Back In The Saddle

Rode my Buddy, my scooter for the first time in 9 months, for the first time since a car bumped me from the back while riding down our main street, for the first time since my body got catapulted over the front end and splattered across the road. The incident was traumatic for me, even though it could have been so much worse in terms of physical harm. While my leg has not been the same, aches every day since and my mobility stays limited and a challenge, it is the psychological trauma of not having seen it coming, not having had any options to avoid the collision, of feeling victimized and somehow afraid that nope, the world is not a safe place.

Any sane person, of course, knows that driving, especially a scooter, in our local traffic in particular, is risky, to say the least. It is my sense of having tried my best to ride defensively - and having failed that has had a dampening effect on me. On top of that having been blamed, by a cop that came to the scene late, noticed scratches on the car and never even checked on my scooter or my helmet or my story. I suspect his quick judgment of faulting me was based on ageism. Older, white haired, confused lady failed to take precautions when attempting to change lanes. He was wrong, it still irks me.

I ride a scooter because I am European, because it is fun and economical, leaves a low carbon footprint and makes sense in our climate of 300 sunny days a year. Economics play though a big part. My scooter costs a fraction to insure and license and supposedly gets as much as 90 miles to the gallon. Compare that to my antique VW van's 12 miles a gallon around town. 

So today, not even realizing it had been exactly 9 months since the accident, I got it together to find the envelope with the updated registration that had been sitting unopened for half a year, placed the updated sticker, stuck the needed documents in the compartment and got the engine to turn over without a complaint. Surprise, riding the scooter seemed easier than riding my bicycle. I managed to do my grocery shopping without an incident and got home in one piece eager to go back out again. I hope to regain my confidence and meet life with courage once more rather than shrink from it.