Reason #1342 in my Dislike of Fossil Fuel Driven Transportation

Alternative titles to this post could have been:

Another Day, Another Grease Tat

Why I Shave My Legs

Pavement Surfing 101

But, anyway, reason 1342 would be oil, on the road, literally.  Which'd result in a drop-'n-slide and yet another grease tat for the Scoplaw.  Ouch.

All in all it wasn't too bad, but the ride endorphins are fading out and the pain's coming in.  And of course, the one thing that I don't have in the office (stopped by to get some folders on the way home) is a bottle of pain killers.  I *do* have Neosporin here though, thankfully, and I had water to clean it on site. 

What happened was this: I was cornering at a reasonable rate of speed on smooth pavement, pavement that featured an oil slick, created by some oblivious motorist, no doubt.  Front wheel shot out from under me, and since I corner by leaning, I went down pretty fast, but caught a lot of weight on my gloved hands.  (Thank you reflexive brain! though shoulder may complain to you later.)  It was basically one of those classic grating slides, which I much prefer to sudden stops by (or into) immobile objects, or worse, getting hit by perpendicularly mobile objects with more mass than I. 

Hush lost some aluminum off her brake handles, I lost some skin off my legs and elbow.  Oddly (or not), the new road patch on my elbow overlays my old scars there, which, I think, protected me somewhat.  (I've been building this one up for over 15 years.)  My right hip flexors, bad shoulder, and both my palms are just now informing me they were involved as well, but I think only moderately.  My cycling gloves protected my hands, my shorts protected my hip, The top of my shoe caught a lot of friction instead of my leg, and so, all in all it wasn't that bad, also due to the smoothness of the roadway and lack of sand.  I'm actually most worried about the shoulder. 

While there wasn't much blood, there were some glass bits which reminded me of just when the inconvenience of leg-shaving pays off.  It's *so* much easier to tweezer out glass, pebbles, and dirt if there's not a mat of hair and blood to get through first.  Sorry for the image kids, but from the non-bicycling middle Americana I find myself amongst, I endure a lot of random comments.

It's just another one to walk away from.  And if you squint, it sort of looks like Jesus:

 

Comments

[pjm]

You had me at, "if you squint, it sort of looks like Jesus".