My Last Bike To Work Day

Well… I was really looking forward to doing this year’s bike to work day.  Not so much as an eco-fascist but it’s nice to get a little stretch in before work.   Last year I rode from San Jose to San Mateo which is about 40 miles on a mountain bike.  That was a pretty good poke.

This year I only had to go Mountain View.  About 5 miles from my destination some asshole opened his parked car door into the bike lane and sent me flying into the street.   Stuntmen couldn’t have timed it better.  One thing I noticed that in movies this usually send the victim end over end over the door.  What happened to me was ramming the right side of my chest into the corner of the door and get sent sprawling perpendicular to the car.

Who was this asshole?  I don’t know. I was kind of shakin’ up.  I was on the bike after letting my head clear a bit for 15 minutes but I probably should have made sure his car was alright (and if it was punched out the window of his fancy BMW).

Inventory of damage
1. My right chest and back are throbbing and it hurts to breathe deeply.  Coughing is excruciating.  Here is where the point of the car door caught me in the chest.

2. lost a piece of skin off my right thumb.

3. My right elbow is scraped up pretty good

4. My left pinky is sore

5. My company’s $3000 Macbook Pro is dinged pretty good

6. My glasses are bent

I like riding my bike, though I don’t do it very often, but I’m going to stick to the trails where it is safe (I used to ride my bike through the streets of Boston all the time but this just hurts too much). I was going to bitch about the hour it took to get my bike ready…

Mike

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