TheBanyanTree: trying to do the right thing

[Julie Anna Teague]

I get these ideas in my head sometimes. I want to do the right thing. I want to
live a positive life. To that end, I sometimes ride my bike to work, even though
it is a pretty hard, very hilly, half an hour ride from home to office. The heat
has been unbearable all summer, and so I've been driving in in air-conditioned
comfort instead. Finally, yesterday, it was cooler and the timing was right, and
so I decided to ride to work. That went fine. I rode home again. It was fine,
although traffic was awful and my legs were pretty tired from the hills. The
last quarter mile to my house is nearly all up hill.

I rode home a little early because number one son had a dental appointment. I
got the idea that we should ride to the dentist's office, and thus make it a
completely car-free day. I finally convinced him that we should do this, that it
was only a fifteen minute ride. It's actually a nearly 25 minute ride when one's
legs are extremely tired. But we were doing fine. A half block from the
dentist's office, we were coming down a hilly street and had to make a left at a
very busy intersection. The light was green, and so we were going for it. Since
we were going downhill, I needed to slow down to make the turn. I tapped both
brakes. I don't usually ever use the front brake, for the obvious reasons, but
in this case I tapped both brakes. The rarely used front brake stuck. It did not
untap. The bike stopped dead, instantly, in the middle of the street. My body
did not stop. It flew head first, over the handlebars, landing about five feet
in front of my bike.

Going through the air like that tends to slow things down, giving one time to
think several thoughts. My first thought was that I would die on the landing. My
second thought was that if I didn't die in the landing, the car behind us (no
doubt an unaware college student on a cell phone) would run over both Andy and I
and kill us both. By the grace of God, neither of those things happened. My
helmet took the brunt of the fall, followed by my shoulder, my forearm, my
hipbone, my thighbone, my knee. I crumpled like a rag doll. I picked myself up,
and Andy and I got to the side of the road and then my first thought was, ok, we
just have to go on to the dentist or we'll be late for Andy's teeth cleaning. I
think I was in shock. No one was stopping. Maybe nothing happened afterall.
Maybe I dreamed the whole thing--I did not just fly five feet over my handlebars
and crumple in the street. Maybe I did, but it wasn't as bad as it seemed. I
don't know for sure what was going on in my head. I was a little scrambled, and
it just seemed prudent to get to the dentist's office.

By the time we made it half a block to the dentist, the shock was wearing off, I
was in a lot of pain, my head hurt, my arm, hip and leg hurt. I called the BF to
see if he would come and pick us up, and he said of course. But by the time I
walked around a bit, and tried to organize my thoughts, I called him back to say
I would be ok to ride home, and convinced him that I would be ok. My head was
not throbbing quite as loudly, nothing was broken, nothing was bleeding
profusely. It was weird--I'm ok, I'm not ok, I'm ok, am I ok? I'm not sure I was
thinking straight. My high-end bike helmet, made of much tougher stuff than my
skull, was cracked through.

We got on the bikes to ride home. Andy was very kind and careful. "Slow down
mom. Just take it easy. I'll wait for you." The ride home hurt. The last uphill
was downright brutally painful. I soaked in a hot bath with Epsom salts, took
some aspirin, and went to bed at 8:30. The BF checked my pupils to make sure I
didn't have a concussion. I woke up this morning feeling like someone had thrown
me down in the driveway and run the car over me a few times. I hurt all over.
Mentally, I was running through everything and feeling all kinds of emotions.
Thank God there was not a car right behind us--a minor miracle in that
intersection. Thank God Andy did not get hurt. Thank God we had helmets on. Life
can change in an instant. The world is going to hell in a handbasket because of
fossil fuels. Why doesn't our city have more bike paths?  I have to get back on
my bike when I'm able. Why didn't anyone stop?  All kinds of thoughts.

Julie