I am glad you escaped injury. I cannot stress enough the importance of not standing in the path of the blade.
A number of years ago, my wife and I were working in the "shop," which was the basement in our townhouse. I had configured it for one person to work in because it was usually just me. My darling wife was down there working on a set of shelves while I was working on a bench I was building. The main workbench was in direct line with the tablesaw -- why would it matter -- I would never be at the tablesaw and at the bench at the same time, now would I? I was working and my darling wife needed to crosscut a piece of stock. It didn't even dawn on me or her about the risk. She powered up the saw, made the cut and the saw threw the off cut. I took it to the chest.
I accused my darling wife of a diabolical level of passive-aggressiveness (once I was able to breathe again ). To be honest, I am amazed I didn't break anything. It wasn't like I was cavalier with the saw prior to that, but ever since, I have been far more aware.
Chris
If you only took one trip to the hardware store, you didn't do it right.