoughts to something mundane enough to allow me to concentrate on driving.
    I saw an accident in Melrose where someone evidently drove their vehicle into a deep ditch. Troopers and tow truck were involved. An unhappy-looking woman stood nearby; if the driver, apparently uninjured.  On Route 22, just before the detour, a lone  man was changing a tire in the pouring rain.
  My mind turned to the windshield wipers. I go so far back that I recall a time when there were 2 apparently separate windshield  wiper sets--one on the driver's side and one on the passenger's side. Each wiper blade was independent of the other. You could see the separate arcs of clearance on either side of the windshield.
    Times have changed, but I couldn't even speculate as to when it happened. One set of the wiper entities is installed a few inches from the edge of the driver side. The other set is about 12 inches away from the first. The mechanism acts as one. Both blades sweep across the windshield together. So the driver side receives double action while the passenger side pretty much benefits only from the blade 12 inches away from the first.
    Apparently this is true for most if not all cars today. I guess the presumption must be that the driver could benefit from a double dose of wiper activity, while it's not so important for the passenger. I might agree, but being old school I still maintain the driver-side blade more carefully than the other; I have recently replaced that blade. Since I don't spend that much time driving in the rain anymore, I did not replace the other wiper blade. One side is tattered, which annoyed me no end today, dragging its dangling rubber edge before my eyes---on my side of the windshield.