the brake pedal is to the left of the gas pedal!

last night on the way in to town to purchase groceries in the safeway, i saw an interesting parking "situ". it was mostly dark, so i saw the arrangement of the car's lights and little else, but what i saw was certainly enlightening: brake lights to the sky and headlights to the mostly dry river bed. i'm certain that most folks would have stopped and offered help, but given the location of said parking "situ", i decided against it. in order to reach his parking spot, the driver had to brake heavily (unless he was going slow already), line up the vehicle with the narrow driveway that one has to already know to exist as it is entirely unmarked and it was almost draconian dark in the trees, enter the driveway, ignore the sinking feeling one gets upon seeing the "end of the road" and simply "keep on keepin' on" until the river rock and pools of last week's high water were filling the windshield. knowing the white river drainage as i do, i understand that there's a small chance of misjudging where the "end of the road" really is, but it's a small one. there is a great deal of silt from last january's atmospheric river, and it is safe to walk on, so it's possible that the driver assumed it's also safe to drive two tons of plastic on, but other than that, the only explanation i can raise is that the driver really wanted a close-up of emmons glacier silt and millennia-old boulders, in which case, he was wholly and quickly successful.
in tangientially related news, november was wet. with all the el niño tv news weather punditry going on, i thought i'd add my two cents' worth and offer a forecast rife with local knowledge and history: it's winter. shit's gonna happen.