What a momentous early post:
I'm an avid motorcyclist, saddling up much later in life than I wanted to. I had a minibike as a kid and found an old 80's standard in university that never saw road duty in my hands. However, it wasn't until September 11, 2001 when I picked up my first real streetbike. That's right, I started officially riding on the morning of 9/11. That was a heavy day, but the heaviest day of my riding career came last Friday when it was almost my last. I consider myself a proficient and smart rider, having started out on an underpowered v-twin cruiser, progressing to a powerful cruiser and then to a very powerful sport-touring bike. I've had a close call or two with all of them, but quickly put such incidents behind me and focussed on the next threat. This last close call was a little more than close, it was intimate.
I was traveling at a reasonable pace through the busy core of a village near my home, keeping a watchful eye out for unwary kids running into the street or cars blindly turning onto my road, but somehow the most important threat snuck in under my radar. A sedan pulled out from a parking lot right across my lane and by the time I saw it there wasn't anything more I could do more than what braking I had already begun. I'm not big on steak, but I ate t-bone that day. I recall watching the car "approach" me like lightning and when it was apparent I was going to be reading the dashboard VIN whether I liked it or not, I made some remark to myself along the lines of "fuck" or "shit". I heard a crunch, most likely the compression of my motorcycle's fairing, and felt my shoulder collide with the car, along with my helmet. My brand new brain bucket punched a big hole in the windshield and my body was tossed up into the air. My eyelids closed instinctively to protect my eyes beneath, even though the dual protective layers of sunglasses and faceshield covered them all. I landed about fifty feet beyond the car, having the common courtesy to remain in my own lane.
My flighted body came to a rest face down, my head pointed back towards the car and bike, my feet toward my intended destination, and my hands tucked up underneath my chest. Once upon a time, I was actually in shape and actively involved in football and rugby. Whether or not I was any good at it was a matter of opinion. But It became instinctive for me to tuck my hands to my chest when I went down, because I inevitably ended up on the bottom of a pile of massive bodies, and I found that this helped me to breathe. As a bonus, this also helped prevent lower arm injuries in this instance. I only succumbed to a dislocated left shoulder, a separated right shoulder, and general soft tissue damage. The fact that I was wearing a new fullface helmet, an armoured jacket, and padded boots did wonders for saving my skin and my life.
Three days post-impact, a bottle of painkillers and some R&R have seen me progress a great deal from where I was laid out on the gurney in the hospital, moaning insufferably. The legal and therapeutic followups have been initiated and I hope to be upon two wheels before two long.
Let this be a lesson that speed may kill, but lack thereof can hurt like a hell! It's also a good demonstration for the acronym ATGATT - All The Gear, All The Time. Without the jacket, my arms might be hamburger. Without the helmet, my brain might be soup. For my wife's and son's sakes, I'm glad I follow ATGATT.
http://www.pbase.com/timothypilgrim/rip_poseidon&page=all
This isn't my first blog, that one was a LiveJournal account I activated back before most people knew what blogs were. I would write about my daily life as a single guy and it was quite active, until I met my wife. I pretty much stopped regular blogging then as I became a little more preoccupied. A Blogger account to post jokes to friends was used in the meantime and I also began podcasting, which uses Blogger as well since the feed is tracked easily. Well, now I've found Vox and I like the design and interface, so I'm giving this variant a shot. I aim to make this a more professional-looking blog, with content that is not devoid of, well, content. Now I'm married, a father, and a homeowner, so there is plenty of material to draw from. Hopefully it'll be as interesting as I anticipate. Who knows? We'll see.
