There is a rule of thumb of riding motorcycles: Close calls come in threes. Thus if you have recently had one or two close calls, then you should know that another two or one are awaiting. After you get to the three close calls, you generally have an extended period of time before you have another series of three close calls.
On Wednesday morning I'm entering the 710 freeway southbound on a tight circular ramp. Because it is tight it allows one to lean the bike over and get the knee down (almost to the pavement). Today I'm leaned over and, unfortunately, a prior vehicle has left a long patch of wet deisel fuel on the pavement. As I'm leaned over, both the rear and the front tires start the slip/grab/slip sideways crab walk motion. I'm sure that the motion looked a bit fun to onlookers and it actually was. Though the only thing for the rider to do in that situation is to keep a constant throttle position and let the bike do what it wants to do. That's one close call.
After work on Wednesday evening I take a side trip to downtown Long Beach to buy some micro-filtered, ion-exchange whey protein bars. As I'm heading north on the 710 for home, a truck makes a sudden lane change towards me. Seeing that I am riding to the side of the lane as one should, the truck can come more than halfway into my lane before contact occurs. On this occasion the truck comes about halfway into the lane before seeing me and returning to it's lane of origin. I shake my fist at the driver as I continue onwards. That makes the second close call of the day!
And now I'm thinking that I have one more close call to look out for over the next week or so. But it happens today.
This time a van decides to make a very sudden lane change - again from the right of me (as in the previous case). I am still positioned to the side of the lane so that there is room to maneuver. But the sudden lane change coupled with the van not ever seeing me means that he/she is still coming over on me. I take the necessary evasive action of cracking the throttle wide open as I squeeze further to my left - the van missing me by at least, oh, 3 inches. And I have at least, oh, 3 inches to spare on my left side from the other lane. This is close call number 3.
I can look forward to a few months of no more close calls until the next series of three comes along.