A near miss
Well, I’ve not posted for a while… primarily because I’ve not had the time. This is not because I’ve been more busy than usual, oh no. Its because its been taking me longer to write, use a mouse and, well, just about everything else after my fall from my bike.
Cycling to work one Friday (week before last) I was minding my own business, using the road as a sensible cyclist does when a cycle path is not available. Out of a sidestreet, screaming like a banshee from the depths of hell came a car, a car seemingly without brakes, being driven by a blind man with a lead foot. I acted quickly, having 3 choices:
- Get hit by a car…. probably not a valid choice, I’ve seen those adverts with the little twisted up girl going all backwards
- Cycle into oncoming traffic… see option one, but probably with more cracking bones
- Fall off
With options 1 and 2 thoroughly out of the question, option three rang through my head like the correct answer on an 80’s gameshow “DINGDINGDING! We have a winner!!!”
So I fell. As graceful as an aircraft coming in to land too quickly and too low and smashing up its undercarriage, I landed on my right hand and arm… tarmac running across my fingers at around 15 miles per hour. Quickly, parts of my hand felt rather cold, since they were no longer wearing any nice warm flesh. Yummy.
Looking up, I caught sight of the car. At least they’d stopped to see I was ok… wait, hold on, they’re off again… lovely. They’d stopped long enough to check I wasn’t dead, but had seen enough and made a hasty exit. To add insult to injury (literally in this case) they’d given me as much respect as a dog they’d just run over. I imagine their conversation would have been something like:
Driver: “He’s got up! Phew, he’ll be ok!” (starts to put car in gear)
Passenger: (imagine a procoscious child): “But I heard that dogs do that while they’re in shock and drag themselves off somewhere quiet and die later”
Driver: “SHUT UP, HE’S FINE” (wheels spin, car speeds away)
Anyway, my hand is ok now – thankfully no bones broken, so its back to the keyboard. Now that I have use of it again I will be sure to put it to good use if I ever see that car again, particularly the middle finger.
I always try to look at the positive side of things… in this case, I got a chance to relive part of my youth – what falling off your bike feels like. In my opinion, it doesn’t really change that much however old you get- you just get angry at other people rather than yourself for acting like idiots.
