In the rush of our everyday lives, we cherish these reflective moments along the road, when we can ask questions we do not ordinarily ask:

Do highway workers suffer an above-average rate of skin cancer? What part of our highway dollar goes to combat the effect of construction worker sun exposure?

Do the two people connected by walky talkies who take turns swiveling the SLOW and STOP signs ever have a mad impulse to make both directions SLOW, or STOP, at the same time?

Is it really a freeway if you know you are guaranteed a "free way" only in the months of October, early November, and the tail end of April?

And the killer question: As great as it will be to have a newly blacktopped bridge lane this September, before the freeze/thaw cycle wrecks it, will that momentary pleasure be worth the sweltering standstill through June, July, and August?

But this column isn't about real highways. It's about the virtual ones, microscopically crisscrossing the main chip on your computer mainboard. Just as the highway department and construction industry keep traffic backed up while they improve roads that probably don't require that much improving, so do the chip and operating system companies (mainly Intel and Microsoft) throw up regular roadblocks to our progress -- in the name of progress, and even more curiously, with the banner of open systems flapping.

The latest is the acknowledgment by Microsoft that Windows 95 is never going to make it with business clients, who we are told will be much happier with their other flagship product, Windows NT 4.0.

This acknowledgment must come as news to the thousands of corporations who installed Win95 on Microsoft's say-so a year ago. (It was, you may recall, the biggest product build-up of all time.) These companies are now facing the apparent inevitability of replacing not just the operating system software, but the hardware of their computer fleets as well. (It seems NT does not install well over Win95.)

This switcheroo would be merely maddening if it were an occasional occurrence, but of course it's not. We waited two years in traffic for Win95, assured it would be the slick new roadway we always prayed for. And the microchip makers are complementing Microsoft's action with their own. Intel has acknowledged that, no, users of Pentium-based machines will not be able to pop the newer, faster Pentium Pro chips into their old sockets and thus reap the 32-bit advantages of Windows NT -- because the sockets don't match up.

Never mind the promise of upgradability Intel made several years ago, that the next box you buy ("Intel Inside") would be your last. Now it's, Buy a new chip, buy a new box.

Here is the rationale for the road construction, laid bare enough that even the most stupefied motorist can understand:

The new chips are necessary, because only they can run the new operating system. The new operating system is necessary because only it can take advantage of the power of the new chip.

Makes you want to holler heidy-ho.

Beyond this highway hold-up is the hope that, just out of sight of these momentary detours, is a road as black as night, smooth as a billiard table, that goes on for miles, and will last as long as the moon.

But we know that, as sure as the seasons change, there are new roadblocks waiting just ahead, that will overheat our engines, slow our superfast vehicles to a crawl, and have us sucking the good honest air of Dr. Kervorkian.

What are our options? I noticed on my return trip from Colorado last month that Interstate highway construction was being done at night. It was eerie to see the workers moving on bridges amid the halogen lights, and eerier to contemplate the time and a half costs of night work. But it was a sign that the highway lobby was attuned to our feelings, and the need for better worker skin care.

Do you think Microsoft and Intel care about anyone's skin? They act like they're doing us a service -- that we're dying for these holdups. Maybe bigger businesses need faster chips and operating systems with faster throughput, because their data loads are genuinely getting bigger. But most of us don't really need faster chips, bigger hard drives, or new-age operating systems.

You can write a report, examine a spreadsheet, or locate a mailing address just as efficiently with a 386-era PC as with a Pentium Pro 200 MHz machine. Small business does not need and does not benefit from highway construction season at Microsoft and Intel.

What can we do? Protest, by sticking with our old machines and old operating systems an extra year or two. We need to send Microsoft and Intel a message that they should be in the business of making things happen, not preventing them from happening.

They'll spend billions luring us back into traffic. Think of the speed, they will say. Think of the power. But we've been down that road too many times.

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