Roads are decent and dry today, but the fog still hangs on. From around 5000 ft. down to around 3000 ft. elevations, the fog is moderate/ medium/ fair- to- middlin,’ but patchy, with some clear areas and some slightly heavier areas. Rocks and rain seem to be negligible concerns today; same with wind and extreme temperatures.
Now, the fog today, as mentioned, is not crazy- thick… but I’m starting to think that the people who claim to not be able to see in fog may have more of a valid claim than I’ve given them credit for in the past. It may be a real thing.
This morning, I was behind a vehicle traveling down the hill. This vehicle seemed to move at a decent pace, and it appeared that the driver was comfortable with our roads, probably a local who commutes daily. No excessive sloth, no, “oops, almost missed that turn” behavior. However… once we left the brilliant clarity of fog- free roads, and descended down into the (medium!) fog, that car might as well have been piloted by a sea slug, perhaps even a a sea slug with poor motor skills, even for a sea slug with slippery no- hands- at- all. The car veered off onto the shoulder, doing the hurky- jerky, nearly drove over a road sign, almost hit the barriers, and couldn’t even seem to locate the real estate in between the brightly painted lines. This guy came to a stop a few times, only timidly moving forward again with even more extreme caution. Cars backed up behind him… the poor driver was having a Very. Difficult. Time. No matter how much I blew the horn, high- beamed him, or even gently tapped his bumper with mine to sort of push him along, he still wouldn’t get moving at the pace that I wanted to move.
Of course, I’m kidding about that last part… “gentle” pushes are worthless in the fog: You’ve really got to ram those slower vehicles pretty hard in order to get real results.
Now, I hear people say that they just can’t drive in the fog… but I’ve always just sort of figured that it’s a matter of confidence and experience that defines competence for fog driving. But, maybe it’s more than that.
On the sitcom, “Arrested Development,” one of the characters on the show has, “face blindness,” which, as most sitcom set-ups do, leads to hilariously comical awkward situations. The guy can see normally… with the exception of being able to differentiate one face from another. And, curious, I looked it up: Turns out, this is a real condition… some people cannot even recognize their own faces (it’s even got one of those hard- to- say- or- even- remember names that scientists use to confuse us simpletons: “Prosopagnosia”)! They see eyes, nose, ears and a mouth, right on there on the bulgy knob flopping around on top of the torso, but they simply can’t tell the difference between faces. It’s considered to be a psychological issue, as visual acuity is not the problem… but, whether the brain is the weak link or not, the reality is that the issue exists.
Maybe it’s the same with fog… some folks simply cannot process the change in the scenery that fog delivers to the CPU inside of every driver’s head.
Maybe I’ll consider practicing, “fog compassion,” and not ramming into those cars as hard.
Your own wife has fog blindness. And night blindness. My glasses help
but without them I’m screwed….so don’t ram me off the road. ????????