Lunar Obverse

Almost got hit with a car tonight. I was crossing 12th at West Burnside, heading east. The light was with me, but an older couple in some SUV wasn’t looking both ways as the driver creeped out into Burnside; he was only looking east, waiting for the traffic to clear so he could shoot out into the lane. He was in a hurry, dammit, his life was important or something. He had a wife with him that had to… be… somewhere, or something. I stepped out cautiously, looking directly at the driver, figuring he’d have to look where he was going instead of to his left eventually, like, maybe, a couple of seconds after he started up Burnside.

Which would have been a couple of seconds too late. Too late for me, at any rate.

I was directly in front of the SUV (it was silver; people who drive silver cars are weird), still waiting for the driver to look at me. He was still intent on watching the traffic, waiting for it to clear. It was dark. I was wearing my black leather jacket (too cold for this weather, made a bad choice this morning) and a black hat, a black-and-gray scarf my friend Rachael knitted for me. And another car was waiting for the pedestrians in front of me to finish crossing and was likewise creeping from Burnside onto 12th. It caught my eye for a moment, the headlights looked like a Mini Cooper, I was distracted for just a moment, and I don’t think the driver of the Cooper saw me, either–

–And at that moment the driver of the SUV decided that the traffic was clear, since the Cooper was blocking the cars behind him. So the SUV surged forward.

And into me. It actually made contact with me, the bumper touching my legs and pushing me back, my hands slapping down on the hood, my torso twisting to my left and taking a half-step backward to get away from the silver tank heading my way. It had moved maybe a half-foot, six inches before it surged to a stop, gas-brake, that quickly.

The driver looked at me, I glared at him from under the brim of my black hat. I shook my finger at him, and shouted “You need to watch where you’re going!” and continued through the intersection, and at that moment the white-man-says-walk changed to the flashing-orange-hand, and the Mini Cooper stopped so its headlights picked me out like spotlights. My heart was beating and my face warm with embarrassment or something like it (which makes no sense; why would I be embarrassed?) and a guy on the opposite corner, the safe corner, up on the safe sidewalk was smiling at me.

It felt, after the fact, like a close call. Could have turned out differently. Didn’t, though. Still here. Yay.

I’ve got to stop assuming that random people who piss me off (not using their turn signals, for instance, or stepping in front of me in line, stuff like that) voted for President Bush.

I’m sure most of them are, but probably not every one.

I have really been put off by this “no running” thing, even though my last run was a week ago yesterday.

So, last night, it was clear (but cold) outside, and there was still some actual sunshine going on (yay! days are getting longer!) so I decided to walk home from work. Took the Springwater Corridor. I was dressed plenty warm, and I had my iPod to keep me company, which chose for the occassion White Stripes “White Blood Cells”, AC/DC “Highway to Hell”, and Harvey Danger’s new EP “Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes)”.

My legs are a bit sore this morning, but overall I feel better having gotten at least some exercise in. I might even go to the gym and lift… and try not to accidentally fall on the treadmill for a mile or two.

I think the reason Smacky’s been so feisty lately is due to clearing up his flea problem. As the fleas bug him less, he’s got more energy available to, you know, bite the hell out of me. Plus he’s getting near to cat puberty.

Today’s the day that Steve Jobs will finally announce whatever coolio stuff Apple has been working on lately. Rumors point to a Flash-based iPod, a new office suite to counter MS Office, and a sub-$500 headless iMac. Not that I follow the rumors, of course. But in this case, the rumors are probably true because Apple is suing people who speculate about Flash-based iPods, Apple-branded office suites, and sub-$500 headless iMacs. But, in reaction to the leaks, Steve has shut down the streaming video feed of his keynote speech, banned journalists from reporting live from the keynote, and forced all Mac users to speak only Swahili during the keynote. So don’t expect me to be coherent between, say, 9 AM and 11 AM today. Just sayin’. (I’ll be mighty pissed if I can still talk English during that time. That would be a huge snub, wouldn’t it?)

Ah, well, off to work. Ciao, babies.

How is it that I still have discussions (OK, OK, arguments) in my head with people who are long gone from my life?