I enjoy music as well as the next person and, really, better than most probably. My older siblings taught me early and taught me right, exposing me to Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, etc. by time I was starting kindergarten.

And like a lot of people, I’ve always enjoyed listening to music while driving or riding in cars. Of course, the cars I’ve had, especially the older ones, didn’t always have fantastic music setups, and at times I carried around a transistor radio with me so I’d always be able to at least pick up KGON.

My first legitimate car stereo was something I bought in components and installed in my Volkswagen when I was in college. By today’s standards it wasn’t that great, and of course it played cassette tapes and not CDs, but it was pretty cool for its time.

And I apologize, belatedly, to anyone I might have irritated at stoplights by playing my music too loud on warm days such as we have been enjoying lately. I don’t necessarily remember doing that, but given how I was back in those days, it’s likely I did.

In the years since, I’ve really tried hard not to impose my tunes on people in neighboring cars. OK, maybe the guy in the Prius next to me likes the Who as much as I do, or then again, maybe he doesn’t want to hear 100 decibels of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

And now that I am a sometimes grumpy middle-aged guy on his way home from work and not a college kid hurrying en route to go waste time somewhere, I find myself getting annoyed when others roll up to a stoplight with their windows open and stereo blasting. Even if it’s music I like (though that makes it more palatable), it just seems like something a person really shouldn’t have to deal with.

Crank it up as loud as you want on the open road, but when you’re surrounded by other vehicles, maybe just turn it down a bit at least till the light turns green.