the Jamaica trail is so great...
Yep I did get out, thanks for asking Kim. Made me think to comment on it. What a great morning Friday was. I felt like I could have gone really far, just not too fast. Fast was not much in me, but considering how much I have not been riding lately it was still great. I am really happy to have a nice trail on the south side now, the Jamaica, which is much like the mopak, it is nice to have two favorites. I hope they are planning on continuing south with it. If I had had heavier tires I would have blazed my own trail. Got home in time to get ready to go to the game, and though it seemed like they were not really playing to win in the beginning they pulled it out. I am very fond of trick plays, they are fun.
the cure is at hand...
so great weather and four days off of work, that just might get me on my bike...it could happen.
running silent cliff notes....
because Jk bitched that that post was too long...Brain dammage is a serious and frightening thing...Wear your effing helmet, please!
what do you think...
do you think someone gave him some blue paint for free, or do you think he was deliberately have a blue period, I think he got blue paint for free.
Angel Fernández de Soto, 1903
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
$40,000,000-60,000,000
http://christies.com/home_page/object_week/picasso_6292006.aspImpressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale
November 8, 2006
all night walgreens...
So when you fall off of your bike, drugs can help. Of course we were released from theER at 5 after 6pm on sunday, so our local CVS had quit dispensing by that time. I know from experience that the 70th and pioneers Walgreens is not an all night prescription service, so I dropped the invalid at home, and headed out to 70th and "O". I had been there before on a Sunday evening, so I knew what I was getting into. And the wait was going to be 35 minutes. For some that may seem like a lot, but after the slow motion of ER observation of a head injury it seemed like lightening to me. Nothing a bag of Habanero Doritos and a Diet Dr. Pepper were not going to be able to get me through. So I settled in for some great people watching.
Lady on a cell phone...I cannot believe how some people are on a cell phone. I did not know this person, I did not introduce myself, I know her pretty well now, and I am sort of hoping we do not meet further down the road. The thought of a subsequent meeting where there might be a formal introduction sort of makes me feel all nervous inside. I must have been sending out this nervous vibe because she cut the second call off, somehow between the first call and the second call she had become completely aware that she was in public, "I will have to call you back I am at the pharmacy"
The sickly looking little boy standing in the cart...This always gets me revved to my max, I have caught other kids nose diving out of carts before, so I like to brace myself to be quick. His mom looked sickly too, and all of his teeth were capped a sign that he was very ill at birth and for a time afterward too. He was very cute. His mother had a very fragile posture, made me wonder what the whole story was. It was not really that late on a sunday, but it just seemed like they both should have been somewhere calm and cozy on a sunday night. Somehow soup seemed in order. He did not nose dive out of the cart by the way. I was really glad about that. Somehow when you save a kid from that, parents will look at you like it was your fault. Yes they had their backs turned and you stopped a potentially bad thing from happening, but because you alert to their error in judgement somehow you are the bad one. I love that. It makes all the nice run right out of me like water.
The young woman who just looked like she was in pain...Posture is an interesting thing. The way people will hold themselves when they hurt. The way they walk and fold their arms over themselves as if that will give some extra comfort against the pain. She had a really nice young man along with her, and even in the pain they looked like they had just come from somewhere important. She had on very high heels, even though she was in pain, and he had on a tie. He carried around a shiatsu massager and a heating pad, and a bag of ziploc baggies which she was really mean to him when he asked if she wanted paper or plastic. Plastic of course, ziplocs, growl. He slunked away and came back with them. It seemed like it sucked to be him.
The people working behind the counter...I think the hardest thing on the planet is deciding how many people you need to work when. It seems like there is just no way to make a solid calculation. Sometimes you will have people standing around making money for nothing and sometimes you will be swamped no matter how well you tried to plan ahead. I love my neighborhood pharmacy, long ago they were open on a sunday night too, but that has been gone for a while now. At work they are always trying to get my meds on the 3mth at a time mail order way. But what would happen to the guys at the neighborhood pharm then. I know them, they know me, I never need my med numbers. I like that I know them, it makes me trust them when they tell me about stuff interacting and how some of my meds I should take in the morning and some at night. I always miss them tons when I have to go to the all night Walgreens...
running silent...
Not really running deep though, just playing it quiet like, just really had nothing to add the conversation. Felt like spending some time just being quiet. Have not really been riding, or running, or doing anything much other than really working hard. Funny how sometimes at work it is nice and steady and then there is a lot to be done. I like being the one that gets to do it, so that is good. But it keeps me busy and it makes me tired, so I just felt like laying low. Slowly though I have been getting back out into the world though. I have done a couple of early season wine wife stuff, a couple of tastings. I like that. It is like playing grownup for the evening. And I have even taken a couple of bike rides. I have slowly been working on getting my husband interested in biking. I would really like it if he would, then we could take vacations with our bikes. I really like the sound of doing that, but I really need for him to get interested in doing that too. Things were going really pretty well, he has taken a spinning class and he has been shopping for a new more comfortable bike than the one he has, a scandia with campy components. We are going to hang it in the family room as art, though it is going to need some work. It is a beautiful bike, but it like my husband took quite a beating today. We were on our way down to the mill to buy some coffee, and first he fell over like we all have just because he could not clip out. That fall was actually sort of amusing, we all know the big details because everyone with clips has taken that fall. But the part where he was stuck on his back and could not clip out till I grabbed his bike and sort of held it firm till he could clip out, that was pretty amusing. If we had turned around then we would have been fine. But we pressed on. After all we are talking coffee for the espresso machine, it is important. we had not even gone another quarter of a mile then the second fall happened. The second was the big one. The one with all the blood, and confusion and chaos. A car which parked right in front of us, was getting ready to open the door right into us, so Emory moved away, and his back tire struck his dads front. I still say from where I saw it the woman had slung open the car door, but Emory does not recall it that way. Frankly it was sort of traumatic to everyone. All the blood, it makes your heart race. And Steve was being sort of goofy, and hard to handle. That should have been my queue. But I missed it, so as soon as everything seemed calm again we got on our bikes and went home, we were still only about 8 minutes from home, but in 20/20 hindsight it was the wrong thing to do. Even though the doctor at the ER said he would have probably done the same thing. By the time we got back to the house, the confusion was solidly upon Steve, he kept asking "So what happened", Emory or I would tell him, a few seconds would go by and he would ask it again. He did not ask it too many times, I can tell you that. I missed the first queue of him being a goof on the scene, I was not going to miss the second, I got really insistent really fast and he was in the car and on the way to ER. All you really need to say at the ER, and of course you need to mean it, Is Head Injury with memory loss and confusion, you can say chest pain but you better mean that one too. That he had no short term memory really got them going pretty quickly in that slow motion watching you sort of way that happens in the ER. He has a pretty good concusion. He is going to be really sore the next few days. But he is going to be ok. Emory and I both had our helmets on. Steve did not, he has been shopping for one, but he hates wearing my old one, and just decided not to today. I feel really fortunate to tell you he is fine tonight. But in those minutes when he could not remember why we were on our bikes, or why we were over in that neighborhood, or the name of his elementary school which we had just passed when this all happened, I could imagine it all disappearing and doing it with a speed that takes your breath away. We were relieved to get to the hospital and to be close to intervention if it came to that. And we were even able to joke with the staff after the short term memory thing started to fade. I think he still does not really recall the events, but at least now when I tell him what happened he can repeat it pretty well back to me. If he had had his helmet on things could have still gone badly, but, there is also a good chance that things would not have gone as badly as they did. I have done it too, I am from a time when there were not even helmets in competition, and I love to ride my bike without my helmet, I tell myself it feels great to ride a bike like I did when I was kid. I do not think you will see me riding my bike without my helmet again. If you see Emory riding without his, please tell me, I know you will not see Steve riding without his. I took some pictures and I will post them when I figure out how to get them out of his phone. It was a big day, we are all tired, soon I will write about waiting for drugs at the 24 hr Walgreens and how really interesting it was, but for now, please, if you are reading this blog, your probably a friend, even if I only know you through the blogs, please wear your helmet, pretty please.
