absenteeism

did you notice I wasn't here tuesday?
I noticed, but only in a fuzzy, hazy, morphine-induced witless way.
in other words, I was "in hospital" as they say across the water, having crashed on my bicycle early tuesday morning.
yes, my wonderful Biking Anniversary celebration plan went splat on the bike trail two miles into my 50-mile ride up Big Cottonwood.
splat.
crash.
rip, tear,
ow.

my right clavicle has two breaks in it, my right achromion is chipped, and I have a few broken ribs over there as well.
as well, the shorts are shredded, the jacket has a few serious scrapes and a new hole, the helmet is scraped and cracked, one water bottle lid is smashed and ruined, and I have some slightly-tender spots of road rash decorating my right side from my forehead to my calf. oh, and the bruise on my left inner calf, from the pedal, I suppose. oops, I forgot, the banana looks pretty bad, too, bruised and decidedly squished mid-section.

I do not know exactly what happened ("did you lose consciousness?" was one of the top questions at the hospital, to which I answered, um, I really don't know . . . what does that say about it? ), only that at one moment I was upright and saw a large weed-thingee leaning across the bike (and my) path, and the next moment I'm aware of I was on the ground crying out, oh God, oh God, oh I hurt, oh God . . .
he heard and sent a few helpers, I limped my way back over the bike path to a spot where a car could pick me up, and a wonderful friend of those great helpers (his name is Matt something, perhaps Thomas?) gave me and my bike a ride up to the emergency room, where another helper-be filled out the form for me because my right hand didn't feel like playing the writing game.

and now I am mostly back to the living. amidst countless offers of help and concern, and some pretty uncomfortable sleeping hours. this big bump-ridge-thingee on my clavicle gives me the willies, and I try not to think about the pictures.
as my amazing I-am-so-honored-to-have-this-person-as-a-friend friend ivy says, now I am in excellent company: lance and I will now both have titanium plates on our clavicles. woo hoo.
yep, surgery monday, after which the surgeon tells me I'll be able to hop back on my bike.

hmmm.

at this moment, I don't know that I want to do that.

but I've been without coffee for a couple days, and I'm really not back to my real self yet, so I'm going to give that a while to change. because the tao of cycling wouldn't be much without the cycling part, in fact, it would just be the tao of, and I don't think I'm qualified to pontificate on such a vast and limitless subject.

no, I am not on painkillers.

so, chances are I will eventually (okay, soon) be back on my bike, though I might take it a bit easy for a while. which is okay, because there's still a lot of life to observe on quiet rides throughout the neighborhood, and little, leisurely jaunts up small canyons, and really, just about anywhere one chooses to go.