One of the best things about where I live right now is that I can walk to work. The morning walk is always a good one (unless it's raining), because it wakes me up and the "sights" in my neighborhood are always top notch.

Sometimes, I get treated to a little extra. For instance, this morning, at the intersection of 19th and Q, I saw a woman get run over by a delivery truck. Well, her foot was run over. You see, what ha' happened was, she was to the right of this truck as it was making a right turn. The truck driver did not see her. The next thing I heard was a loud crunch (that was her bicycle's front wheel, not her foot) and her screaming. Nothing terribly shrill, almost like what you might do if you stubbed your toe, but magnified 100 times. She wasn't a courier, so I was immediately on her side, especially since it seemed to take the driver (who did actually stop, instead of just going on his merry way) forever to hop out to find out what he did. And then he just sort of shrugged it off, saying "I didn't see her". Which is entirely possible, since she was pretty close to the truck and he was riding high. Still, show a little bit more concern, jackass.

At the same time, I kept asking myself, "why didn't she just jump off the bike?" This truck was not speeding, and neither was she. As a matter of fact, they were both going pretty slow, since he was taking his large vehicle into that rather tight turn and she was just hanging back to his right. It was as if she was playing chicken, seeing if the truck would stop and let her go straight. I'm sorry, but that's a fool's gamble in this town, and no bike is worth bodily harm, not even the old-timey ones with the big front wheel. (If she had been riding one of those, the driver surely would have seen her.)

I have no idea what the upshot of this accident was. She was calling someone (the police? her employer?) as I passed by her and the small group of well-meaning gawkers who had assembled. The only thing of which I am certain is that her bike's front tire is completely dead. Better it than her.