Determined not to give up on my riding endeavours i ventured out again this evening, cautiously. Dad rode the bike up to the quiet industrial area at sunset, and i followed in his car... then we exchanged. The sunset was beautiful! Fleeting thoughts of how I should be somewhere beautiful to see this passed as I realised that it was fantastic that no matter where I was, the sunset still made everything beautiful and that I was continuing on to learn new things and beat my fears despite earlier deterrence's.
Riding around was fantastic. I practiced the things that I felt were most important, and the lessons I had learnt from earlier on in the week determined to have a good evening out and something positive to report. Without turning it into a long winded story, I hit a dog! Oh my goodness. It was the quietest possible part of the area. A lady had let her two small dogs out of the car and was letting them run around behind it as she drove slowly on. As it was a culdesac I had no choice but to turn around and go past them, but I slowed right down and kept watching them. But it looked at me and darted in front of me! I ended up dropping the bike, yes... that does make it three out of three times this week. And the lady was very nice and concerned about me, while I was simply concerned about the dog who had jumped back inside the car as she stepped out of it. She must have realised she was liable and she seemed like a lovely lady so she wasn't paying any attention to the dog. Admittedly for a fleeting moment I did think that having the dogs chase your car instead of walking them was not going to do anything for the obesity problems, and it did not help that she was not exactly a slender person. Thankfully that quickly passed though, getting cranky does nothing for guilt (it was a horrible feeling!) and in the great scheme of things just didn't matter!
I guess now I decide whether I learn from this in the sense that I shouldn't ride anymore, or I take it as lessons and practice and prepare myself for every possible thing. I have to decide if it matters enough to me. I do thoroughly enjoy it. I can see myself having a great deal of fun with it. Massively super amounts in fact. But there is only so much you can prepare yourself for, so the risk factor comes into it. But the guilt that came along with possibly having injured that little dog, and what could have happened is big! I'm not sure I can do that. It's one thing to put myself at risk, and it's another to put others. Driving as a form of transport is different to going for a joy ride. That didn't need to happen! Luckily the little dog was ok, and the first thing my brother said when I mentioned I hit a dog was "did it chase the wheels?"... so it's a common occurrence with dogs.
In any case, I am a rather lucky duckie!
I am missing my camera at the moment, it is in the shop getting fixed.
