A Kid Needs a Guardian Angel to Grow Safely to Adulthood

The sky is blue, the birds are singing, my neighbor’s son mowed our lawn for us (Hey Dude, come get your money!), and the skateboards and bikes are on the streets with exuberant riders joyfully soaking in the sunshine. Today one of them almost scared me to death. I was driving home from the high school and approached the turn onto my street. It’s a bit of a blind right turn due to a tall privacy fence at the corner house. Anyway an obviously happy boy was riding his shiny yellow bicycle (looked new to me) down the hill of our street, only I couldn’t see him because he was riding on the left side of the road and was completely obscured from view by the privacy fence. Fortunately I was going slowly in preparation for the turn, because I didn’t see him until about 3 seconds before he rode in front of my car with about 2 feet to spare as I slammed on my brakes. He was grinning the whole time, helmet-free and enjoying the wind riffling through his red hair. I’m not sure he even registered how close he came to a serious injury, he was so joyfully carefree.

Miss Sassy is learning to drive these days. I hate to think what could have happened this afternoon if she’d been behind the wheel of the car, she’s so new to driving. Several years ago my own son, Arctic Boy, was grazed by a car when he was doing the same thing at the same corner. With one difference – he was wearing a helmet. Fortunately the helmet wasn’t called into action and he wasn’t hurt at all, but the speeding teenage driver whipping around the corner probably wet himself a little bit when he realized what he had nearly done.

Please everyone, if you love your family, wear helmets when you ride skateboards and bikes. Parents, try again to teach your kids the rules of the road  (I know, their brain is like a sieve about that stuff, but still). The guardian angels would appreciate it and you just never know when it’s their day off. And if you are a driver, please slow down.

winner-winner, chicken dinner 🙂