Ow!!!!!

The occasion is my first reasonably serious bike crash. The problem is that I don't really quite remember it all.

There I was, riding home from work on my hybrid, not pushing hard, just having a good time. Then, just coming into Heritage Park, suddenly. I remember passing a lady walking two dogs. She was all in pink, and was over on my side of the path. I stayed there, and she moved over. Went past her, not going terribly fast, and started slowing down a bit more to go through the parking lot. They keep changing the path through there.

I'm not sure what happened. There was nobody around me. I don't know if one of my brake hands spasmed, or my brakes grabbed, or what. Suddenly I could feel the bike stop under me, and I kept going forward and off to my left. I had time to relax, and try to roll, but I think I did a belly flop on the pavement.

Minor scrape, maybe palm sized on left thigh just above the knee. Good scrape on right shin. Another big scrape, more serious on right knee. A couple of tiny pinpoint rips in shorts on right thigh. Several good rips in my jersey, right at the bottom of the zipper. I haven't looked at my chest to see if there is a scrape, but I wouldn't be surprised. Light scrape on left forearm, and left little finger ripped up a bit. Little blood, though. No marks on right arm particularly, but right elbow and arm hurts like hell. The Dr. at the walk in clinic fondled it pretty hard and said if anything was broken, I'd be screaming. Good sized scrap on left jawline, and on chin just underneath my mouth. There's a good scrape buried in my moustashe, right under my nose, but not on my nose itself, and yes, I'm wondering about the geometry of that. Most seriously, I bashed 4 upper teeth. My dentist came back after hours and worked on me. He doesn't think I'll lose any teeth, though the bad one is hard to say. All things considered, it could have been worse. My feet could have stayed clipped in and I could have needed a proctologist to get the bike seat out of an important orifice.

I want to say thank you to the guy from the construction site nearby that came over with a first aid kit. Fortunately all I really needed, or could use from his kit was a roll of gauze. I decided that riding any more was right up at the top of the stupid things to do list, so I called, and Linda came and got me pretty promptly. The cellphone just paid for itself. The Braeside walk in clinic was empty, and I didn't even get a chance to sit down. The nurse was really good cleaning and bandaging the scrapes. The Dr fondled my elbow a bit, told me nothing was broken, looked in my mouth, and told me to find a dentist ASAP. Linda will look me over more thoroughly before bed tonight.

I haven't given the hybrid a thorough going over, but I know the bell was smashed, and bike computer has some scrapes. Not sure what else. My watch has some really good scrapes.

That wasn't the ride home I was hoping for. The timing is about as good as it could be, given the season just ended, but I'm not a big fan of pain. Nothing besides right elbow hurts yet, but the freezing is only just beginning to come out. No wine for me tomorrow. I had a routine dental appt for next Friday, and that has now been co-opted to do followup on this.

I'd planned to do a swim tomorrow morning, but I think not now. The lifeguards are so fussy about people oozing bodily fluids into their nice clean water. I guess I'll just have to hang around and get prepared for the BBQ. First two guys that arrive get to roll the BBQ onto the front patio. Or if Susi gets here first she can tuck it under one arm herself. All that weight training has to be good for something! Looking forward to the Legend Team BBQ tomorrow, even if I really shouldn't drink any booze.