Monday, May 5, 2008

Scary Things and Common Sense

There are not many things in life I truly fear. My family will attest to that. My lack of fear has scared the hell out of most of them at least once. There are some close family members I have actually made cry, unintentionally of course. If you happen to be one of them let me take a moment to sincerely apologise.

I am however not completely fearless. My personal fear has to do with me driving a car, another human being walking and the consequences that could result from either one of us making an error.

In the last few of months I have had 2 near misses, better described as near hits. Both were at night and both had a common thread or I guess you could say “threads” as in; what I assume to be rational adults, wearing black clothing while walking at night. Not just a black shirt or a pair of black pants but head to toe wearing black.

The first of the two was the most damaging to my personal psyche. A gentleman with a black coat, black hat, black beard and black pants was pushing a black baby carriage with black wheels and black everything else. I was driving at conservative, dark neighborhood speed, slowed down to make the left turn into my cul-de-sac and in the head lights got just a tiny glint of something reflecting shiny on the stroller. BANG, on the brakes, no damage, no hit, all was OK. Well, except the guy flipped me off and called me every name in the book. Following the “miss” I pulled the car over just 100 yards from home and sat with my head on the steering wheel until my heart stopped pounding in my chest.

Next was just 3 nights ago. Again, in my own neighborhood, just two blocks from home and I caught the smallest sliver of a moving white sock coming out of black pants and then diving into a black shoe. The reaction was instant; braking, and no harm. This fellow was so absorbed in whatever was happening in his headphones he barely even flinched.

I will freely admit that I love an evening stroll every now and again. Walking the streets in our little corner of the fife is comfortable and pleasant but I always act as though I am invisible to what little traffic exists. I feel responsible to those cars and drivers to make sure they know I am there when I cross the street. My habit is to wear light colored clothing. I will grab the light grey sweatshirt rather than the dark blue one. This comes from an old song “remember, if you are out on you bike at night, wear white”. I don’t know where the line came from originally, possibly a British radio show in the 40s. The Beatles used the line at the end of one of their songs.

Do not misunderstand; I place no blame on either of these individuals. I am the guy with the steering wheel and the gas pedal and the brakes. I am the responsible party if there were to be a mishap.

All that said, I will go back to the sage advice “if you are out on your bike at night, wear white”. It makes sense, common sense.

2 comments:

Heidi Thompson said...

That was a good rant. Informative and rational. I agree, while out at night, wear white. Sound advice.

Oh and... apology accepted for scaring the crap out of me on a few occasions.

Love ya.
H.

Milk & Cookie Party said...

Found you from linking off of BooMama to Heather Whitaker to Blah, Blah, Blah Blog (your daughter in law) to you. The interenet is an amazing place. My parents read my blog but would never dream of having their own. I'm impressed and awed by your blog. Very nice to read. But my favorite part is your description of your wonderful marriage. What a blessing. Congratulations on such a wondeful life!

Ann Griffith