Yesterday was my first day of putting a shoe on my left foot. Walking hurt like hell at first and I was determined not to go back to the boot. Mountain had given me some Tylenol with codeine (did you know you can buy them OTC in Canada) but I’d left the last two back at my office. I decided I’d drive over and pick them up, figuring if I could just walk on it for awhile it would loosen up and I’d be fine.

So I jumped in the car and headed out. I made my right turn at the end of the block onto Boone avenue and started to accelerate. I tend to drive a little too fast and I was probably up to 40 two thirds of the way to 42nd Ave, where I turn to get to the hiway when I saw movement in the corner of my left eye. A brindle colored dog who might as well have been wearing camo in the gray and brown Minnesota spring was sprinting across the street at an angle that put him on a certain collision course with me. I hit the brakes and he just made it by, I was sure I was going to nail him until the last instant. I didn’t get a great look at the dog, but I think it was a pit bull. It was charging a young kid on a bike. I couldn’t tell if the kid was terrified or if he knew the dog. The people on the other side of the street, who I assumed were the dogs owners were yelling at the dog and it stopped and came back. There was no other traffic so I was going slow and watching in my mirrors. Words were exchanged between the kid and the dog owner. The kid didn’t get back on his bike but just stood there. Maybe he didn’t want to get back on the bike with shit in his pants.

This dog was very lucky. That I have great peripheral vision. That I wasn’t lost in a day dream or distracted by the kid or the natural beauty in the cemetery on the other side of the road. That I still have very good reflexes. That I was driving the Mazda that has incredible brakes and big fat grip the pavement tires. That it was a dry road, no ice. That I hadn’t left the house, say a half second earlier. Any one of those factors changes, the dog is dead. Come to think of it, if those folks were walking around my neighborhood with an unleashed dog that’s that out of control, scaring people like that, maybe I should have accelerated to make sure it was a clean kill.

Speaking of the Mazda, I was blown away by it’s stopping ability, I’ve never driven a car anything like it. I really pounded the brakes. It didn’t squeal and didn’t skid and didn’t break out. At all. It just smoothly and quickly took the speed out of the car. Like a big cat pouncing silently. I love that car.

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