So, I was sitting in my bug at a traffic light, listening to some Yacht or some other insanely cool music that I routinely  listen too and I heard a horn honking. I looked around, and didn’t see anybody. When I turned forward I saw a pretty sweet red and white bay window bus go through the  intersection. I thought it was my friend Sean, but I wasn’t quite sure because I heard that stupid horn again. I looked around….nothin.

The light turned green and I took off. I saw a real nice looking slammed GTI, and a really clean Eurovan within like 2 blocks of each other!

I got to Chirco and my phone started buzzing. Cool! It’s my Mom! The call went like this:

That story brings us to the point of this blog post. Is it wrong to not notice other vehicles if they aren’t VWs? Clearly I am of the opinion that though I see these other cars, they’re just kinda look like boxes with wheels, or more like Wonder Woman’s plane which wasn’t really invisible so much as just a vague semi clear shape with a truth rope wielding amazon chick wearing boots in it….right?

It’s not that other cars aren’t cool. They definitely are, I love cars, but for some reason when I’m driving I get Dub-goggles. I don’t play “Slug Bug” (no fun punching your own shoulder I found out.) and I’m not anti any brands really so maybe my Mom’s question was valid. What in the world is wrong with me?

My last eye test chart.

What traffic looks like to me.

How the grocery store lot looks to me.

Naturally I did a little research and I have come to the conclusion that I have a rare form of Inattentional blindness.
According to Wikipedia, Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is a psychological lack of attention and is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to recognize an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight.

Sounds about right to me. I’d change it to:
Inattentional Vehicular Blindness (IVB), also known as non- perceptual of cars not like mine blindness. It is a psychological lack of attention and is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to recognize an uninteresting vehicle because on some level it fails to stimulate even if it is in plain sight. Note: Parents of individuals that suffer from this condition may refer to them as “Knucklebutts”.

Now I understand a bit more about what is going on with me so I feel pretty good right? Well….something happened. I bought a Hyundai Santa Fe. Stop laughing. Anyway…all of a sudden I saw VWs and Santa Fe’s for like 2 weeks!! I was baffled. The “Santa Fe Effect” wore off but it occurred to me that perhaps IVB is more common than folks realize. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Maybe I’m not alone here. Do people who buy Camry’s have this? I mean I suppose I could ask a Camry owner, but if they have IVB they won’t see me so I’m right back here…cursed with Paralysis of Analysis.If I think about it though, I could have much worse conditions. I could like Taylor Swift for example. I could be addicted to crab apples, or camo print sleeveless hunting vests right??

Now…I don’t know where you stand on this very important and highly controversial issue, but chances are you wouldn’t be reading this article if you didn’t own a VW and didn’t agree with me….knucklebutt.

-tc