Saturday, August 11, 2007

PSA: Wear a helmet

So I took my first spill on my bike in about a decade this evening. Nothing serious (breathe, mom!) but I'm a bit bruised and skinned in places. A few thoughts:

-- Yes, you really should wear a bike helmet. If the first bounce of my head off the pavement didn't convince me of this, the second one most certainly did. (EDIT: Just to be clear, my head was helmeted when said bouncing occurred.)

-- In mean old nasty Toronto, within a few seconds of my fall I had not one but two people helping me to my feet and asking if I was okay. The crazy thing? They both headed off in separate directions as I was leaving -- two total strangers, to myself and to each other, stopped to help me. People who think Toronto people are rude or uncaring haven't lived here.

-- There's a moment in a fall like this that seems to occur exactly after you've stopped worrying about the immediate past ("I guess I won't make that green light after all...") and before you've started worrying about the immediate future ("So, about my eyeglasses...") where you're left with nothing to do but contemplate the onrushing concrete. For just a second, I think I understood seriously self-destructive behaviors: there really is a moment of exhilaration there. (Don't worry, I'm not about to throw myself in to oncoming traffic.)

Anyway, how was your evening?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I concur. Helmet wearing saved my life a couple years ago. I also felt a bit of a rush when I realized I was going to be clonked by a van, and it didn't hurt at the time.

That guy said...

Glad to hear you're OK.

Anonymous said...

Did this happen after our party?

Anonymous said...

Joe: mere meters from your house. Just enough distance for me to get up to a decent speed, not far enough for me to be in traffic yet.