(SIGH) I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a curse over us here. I must yet again add to the “first time for everything” list… First it’s the tornado, then we have stuff stolen basically right out from under our noses… got rear ended sitting at a stop light bringing the kids home from school (first accident I’ve been involved in with anyone else... I know hard to believe) Let’s not forget the case of identity theft too. With the exception of the tornado which happened last year (but the effects are still being felt this year) everything else has happened THIS year, and more specifically within the last two months… can’t wait to see how the rest of the year shakes out… stay tuned.
I trust no one is clamoring to experience any of the above, but this first isn’t one that anyone wants to face… Ready? Here is comes… Emmah was hit by a car while riding her bike today… hmmm, looking at the time, that would be yesterday now. She’s okay, thank God, but what a horrible experience that was and is. If that weren’t bad enough… she got hit by a “neighbor” mom whose kids play with ours… and on her one week old bike to boot that was being taken out on it’s maiden voyage.
Humor me if you will here… as I continue with this and set this up.
The kids both needed new bikes… having outgrown their old ones… and last week Toys’R’Us was having a sale. The kids got the same exact type of bike… Emmah went on how she didn’t care that it was a boy’s bike. These bikes are ten speeds with hand brakes… (really nice bikes) neither having extensive experience with hand brakes… with Nick having none I decided a road test was in order to prove they could manage a stop without killing themselves. Emmah showed that she had gotten the hang of it and I told her that she could ride back and forth to the end of the block and back. In the mean time I was working with Nick making sure he knew how to stop the bike. I had warned Emmah to watch out when she came to where the sidewalk crossed the alley… especially since it’s a “blind intersection” thanks to the hedges that line the alley on one side… they go all the way to the sidewalk and really impair visibility for both the driver coming out the alley toward the street and to any pedestrian/rider along the walk. I guess no one’s driven in the city alleys… no one honks as they approach the end of the alleyway… admittedly I don’t, but I always stop short of the sidewalks and make sure no one is coming.
Anyway… I was with Nick (periodically casting an eye toward Emmah… which let’s face it… is all I can do) and as fate would have it, I wasn’t looking when the accident occurred. I heard a horn, a scream, and a thunk/thud… not too sure on the horn come to think about it… but something made spin around to see Emmah laying on top of her bike and in the street… 10-12’ from the bumper. I ran over (the alley runs next door to our next door neighbor… and the hedges aren’t on his side… they’re on the other side) and picked Emmah up before she (the driver) even got out of her car. This mother (of four children) didn’t seem all that shaken up by it… at least not outwardly. I was somewhat shocked by her lack of outwardly concern. Julie and I talked about it and both agreed that basically we’d be beside ourselves if we ever hit anyone… certainly not as “cool and collected” as she appeared to be.
The bike is trashed now and all she offered was to have her husband fix it… “I don’t know if you’ve worked on bikes or not, but Joe can fix it… he’s pretty handy” was what she said. I was thinking… I’m pretty handy too, but managed to say, “Yes, I’ve worked on plenty of bikes myself, but judging by the way the rear gears and sprocket is mangled this isn’t going to be fixable.” I’m kinda miffed a bit that there wasn’t an offering to buy a new bike… they seem to fit the struggling financially “profile”, but, um, it’s not like we’re rolling in it here either and hmmm… YOU HIT MY KID… the least you can do is offer to buy a new replacement bike… am I wrong for thinking this way?
For her troubles, Emmah got a nasty bruise on her upper right inner thigh… a banged up left knee… a bruised right elbow and a bump to the head/left eye/left cheek area. I honestly didn’t believe that anything was majorly wrong, but I took her to the emergency room to make sure everything was intact and working like it should. After x-rays, a CAT scan, a meeting with
Oh to be young again...
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