A little story that I still carry the scars from.

[Sandiercy]

I am riding my bike home when this happened, only about 16 at the time but the scar is still there after 16 years.

I was biking down a hill and went to turn right onto the alley, a shortcut to get home and no one normally drove down this alley. I was going at a fair clip and turned the corner to see a car barreling up the alley at top speed. My life flashed before my eyes but thankfully I managed to swerve to the side (thank goodness for good reflexes) and the only part of me that touched the car was my left hand hitting his side mirror. I did hit the mirror hard enough to indent the ring on my pinky in a way that it ended up being heart shaped. The mirror was undamaged and the driver took off. I got home with a bloody finger and actually had to use side cutter pliers to cut the ring off my finger. I have an inch long scar on my pinky where I had to dig the cutters into my skin to get under the ring to cut it. If I hadnt been in so much shock, I would have got the guy's license plate but I was merely worried about getting home at that point.

[An Haddock]

Reminds me of an accident I had when I was a kid...

I was about 14, riding my bike to work. I was just coming down a long hill (although not going top speed as I needed to stop so I could cross over the road to take a left fork) and out of nowhere this old fart in a giant station wagon comes along next to me, edging closer and closer. I only caught a glance of the guy as I was trying to make sure I didn't get squished between his OldFartMobile and the goddam curb.

Guy never once looked in my direction. Totally oblivious.

I pretty much had to dump my bike onto the sidewalk and scratched the crap out of my right leg and arm. My leg still has a little scar tissue from hitting the sidewalk.

Of course, I was in shock and freaked out so I didn't get the license plate number. I doubt it would have helped anyway.

From that day on I rode on the sidewalk on that particular stretch of road, just in case.