I would advise against starting your day like this, as it really sets the wrong tone: almost getting run over by a car.
I would definitely advise against starting your day like this, as it will probably ruin your whole morning: almost getting run over while in a clearly marked crosswalk with the green light your way and no possible way the driver could have missed your presence.
A great way to completely ruin a whole day: almost get run over in the crosswalk by a St. Louis police officer turning left but not, apparently, paying attention to where his car was going.
I was crossing the road this morning at the corner of my building, but the light changed just before I could cross, so I waited through the entire cycle to cross. Normally I would have waited for the road to clear and would have crossed against the red, but this morning a SLPD car was also waiting at the light for the entire cycle. When the light finally changed, I set out across the road. The SLPD slowly pulled out, turning left (towards me). I’m not stupid, but he was going slow enough that I assumed he was waiting for me to cross (you know, yielding to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, as required by law). Plus the road he was turning on is 4 lanes, so he only had to wait for me to cross the one lane and he could have turned behind me. BUT NO. When I get to the second lane, he accelerates, and I had to jump back to avoid being squashed, and as I yelled out HEY!, I could clearly see the officer with his head turned - not even bothering to look in the direction his car was turning. I hope I eventually calm down enough to function today, but that was scary, and infuriating, and ridiculous.
5 days, 3 baseball games, 1 late inning close loss, 1 spectacular but unsuccessful comeback, and 1 extra innings win. Saturday and Monday were tickets I’ve had since before the season started, and were fun enough - especially Monday’s game. I had 400-section nosebleeds, but after the Phillies took an 11-0 lead on Ryan Howard’s grand slam in the 6th, the stadium started to empty. Never one to leave a game early, I caught sight of some field-box seats that weren’t being used and moved down, just beyond third base, 5 or 6 rows back. And then the Cardinals offense came to life putting up 3 in the 6th, 6 in the 7th, and 2 in the 8th. Meanwhile the bullpen gave up another homerun, leaving the score at 12-11. Several drives (particularly one by Ryan Ludwick and one by Yadier Molina) looked like they were out of the park, but the dead wind in the stadium was no help as they were caught at the wall or on the warning track. The game ended 13-11, but was wholly satisfying to those who bothered to stick around, which didn’t include the folks sitting in the front row, which is where I spent the last two innings of the game.
Then there was last night. I finally got going early enough to bike down to the stadium at 7:30AM, and purchased a pair of "First Pitch" tickets for $5.50 each (there are 125 pairs sold day-of-game at 9:00AM before every game). The catches are (1) you don’t enter the stadium until 10 minutes before game-time, (2) you probably won’t get any of the give-aways, and (3) you don’t know where your seats will be, or even if you will get a seat. So just before game-time, I enter, get my tickets, and find that I’ve got 3rd base field-box seats. Great seats, great view, great fun. Cards took a 1-1 tie into extra innings, and on Yadier Molina bobble-head night (no I didn’t get one, drat!) who else but Yadier Molina drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th. Fun stuff!
