B E B E R E

This is why I call it my Baby Sea Turtle Commute.

Someone always has to throw a wrench in the works, I swear. Two days before leaving, I get into an accident and sprain my left ankle (yet again). As a result, I'm feeling awfully un Christian towards the Muffinheads at the corner of Summer and Vinal who in their utter obliviousness to anything but themselves managed to block passage, both on the sidewalk and on the road.

Since I didn't want to walk into oncoming traffic on a busy street, I tried to pass on the sidewalk. The guy who was holding his bicycle would not break off conversation with the person in the SUV to move aside a bit, so I had to wriggle by. Ended up falling pretty hard, both injuring my left foot/ankle and ripping up my right knee. As I sat on the ground cursing, all they did was stand there and stare.

Eventually, I was able to get up. Slowly and very painfully I made my way home.
The ankle is currently taped and elevated; hopefully we won't have to take it too easy on the hiking front, as I need the mountain fix more than ever this year.

***

Lest you think that this is an isolated incident, I should tell you: Accidents on the sidewalk here are pretty common, as cyclists will selectively follow either pedestrian or auto rules according to whim. A few months ago, I was walking along Central Street at dusk. A cyclist on the sidewalk who was otherwise engaged and didn't notice me came barreling right at me. I yelled at him to stop, spread my legs and braced myself against his handlebars. Ended up with his front wheel between my legs and him apologizing profusely at me. My only response to him was to tell him very calmly that, by law, he should be in the street and he was lucky that I was both paying attention to where he was going and that I'm a pretty strong person. Angrily, he dismissed my comment with, "well, if I drive in the street, I'm going to get killed with how people drive here." My (still amazingly calm, in spite of the irony of his statement) response was that he would indeed get himself killed if he drove in the street like he did on the sidewalk. If he were to pay more attention and drive with more care, he'd have very little problems, however.

Of course he rode off in a huff. Sadly, that's what people tend to do here.