The Aerie
Well, this has been an odd month, and I'll be happy to see it over.
It hasn't been all bad, in fact a lot of it's been good. But it's
been an interesting month, kind of in the way the Chinese curse means
"interesting," and a boring month of calm normalcy would be greatly
appreciated.
I wish I thought June was going to provide that, but I suspect it
won't be the case.
May started when I left one job and started another. Somehow in the
midst of the next week an old friend from high school contacted me
through Classmates.com -- someone I hadn't spoken to in over twenty
years. It's been nice getting in touch with her again.
That week was full of the new job as well as preparing for an upcoming
feature on the local news. That and the need to have some kind of
website (just for its own purposes) resulted in many long nights of
work as well as a weekend dedicated to the effort.
As a result of these efforts I got strep throat and missed my sixth
day of work Doubtless getting accustomed to the local disease
environment didn't help either.
The next day the news report aired, demonstrating how to hack into
home computers. Everybody from my little company got together for a
party to watch the report. It was a good time, but the end of a
tiring week.
A few days after that I rode my bike to my new job for my first time.
I wore my helmet and made good time, an invigorating ride down West
River Road and back. I told my friend Mike how much I loved that
bike, the best bike I ever had.
The next day I rode the bike again, but when I left work I forgot my
helmet on my desk. I hopped on the bike and decided to ride home by
the city streets instead of along the River Road. I rolled over to
where the 35W southbound exit empties onto Washington Avenue. I
waited for the "Walk" sign. There was another bicyclist riding right
towards me, looking right at me. Cars were stopped in the closest and
farthest of three lanes of traffic, leaving the center lane open.
I rode into the crosswalk, and as my front wheel cleared the near car,
I noticed a pickup truck heading for me. It kept getting closer and
closer as I moved in front of it. My mind said "It has to stop" and
then it didn't. I remember the white metal of the hood rushing up to
meet my face, and the next thing I knew I was lying in the crosswalk.
"What's happening? Where am I?" I wondered for a moment. The tar was
hot and dry. Then I remembered the accident! Was I hurt? I gingerly
moved my limbs. No lancing pains occurred. My face and mouth hurt,
but there was no blood and no teeth were loose. Carefully I crept to
my feet and looked around.
The pickup that had hit me was pulled up on the sidewalk, the driver
already coming towards me. "Damn!" he said jovially, "I knew those
brakes were bad!" I looked around. My precious bike lay in a
tangle. I picked it up carefully, moving slowly to avoid any painful
physical discoveries, and got it out of the road.
Then the other bicyclist showed up and some women jumped out of their
cars and began asking if I needed witness contact information.
Someone pointed out my glasses still lying in the crosswalk, tangled
like my bike.
The witnesses gave their names, I called my insurance, he called some
people (one of whom he told "Oh, yeah, I'm gonna drive a lot slower on
the way home!"). Eventually a cop showed up but aside from warning
the driver that he would arrest him if he tried to drive his truck
again, did not do anything. He even let me wobble away with my bike.
So I called my wife and she took me to the hospital where I was
X-rayed and diagnosed as concussed and X-rayed again to see if the
bone chip found in my neck was a hazard to my spine. Eventually I was
sent home to recuperate for the weekend.
A couple of days later, last week, the past returned again... my
girlfriend from 14 years ago sent me an e-mail. I don't know if she
saw the news report or if it was just another wild coincidence in an
interesting month. I meet her Tuesday to learn what has happened
since our traumatic breakup oh-so-many years ago...
Of course, Tuesday is still part of May, so clearly our meeting could
end up being quite weird.
June can't arrive too soon...
[1]Last
Posted by Albatross at May 27, 2001 12:00 AM