Bob, at 08:39 on Apr 14 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

BG> Way back in 1970, I was riding my Harley on the old Pacific Highway near 
BG> Wyong, middle of the night, no other traffic, no moon etc., and halfway 
BG> around a fast left-hander, the headlamp blew! Switched to high beam, but
BG> it had gone as well. It was like being inside a bloody cow, and now I know 
BG> how a blind person feels.

BL> ROFL! I've done that with the high-beam switch and accidentally
BL> switching off the lights. The inside of a cow is a good description.
BL> The darkness seems to get thick and squishy. I don't think I'd like to
BL> try it on a bike!

It's kind of like waiting to die, then somehow miraculously surviving. 
I've had some pretty scary things happen during my life, but that would
easily rate amongst the worst.

BL> I think it's worse in smoke (or fog), because you keep going at full
BL> speed, expecting to come out of it... and 100m and 6 seconds later you
BL> haven't got a clue which way the road went. *THEN* you hit the brakes.

Jeeze, you're keen!  Although I must admit that one tends not to jump on
the brakes immediately in fog, which turned out to be an almost fatal error
when Lyn and I were driving through Robertson last January.  Thickest fog
I've ever seen too, just like driving into a brick wall, and I nearly ran
into the fellow in front of me, whom I couldn't see until I was about 5
feet away from his bumper, even though he had his hazard lights flashing. 
Bloody hell!

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20