Nearer, My God, To Thee - And Biking Disco Balls

For reasons that will be made clear, I have this song in my head:
"Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!"

I'm still pissed about the two attempted murders on me of yesterday. I am not even calling the two incidents accidents. If someone is looking straight at you, but still keeps on driving towards you - then it's attempted murder in my book.

My first encounter happened as I was riding down Kelsey Creek Rd toward Bellevue College.



Above is a map of the scene of the crimes.

As I'm biking along, minding my own business, a car comes peeling out of the parking lot to my left. I clamp my breaks to their max, making the car miss me by two inches. Does the driver stop to check if I'm ok? No. He looks right at me while making a face that says it's my fault for riding on the main road and therefore being in his way. However, I caught up with him and snapped this nice mugshot.

Still shaken from the first attempted murder, I bike on and turn right at Snoqualmie River Rd. Right after one turns onto that road, there are two parking lots flanking the road. I am extra careful now and my legs are actually shaking. This is where I encounter my second assassin. This huge car comes out from the parking lot to my left, driving straight towards me, while the driver is looking straight at me - yet somehow through me.

I am looking at her, she is looking at me, yet she keeps driving towards me. I yell "hey, watch out!". She finally sees me when she's bumper to my left leg, shrugging, waits until I move, then keeps on driving towards the parking lot across the road. I turn my bike around because I am so mad. It's been two almost pancake moments in less than 5 minutes.

Here's a picture of the second assassin:

 

The picture is a little blurry because I am shaking. My entire body is shaking. I don't even register that her backing lights are on - perhaps in order to finish the job. She doesn't back over me though, probably because there are too many witnesses.

 

Speaking of witnesses. The only person who asked if I was ok, was another person who had just parked her car. Look, I get that accidents can happen and that one can space out or miss a bicyclist, another car, or a pedestrian from time to time - but I always stop and check that the other person is ok if this happens. I wouldn't be mad if these two morons had done just that - asked if I was ok. After all, they didn't actually kill me or hit me - which by the way was no thanks to them, but only because I have cat like reflexes and apparently amazing disc brakes.

 



After having eluded death twice, I head straight to REI to get more lights on my bike. I now have two front lights; the NiteRider Lumina 750 lumens and Cygolite Metro 400 lumens, 500 lumens blinking.

In addition to these two lights, I have two spoke lights. One on the front, one on the back tire. I also got a huge reflector strap around my left foot.

This morning I looked like a biking disco ball, but I'd rather be annoying than dead. A word of caution: If you are prone to seizures, my bike might trigger an event.

Now, over to something nicer but related: My visit to REI in Issaquah was AWESOME! I can't even emphasize this enough. I had three people helping me - two of them even placed the spoke light on a bike in the shop and turned off the ceiling lights in order to show me what the spoke light would look like in action. I didn't get their names, but will enquire.

Last, but not least, here's some street fashion I captured on our walk yesterday.