Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...Really!

Yesterday I was driving down a major street in Westbury, Long Island on my way to a popular discount shoe store. The street I was on is in a very commercial area with lots of department stores on both sides. There are three lanes on each side of the street, and I got over to the right lane because the store I was going to has a huge parking lot and the driveway was coming up soon. I put my right-turn signal on and slowly proceeded to turn into the parking lot. As I was entering, I saw another car exiting. Of course that person would HAVE to make a right turn out of the lot.

In a matter of thirty seconds, the world turned upside down. The man exiting the parking lot obviously looked to his left before making the right turn out. What he didn’t see coming was a man on a bicycle – coming in the opposite direction! (I’m not sure if he was riding right near the road or in a small path probably meant for pedestrians.) And then BOOM! CRASH! As the driver stepped on the gas coming out of the exit, he hit the man on the bike head on! The man and his bicycle flew eight feet up into the air, and they both landed flat on the ground! I saw his head hit the asphalt. This all happened as I was slowly entering the parking lot. There was a huge commotion behind me – of people running towards the scene and other cars, so I kept moving into the lot. I parked my car and looked back to see the crowd trying to assist the man on the ground and saw that there was nothing I could do. And then I just sat in my car and started to shake. When I finally got out of my car, I saw that the man had been helped to his feet, so I felt a lot better.

I went into the shoe store as planned, looked around, and shopped for shoes. When I was in the upstairs part of the store that looked out onto the street, I saw that a police car had arrived; I saw the driver standing there; and I saw the man-on-the-bike talking on his cell phone. So it seems that a major tragedy was averted. The lesson to be learned here is: when entering a one-way street, don’t just look one way; look BOTH ways!

And the fact that I couldn’t find any shoes that I liked…well, as the saying goes…”Don’t sweat the small stuff!!!”  

Carole Blake