Multimodal near-tragedy

I'd just gotten off the bus, was walking across the street, in the crosswalk, guided by the white man. There was a movement to my left and I realized that a car from the opposing approach had just slammed on the brakes in the middle of his left turn and was now mouthing, "Oh shit!"

He hadn't seen me.

He should have been paying attention.

Some four hours later, I was biking home from Spakalina and Gnome's after a rousing African-English documentary featuring a few Russians and supplemented with German subtitles. Insanity. But anyway. Suddenly a long, dark, shallow mass is in front of me. I grimace when I see the bushiness of his red tail and my heart clenches with dread as I instinctively swerve to the left.

I hadn't seen him.

My headlight should have been higher. I should have been paying attention.

At least my squirrel was already dead.