Slow Motion

It is amazing how time dilates when something happens to you. I was in an accident on my bike today. The day started out pretty well, I woke up at 6 AM without benefit of an alarm clock. I was getting up this early because I was participating in the AIDS Run/Walk today which was also the event in Chicago for the National Run Against Bush Day and I planned on biking downtown. I got ready and left at shortly after 7 AM. It took me about an hour and a half to get there and the ride was great. Traffic was nil and I was riding at just the right speed to miss most of the red lights. I was going to park at the Millenium Park Bike Station. I was told that it opened at 9 AM. So, I got there and saw that it opened at 10 AM. This was not going to work because the event was starting at 10 AM and I needed to register and find the people I was going to be walking with so I had to find a place to park my bike. I ended up locking it on a sign along the route with a Kryptonite U-Lock. The fact that everyone now knows that U-locks can be opened with the end of a Bic Pen worried me but I used it anyway. I met everyone, we walked close to the starting line and waited. The walk was nice, I had a nice talk with a civil rights attorney named Sarah on the Run Against Bush Team, Connie, an ACLU attorney, and Len, the father of Shannon, the ACLU attorney that started the Chicago Run Against Bush Team.

After the walk, I grabbed my bike, parked it in the Bike Station, took a shower at the Bike Station, and took the El to the Aesthetic Eye Gallery because I thought today was the last day of the show Guy's work is in. Alex, one of the gallery directors (there are two), told me it will be going until October 15th. This is a good thing. I checked out the stuff that was there for a few minutes and then made my way back to Millenium Park. The world music festival is going on at places throughout the city and at the Cloud Gate there was a really cool Bagpipe Marching Band so I watched them for a few minutes and then grabbed my bike and started biking home. The ride started pretty well, but there was significantly more traffic. When I was on Montrose, I had someone pull out in front of me. This is where time slowed down. I saw the guy stopped in the opposite lane. There was a small break in traffic and he started turning. I slammed on my brakes but it didn't matter, I hit him. I felt the back of my bike lift up, I flew over the handlebars and hit the trunk with my head. I rolled off the trunk and hit the pavement with my knee and shoulder. I got up, straightened out my handlebars and got on the road again. A few miles down the road, I got a flat so I ended up walking the rest of the way home. I now really hurt. I ended patching my tire so I can ride the North Shore Century if my body can take it.