Shifted and Shepherded

Have you ever played mental games with yourself? Of course. I think we all do. Some of my most common mental chess matches include the following: - take one step past that crack in the road while running BEFORE the next line of the song starts - time it so you get only green lights between the interstate exit and a certain street - try to pet the cat's belly one more time without getting scratched - leave the kids unsupervised for one more minute (so you can start the dryer!) and see who gets injured. In college, I always HAD to touch the ceiling of my car if I drove under a yellow light, otherwise the universe would punish me somehow. I had to poke my friends shoulder and say, "Pop-a-diddle!" if a car with only one headlight drove past. Chad and I used to play this game in the car where we had to arrive at our destination by a certain time or our lateness would cause some catastrophe. This was before Google Maps. (Pardon me. I just threw up in my mouth a litt...