On deer and men.
I realized that I never said anything about my own brush with death last week. About thirty minutes before I arrived at my grandparents house, I was traveling down a rather deserted part of the highway. there were very little lights and no vehicles in front of me. For some reason, I never put my brights on. There was a pretty deep ditch to my right and out jumps this large, adult female deer. She ran across the road, freaked out in my headlights, tried to turn and run back, but her back legs slid out from under her and she collapsed not a foot from my drivers side.
If she hadn't collapsed, I'd probably still be in the hospital. I don't think my little plastic toy car would have held up very well against a collision at 75mph. Especially something that large.
There have been times that I've questioned my use of an autopilot. That is to say, once I get going on a long trip, I basically let my right brain take over while my left brain is off in la-la land, usually plotting something, or watching a plot, or basically anything else. When I first learned to drive, this was very problematic. But my programing at the time was less than perfect, to say the least. But now, I've run it through enough scenarios and picked out inconsistancies and flaws, I'm intensely grateful for it. It's still not perfect. I'll never trust it to be perfect. I'll always be testing it for flaws.
If I had been completely aware and cognizant; If my Left brain had been in charge while I was driving when that deer walked across the road, I would not be writting this right now. As it was, I had the length of my headlights with which to react and I did so without losing control over my car. Granted, it wasn't just my autopilot that saved me. As I said earlier, if she had succeeded in turning around, there's nothing I could have done. But she didn't. THANK GOD.
Now, just today, Sara and I headed to a nearby city to grab dinner. I wanted to treat her because I won't be back till Friday. Just outside the city, Sara brought my attention to a guy that was passing me on my left. I had heard him hit the noise-strips, but didn't pay any extra attention to it. Well, I watched him because he made Sara nervous. He was literally half off the road, but he was slowly easing back on. I simply figured he had just not paid attention very well and then was trying to be extra careful getting back on the road. Still, his behavior was unusual so I kept an eye on him. We argued for a moment about calling the cops on him. I pulled my phone out and handed it to Sara, but he still hadn't given certain reason to report him, but then he started weaveing all over his lane. Not a few seconds later, we came to a turn in the highway.
A turn he didn't take and continued straight into the median. He almost went straight into oncoming traffic and into a minivan, but he caught himself and came back. I always wondered what it would look like to see someone go offroading like that, but I never actually wanted to watch it ok? Anyway, he came back onto the correct side and got back in front of us. I had slammed on the breaks because I wanted to keep him directly in my line of sight where I could react quickly to him. He turned onto the next exit, which thankfully, was not a minute after this occured. Sara was on the phone with the police at this time, so I took the exit as well and got close enough to catch his liscense plate. He turned into a gas station/hotel and I really didn't feel like following him at this point. I just wanted to go eat. So we turned around as well. When we came back I realized he hadn't stopped, simply turned around and was getting back on the road!!! Sara called the cops again and told them that he was still on the road and was going north instead. What a Freaking IDIOT. I hope he has his liscense taken.
damn that's long.
If she hadn't collapsed, I'd probably still be in the hospital. I don't think my little plastic toy car would have held up very well against a collision at 75mph. Especially something that large.
There have been times that I've questioned my use of an autopilot. That is to say, once I get going on a long trip, I basically let my right brain take over while my left brain is off in la-la land, usually plotting something, or watching a plot, or basically anything else. When I first learned to drive, this was very problematic. But my programing at the time was less than perfect, to say the least. But now, I've run it through enough scenarios and picked out inconsistancies and flaws, I'm intensely grateful for it. It's still not perfect. I'll never trust it to be perfect. I'll always be testing it for flaws.
If I had been completely aware and cognizant; If my Left brain had been in charge while I was driving when that deer walked across the road, I would not be writting this right now. As it was, I had the length of my headlights with which to react and I did so without losing control over my car. Granted, it wasn't just my autopilot that saved me. As I said earlier, if she had succeeded in turning around, there's nothing I could have done. But she didn't. THANK GOD.
Now, just today, Sara and I headed to a nearby city to grab dinner. I wanted to treat her because I won't be back till Friday. Just outside the city, Sara brought my attention to a guy that was passing me on my left. I had heard him hit the noise-strips, but didn't pay any extra attention to it. Well, I watched him because he made Sara nervous. He was literally half off the road, but he was slowly easing back on. I simply figured he had just not paid attention very well and then was trying to be extra careful getting back on the road. Still, his behavior was unusual so I kept an eye on him. We argued for a moment about calling the cops on him. I pulled my phone out and handed it to Sara, but he still hadn't given certain reason to report him, but then he started weaveing all over his lane. Not a few seconds later, we came to a turn in the highway.
A turn he didn't take and continued straight into the median. He almost went straight into oncoming traffic and into a minivan, but he caught himself and came back. I always wondered what it would look like to see someone go offroading like that, but I never actually wanted to watch it ok? Anyway, he came back onto the correct side and got back in front of us. I had slammed on the breaks because I wanted to keep him directly in my line of sight where I could react quickly to him. He turned onto the next exit, which thankfully, was not a minute after this occured. Sara was on the phone with the police at this time, so I took the exit as well and got close enough to catch his liscense plate. He turned into a gas station/hotel and I really didn't feel like following him at this point. I just wanted to go eat. So we turned around as well. When we came back I realized he hadn't stopped, simply turned around and was getting back on the road!!! Sara called the cops again and told them that he was still on the road and was going north instead. What a Freaking IDIOT. I hope he has his liscense taken.
damn that's long.