Honestly, the event that freaked me out most was one where I would have been on the giving end if it had gone badly. I was going up the ramp in a parking garage (in a standard, which at the time I was shakey at best driving) and suddenly there's a little kid of about 7 running down the ramp towards me! I slammed on the brakes and managed to stop; he ran into me and knocked himself down. He hit his head, and was scared and crying, but his dad was right there. Apparently he'd decided to race his dad to the car (against dad's wishes). He was shaken up, but OK - the dad didn't even wan't to file anything on it. I had to sit for 15 or minutes or so until I could stop shaking enough to drive.

Didn't a Buffista run themselves over somehow?

Cindy, I think.

While pregnant, if memory serves.

The nearest death incident I remember wasn't my death, but was when we were out for coffee and I saw a car start to back over a toddler (while an adult stood right by it). I jumped out of my seat and grabbed the kid, but I was weirded out for the longest time. I couldn't believe what I had almost stared right at, and how no one else closer to the incident was paying any attention.

On a lighter subject, I've begun doing my nails. I found, at a discount store, a couple of the OPI for Nicole "Nic Sticks" - nail polish in a kind of pen (with a brush applicator). The one I have on now is Vio-Let's Go!, which is kind of silvery blue violet, but it keeps changing ... and in sunlight it's almost a champagne color.

The nearest death incident I remember wasn't my death, but was when we were out for coffee and I saw a car start to back over a toddler (while an adult stood right by it). I jumped out of my seat and grabbed the kid, but I was weirded out for the longest time. I couldn't believe what I had almost stared right at, and how no one else closer to the incident was paying any attention.

Yikes! That particular scenario pings me because my friend Robin lost her sister that way. A truck backed over her when she'd stepped off the curb briefly.

I think I'm out of work for the day. Not good.

Yikes! That particular scenario pings me because my friend Robin lost her sister that way. A truck backed over her when she'd stepped off the curb briefly.

Oh god, that's horrible!

I'm amazed I hit the brakes in time, because I could not process what was happening at first. It just seemed to break all assumptions about parking garages I'd been living under.

I work with someone who knows a NYC ME and he asked the ME once if he had learned anything about staying safe in the city since he saw so many causes of death. He said, stay on the sidewalk.

Once I was driving in a small Wisconsin town and a kid on a bike crossed the street right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes in time. The kid continued across the street, where a woman coming the other direction slammed on her brakes just in time. She yelled at him too, so I didn't have to.

Oh god, that's horrible!

It was. The worst part is that their mom was a young mother, and a neighbor had come over to have coffee. When the kids ran through the house from the backyard and out the front door, the neighbor told her they'd be safe in the front yard and not to worry, even though her instinct was to go immediately and get them from the unfenced front yard (in a quiet, suburban area).

I don't think her mother ever quite forgave herself for that.

At the same corner where I was hit a neighbor was almost run down on the sidewalk. A driver came down the same hill and around the same corner, only they didn't slow down at all and couldn't make the turn.

There's now a stop sign at that corner ... some people actually stop.