Am I one of them?

I am not one of those bikers. I'm not one of those people who goes through red lights without so much as a glance to see if someone is coming. I won't go through red lights when I know no one is coming. I come to a complete or almost stop at all stop signs. I check at uncertain intersections and I use my hand signals. I have blinky lights and I always wear a helmet.

But this morning I was one of those bikers. I was so mad at myself. But though it was totally my fault, it wasn't my fault, even though it was.

So, those of you in Portland will know where I am talking about. I was coming up 26th and approaching Clinton St. where I was going to take a left. It's Monday though and that means it's garbage day. So, 26th is a 2-lane street with parking on either side. There was a garbage truck in my lane. Now, I had a choice of either passing the garbage truck in the left side of my lane, or turning left a couple blocks early and just avoiding the truck all together. I decided to just pass since they were still parked. As I moved over to the left of my lane, however, the engine started up and they were about to pull out. Now, if you are in Portland you know this no doubt, but it seems cyclists tend to get killed when they try to compete with garbage trucks. So, I decided against it at the last second and started to turn left. Of course, at that exact same time, a woman who was parked going the opposite direction starts to pull out. And I run into her. Sigh. So disappointed in myself. I didn't even fall over. I just bumped into her. And then I got a lecture on hand signals because I didn't use one as I decided to turn at the last second, and there hadn't been anyone coming in the other lane.

So, am I a moron for not hand signaling (which even if I had I still would have bumped into her) or did I save myself from certain death by being run over by a garbage truck and merely had a bump?