To Boil a Frog Written October 26, 2009   Traffic is light but the weather is foggy when I reach the crest of the hill.  A hundred yards ahead, another driver has started down the other side towards the valley below. As the steepness of the road increases, I can see his taillights, but the curvature of the pavement blocks his bumper from my view.  Further ahead, the fog hides everything else. Our descent becomes steeper, and we begin to pick up speed.  I shift down to third gear.  The other car’s brake lights come on. The hill becomes steeper still.  Shifting to second gear, I hit the brakes myself.  Surely the road will level out soon. But it never does.  To my astonishment, the pavement becomes completely vertical. Still it continues to drop away, leaving our cars falling, falling uncontrollably into the bottomless pit, where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.