Oops, I Did It Again

Last October, I had a little bicycle whoopsie that lead to me writing quite the helmet sermon.

Yesterday a couple of friends and I were out for a little road ride. I'd finally gotten my road bike up and running again after 12 or 15 years in the garage rafters. (Way back then, the seat clamp bolt had failed, tossing me backwards off it, and I had wanted a mountain bike anyway.)

Sunday I was bunnying down hard, standing up to crank harder, going maybe 15 or 20, when there was a CLANK and suddenly no resistance on the right pedal. Next thing I knew after that, I had smacked the pavement good and hard and was tumbling.

Deja vu, man!

I was scared for a minute, I felt something really painful let go in my chest and thought I'd had the course. But the Finn held me until the ambulance arrived, and they hauled me off to UW Hospital again. Turns out I've got some ribs, a contused liver, possibly a contused adrenal gland, maybe a kidney too. And some VERY impressive road rash.

My wife is strongly advocating a tricycle. The attending physician suggested training wheels. Sandy, my Ski Patrol friend who's a nurse at the hospital (and who, as luck would have it, was on the floor for my previous little go-round), just shook her head. "We have a name for people like you, you know: We call them 'frequent flyers'."