Why do certain thoughts jump into our heads at strange moments, when we are brushing our teeth or turning over in bed? What if my doctor retires? What if my favorite restaurant closes? When was the last time that I saw my daughter’s passport?

A more normal person might think how they could escape from their home in the event of fire, but I worry about whether the culinary artists at Café Besalu will tire of baking.

But worrying about whether the Sunset Bowl or Olsen’s Scandinavian Foods would close didn’t change the outcome. The doctor who caught my daughter in her arms like a basketball on the top floor at Ballard Community Hospital did leave private practice for volunteer medicine.

Everything Must Go! signs hang at Epilogue Books, Olsen’s and a little house three doors from the annual Fourth of July flag display on 32nd Avenue Northwest.

The last few months have brought a lot of change to our downtown; bringing new businesses in certain locations and leaving sad little gaps in other blocks like missing teeth.

Earlier this week I went to a presentation at the Sunset Hill Community Club to learn about bicycling safety and maintenance. I had envisioned the upstairs would be teeming with bicycles and families, but, unfortunately, it was just a few of us.

Ballard resident Jim LeMoines spoke frankly about the dangers of riding due in part to our human flaws; athletes so focused on their goal that they don’t want to brake, young riders who can’t “hold the line,” and mutually frustrated road commuters, whether on two wheels or four.

His remarks have stayed with me while I’ve done Ballard errands on foot, on bicycle, by car. LeMoines said studies show professionals who prepare for the worst case scenario, sometimes envisioning it in slow motion, tend to survive. He cited jet pilots and race car drivers. He said they are always thinking, what if an engine fails while I’m in this cloud bank, what if a tire comes off while I’m passing on this curve?

They play it in their mind, slowing it down if need be to get all of the details in order. They tend to survive.

There’s no real comparison between surviving a car accident and the loss of a bookstore, but it got me thinking about the need to look ahead, instead of just back. His talk has me anticipating hazards but also looking at what I can do to support people and businesses that I want to survive with me.

We do survive. As feared, my doctor retired, but I have a wonderful new doctor, and her partner is my dentist. My daughter’s passport was found (but expired), but there was just enough time before her trip to order a new from the neighborhood office next to the library (which was open on the Fourth of July for passport applications in observance of the day).

As for a possible house fire, I went to Western Fire and Safety on Market Street to buy smoke detectors to let me know when to evacuate in real time versus slow motion.

The bicycle safety man also said there are basically two kinds of falls, the high fall when you go over the handlebars or onto the hood of a car, and the low fall when your bike goes over. The low falls are slightly less dangerous. Either way, vigilance is always necessary.

But how can we be vigilant about all the things we love about our community? Can we communicate to building owners how much they should value their tenants, not to raise their rent? Are people able to rally to save a newspaper before they know it’s in danger of shutting down?

It is has been an unsettling year in Ballard so far, more bank robberies, car chases and graffiti than average, more businesses closing than opening.

But there is always new life pushing from the ground like plants that looked dead after the snow. Tuesdays in Ballard, wet children at Ballard Commons, readings at the library, the Sustainable Ballard Festival, new businesses on Northwest 70th Street.

For the most part, we survive. The Norse Home residents will miss their weekly provisions from Olsen’s, but they will not starve. The Ballard News-Tribune still gets delivered to the doorstep.

Gordo's closed but Paseo’s opened. There may not be another Archie McPhee’s, but there is still Limback’s.

We have to take the high falls and the low falls, the worst case scenario, and the best.