the darker side
posted by kobayashi on August 3, 2001
riding my bike home from dinner last night, it was dark, probably about 9, i was cresting a little hill of the southbound frontage road of 35 where i was preparing to turn left on the 51st overpass. as i crested the hill-let, sweetly hitting a broad green light with no cars behind me, i neglected to fully appreciate the lake of coolant/oil or whatever the hell it was that was all over the leftmost lane... my lane.
(what was i doing on the IH35 frontage road, you may well ask? well, it was kindly not really my plan, but one thing and another, that's where i ended up -- with only about a block and a half total -- and what the hell.)
by the time i realized that i was on king slick, it was too late. i tried to smoothly roll through it, but lost control and was flipped off my bike. primarily onto my right knee, though a little on my hands and chest and chin, too. the knee took the brunt of it, though, so my pretty face is now unmarked by the event. the whole thing actually worked out okay, this AM i find myself reminded of it only with a couple of big strawberries on my knee, really. my right pedal is a little ground down on the end, but the bike looks all right. my hands didn't get burned at all, thank goodness.
but as i flew so briefly through the air, i thought, 'holy shit, i'm glad i'm not being followed by several hundred pounds of hot motorcycle grinding itself up expensively behind me. after getting up and making sure i was still basically operational... i was amazed that the cars stopped right there where i biffed didn't even roll down a window to ask if i was okay. oh well. in the event, i WAS okay, so everything worked out.
not really that dramatic of a story after all. but it was pretty ... erm ... exciting ... at the time.