Where Things Get Narrow

My younger one is off on a school trip at 4:00AM.  They will all fly across the Sea of Japan to Osaka, and on to Hiroshima.  They are intrigued and I hope it blows my daughter’s mind to visit that somber city.  I was stilled, when I did so, and considered that city during a visit in 1994.  But I don’t think they see high school trips like this as anything particularly special.  And I’ve grown tired, as one should, of pointing out that it was different in my day.

Biking back from the gym a few hours later the security guards of the nearby villa have taped off the road between three cones.  A car in front of me has reluctantly come to a stop.  I’m not sure what’s going on but fortunately bicycles are, for now, not their concern and I turn to the side and continue along my way.  Up above, by the entrance to Yosemite A, I see why they didn’t want cars coming up, expecting a pathway through.   Where the road narrows to accommodate a large facilities building, two cars have had a head on collision. 

One car is totalled.  No one appears to be hurt.  Two guys are earnestly talking on the phone.  There’s a cracked crab apple tree that might not survive the affair.  One assumes that at least one of them was going much faster than he should have on this side street.  Particularly if he knew this section of the road where things get narrow. Maybe they were both at fault and neither arrogant party yielded.  But more likely one guy was minding his business, driving more or less reasonably while the other dude was going too fast, or nodded off, or refused to budge in mental-chicken. 

This is the second accident I’ve seen, biking along this road, in the last week.  It’s probably the hundredth or more I’ve seen since I’ve lived here.  Usually they occur up the road, at the four corners where there ought to be a red light.  I generally think that I’m safe driving here, as I’m in control of what the car does.  I like to think I’m safe on my bicycle too.  But passing this wreckage, starring at these two men, assuming one of them was just a poor slob who bumped into the wrong idiot, I’m reminded of how consistently dangerous the road conditions are here, in this neighborhood, this city. 

Monday, 9/3/18