(no subject)
Mar. 6th, 2014 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelI had a dream this morning--
Uh, content warning for mild auto accidents; if that is bothersome don't read this
--where I was driving on ... I guess "like the less scary parts of coastal Hwy 1" doesn't help most of you. Coastal highway, one lane each way, limited visibility because of left-right wiggliness and also mild hill-like fluctuations, but without scary cliff drop-offs on the side. And I realized suddenly that while I was explicitly the driver, and alone in the car, I was sitting in the front passenger seat instead of the driver seat. I could lean over to grab the steering wheel, but I couldn't reach the gas or brake. (As is common in dreams, I have significantly more mobility than in RL.)
So I had a choice: try to shift myself over into the drivers seat, which would probably take somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds, during which time I would have to let go of the wheel and not be able to look ahead or correct anything; or steer off road and do friction slowing. There were cars coming in the opposing lane, a risk to the plan A. There was a gravel turnout, the sort of thing meant for slow traffic to pull aside to let faster vehicles past, coming up. I could do a plan C of steering in the pretense of being in normal control, and hope that I didn't end up slowing to a stop blocking the road, but there was no guarantee of anything beyond what I could see.
I chose plan B. Steered off the road, into the gravel. I wasn't slowing quickly enough to be able to stop before the gravel turnout ended, so I made a split second choice to steer into what was basically a guard rail; the front fender crumpled a little, and the car (well, minivan, really) spun around, but stopped.
...at which point my mom showed up and started snarking about how I should have stopped sooner blah blah all my choices are wrong nyah.
...
I sort of want to blather about how this whole thing applies to my non-dream life -- control, and feelings of same, and then being judged (by myself as much as by others) for the fact that the best possible decision in the moment was not the most perfect of all possible actions -- but eh.
Uh, content warning for mild auto accidents; if that is bothersome don't read this
--where I was driving on ... I guess "like the less scary parts of coastal Hwy 1" doesn't help most of you. Coastal highway, one lane each way, limited visibility because of left-right wiggliness and also mild hill-like fluctuations, but without scary cliff drop-offs on the side. And I realized suddenly that while I was explicitly the driver, and alone in the car, I was sitting in the front passenger seat instead of the driver seat. I could lean over to grab the steering wheel, but I couldn't reach the gas or brake. (As is common in dreams, I have significantly more mobility than in RL.)
So I had a choice: try to shift myself over into the drivers seat, which would probably take somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds, during which time I would have to let go of the wheel and not be able to look ahead or correct anything; or steer off road and do friction slowing. There were cars coming in the opposing lane, a risk to the plan A. There was a gravel turnout, the sort of thing meant for slow traffic to pull aside to let faster vehicles past, coming up. I could do a plan C of steering in the pretense of being in normal control, and hope that I didn't end up slowing to a stop blocking the road, but there was no guarantee of anything beyond what I could see.
I chose plan B. Steered off the road, into the gravel. I wasn't slowing quickly enough to be able to stop before the gravel turnout ended, so I made a split second choice to steer into what was basically a guard rail; the front fender crumpled a little, and the car (well, minivan, really) spun around, but stopped.
...at which point my mom showed up and started snarking about how I should have stopped sooner blah blah all my choices are wrong nyah.
...
I sort of want to blather about how this whole thing applies to my non-dream life -- control, and feelings of same, and then being judged (by myself as much as by others) for the fact that the best possible decision in the moment was not the most perfect of all possible actions -- but eh.
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Date: 2014-03-07 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-07 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-07 08:37 am (UTC)