Lesson Learned

I learned a valuable lesson the other day that I'd like to pass on to everyone:

"Don't ride your bicycle while listening to your ipod and drinking a cup of coffee"

I learned this one the hard way...

I was riding home from my new favorite coffee shop the other day with a to-go cup in my right hand. Mulberry is massively under construction right now, so I had to wander around the back streets for a bit to find a place to cross it. One would assume that the unevenness of a road construction zone would be the cause of a horrible cycling accident, but no! I made it past that with ease. About a block past the construction was where I actually had my downfall. (pun strongly intended)

I was slowing to a stop at an intersection, but had not really intended to come to a full stop. Most of the time when I bike through an intersection with a stop sign , I slow down considerably, but don't put my foot down and make a full stop unless there are other vehicles at the intersection. I saw a car coming in from the left a little bit late, so I applied the brake. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have stopped just fine. Unfortunately, with my coffee in my right hand, I applied the front brake, which has a tendency to stop my bike quite quickly. That, coupled with the fact that my right hand was not on the handlebars, lead to a situation that physicist Issac Newton describes in his first law of motion...

I not only fell of my bike, I literally flew over the handlebars, arms outstretched, music playing and coffee still firmly in hand. My memories of this instant are fuzzy, but I seem to remember the bike flipping over it's front wheel, which means that I was probably launched into the air by the seat.

I landed on my left side. The heel of my right hand, my chest and left knee taking most of the impact. There was really no skidding to speak of, and since I was wearing long pants and a thick wool coat I manged to escape this episode with no blood spilled. In fact, there was very little liquid spilled at all since I manged to keep a firm grip on my coffee cup. Besides a few drops on my coat and a small line on the pavement, I spilled practically none of it.

The car made a right turn at the intersection, which means it would have missed me entirely anyway, and the driver seemed to take no notice of what had just transpired. It took me a little bit to gather my wits and get back on the bike, cross the intersection and make my way back to my house.

It's been a few days now. The heel of my hand seems mostly fine, my knee is quite bruised, and my chest hurts. There's no bruise there, but it hurts a bit when I laugh or talk too loud or move too quickly. Hopefully I'll be back to tip top shape soon, but till then, any sympathy I can mine from the depths of your pity would be quite comforting. If you want to lambaste me for my utter stupidity, you are welcome to do that as well.