Harder and I had a near-fatal bicycle accident yesterday. We were coming back from a bike ride along the canal, and were heading to Wal-Mart for some CLR that could remove the rust from her bike handle. On the way there, we encountered a crossing guard who wanted to walk us across the street - but since we're 22 we quickly dismissed her and continued riding anyway. Shortly after, we encountered an elderly lady on the sidewalk. We usually ride on the sidewalk because we're not daring enough to ride on the street - St. Catharines doesn't have very many bike lanes, and even when there is a bike lane, you usually can't go for very long before it abruptly ends. Anyways, we try to be courteous bikers, ensuring that the pedestrian doesn't have to go out of their way for us so we usually ride on the lawn and then climb back onto the side walk once we've passed. This time, however, the climb was higher than usual and Harder's rear tire got caught and she FLEW onto the sidewalk. I wasn't far behind her so had to brake quickly and found myself doing a reverse wheely - I pretty much didn't have time to think so I did a cirque de soleil and vaulted over my handle bars landing on my feet. Impressive, right? No. The most impressive part about this whole debaucle was that I hardly had any time to finish my sentence "HARDER ARE YOU OKAY!" before she bounced up as if nothing happened. She had a huge gash on her knee and the elderly lady felt so awful claiming that if she hadn't been there it wouldn't have happened. We convinced her that we were okay and that we should have been on the road anyway. Then another women who heard the commotion came over to see if everything was okay. From just looking at our bikes she thought we had a head on collision. That sounds a lot more dramatic, so I was tempted to say yes.. but we told her no. Anyways, I wasn't sure if this accident occured because of bad karma or bad biking. I think of karma because of the crossing guard that we ignored (she saw everything by the way...yes, very embarassing) or because of the elderly lady we encountered earlier on our trip (not yet mentioned) who, at the sight of us, stood in the middle of the sidewalk with her arms at her hips bitterly yelled: "I'M NOT MOVING! THERE'S A BIKE LANE" to which Harder sweetly replied: "Thank you!". Regardless, the positive aspect of this traumatic incident (and you must always try to find a positive) is that it renewed our faith in people. The ladies who were concerned for us really touched my heart - I'm relieved to know that not all human connection is lost and that even people who don't know eachother can still care about their well-being.
Sadly, my basket suffered injury. Notice how this happened in the upper photo.
Our entangled bikes and the dang sidewalk.
Harder and I had a near-fatal bicycle accident yesterday. We were coming back from a bike ride along the canal, and were heading to Wal-Mart for some CLR that could remove the rust from her bike handle. On the way there, we encountered a crossing guard who wanted to walk us across the street - but since we're 22 we quickly dismissed her and continued riding anyway. Shortly after, we encountered an elderly lady on the sidewalk. We usually ride on the sidewalk because we're not daring enough to ride on the street - St. Catharines doesn't have very many bike lanes, and even when there is a bike lane, you usually can't go for very long before it abruptly ends. Anyways, we try to be courteous bikers, ensuring that the pedestrian doesn't have to go out of their way for us so we usually ride on the lawn and then climb back onto the side walk once we've passed. This time, however, the climb was higher than usual and Harder's rear tire got caught and she FLEW onto the sidewalk. I wasn't far behind her so had to brake quickly and found myself doing a reverse wheely - I pretty much didn't have time to think so I did a cirque de soleil and vaulted over my handle bars landing on my feet. Impressive, right? No. The most impressive part about this whole debaucle was that I hardly had any time to finish my sentence "HARDER ARE YOU OKAY!" before she bounced up as if nothing happened. She had a huge gash on her knee and the elderly lady felt so awful claiming that if she hadn't been there it wouldn't have happened. We convinced her that we were okay and that we should have been on the road anyway. Then another women who heard the commotion came over to see if everything was okay. From just looking at our bikes she thought we had a head on collision. That sounds a lot more dramatic, so I was tempted to say yes.. but we told her no. Anyways, I wasn't sure if this accident occured because of bad karma or bad biking. I think of karma because of the crossing guard that we ignored (she saw everything by the way...yes, very embarassing) or because of the elderly lady we encountered earlier on our trip (not yet mentioned) who, at the sight of us, stood in the middle of the sidewalk with her arms at her hips bitterly yelled: "I'M NOT MOVING! THERE'S A BIKE LANE" to which Harder sweetly replied: "Thank you!". Regardless, the positive aspect of this traumatic incident (and you must always try to find a positive) is that it renewed our faith in people. The ladies who were concerned for us really touched my heart - I'm relieved to know that not all human connection is lost and that even people who don't know eachother can still care about their well-being.
Sadly, my basket suffered injury. Notice how this happened in the upper photo.
Our entangled bikes and the dang sidewalk.
No comments:
Post a Comment