Month: May 2007

C. called me today mid-morning at work:

“I’ve had a bad fall from my bike.”

“What happened?”

“Oh, it’s okay, just scraped” — huge gasp — “just wanted you to know. I’m going to urgent care.”

“Uh, would it help if I came home, maybe drove you over?”

“Sure.” Another wince/gasp sound. “Just get here soon.”

Of course I rode my bike to work this morning, so I passed on the word and then changed back into bike clothes and rode home…the fastest I’ve ever made that trip.  But all the way going, be careful, be careful, be careful — doesn’t help either of us if I bail too!

And wow, was he scraped.  Slid in a alley, on gravel, and slid all the way from the gravel out onto the asphalt. His knee and palm were just torn up.  Then he had to walk home, uphill no less, with a handkerchief wrapped around his palm and blood dripping down his shin.

So I drove, and we went to urgent care, and I stayed with him for hand-holding and company. He’s done the same for me a shocking number of times…I’m usually the one falling, missing a step, dropping a paper-cutter on my toe, etc., etc.  I don’t think he’s ever had an accident anywhere near like this in the whole 10+ years we’ve been together.  A couple of times his back’s gone out, and when he gets a bad cold there’s generally a 50-50 chance of it turning into bronchitis, but no scrapes or tumbles.

I saw the nurse pick chunks of gravel out of his knee…and then scrub it with a toothbrush.  Honestly, I couldn’t watch when she was cleaning the palm.  (The bottom, near the thumb…on his dominant hand.)  They bandaged him up and sent him home: nothing broken, no stitches needed.

Spent the rest of the day making sure he had what he needed to be as comfortable as possible, made a run to the grocery store, stocked up on videos from the library. He’s gone to bed now, and maybe will get some sleep soon. The pain, I gather, is quite intense, so I’m hoping that tylenol with codeine will be of some help.

Me, I’m exhausted. I’m going to go to bed early and get some extra Zs myself, so I have a hope of being coherent at work tomorrow.

(And yes, per the title: he was not wearing his cycling gloves.  He’s said seventy gajillion times today that he should have been wearing his gloves, if he’d only been wearing his gloves, etc., etc. Let this be a lesson to all of you.)

I had my first ride to work since before WebVisions (and the god-awful sinus infection) on Friday and it was quite lovely. Coincidentally, it was Ride to Work Day…although not coincidentally, the bike commute contest had double miles for that day, and it was a dress-down day for anybody who biked or walked to work. 🙂 Of course, after an incredibly gorgeous week, I got rained on a bit on the way home.  Still, it felt so very good to ride.  Not that you want to know, but I also managed to work the last of the gunk out of my sinuses that way.

I tried to go out yesterday afternoon, but seriously — 5 minutes out and it started POURING.  After being just cloudy with occasional drizzle all day.  WTF?  Today was just torrential, although it’s stopped and I see a bit of blue sky through the living room window.

The weirdest thing happened this week.  C’s bike was stolen last fall (about the same time Maddy disappeared), and this week he was out driving on an errand, and saw some random guy, riding his bike.  So of course he stopped and confronted the guy, who started to give some kind of lame excuse, but stopped and just let C take it back.

We checked the serial number on the bottom that evening, because I never throw away paperwork, and yep: it’s his old bike.  Unfortunately, it’s in pretty lousy condition — pretty beat up, and it was already 6 years old anyway.  Since he’s already gotten a replacement bike, I think we’re going to donate it to Build-A-Bike, so somebody can get some use out of it without being a thief.  I’m just boggled that it turned up: a very nice turn of events.

This week is supposed to be good weather, at least the first few days, so I’m looking forward to getting some miles in.  I discovered, while I was sick, that I get very little exercise when I’m not riding.  We’re doing this step-counting thing at work, with free pedometers, and if I ride, it works out to the equivalent of 12000+ steps.  During the time when I was recovering, but going to work, it took real effort to get above 6000.  Which points to exercise as an important part of my mental health, and reminds me that I need to keep doing SOMETHING, even if I can’t ride.  I started walking more, once I saw the pattern, and that was lovely too.  Even got a breakthrough on a work project while out on an afternoon stroll to the park.

present: me, C, luke, ann, luke’s fiancee whose name I can’t remember, carol, jody, edie.

dude, the newsletter made money! remind C to talk to 4D.  need to find a distribution manager for winter 2008. 20 routes, Mark has the spreadsheet. should probably also work on recruiting new delivery people.

membership directory.

sign update – lee keatch (sp?) in public works.

oh, hey, that house that got fixed up belongs to luke.

weird map shit.

picnic? disc golf?! kiosk with healthy activity info.

olympian free community events section. eventco…stuff is expensive, but maybe we can work out something.

scott’s drum circle? restaurant equipment? (huh?)  pizza guy?

need to get a list of who to contact about what.

city maintenance guys ahead of time. tctv mobile studio.

new bridge as sponsors?

5 hours is too long.  last year was 11am – 2pm, that worked out well.

microphone for meetings? older woman with impaired hearing. or record? (podcast!)  if we use the sanctuary then we can use their setup.

archive notice for next newsletter.

I’m taking on the whole membership list management thing.

capitol city marathon on sunday, cheering section, on legion between boundary & central, getting together around 9 am.

I spent most of last week, and all of last weekend, almost totally out of it, with a cold that turned into a sinus infection. (Thanks, Dylan! …I kid.)  Went back to work yesterday, mostly because I had run out ALL of my sick days. But as of today I’m almost back to normal, barring the occasional really deathly sounding cough and a hoarse voice.

So I watched all of both seasons of the Venture Brothers.  If you haven’t already seen it, then do not pass go, do not collect $200, just get the damn thing ASAP.  Entirely bizarro and hilarious.

And I slept. A lot.

No bike riding…it’s halfway through May, with glorious weather almost the whole time, and I’ve ridden my bike to work once, to the library once, and to the neighborhood association meeting. (Which almost doesn’t count; it’s about 4 blocks.) I’m debating whether to push myself tomorrow, or to wait until Thursday to try it.  Pretty much depends on how I feel when I wake up.  Also whether any of my bike clothes are clean.

In other health news, Mom got out of the hospital the end of last week. (Broken hip.)  The doctors thought briefly that she’d had a heart attack after surgery, but that turned out not to be the case. Her broken hip definitely wasn’t a little-old-lady thing, either, just an incredible freak accident…tripping over a wire on her way to the kitchen.  (If you missed the earlier part of this story, she already had a broken arm from tripping over a cracked sidewalk at work.)  I’ve talked to her twice, and Elizabeth a zillion times, and Mom sounds pretty good considering.  She has a pin through her hip and all the way down her thigh.  Ow.

On the other hand, the docs were able to confirm that yes, she has incredibly good strong bones.  Another hip break is a one-in-a-million chance, even given that she’s 63.  And in both cases, it’s simply that she landed really, really badly.

I’d also like to share with the intarwebs that I’m insanely proud of my baby sister Elizabeth. She lives at home (rent in So Cal!) and has been taking care of everything with Mom this whole time and in style.  I know she had a couple of freakouts (Mom going into surgery, especially), but she’s done really well regardless.  That on top of starting a brand new job, her first permanent gig out of college.

Elizabeth, you RAWK. 🙂

And I’m just going to leave it at that.