vegas 1, hyundia santa fe 0

so, today was an afternoon of accidents of sorts.

i was going to track practice, and was riding my bike on the freeway. as i exited the freeway i took my normal offramp. the street that it dumps you on is currently under construction (again). well, traffic was backed up on both the offramp and the street. so, as i was going down the offramp and coming to a stop i was in pretty heavy traffic. the vehicle in front of me, one hyundai santa fe, was trying to move over a lane, while it was also slowing in traffic. the traffic in front of it came to a quick stop, and so they did as well. uh oh! ed's following a little too close, and is trying to avoid locking up the brakes and sliding into the santa fe, or just outright crashing into it. what will happen next to our hero?

well, i didn't lock them up, and i didn't slide. unfortunately, i bumped the santa fe, leaving a little bit o' tire and some wear marks (scratches?) on the bumper. dang. double dang. but, my bike seems to have emerged from the incident unscathed. so, we traded info and off i went to practice. when i got there, i called my insurance agent to let them know to be expecting a call. i figure it'll be a bumper repaint. of course, in today's world, some company will charge a grip of money for that.

at track, one of the other coaches tried to cut or smash my finger off. you see, due to idiocy, we share the infield of the track with the soccer programs. so, despite it being our season, there are a few scrimmages scheduled. this doesn't really seem like a problem, except that it means we have to take down part of our discus cage. and, due to further idiocy, we've had to build a cage that has poles that aren't sleeved into the ground. apparently, having concrete 6" under the grass was unacceptable to the soccer coach. too dangerous. so, we have these 20' poles that are attached to rolling bases that weigh about 75-100lbs. but, with the netting up, there is a danger of it toppling over in a strong breeze (it's like a sail). so, we drive these 2' metal stakes through the bases to further anchor them down. to get the stakes out, you take down the net, and then rock the pole until they're loose and can be pulled out. pretty simple, right? well, we were taking out the first set of stakes, and i had already rocked the base/pole until the stakes were far enough out. i had even pulled one of the stakes completely out already. as i grabbed the second stake, the other coach, thinking that it wasn't free yet, pulled back on the pole to rock the stake loose. yow! finger smashed in between metal stake top and base of pole. so, for the next 30 minutes or so, my finger was feeling pretty numb. fortunately, it only bled a little, and it seems mostly alright now. heck, i'm typing right now.

life is funny. you can be pretty attentive to things most of the time. but, in those instants where you may zone out a little, it can turn sour quickly. now, i was actually paying pretty close attention during both of these situations, but still i almost ended up worse off.