September 2004

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I think this is the first time in my driving life that I've had to pull off the road because the weather was too good.

I live west of the office. At one particular point in my trip, I'm driving straight west, and sometimes the setting sun is a problem. That's what happened today, only the sun was brighter than usual because the air was so clear.

We don't think of Chapel Hill as being particularly smoggy, but there's usually enough stuff in the atmosphere to help my sunglasses keep the light from blinding me. Nope, not this time. The sun was at just the correct angle to come in under the visor in my car, so that if I were looking forward almost all I could see was the sun. And it was painfully bright.

I realized that I could not see where the lane markers were more than a foot in front of me. I could tell that other cars were there only because I could see their lights. And it was momentarily terrifying. I had thought of pulling off onto a residential side street, but decided that might not be my best option. Instead, I turned into a conveniently-located church parking lot.

I stayed there for a few minutes, but I realized there was a pumpkin sale getting ready to start (think fundraiser) in the lot. Since I definitely didn't have, "buy a pumpkin," on my to-do list for the day, it struck me that getting out of the way of those who did want to take advantage of the sale would be my best contribution to the cause.

As I left the lot, I had a choice of going east or west. I took one look west and decided that the sun's angle was still going to blind me, so east was the better option. Going east meant that I would soon be at a shopping mall I had wanted to browse through, so that became my destination.

I got to the mall, and browsed through two different stores. I was a good girl; kept my eyes open and my wallet shut since I hadn't planned on shopping and didn't specifically need anything. I did get some ideas for crafts projects, so all in all it was a good thing I had a chance to browse.

By that time, about forty minutes had passed. That was enough time for me to be sure I could see my way home without being blinded, so I headed west a second time. This time, I made it all the way home, without incident.

And tomorrow? I plan to either leave the office earlier or later. Only the day will tell which that will be. Or, if I just can't avoid the timing, I'll stop and help sell pumpkins.