why did the frog cross the road? (or frogger for grownups)

Tonight I became the person that I spent many hours trying to avoid as a child and I am still trying to figure out how that makes me feel.

As I drove the winding curves of Wilsonville Road with a steady rain falling amidst pockets of light fog, I noticed small frogs, illuminated by my headlights, jumping their way across the road. Surprisingly, this wasn't a localized occurrence. I saw frogs crossing the road all along the majority of the 11 mile stretch. Let me be clear, there were not thousands of them, at least not that I saw. But they were noticeable as they jumped out in front of my car from both sides of the road.

I soon realized that most likely some of them failed to reach the promised safety of the other side. And that's when it hit me - I was living out the old Atari video game Frogger that I loved as a child. The one exception was that instead of playing the role of the frog frantically dodging the onslaught of the coming traffic, I was the driver that made such crossings so treacherous.

I don't know how many of the frogs made it across tonight. I learned one important thing playing Frogger: if you're a frog trying to get to the other side, timing your first jump is the most critical to your survival. Hopefully real frogs understand this as well.

Now for some additional Frogger enjoyment (from Seinfeld):