Last night I parked the car on The Embarcadero in San Francisco, crossed the street, and then entered the very pretty park between Embarcadero and Battery. I was semi- jogging, as I was a few minutes late for dinner with my cousins, but the scene struck me so I stopped, took a few steps back, paused to appreciate the moment, and took a picture of the beautiful scene:
Turns out that could have been the last picture I take. I finished crossing the park, approached Battery Street, looked to the right (where cars come from, as it’s a one-way street) and was about to continue my jog into the street when I heard a shout very near me on my left. I stopped on my tracks and two bicycles zoomed past me about a half foot away going extremely fast, against the direction of the street. They were flying, and it would have been a very ugly collision had they not seen me and shouted, or had I not had time to stop.
Today, on my way back from dropping off my cousins at the airport, I was listening to The Power of Habit and coincidentally the author spoke about Henry Molaison, a famous subject in medical research who had severe brain problems after a bicycle hit him. I thought about Allison coming out of the Amazon to very bad news and it made me very sad not to be able to comfort her. I’m so grateful of what didn’t happen last night. Lesson learned: always look toward both sides of the street…
