With the snowbanks so high, the danger of getting into an accident at a corner is extremely real. They're so high that my hubby waits until there's a quarter mile of space in the traffic coming from the left, pulls half-way into that lane, and gets me to peek around the snowbank to the right so we can turn left into the stream of traffic in the morning.
The blind spots are plenteous enough on the car without that sort of thing!
Which brings me to blind spots in general.
I guess it's standard on every car because of safety requirements, but honestly - if it reduces visibility, then the very thing that has been designed to save lives might be responsible for loss of life!!
Not only are there the usual blind spots (pictured in the diagram) but there are other ones created to the side because the windows in the late model cars don't extend down as far as older models once did, and at ten and two, because the sturdy posts that hold the windows in place are twice as wide as they used to be ... when you look at them from the INside. With all our rampant technology you'd think that they'd invent a car with the posts see-through, or made of two-way mirror or something - so you could see out without the world seeing in. Just saying!
And the mirrors - rear view and side view - add to the width of the new blind spots created by the new "safety" features. I can't count the number of times we didn't see someone walking on the road, someone coming up beside us, or someone pulling out into traffic ahead of us - because the posts were in the way.
It's even more important now to do that shoulder check before changing lanes.
Yet even with the best intentions, it's so easy to miss something: on the road ... or elsewhere. Even in life. So easy to slip back into old habits, old ruts. Blind spots can creep in without us even becoming aware that they exist.
I had a friend call me on a blind spot of mine today - one in my attitudes of late regarding certain things and people. It really made me think. Whoa - I took my foot off the gas and had to take stock really abruptly. Where did THAT come from? When I started to analyze it, I realized that I'd allowed other people's stuff to intrude on my own perception of "the way things are." Plus I had not set proper boundaries to keep people from trying to influence my opinions. My natural desire to have people "like me" had given them license to dump their prejudices all over me, tell me things about certain people that led me to judge and go on the defensive - even though I didn't want to know those things. I had told myself that once a person knows something, he or she can't "un-know" it, much as that might be preferable!!
Much as I tried to wriggle out of it and make excuses for myself, I have to admit, it was a blind spot ... for sure. I had allowed a hidden resentment to evade me, and it manifested in some very un-christian (and very typically religious) behavior. I tried to back up and avoid the real issue but there it was - staring me in the face through the loving concern and the gentle, kind rebuke of my friend. I'm so glad that I saw the love there - and was able to thank her for calling me on it. Two years ago, I would have gotten angry with her.
I've come a long way, but there is still far to go.
So now it's time for me to take personal inventory (shoulder check) and leave that whole issue - not as a blanket thing but in specifics - in God's hands (yeah, that kinda looks like "Hey God, I screwed up, in this and this and this and this specific thing/s. I really don't want to do that anymore- help!"), then do my part to put things right in my own spirit.
Part of that is going to be (sighhhh) setting another boundary - this time for ME - and asking God to not let me cross it!
Which brings me to blind spots in general.
I guess it's standard on every car because of safety requirements, but honestly - if it reduces visibility, then the very thing that has been designed to save lives might be responsible for loss of life!!
Not only are there the usual blind spots (pictured in the diagram) but there are other ones created to the side because the windows in the late model cars don't extend down as far as older models once did, and at ten and two, because the sturdy posts that hold the windows in place are twice as wide as they used to be ... when you look at them from the INside. With all our rampant technology you'd think that they'd invent a car with the posts see-through, or made of two-way mirror or something - so you could see out without the world seeing in. Just saying!
And the mirrors - rear view and side view - add to the width of the new blind spots created by the new "safety" features. I can't count the number of times we didn't see someone walking on the road, someone coming up beside us, or someone pulling out into traffic ahead of us - because the posts were in the way.
It's even more important now to do that shoulder check before changing lanes.
Yet even with the best intentions, it's so easy to miss something: on the road ... or elsewhere. Even in life. So easy to slip back into old habits, old ruts. Blind spots can creep in without us even becoming aware that they exist.
I had a friend call me on a blind spot of mine today - one in my attitudes of late regarding certain things and people. It really made me think. Whoa - I took my foot off the gas and had to take stock really abruptly. Where did THAT come from? When I started to analyze it, I realized that I'd allowed other people's stuff to intrude on my own perception of "the way things are." Plus I had not set proper boundaries to keep people from trying to influence my opinions. My natural desire to have people "like me" had given them license to dump their prejudices all over me, tell me things about certain people that led me to judge and go on the defensive - even though I didn't want to know those things. I had told myself that once a person knows something, he or she can't "un-know" it, much as that might be preferable!!
Much as I tried to wriggle out of it and make excuses for myself, I have to admit, it was a blind spot ... for sure. I had allowed a hidden resentment to evade me, and it manifested in some very un-christian (and very typically religious) behavior. I tried to back up and avoid the real issue but there it was - staring me in the face through the loving concern and the gentle, kind rebuke of my friend. I'm so glad that I saw the love there - and was able to thank her for calling me on it. Two years ago, I would have gotten angry with her.
I've come a long way, but there is still far to go.
So now it's time for me to take personal inventory (shoulder check) and leave that whole issue - not as a blanket thing but in specifics - in God's hands (yeah, that kinda looks like "Hey God, I screwed up, in this and this and this and this specific thing/s. I really don't want to do that anymore- help!"), then do my part to put things right in my own spirit.
Part of that is going to be (sighhhh) setting another boundary - this time for ME - and asking God to not let me cross it!
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