Small Miracles

I just got home from work (well, home for a break before I go back to teach a class tonight, anyway). It's sort of a miracle that I made it home safely today. The route Michael and I usually use to get to and from NSCC involves driving on some very narrow side streets: the type with one-and-a-hallf lanes, where one driver has to pull over slightly onto the shoulder if two cars need to pass going in opposite directions. These streets, instead of having stop signs at every crossroad, have round-abouts. This is not unusual for Seattle; in fact, most residential neighborhoods have round-abouts. You'd think Seattle drivers would have figured this out by now, and that people would have figured out how to safely navigate a round-about.

This has not always been our experience, however. Michael and I have gotten into the habit of going slowly (around 15-20 mph instead of the posted 25-30 mph) on these streets and treating the round-abouts as if they have a yield sign on them. We've had some narrow misses with people who blow through the round-abouts going the posted speed limit or often going faster. These people rarely even recognize that there might be other cars on the road, and never acknowledge that they nearly hit us. Thus, we've learned to be cautious, and we've never had an accident (knock on wood).

Today our lucky streak nearly broke. If it hadn't been for a flock of birds, I would have been slammed into by an idiot who flew through a round-about going approximately 50 mph. I was going my usual 20 mph down the narrow side street and was nearly up to the round-about when I noticed a flock of small, brown and white feathered song-birds hopping about in the middle of the street. Just before I entered the round-about, I came to a full stop to watch the birds doing their cute little dance, and to make sure I didn't accidentally hit any of them. Seconds later, right when I would have been in middle of the round-about had I not come to a full stop, a car came whizzing through the intersection. The driver was going far too fast for the road conditions, and I would have been severely injured, had it not been for the flock of little birds that made me pause. Thank goodness for small miracles!