Okay, today an almost really horrible thing happened. I’m at the busiest four-way stop in Ballard, on my way to meet Mike for 5:30 yoga. It’s a very pedestrian heavy four way, so you have to be really cautious and yeild a lot. I stopped at the stop well behind the crosswalk, waited my turn, and started to go.
Suddenly, there was a girl on a skateboard RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY CAR. She came from my blind spot FLYING down the sidewalk and into the street.
I slammed on my breaks, and I gasped. She fell off the skateboard (not down on the ground, but off her skateboard). I think she was close enough that she actually put her hands on the hood. She was completely shocked and she said “sorry!” and I said “sorry!” and I sat at the stop a minute more (with my hand on my heart!) and waited while she passed and I recovered.
It was terrifying. I was almost in tears afterward. I mean, she came out of NOWHERE — I guess from in front of the library, she was going so fast. I met Mike in the parking lot right after that, and said my ‘hellos’ and ‘how was your days’ and told him about it. If he hadn’t shown up right away to distract me, he probably would have found me having a panic attack in my car.
So, how are you supposed to feel in those situations? It wasn’t even CLOSE to my fault that she flew in front of me and didn’t look or stop. But it would have been my fault if I had HIT her! I mean I was coming from a stop, but STILL. I have a goal in life to never touch flesh with my car!
I went to yoga shaken, but felt better after. I decided that hopefully the girl learned from the experience to approach stop signs with caution (or perhaps to at least pause at them) and hopefully as a result of this will not get hit by any cars in the future. I was of course reminded to be as alert as possible. (No, I was not on my phone or doing anything else at this moment.) But it never hurts to be reminded.
Posted in frustrations |
