A barely noticed near-death experience

I decided today it was time to replace those Tupperware food storage bowls with the totally decrepit lids (yes, there’s a limit to how often you can burp those things and also use them as impromptu cutting boards to slice your tomatoes straight into the salad, and 20+ years appears to be a tipping point). So I set off for the local household effects store; the one with the bizarrely alliterative name. On foot, because at my age, one must exercise regularly, and it’s always motivating to have a purpose, rather than wandering the neighbourhood aimlessly.

I confess I was deep in thought about what my next blog post could possibly be about, and perhaps not paying as much attention to my surroundings as I should. At a traffic light about halfway to the store, I waited for the light to turn, and started to cross when the little white walking man appeared. There were cars all around, but it was definitely my turn to cross, and there were a couple of women with a stroller approaching from the opposite side, so it wasn’t as if I was taking my life in my hands.

Their sudden looks of alarm and frantic gesticulations were what first pierced my reverie. I became conscious that something large was on my left. The shriek let out by one (or possibly both) of the stroller women alerted me to the fact that a large white van was turning into my lane from the left and rapidly bearing down on me. In extremely close quarters.

I was galvanized into action. I’d like to say I skipped nimbly out of the way, but the sad truth is it was more of a startled scuttle forward. The van continued on its merry way. I glanced back at the driver who seemed to be making some kind of arm motions, but it was unclear whether those were meant as apology, nasty gesture because I was in his way, or merely punctuating whatever discussion he was having with someone inside his vehicle (or elsewhere) that distracted him so much he didn’t even see me or the little white walking man.

The two women approaching me both exclaimed “Are you ok?” and appeared quite shaken by the experience. I, having missed almost all of it, was able to reassure them that I was just fine, and thanked them for their warning shriek, which probably spared me some discomfort. Quite frankly, they’re the ones who are going to have nightmares about this tonight.

Me, I got my answer to the question that was distracting me in the first place. But no bowls.