I Was Hit By A Car

Yes. This happened. Last Sunday.

First things first, I am completely unhurt.

Lucky is what I am.

After the miserable weather of Saturday, I decided that for my Sunday workout I would run to our gym - 1 mile from our house - to enjoy the sun and fresh air, work out and then run home. Diane had a slightly different schedule for her workout as she was attending a class at the gym and, therefore, drove.

Well, all was fine and going to plan as I finished my workout at the gym and headed back down to the street for the one mile run home. As I exited the doors, I spied Diane about a half a block away, getting into our 4Runner. I wasn't sure if I wanted to hitch a ride home or not, but I definitely wanted to run down there to catch her before she drove back to our house. So I did.

Part of the sidewalk along this stretch also is the exit for a parking garage used by gym patrons, shoppers at nearby Trader Joe's and - on Sundays - throngs of people flocking to the Mars Hill church across the street.

Well, as I ran along the sidewalk - as I have done in this location many times before - a car came zooming out of the garage without slowing down or stopping to see if anyone was on the sidewalk. Apparently the driver was not concerned with this possibility, not did she bother to check the round mirror that's mounted to give drivers a look around the corner for just such a possibility.

Nope. She and her Subaru just came cruising on out onto the sidewalk and hit me as I crossed in front of the garage exit.

Luckily for me, I had a few things going in my favor:

• I was already moving - I wasn't' stationary nor walking...I was running.
• I was not running right up next to the wall of the building, but rather a bit out on the sidewalk.
• The car was not going very fast...after all, she was exiting a garage, not driving on the street.
• I reacted well and quickly sprung sideways and forward when I quickly realized what was happening.
• The driver did, indeed, stop after hitting me.

All of these things, in my opinion, combined in one moment, so that the car...while technically "hitting me"...more like aggressively bumped me and I was out the other side unhurt. The only part of my body that contacted the car were my upper thy and my hand as I balanced and pushed off the hood to propel past the car.

Once I cleared the car, I quickly checked myself...not hurt. Not at all. I looked at the driver, yelled out something lame like "What the Hell lady!" Some guy walking by said something like, "that was lucky."

I ran over to Diane and asked her if she'd seen what just happened. She hadn't.

Oh, and by the way...the driver? Didn't get out of her car. Didn't say "I'm sorry." Didn't ask me if I was OK. Nothing. She looked at me, raiser her hands with her palms up and kinda dismissed the whole thing...and then drove away. But that's people for you. She's probably not a bad person or anything, but in any case she decided her best move was to say nothing, do nothing and then drive away.

After that, I decided it was probably best to catch a ride home with Diane.

All and all, I'll take this little episode as yet another sign of, you think you know what's going to happen to you in daily life - or life in general - but you don't know.