It's better to be lucky than smart, part 26

This afternoon, I decided to go rollerblading for a bit. I put my blades on, and was about to head out the door. I then realized that I'd forgotten my keys, so I went back to get them. As I went back, I noticed that I had forgotten to do up the velcro strap that goes around the middle of my right boot. Had I gone out the door with the strap hanging loose, I probably would have tripped on it and injured myself.

This is the third time I've been lucky to avoid serious injury on my rollerblades. The first was when I was on my old blades, and the right wheel seized up while I was on the Beach bike path. Luckily, I was travelling very slowly when it happened. Otherwise, I would have had to decelerate from several kph to zero instantaneously, and would likely have ruptured something.

The other time was several years ago, when I tried to find a route through the Beach that didn't involve going along Queen Street or Kingston Road. It's doable, barely, but there are a lot of steep hills and streets paved with stone instead of asphalt. As I headed down Pine Crescent, I started going too fast to be able to stop, and there were no nearby lawns on which I could decelerate. Desperately, as I rounded the corner onto Pine Glen Road, I grabbed a nearby hedge, and used it to slow myself down enough to successfully stop and sit on a nearby stone wall. I was unhurt, and the hedge wasn't seriously damaged. Now, whenever I'm in the neighbourhood, I make a point of seeking out that hedge, as it saved me from a fate best only imagined.