Big Bikes

Thanks

On Saturday night a driver, in all likelihood a drunk one ran into the rear wheel of my girlfriend’s bike sending her flying face first into the pavement then drove off. That night I sat up thinking about what I could do, she didn’t really see the car, no one saw what happened, no one stopped to help, to see if she was o.k.. If you saw her face you would have called 911 and waited with her until the ambulance got there, she was hurt that bad, she looked like she’d fought Tyson in the eighties.
In the days that have elapsed since the incident I have thought of all sorts of venomous, horrible, bile-ridden things to say about drivers and their general disconnect when it comes to navigating thousands of pounds of metal around unprotected beings made of flesh and blood with total disregard for their well being, but I’m not going that route. What I want to do is to say how thankful I am for the fact that she came home alive, banged up, but alive, with all her faculties intact, she is lucky and so am I.

Since I’m doing the silly thanksgiving themed deal here I’ll also say that I feel pretty lucky that I woke up this morning and went for a foggy, slippery, hoot of a ride in The Fells with a small posse of friends. I then had a huge dinner with my family who I genuinely do love down to my Aunt’s Jack Russell Terrier, Pickles. Tomorrow I’ll go to my job where I work with a great group of folks who give me nothing but support for my racing endeavors. Saturday I’ll race my bike (hopefully on a nice wet course). Sunday I’ll spend the day with my girlfriend who’s not dead, and then Monday I “Manny” for my sister’s kids Noah and Lyla who are a big part of why I love spending time on this planet. Hopefully by the time they’re riding bikes on the road we’ll have run out of fossil fuels and all cars will be the size of shopping carts and entirely made out of plastic and down pillows.