I'm sure hitting the pavement hurts more these days than it used to. Cycling fails revisited whilst loaded up on codeine to reduce the pain from my latest incident.
Rare in-saddle footage
Having only passed my driving test 3 years ago and living close to workplaces for most of my life, I've mainly been a public transport user or cyclist. And I think as a 2 wheel user, you have to expect some accidents from thousands of miles in the saddle. The hope being that when they do arrive it's not too serious.
When I was younger I remember finding small ramp near my house, it looked like polystyrene was the material supporting the board, and so I thought I'd go the other way and slice that weak-ass material in half with my razor sharp wheels. One mid-air 360 later, I realised that was not the material used. Damn pasty looking breeze-blocks.
There was a time that you could return glass pop bottles to the shop and get a small return for doing so. I excitedly left the house with a couple of bottles in a bag which was looped over the handlebars, flew down the hill opposite the house, and produced another 360 as one of the bottles found its way into spokes of the front wheel.
My legs are scarred from incidents like this as a child, and as a young adult I was pretty lucky not to exit planet earth following a motorcycle exit at the top of a hill in Thailand. Lots of blood and aches, a fractured hand and a hairline skull fracture the damage from that one. Apart from a ringing ear for life, I've gotten away with it so far I think. Things definitely could have ended up differently.
Last summer was not complete without a couple of more recent cycling fails, misjudging the width of my handlebars and catching a post had me on the floor laughing at the shitness of my skills, and being blown over by wind due to trying to take a fully inflated li-lo home from the beach was pretty cool too. The full bar of people it happened outside of enjoyed that one.
The weekend just gone brought about my latest calamity. Heading to the shops for teabags, (yes, I really need teabags OK) under a slight shower influenced the trip as the bike unusually slipped out to the side whilst i was slowly turning a corner. I wasn't even going that fast, but the slippery surface got me good. Winded and embarrassed in case anyone saw, which they did, I got up quickly and then the pain arrived. I smiled sheepishly at the old lady in the white car who'd slowed down to give me a stern look - yeah, I wanted to write 'to see If I was OK', but her face was more like 'serves you right for being a tourist'.
It's weird when you cant take in a lung full of air. Being winded does that, and so does a sharp pain every time you get half full. That's how it's been for the last couple of days, but the meds are helping and I'm pretty sure it's nothing to bad. I'm also sure I'd have just got back up laughing 20 or so years ago, stuff seems to hurt more and repair more slowly these days - and I could have 40 more years of these days left. Fack!
I guess i'll have to 'be careful', and 'go slowly', as I'm often told before those words go out the other ear. That sounds terribly boring though, but could help reduce the number of days in bed without good reason. I've just made an egg on toast, it was almost an egg on bread as the toaster almost defeated me - pushing down not my strong point at present as the ribs were quick to tell me so.
Right, back to bed, oh wait, I'm already here, writing to you.
Have a nice day all, and don't forget to take care of yourselves :)
Asher
