Thirty-Seconds-O-Fun

So I'm riding my motorcycle today and stopped in a parking lot. Parking lots are suppose to be safe. Right? That's where you park your vehicle and turn it off. Thus the name "parking" lot. I guess some guy didn't get the memo because before I could stop he backed his car into me, tore the rear turn signal off the bike and knocked me down. The way he hit me caused the bikes tires to slide to the left which made me fall to the right. That was the side he was on. So I had the fun-filled few seconds of trying to turn in a direction that would allow me to see him. My view was blocked because I had this helmet on (helmets save lives but not if somebody runs over you with their Goodyears) and I didn't know if he was still moving. He was. I was able to right myself just in time to see him stop, look at me, and squeal his tires on his way out of the lot. All I saw was an old black Buick. No video camera coverage. Only one eye witness who really thought she should call somebody or take me to the hospital but all I had to show for the 30 seconds-o-fun was a scraped up knee and a busted tail light. I avoid emergency rooms unless I my spleen is hanging out or something.

It's amazing how quickly life can go all wonky. It was a beautiful day. I was on the bike for only the second time this year. The breeze felt great. The sun was positively gorgeous. And then you are lying on asphalt trying to figure out if there is a front tire coming at you with your name on it. Cap it off with a not-so-nice person who decides to make an early departure and you've got the makings for a true spoiler ending.

Fortunately he straightened his tire out and I live to blog again.

I'm trying for the life of me (pun intended) to figure out some sort of cosmic meaning in all of this. You know. "Live every moment like it's your last." "Start seeing motorcycles." "It just wasn't my time yet." I"m afraid that stuff doesn't work for me. Bottom line is some loser almost ran over me just because he didn't look before he backed up and his stereo was playing so loudly he couldn't hear the bikes engine. Ya see, it just doesn't take that much to kill ya.

If it helps, I was sitting in St. Charles at a Penn Station sub shop tonight with two of my kids and their families. I'd packed away a sausage sandwich (I thought about eating chicken but what with life being so tentative and all I decided to go with the high fat/high calorie entree. Did a full order of fries too.) And I was just watching and listening. Feeling a little reflective I suppose. Not deeply so. Just ... enjoying the moment. Elle was sitting across from me. She and Paisley had both spent the day at the zoo. So I was just listening to my kids and their spouses talk. Watching my wife hold Paisley. Toying with the straw wrapper. And there was a tap on my knee. The one with the fresh scratch on it. I slid back and looked down and Elle had crawled under the table and made her way over to me. She wanted to be in my lap. I pulled her up and instead of sitting on my legs she continued to face me, wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me really, really tightly.

Nobody knew it. They were all talking, eating, and enjoying. But I had my very own "moment." No tears, sighs, or deep reflections. Just ... the realization that life is very good, very precious, and entirely too unpredictable. It was a significant hug. I couldn't have asked for it because then it wouldn't have counted. I couldn't have paid for it because that would make it cheap and superficial. She couldn't have really known that I needed it because I didn't even know myself. But when it came it was from her heart and it pierced mine.

It made me glad not to be flat.