Adrenaline is the cleanser

Nothing chases the blahs away like almost getting run over.

I'm ok, but my bike's rear wheel is kind of wobbly. I was a little tired this morning, because of just coming off the blur, and I got up early to run some errands, so I was also a little out of sorts. A bike ride's always good for curing that sort of mood, and it's turning out to be a nice day, so I saw Mr. Raven off at the bus stop, and then took off for a ride.

I biked down to Redmond, then caught the bus back up the hill, getting off a couple of steps early, because my tires needed air. As I was crossing the intersection to the gas station, a van ran a stop sign.

I saw just in time he wasn't going to stop, and sped up to get out of his way. I almost made it, too--he just hit my rear wheel and knocked me sideways.

I didn't fall over or anything; mostly, I was just scared and mad. I yelled at him, but he clearly felt terrible about the whole thing, so after I had vented a bit, I let it go and calmed down.

I feel more bad for him than for myself, actually--he had a spotless record until this happened, and I wasn't hurt. They're going to fix my bike, and I don't have any big plans to sue or anything--I was scared, but I got that out of my system, and my bike will be ok by the time they fix it up, so that's all I was interested in. But he's quite distraught, saying he's going to retire now from driving.

Yeah, I do think he ought to have been paying more attention--but the thing is, no one was hurt, so the message was delivered relatively painlessly, at least, as it seems to me. I'd hate to have him throw everything away over this relatively minor incident, although I trust him to know better what he needs to do than a stranger does. I hope he calms down, as he was quite distraught about it--it clearly made a vivid impression on him.

After all the paperwork was done, my bike was still rideable, if wobbly, and I rode to the bus stop to take it home. It's a cliché, but the sun did seem brighter, and the sky more intensely blue. Blahs all gone, courtesy of the short-term stress response.