My morning commute was uneventful. My riding partner suffered from his all-too-common bout of insomnia, so I got to hear all about it on the way in.
This afternoon, as I was shutting down my p.c. at work, I heard a steady stream of emergency vehicles coming from the road below. I'd come to tune them out. I'm in downtown Silver Spring - a pretty big city - and sirens are a pretty routine noise.
So I got dressed and headed for the elevators down to my bike to meet up with my riding parter.
"Be careful" a friend said. "Someone just got killed out there."
Apparently, the sirens I heard were in response to a pedestrian fatality at the corner of East West Hwy and Colesville Rd. That intersection is horrible...pedestrians racing against the walk sign, cars taking the corner much too fast, buses blocking everyone's sight-line. It's a terrible place and unfortunately, someone paid the ultimate price. It was very sad.
My coworker and I had to take a roundabout route out of the city.
"You know," he said, as we finally reached a quiet neighborhood just outside the downtown area. "I was going to complain about how tired I was, but really, I have nothing to complain about."
"Yeah," I responded. "We both still alive."
Be careful out there, folks! There is rarely any place you need to get to so quickly that you can't afford to take care and watch out for others.