Yesterday, while on my way back to work from lunch, I was crossing a busy street. The lights are set to stop all traffic and let pedestrians cross all ways – including diagonally. Complicating matters was a truck parked in the road and a worker at a manhole with cones and a gate set up. This meant visibility wasn’t 100% and even with a walk signal, I was still careful as I stepped out into the road.
It was good that I did.
A woman in a car went right on through the light and realized what she had done when she already 1/2 through the intersection. I stopped to let her go and we made eye contact as raised her hand to her mouth, eyes wide in shock – then mouthed “I’m sorry” as she then went on past me. I then continued across the street.
Apparently, though, sorry didn’t quite cut it. Not only had she not noticed the red light, she also didn’t notice the police car that was parked at the truck near the road work. He noticed her, though, and quickly put on his siren and pulled out to go after her.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this. If I had been faster or paying less attention, I might have gotten hit. But, the police car was where it was to protect the worker – who was then left “unguarded”. So, kinda odd all the way around.
Today, I went to BK for lunch and while I was in line deciding what to eat, a guy came into the seating area. He didn’t approach the counter, instead, he yelled at a picture on the wall and smacked it with his glove before sitting down. I ordered my food, paid for it, and waited at the counter. The guy talked to himself for a moment before he went quiet. I got my food and went to leave when he called out to me. I acknowledged him and he asked me a question – but mumbled as he did so. I asked him to repeat it as I got closer and he repeated it more quietly and less clearly. I shook my head and asked again and he was even less clear. I finally figured that he was asking/demanding that I buy him some lunch.
While I like to help people, I also have a rule. It’s, in fact, my primary rule. “Don’t f*@# with crazy people” I’m not trained for it and I’m not good at it. And it sort of over-rode my general good nature.
I declined, politely, and headed on my way. Not really proud of my actions, but that’s the way it went. I should have set my impulse to bolt aside and given him $5 for lunch. I will try to do better next time.
From there I headed to my neighbor’s house to let out his dogs. The snow plows has been through and my low-to-the-ground car got stuck as I tried to pull into the driveway. I took my lunch in, let the dogs out, and ate while I tried to figure out what to do. I texted my boss to let him know what was up, then let dogs back in and bundled back up. I tried everything I knew of – which is not, admittedly, much. I’ve never been stuck before. I was able to rock it a bit just by pushing on the front of the car while it was in neutral, but just didn’t have enough mass behind me to back it up. I tried forward and reverse and just ended up packing more snow under the car. I grabbed my ice scraper and worked at digging out from under the car when a guy in a truck stopped and offered to help. We worked at for a bit and he tried to push it while I had it in reverse. Another guy in a truck pulled up and said he had a tow rope. We got that hooked up and in moments, my car was free. I thanked them both as they headed out to where ever they had been off to when the stopped to help me.
Back to work only a few minutes late and grateful to the strangers that helped.
So, nearly hit by a car, weirded out at Burger King, and had my stuck car rescued.