Thinking and Driving Don't Mix

I was in my trusty Saturn SL1, and idled up to a light just as it turned red. I planned to turn right and idled up toward the intersection.

I craned my head to the left to check whether or not busy traffic from that direction had gotten a green light yet. Not yet. I accelerated into the turn and swiveled my head toward the front of the car.

WHOA! BRAKE LIGHTS AHEAD! A car ahead of me that had already turned right, had shortly thereafter stopped to make a left hand turn into a store lot, and thus was parked in my lane.

As I skillfully swerved into the right lane, time slowed down and a philosophical thought passed through my head. So often we peer into the past to the point that we send ourselves crashing to failure in the present...

WHOA! BRAKE LIGHTS AHEAD! A car was turning right into an office parking lot. I swerved back into the left lane, just ahead of the first car that I'd nearly missed.

...but we can't get so absorbed in the present that we fail to plan ahead!