For some reason today seemed to be one of those hazardous days:
First, a near miss at an intersection. When I cross south at this
intersection, i usually shadow a car, unless the pedestrian light is
on in which case it's safe. This time, however, a guy in a pickup is
going north and about to turn left. He would have seen me if he'd
been looking; i had my hand up and was signaling, but even though he
was turning left, he was looking somewhere else! I just widened my
path and he saw me at the last second and SCREEEECHED! By that time I
was safely across but of course, everyone saw and heard. As I was
making it across I saw another roadie going north and he shook his
head in disbelief! I was a bit shaky and stopped at the side for a
second and a group of construction workers on a scaffold were looking
around to see what had happened, and I told them. THey asked if I was
okay and I said yes. BUt really, it was NOT my fault- the guy wasn't
looking!
Then, a collision with a stupid rollerblader. This was a bit later on
a bike path, which wasn't very busy at that time. A roller blader and
his girlfriend were going the other way. HE decided to do pirouettes
and fancy tricks to impress her and was goign backward. I saw he was
about to go into the opposite lane, so I called out to him. HE
continued to go backward into the lane so to avoid him I went off the
path onto the grass and he stumbled backward right into me.
Now I've seen the results of collisions like this! Fortunately neither
one of us was goign fast, but I was really [censored]- another idiot not
looking where he's going. I guess I was a bit freaked out from my
earlier harrowing expreience and I yeled at him that he was an idiot
and should look where he's going, and a few other cuss words. I didn't
even ask if he was okay becuase I didn't give a f***, and besides he
looked fine.
Maybe it noticed it more but for some reason there were other hazards-
a woman pulling out of a parking spot without even looking, and some
kid crossing a street without looking while her father was there. This
s*** happens all the time but for some reason maybe I noticed it more.
ANd it was incredibly windy! I should have just stayed home.
And also I know four people now with broken bones: one woman who was
hit by a car, broken collarbone and wrist. One guy who crashed at a
race and broke his collarbone; one downhiller o broke his during a
practice run and a bmxer, same thing. Lucky I wasn't added to that
list!