I seemed mentally sluggish today. It is like my brain was willing to make assumptions my senses were not consulted on first. This bit of laziness caused me to not be nearly as sharp as I would have liked during the entire day. Yes, my sassiness was still maintained at work. Once I dug down below the “defensive retort” level, something seemed missing in my day. I provide 3 pieces of evidence:

As I was driving to work at the early hour I so enjoy, it is not unheard of for me to get behind a slow vehicle. Today was no exception. Once I survived the slow vehicle on the 2-lane road, I had to make the necessary adjustments to get into my preferred lane on the multi-lane road. The preferred lane is the lane that takes any cars that remain on it onto the freeway that leads to the airport and eventually my job. On this day, the left/preferred lane was moving slower than I desired. The middle lane had a pickup moving even slower, and the right lane was free. I did whatever calculations my sluggish brain would allow and began the adventure. The truck and another vehicle in the middle lane were easily passed. I then switched to the middle lane. After clearing the final traffic light before the left lane committed to being the on-ramp to the freeway, I took a quick glance in my mirror before going into the left lane. My failure to consult all mirrors as well as a turning of my neck to the rear nearly allowed me to have an early morning accident. The car in the left lane must have seen my turn signal and anticipated the move. After seeing his headlights, I swerved back into the middle lane and accelerated before moving back left. I was slightly embarrassed. Fortunately, I have done enough stupid things like this before my pulse no longer rockets up like it used to.

After a full day of work, the sluggishness apparently persisted. I left my work parking lot and headed toward the main road that leads to the freeway. As I arrived at the stop sign, the traffic was pretty steady both ways. The final car coming from the north would have done me a great favor by using his turn signal. As I now looked left, the cars were still coming. A truck pulling a big trailer was also coming. And, lucky for me (you are meant to read “unluckily”), it wanted to turn on the road I was on. I continued to gauge car speeds from the north while trying to keep track of the cars coming from the south. This would include the cars from the south that were switching lanes to avoid being slowed down by the truck who was slowing further as he was coming up on his eventual turn. Thinking I had calculated every variable and made visual contact with every car, I went ahead and pulled out to make my left hand turn. Whether I flat out missed a car or it was cleverly hiding and then accelerating around the truck/trailer combo, I was nearly t-boned. The car stopped when they saw the nose of the car peeking around the truck/trailer. I stopped, too. Since I was in his path, I won the battle and continued my turn–grateful I had not missed a car coming from the north–on the lane I was turned into. I was not pleased with myself. Maybe sluggish is not the best word for it. Maybe it would better be described as driving arrogance. I need to be reminded occasionally that I am not the best driver on the road. And, if I am, I need to do a little better job of showing it.

Lastly, I think this issue is more of a communication problem. On the one road of any significance my walk crosses, there is a designated crosswalk. It does not have a light, but it has a sidewalk on both sides. The cars are controlled by lights on both ends of the road, so it is usually not to difficult to cross them to the sidewalk on the other side. Yesterday was an exception. I waited for a number of cars coming from each direction. And, on the other side of the road, there a husband/wife bicycle team waiting to cross as well. Apparently, bicycles make a more compelling argument for cars to stop then a walker does. The car going east stopped for them to cross. Before I could also cross, I needed to wait for one final car to cross in the westbound lane. After it cleared the crosswalk, I began walking across. The car that stopped must have been so focused on the riders, he failed to see me. As I approached his path, he already had taken his foot off of the brake and was preparing to continue his journey. Fortunately, he did see me. I hope I caused him only a minor inconvenience. I quickly scampered across his path and resumed my walk. I didn’t turn around to see if I left any hand gestures or disparaging remarks in my wake. I just assumed it was a continuation of my distracted day.