Lenny & Earl.

I used to consider the Cruise Control option on a car as a rich boy's toy, an option on a car for people who are either too wealthy or too lazy (often both) to perform the simple and seemingly effortles task of pushing the gas pedal down, yet not lazy and/or wealthy enough to be able to afford a personal driver.

Of course, I was reasoning from my own, rather limited point of view, created while living in a country where you never have to drive for more than, say, three hours to reach any corner of the country you wish to visit.

However, driving around a country that is approx. 220 times larger than my home country, I've come to appreciate this function hidden beneath that nondescript little button staring me in the face from its spot right smack in the middle of my steering wheel.

In fact, just today, after having driven more than 500 miles on a virtually straight two-lane highway through the searing heat of middle Australia, I've decided that the Cruise Control, along with the Air Conditioning, are my new best friends. I've even given them names: the A/C while henceforth be known as Lenny, and the Cruise Control as Earl.

Lenny & Earl, my chums, my buds, my homeboys. Or, to maintain in the Ozzy theme, my mates.