So I have been reflecting lately on what an amazing word “almost ” is. It has the ability to turn a meaningless bit of insignifica, into a much more important earth shattering thing.
For instance. Yesterday I had to go to work. There came a point where I was stopped at a light and some guy split between me and the car next to me and managed to barely contact my handle bar end with his left mirror. The contact was so slight that I didn’t feel it, I just heard the hollow smack of the plastic mirror.
…But he ALMOST Killed me.
I was crossing the Bay Bridge. I went through the fastrak only lane and started to accelerate to get ahead of the crush on the incline section. Traffic was more nightmarish than usual. I saw another fastrak user come to screeching stop in the next lane over. As I got to the metering lights they were red. They’re never red. So I get on the binders and haul Helga to an abrupt stop.
This is the point where I’ll mention my primary fear on a motorcycle is getting rear ended after a panic stop. So everytime I do one the first instinct is to look in my mirror to see if I need to blast out of the way of some cell phone yammering, soccer mom in a ginormous SU fucking-V bearing down on me.
So at the metering light when I came to a stop I looked in my mirror just in time to flinch because there was a 4-door Camry screeching to a halt in between me and the guy next to me. The Camry ended up 10 feet in front of me. The three of us were all freaked out. I almost died, Mr. Camry Almost Killed some one, and the other guy almost had front row seats to a vehicular homicide.
As soon as I realized the “almost” element and looked at what actually happened, I was at ease. No sense in getting bent over barely noticeable scuff on my bar end. Besides what could I do. Drag the guy out of his car and beat his ass. Actually assault someone for almost hurting me. There is no law against almost committing a crime. So I just went on to work.
It ended up being a really good day.
1 Comment
November 18, 2008 at 12:18 am
Yowsa. Don’t let the bastards grind you down! Breathe deep, count to ten (actually, scrub that – we don’t have time for that when avoiding homicidal car drivers.)
Ride safe.