One day, during the summer, after spending a long day at work in a cold air conditioned office staring at a computer, I came home to a beautiful evening.  The sun was still out, the weather was warm but not too hot and as I got undressed I decided not to spend my evening sitting an in air conditioned house staring at a TV but instead I should go for a bike ride.  So I put on some shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt, since I knew I would be working up a sweat and didn't want to wear anything too warm.  I put on some ankle sweat socks, my new favorite.  I hate socks that go half way up the calf.  And I also put on some tight underwear to keep the "boys" from moving around while I rode.  I didn't want anything to get hurt down there from sitting on the bike seat which are very uncomfortable for guys no matter how much padding the seat has.    Ready to go on my ride I made two decisions, one was not to wear my bike helmet.  I decided this because I was just riding in the neighborhood, not going far, and thought what was the worst that could happen.  My second decision was to ride to the local department store and pick up a new video game that had come out.  This made sense because then I wouldn't feel bad about spending my evening staring at a TV and playing a game in an air conditioned house if I had gotten some exercise prior to doing so.  The one problem was I had to cross a busy street during rush hour traffic and I wondered if it was smart to try do it.  But I decided that as long as I was careful I should be okay.  After all I am a grown man and surely I can figure out how to cross a street without getting hit. So properly dressed, water bottle in hand, I got on my bike and set out for my summer evening adventure.  I crossed the busy street, no problem, took a back way to the store to make the ride a little longer, and made it uneventfully.  I bought the game I wanted and walked around the store some more just to window shop a bit.  Leaving the store I hopped on my bike and headed back home.  This time I took the straight route home, since I was anxious to play my new game.  When I came up to the busy street I stopped, and looked both ways. The cars were coming fast and furious but I saw a light changing to red down the road and knew that meant traffic was going to thin out for awhile but not for long.  The road was clear except for one car, an SUV, to my left that was slowing down and had its right turn signal on.  Thinking the car was turning I decided that this was my opportunity to cross so I got on my bike and started to pedal across and that is when it happened.  Out of the corner of my left eye I saw the SUV headed straight for me.  The car that I thought was turning didn't after all.  The driver slammed on his breaks and narrowly missed hitting my rear tire.  I hurriedly rode across the street and made it home.  Parking my bike in the garage I went in the house and sat down.  I was shaking.  Scared you know what less.  I ran the whole thing through my mind and I thought how in the world did misread that situation.  I could have sworn the car was slowing down and had its turn signal on.  Was I wrong?  Did I miss it?  Did I see something that wasn't there?  No, I thought if the driver wasn't slowing down he would have rammed into me right away.  The fact that I was actually part way across and he almost hit my rear tire told me that.  But still I screwed up.  I should have waited until he actually turned but in my haste to cross I didn't.  I would have been killed had he hit me.  I was wearing no helmet and practically no clothes.  I seriously doubt my tight undies would have protected the "boys" much from being hit by an SUV.   I realized that me dying isn't a big deal.  I have nothing and really am just a blip on the screen if that much.  I have no wife, no children, nothing that depends on me so I doubt I would have even made the obits in the paper had I been killed.  Still I was shaken. I thought about it all night and for days afterward.  I didn't even play the video game I bought that night.  I have yet to ride my bike again.