ramblings of a {sys,net}admin…

Well, it was bound to happen…

I was in Bedford tonight, heading home when it finally did.

I had just pulled out of Sprint gas station and was heading west on 16th Street (towards Highway 37) when I was coming through the intersection in front of (the “old”) Wal-Mart. There was a car heading east on 16th as well. Unfortunately, he didn’t bother to wait for me to go through the light before he turned (I had the right of way).

So as I’m rolling through the intersection, he turns in front of me. Fortunately Ipay hella attention to other people when I’m on the bike. The only good things are that we were both going fairly slow (me probably 35, him maybe 15 or 20 as he started to turn). I seen him starting to turn just as I came through the intersection and that put him right in front of me. I laid the bike down on its right side and threw myself off right before the bike smashed into his car.

I did a couple of rolling flips, jumped back up on my feet and was, fortunately, alright. The kid was 16 and had a few friends with him. Oh, and he just got his car today. After making sure that everybody was alright, the first thing he tells me is “I didn’t even see you, man!”

This is not a dark area. It’s pretty well lit up. And my headlights were on, of course (they always are).

Please people, pay fucking attention. If I hadn’t been paying as much attention as I was, I probably would’ve went right through the kid’s windshield. Fortunately, everybody is okay but it could’ve ended up a helluva lot worse.

Anyways, I gotta call my insurance company in the morning and he told me that he has full coverage, which is good. I’m alright, for the most part… both knees and elbows are skinned up, there’s a scrape down the side of my upper leg, and my left shoulder is pretty sore.

So I guess we’ll see what happens… maybe I’ll get a new bike. The bike’s in my driveway right now (thanks to the towing guy for the ride home) but it’s pretty dark out so I’ll take some pics in the morning and post ‘em. The fuckin’ thing’s smashed up pretty good, not sure if they’ll wanna fix it or not. I dont know at what point they just “total” bikes out like they do cars. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

Pay attention out there, people.