Posts Tagged ‘bicycle’
On reducing pain and suffering
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Our pain and suffering can be greatly reduced by simple precautions.
On my bicycle yesterday, while cruising home from work, I was moving fast across a busy street and beginning to brake hard as I pointed the albatross [my bike's name] up over a curb onto the sidewalk just down the way from the restaurant in the map/picture above.
That’s when the handlebars gave way.
My entire weight was thrown over the bike and all I really remember is watching my wedding ring go flying off my finger, it’s gleam shooting across the street perpendicular to the one I was fortunate enough to make it out of before wrecking.
I laid there at first, wondering if my knee was dislocated [it has an unfortunate tendency to do this] and to make sure I was ok before moving. I could tell I was bleeding a lot on my knee because it stung very much and just had that “bleeding” feeling.
While lying there, the wonderful smells coming from Brasa [that's the place in the map above] across the street wafted over me and helped distract me from thinking the worst [now, the smell of the place is embedded in my brain and I will forever associate them with the incident. Smell is a powerful sense].
Next thing I realized was a fella standing over me asking if I was alright. He had stopped his giant truck in the street, hopped out and had been the buzzing sound in my ears. How long had he been standing there? I didn’t consider this at the time, I was just beginning to get my wits about me again. I was jubilant once I realized I had no major injuries, thanked him for stopping though he didn’t look too sure. I think he’d been standing there for awhile.
The bike is remarkably intact, however, last night by bedtime I could hardly walk – but I could walk! The infamous knee is quite swollen but in its proper place. For that I am joyous.
This morning the black and blue inside my thigh, on the outside of my thigh, the two center ribs on my left side and a baseball-sized patch above my stomach have emerged, though the cuts and scrapes on my legs and knee have already begun to heal.
Lesson : periodically go over and tighten EVERYTHING on your bicycle, whether it needs it or not. It could greatly reduce our pain and suffering.
Reducing our pain and suffering is a very good thing, indeed.
Perhaps, I will celebrate my full recovery with some *premium rotisserie*
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Hit and Run near Lake Calhoun
For those of us who commute on our bicycles to work each day, this is our worst nightmare : yesterday at 4:23 a.m. officers in the Fifth Precinct were dispatched to a report of the body of a man in the roadway at Excelsior Boulevard and West 32nd Street. When officers arrived they found the body of a male in his sixties lying in the street. It appears that the victim had been riding his bicycle eastbound on Excelsior Boulevard when he was struck by a vehicle and killed. The driver left the scene and made no report.
Thus, the Minneapolis Police Department is seeking our help in locating the driver and vehicle responsible for this. The vehicle should have significant front end damage. Anyone with information please call the T.I.P.S. line at 612-692-TIPS (8477).
Hug the ones you love today.
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