Thursday, February 11, 2010

I Need a Mulligan

Today started off by me being awake. At midnight I was still wide awake despite having to get up at 6am to ride to work. At 1am I am still awake and stressing about not being able to sleep. At 3 am Colin, the 17 month old woke up and I patted him back to sleep. I stayed in his room and slept on the small couch that we have in there. At 4:30 I woke up to see if it was time to get ready to ride. At 5:10 I woke up again. At 5:30, again. And at 5:50 I called it a night and got up. I had a little alarm set so why I kept waking up is beyond me.

I was feeling nauseated from the lack of sleep, or at least any deep sleep. I got ready, grumpily and then headed off in the dark. At least it wasn't raining. I listened to music as I pedalled at a much slower than usual pace. I just wasn't feeling it. At noon I headed off to the post office to ship off something that I sold on Ebay. I really didn't feel like riding, but it was a short enough ride that I couldn't be too bugged.

On the way back I was debating where to eat. Should I do Subway or something better at the Sushi/Teriaki restaurant nearby. As I was thinking this I also started to think about death. Seriously. How would the family fair if I just suddenly kicked the bucket. The cause of this thinking was a truck that passed by a little too close for comfort. At first I was ticked off, and then the other thoughts come in. Anyway, while I am in this black revelry, I came near a set of train tracks with a bad reputation.

These particular tracks do not cross the road in a perpendicular fashion. Nope that come at about a 45 degree angle. They have a horrible transition that is very bumpy. The bike I am riding has the usual narrow road tires. Have I mentioned that the roads are wet today? Well, they were. This time of year it seems they are wet for about 4 months straight. I don't mind this, except for today.

This is what I think happened: I have slowed down somewhat--I was probably going about 12 to 15 mph. The front tire hits the deformed asphalt that parallels the track. At the speed I am going the tire pops up a bit and then lands on the rail. I believe it did not hit square and so because I am coming in at an angle because of the weird road to rail angle the front tire slides to the left. I immediately go down. In straight down. More like I am doing a cyclist bad imitation of Mr. Hustle, Pete Rose. My right side hits first. The bike slides a bit into traffic. Luckily no cars were beside me. I hop up to first check my pearl Izumi jacket. Yeah, it is a little screwed up and very dirty. Bike looks OK and I pick it up. It is fine. However, the right side of my legs is a little shredded. My right hip really hurts, as does my right arm. I get on the bike and ride back. No significant blood loss.

I sit for a bit after changing. I get up. Oh oh. Although I landed on my right side, my left side is messed up. I had, and still do, a hard time moving my left leg forward to walk. I am physically able to do it, but I have a sharp pain that shoots from my spine all the way through to the front side near my hip bone. Yeah, that's not going to do.

I called the wife. She is nice and clears her schedule a bit so that she can come and get me. I certainly feel like I need a do over today. I wonder if I had just gotten a little more sleep I would have probably have paid a bit more attention to the approaching railroad tracks. I would have approached them in a little more perpendicular fashion. And I would not be so flipping grumpy right now. Time for a nap.

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