Bad luck

[Eric Sheley <eric@xxxxxxxxxx>]

For any of you having rough Mondays, I thought I might pass this along.

Well they say bad luck comes in threes, so hopefully I am done for a little 
while.... although as I suffered no permanent damage or injuries, maybe 
this was good luck?

Saturday arrived after a really long week. Had a nice leisurely morning and 
then decided to do a little work. Attempted to connect to our server at 
work and was rejected. Checked the rest of the network and everything was 
ok... not a good way to start the weekend.

#1 - Once my wife returned home, I decided to trek off to work to check 
things out (90 miles one way). It was a nice sunny afternoon so I decided 
to take the bike. I suited up and headed off down my street. Stopped at the 
end and began to pull out onto Fay (2 lane each way divided with a 35mph 
limit). In the median I slowed took another look and started to pull out. I 
had seen a red mustang but it was still on the other side of the tracks - 
plenty of room at 35mph. As I pulled into my lane I caught a flash in my 
mirror and then felt the blast as the mustang flew past me on the right. He 
screeched around a corner onto a side street almost taking out a bicyclist 
and then disappeared. My neighbor who had pulled out behind me and had 
narrowly missed being broad sided said that car was running at least 
80-100mph and had missed me by only inches......

#2 - 90 miles away in Lakeland, I exit I-4 and sit patiently at the light 
on the ramp (in the right hand lane) waiting for it to turn. As it turns 
green I check both directions (see #1 above) two or three times..... all is 
clear and everyone has stopped. As I start through the intersection I see a 
car coming down the ramp behind me in the left lane at a high rate of speed 
obviously attempting to beat the light. I am keeping an eye as I start 
turning into the intersection waiting for the smoke as the driver locks 
them up to make the corner. He never does...... The car comes straight 
through the intersection headed across the lanes toward where I am going to 
be in a matter of seconds. I grab ahold of the brake and pull it for all 
that she's worth, hoping in that split second that I can slow down enough 
to hit the side of his car and not be mowed down by the front.....

In the next few seconds I cannot tell you what happened. I just missed the 
side of his car and he left a cloud of smoke and dust as he bounced over 
the curb and then back onto the road surface and sped off. I pulled off the 
road and just sat there for a couple of minutes. After my heart rate 
returned to normal, I proceed off the few miles to work.

#3 - Now 10:00 pm, I had left to pick up some food while waiting on the IBM 
repairman. I picked up my food and got back without incident. As it was 
late I decided to roll the bike into the lobby (something I have done many 
times without incident). As I got it lined up so that I could still walk 
around it I went to drop it onto its sidestand. Unfortunately the rug had 
caught the stand and moved it just out of the locked position. As the ST 
passed the catch point, I realized that something was terribly wrong..... I 
made the first catch attempt at about 60-70 degrees - by about 45 degrees I 
remember thinking how smart it had been to fill the gas tank only minutes 
before - damn this thing is heavy when it gets leaning. I got it stopped 
just before any plastic touched down. I somehow got it back upright (being 
careful not to throw it over to the other side) and got it on to a locked 
sidestand.... Got a nice black boot mark on the 3m film just below my seat. 
I have no idea how my foot got up there, but the mark doesn't lie.... Also 
noticed a crack in the paint on the fairing just above the accessory outlet 
so that must have been one of the spots I braced against it. Other than 
that there was no other damage. I guess I was pretty lucky......

Made it home around 5:00 am - without any further incidents.....

Phew

- - Eric
  


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