Sunday, February 26, 2012

Big Rigs At Night

Had yet another road intuition experience, on Friday I had driven to a town that is about 3 hours away from where I live, most of the ride is long stretches of 2 lane highways with little traffic and lots of nothing to see. It was getting dark when my friend and I were driving home,  I was driving, the speed limit is 75, I don't drive that fast at night, too many critters potentially running across the road. There was a big rig in front of me driving slower that I was, there was no other traffic around, I started gauging when it would be good to pass the truck.

I looked toward the left lane next to the truck and was about to speed up to pass, I immediately got a feeling not to pass, I can't explain exactly what I saw, but the space next to the truck seemed to be like a void, an empty, truly empty space, one that if we drove into it, would be paramount to driving into a black hole, as if we would cease to exist, I didn't think we would make it home if I passed this truck at that time. Needless to say, I chose to stay behind that truck for a while longer.

About 5-7 minutes later, that feeling left and I decided it was time to pass this truck, as I did, there was an on ramp to the highway, there were two big rigs on the on ramp entering the highway, they were going a bit too fast and when they merged onto the highway, their trailers whipped into the other lane, they took up both lanes temporarily. If I had passed the truck in front of me when I first wanted to, I believe I would have been right where those two trucks entered the highway, probably having an encounter that would have resulted in our deaths.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. I do put my feelers out for animals as I am driving, I felt nothing from them, and had none of them jumped out in front of me.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Intelligent Prickles

Had another one of those "little voice" experiences, well, maybe less of a voice and more of an intelligent prickle... a couple of days ago I was going to my friend's house, my neighborhood has nothing but unpaved, aka dirt roads that go up and down, in and out, there are no traffic signs (stop, yield or such), there is very little traffic and generally people drive pretty slow out here so traffic signs aren't necessary.

So, on my way to my friend's house, I came upon a T in the road, I had to turn one way or the other, the direction I turned (to the right) causes me to make a choice between going over some major bumps in the road, actually they are deep ruts that are washed out from the last rain we had, or I have to go wide to miss the rough patch and I end up on the wrong side of the road, I'm also in the process of driving uphill, quite steeply, so driving on the wrong side of the road, going uphill and turning at the same time, got that? OK, before I went into the turn, I scan left and right to make sure no one is coming, that includes cars, trucks, 3 and 4 wheelers, pedestrians, horses (with or without riders), dogs, cats, donkeys, deer, javelinas, or other things, if it is moving, I have to yield or stop no matter what.

I didn't see anyone or anything coming in either direction, there usually isn't anyone coming, we have very little traffic, so I put out my "feelers" to detect if anyone or anything was coming, my feelers prickled back from the direction I was about to turn toward, so instead of pulling wide to the left to miss the rough road (which would have put me on the wrong side of the road and going face to face with what or who ever was coming) I slowly pulled across  the rough patch, staying very close to the right side of the road.

Sure enough, a jeep with a young driver (I know who he is) came around the corner toward me, not going too fast but fast enough that he skidded just a little when he saw me, I think he over compensated a bit, turning his wheel harder and hitting the brakes a bit. Had I not "felt" him coming, I would have been on the wrong side of the road, heading face to face with him, we probably wouldn't have hit each other, but it could have happened, it would have put me in a bad spot... at any rate, I do actively use my feelers, especially on blind turns and such where I am more likely to have a problem if I'm not alert (or alerted) to what is coming...

This also works for me when I am driving at night, that is pretty rare having to go out after dark, but occasionally necessary. The biggest problem that could happen while driving after dark is the critters that come out, the same ones I listed above, the most dangerous ones are deer and javelina, and the occasional skunk, dog, fox or coyote. The first two will really mess you up if you hit one, especially if you are going at higher speeds, the rest of them will just make a mess of your car but could still cause you to lose control... so the thing I do is I drop my speed considerably, I do not do 70 which is the typical highway speed out here until you get into the neighborhood, then you do 5-15 at night. Again, I put out my feelers as I am driving, and when I get that prickle, I slow down even more and look for whatever it might be, I will often see the critter, sometimes I don't, but it has saved my bacon more times that I can count.

On another note, I am seeing a lot more things, such as movements in the air, shadows and amorphous shapes shooting across my field of vision, we aren't talking floaters either, I have methods to detect whether or not it's something going on with my vision, when I see something, I'll slightly move where I'm looking, if the thing moves with me, then I know it's a floater or something going on inside my head, if it stays in the same place or continues to move in the same manner, then I know it's outside of my head, in 3D space in front of me.

Sometimes these things are like sparks of light, sometimes a single spark, sometimes multiple sparks (like a sparkler), sometimes it's like a shadow, smoke like, I don't recall seeing anything really solid though, it's usually transparent or semi-transparent. It's almost always in the air above me, just slightly, maybe a foot or two above my head level, though it can be lower, closer to floor level. These things typically last a second or two, I don't ever recall seeing something like this for longer, it's almost a streak, by the time I really get a good look it's gone. I do wish I knew what these are, I have some theories, but no proof.