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Letter to the editor

Many times over the decades I have driven up to an intersection looked both ways and entered the traffic pattern. On rare occasions, there will be horn honking and screeching tires when another vehicle appears out of nowhere.

Many times over the decades I have driven up to an intersection looked both ways and entered the traffic pattern. On rare occasions, there will be horn honking and screeching tires when another vehicle appears out of nowhere.

Your first thought will be that I am incompetent driver and/or that I am too old to drive. I must, of course, consider that because at some point it will become true. If I’m lucky enough to achieve great age, but reviewing my memory, I find that the mystery of how these vehicles magically appear when I am actively looking for them has been unsolved.

Twice this season, it has happened while exiting my driveway. So I changed my protocol. The new procedure for exiting my driveway became:

Step one, pull up to the point where I can see both ways. Step two, consider the mystery of magically appearing cars. Step three, go anyway because I can’t figure it out.

But I am excited to say last week the conditions were just right and I saw it was an ideal, like light blue sky clean and dry roads and the sun was just rising between a pair of majestic spruce trees that line the roads opposite to the exit from my driveway.

I checked right and I checked left and then I considered the mysteries as I scanned for places that a car could suddenly appear. I noticed that the sun’s blinding light was blinding me. And that’s when I had my epiphany. The sun was trying to kill me by hiding things from me when I couldn’t look directly into it.

Of course, I know by now that epiphanies can’t be tested. So I ran a self-diagnostic check on Saturday. The flaw in my logic was glaringly obvious. Of course, suddenly, I’m singled out for murderous purpose. I laugh at the thought. I see now that it’s out to get us all.

Satisfied with myself, I developed a standard procedure to add to my drive at every intersection.

Step one, stop at the legal stop line. Step two, roll my vehicle forward until I can clearly see. Step three, check both ways for other traffic. Step four, check to see if the sun is hiding anything from me. Step five, making sure that no one is watching me, I loudly, but rationally scream, ‘you won’t trick me like that again, curse you’ while shaking my fist at the side.Step six, satisfied that I’ve done all that I could, I strengthen my tinfoil hat and carry on with my day just like normal.

-Mike Maxim

CMSD 82 Trustee

Thornhill