mleiv.com

Everyday when I go home southbound on 405, I am alarmed by the sight - out of the corner of my eye - of a man standing by the freeway wall.  Since I am usually driving 60 MPH... okay, 70 MPH, and I have little desire to vear into other lanes while twisting my head to take a second look, I had never quite seen the man closely.  But I could tell you that he was fairly tall, wore faded blue jeans and a white shirt, and was standing, watching the traffic pass.

Well, the other day, after many months of passing the man, traffic was a bit congested from the rain and I was going slow enough that I decided to take a good look at the man as I went by.  Turns out it was a gray-blue access door with a little white stick-figure man symbol painted at the top.

I find it amusing that I was able to subconsciously (or even below the subconscious), process this figure in the second it flashed past, identify it as man, in blue and white, and then hand the data to my conscious brain which then added all the rest.  And it's even more amusing that even now - when I know perfectly well it is just a door with a tiny white man symbol - I continue to see the man every day when I drive past.  I'm waiting for someone else to see him and swerve in alarm.  Or maybe it's just me.

 

Addendum 02-16-2006: Okay, so I was behind some really slow bastard yesterday and I got another look at the man.  Turns out the man on the sign is RED with a white background.  So I am just crazy.  More on that later...