well well well, i guess my time had come. i've been a (proud) commuter cyclist for 8 years now. riding from job to job to school to job to party to home to farmers market to movie to job to job to work to school to home for long enough to know that one's luck can only last so long. being a defensive cyclist has always been something i prided myself in; but being defensive and proactive are not one in the same.
friday while (albeit foolishly) biking on hwy 101 (don't let the name fool you, its not unlike fm 1456 in Bellville, lamar blvd in Austin or hwy 291 in Salida, two lanes, good condition, but with heavier traffic than you'd expect) i was pushed by the breeze-backlash of a semitruck off the road, catching my front tire on the dip between asphalt and gravel and came crashing down, hard and seemingly only, on the left side of the top of my head. i jumped up, moved off the road, touched my head to find no blood (thank God, praise Allah, etc) but did discover a tennis ball sized bump that was not only sore to the touch but became more sore when i wasn't holding it. i immediately called Jenny Bracht, a girl who is also recently moved here to work for Sensaria and who i had only just seen 27 minutes earlier. she came quickly to whisk me off to the ER, busted bicycle in tow. we went to the hospital, got the cat scans and xrays, had an all around good experience there, and headed home to rest about 2 hours later.
with a concussion, the old news is "no sleeping" but the new news is "no tv, more sleep, pills pills pills and ice." personally, i like the old ideas better but went ahead and fused the two bodies of thought into this: sleep, ice, pills, npr podcasts and very little computer time. so far its working. i'd like to say that i can blame the intense soreness on my fused rx but doubt that that would fly with anyone who knows the situation.
to jump ahead of you all and answer the obvious questions: yes, i'm going to buy and religiously wear a helmet from this day forth; no, i'm not scared off my bike although i do intend on plotting my routes a little differently from now on; and yes, someone is here keeping an eye on me. Jenny has been splendidly sweet, as have the neighbors who have brought me fresh cut roses from their gardens and buzzed the doorbell to keep me alert. and Ryan, of course, precious Ryan has been checking in and checking up on whats good in life, including testing my common knowledge of day to day life.
whats funny, and i do mean laughable, about this whole situation is that not only was i, while biking, thinking of how lucky i am: to have the family, the friends, the good fortune to have gone through what i did and come out on top, to have a job - nay, a career - ready and willing to mold and be molded, to have left Salida with peace in my heart and to have arrived in Washington with love in my life, to know my parents and brother, Skylar, with the entirety that i do and to be known by them so well. just before my crash i realized that Ryan is taking active steps to ensure his health, his well being, Fishers health, my happiness (for one, he is mid-stride in his campaign to be a non-smoking single dad) and now its time that i do the same.
step one: helmet. step two: public transportation to shorten the commute. step three: sleep sleep water water. step four: acknowledge the lovely life that i've had, the good and the bad and the terribly ugly. step five: let the crazies be crazy and if it just so happens that they wish to release their craziness on your voicemail then just delete it and move onwards and upwards, leaving their crazy, nonsensical, pathological craziness behind. step six: let those who you love dearly know it, every chance you get. step seven: relax.
anywho, the top-hat bump on the noggin is subsiding, the dizziness is stabilizing and the smile has yet to fade.
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