almost

"Almost" stories are not that great. In fact, they are usually boring. But since I have nothing else to say, here are my two for the day.

I was riding my bicycle down the lovely forest path in the middle of campus, when I moved over to pass a pedestrian. As I looked up again from edge of the path I was attempting to remain on, I almost ran into three small trees which had been blown over in the wind and were slanting precariously across the path. As I swerved last minute underneath instead of through them, I wondered if my momentum would have carried me into all three, or if the blow to the head from the first one would have sent me tumbling.

Again, I was riding my bicycle home from school. I am always careful about areas with parked cars along the street because no one looks before opening their car doors. And I had judged correctly, because some guy three cars up was carelessly shoving his car door open into the bike lane. I would have moved over, but the car on my left was doing his best not to give me any room, and suddenly I was in the "oh, shit" time period. I slammed on my brakes just as the guy getting out of the car realized I was going to take out his door. He quickly pulled it back in with a second to spare as I screeched to a halt around his from bumper. "Sorry," he said.

Okay, one more. I'm on my bike going through a green light when a guy walks out into the middle of the street. I slow down to let him cross ahead of me, but he just stands there. And he stands there some more as a car passes him on the left, and I pass him on the right. As I go by he says, "Sorry, I'm not good at walking."