The cows were standing on the road. Black cows on black, newly repaved, road, backed by scrub oaks so they where not skylighted, were just about invisible. At 70mph my bumper would have hit them in their knees and I have no doubt that one or more of them would have taken up residence in my lap.

To this day I'm not sure what it was about that small flash of light that caught my attention. I got lucky.