gnarly bloodbath

today had all the makings of being an uneventful tuesday. after a relatively quiet day at work, i came home and waltzed up to alberta to go to the bike coop to get some parts for my miscreant bike and hit the library. i came home and worked on my bike, or thought i would at least, but unfortunately i am missing a tool, so i didn't get real far.

had to settle for pumping up my tires on the bike with the rusty bizness going on...it doesn't ride real well at the moment but i can get from point a to point b. i was kinda hoping to get my shit together for pedalpalooza but on account of being sick all month missed out on 90% of it. I've only got a couple of days left to get my bike on. i needed a better chain than what i've got to work with, so a little while later, while the sun was still out, i hopped on my bike and rode up to walgreens but they quit carrying the choke chains i've been using to lock up my bikes for the past 5 years so it wasn't real successful either.

what is it with today? can't do shit...

on the way back home i saw a gnarly bike + auto accident on the corner of broadway and 8th.
a greenish beater pickup truck collided with a cyclist in the bike lane and the road was full of glass. not sure exactly how the whole thing happened but i'm guessing the truck had pulled into the bike lane to make a right hand turn without checking to see if there was anyone IN the bike lane at the time. from what i could see, the guy was under the backside of the truck and his friends pulled him up out of the street onto the sidewalk.
there was blood and glass everywhere. he was dazed and bleeding, unaware of what had just taken place a moment before. the driver, fortunately didn't leave the scene...it looked like a guy and his wife and kid. they came out and the cops were called and they must've been nearby because they came in record time.
i went and got a bunch of napkins and a cup full of ice in case the wait for medical assistance was a long one, but this ain't memphis and the ambulances arrived in less than a couple of minutes late ( i was duly impressed with the response time. heck back in memphis you can't even get through to the operator that fast, much less get a fully functional response in less than half an hour).

that was a pretty sobering experience. i trepidatiously rode back home looking all around me the whole time.
a nasty run in with a car would be enough to put me and my poor little family out of business for a long long time. uggh. at least i have some accident insurance but who knows how good it is. knowing my luck i'd get stuck with the entire bill on a technicality of some sort. the guy who got hit looked like he was in his early twenties. i bet he didn't have any insurance unless he was a student and still on his parent's policy. poor kid.

car drivers are a dangerous bunch. i see it all the time. folks just gabbing away on their cell phones driving around oblivious. it's scary out there. i don't think most drivers have a clue how lethal their innattention is to us unarmed pedestrians...no clue at all.

yo--it only takes a second to garner yourself a manslaughter conviction.

word.