Followed by an Oh $#!+ moment

As I cruised out to get something for lunch, I decided to go to the local Taco Bell/Pizza Hut and get a PH2. In order to get there from here, I have to sort of zig-zag my way. At one point, I have to come up and around an onramp onto MacArthur, but get over a lane so that I don't merge onto the 73 north.

At just that spot there was a small white vehicle stopped in the lane I need to be in. As I am busy accellerating to join the traffic on MacArthur, and am glancing over my shoulder to make sure I have a clear lane to merge into, there is a car stopped with no lights flashing, no brake lights shining-- just stopped.

I learned something as I slammed on my brakes and steered to avoid killing the occupants of the car-- actually, two somethings: 1. the stupidity of people knows no boundaries and 2. a stopped car that has no other traffic around it nor anything to indicate distress or being stopped (like lights flashing) can fool your brain into thinking it is moving.

As I swerved and screeched my way around the stopped car, I had time to note that two young women were in it and they just appeared to be stopped. As I skidded by them, the driver started forward and drove off, like nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Since they were in a small, 2-door coupe, low to the ground, and I drive a bigger, heavier SUV-style vehicle, had I hit them they would have had an inkling of there being something wrong right before my car crushed the life out of them. But, since I managed to avoid them, they are happily on their merry way.

It was sort of funny, too, how my brain responded. As I merged and glanced ahead and then behind me to make sure the way was clear, my brain said to itself, "There is something odd up ahead." It just did not recognize the threat the stopped car presented at that time. When I then secured the merge into the lane and had my full attention in front of me again, my brain still didn't quite see the issue; it just repeated itself and added, "... with that car in front of us." It took a couple of seconds for it to work out that the car was stopped but that I could not see any reason for it. Had their brake lights been engaged, my brain would have had a swifter reaction. Had their warning lights been flashing, it would have yelled a warning to me. Having nothing, not even other traffic against which to judge the other car's speed (or lack thereof), made it very hard to recognize and react to the danger.

Suddenly, reworking the document I deleted doesn't seem so bad.