dangerous liaison

biked around for most of the afternoon. let us be clear: i do not bike for recreation, but to constitute my existence (or, rather, because it has already been constituted, therethrough, because i can do no other). that said, i have encountered certain impediments which have caused me to do exactly the other whose impossibility i hastily claim. these have also resulted in my scarcely mentioning the bike as of late. got into an accident a few weeks back, which i did not relate in this venue, purely out of concern for various worry[ing/some] others (although mostly, i admit, because it involved a stupid story and, as everyone knows, i only tell hard-core ones). now that the injuries have healed, i can discuss the matter and the way in which it occurred.

in order to avoid both being hit by a car which was in my 6cm of road-edge (and proceeded to remain there, without varying its speed, throughout the entire scene) and an unidentifiable, but clearly sharp, collection of metal in said 6cm, i was forced to crash myself out of (beyond) the road. at that moment, i realised that Beograd is not a good place for biking-as-living. the cars are driven only by the crazed and the blind (both of which with something to prove; their apparent means is speed, pure and simple), the buses are too wide and close, the darkness falls at 16:30, and, until this week, the cold has clocked a resounding victory in the crowded category of "things too much with us." i am willing to subject myself to harsh conditions, but i would, somehow, prefer my doing so to mean something. getting run over on a Beograd street is not a worthy scenario.

perhaps in a few months i shall reconsider my position on the Asking For It question. until then, i cling to the precarious truth that one need not bike in order to be a biker.