A tale of two errors: a cautionary tale
As no doubt everyone who rides a bike somewhat seriously knows, you're never supposed to get on your bike and go off without checking your bike's basic functions -- tires, brakes, gears, and general integrity. And if there's anything wrong you're supposed to stop and fix it. But it's altogether too easy to forget that if you're in a hurry. Even if you're me, and you generally try to be pretty careful about letting being in a hurry make you careless.

This morning, my bike's back brake, which I'd been meaning to tighten, had really loosened to the point of not working very well at all (I think when I adjusted it the other day I didn't get it the holding screw tightened back up properly). But, being in a hurry, I thought, well, I'll just brake carefully when I need to stop -- conveniently, but very unwisely, forgetting that the time when you really need your brakes is exactly when you don't have time to use them carefully.

Just after I turn from Central to Mary, there's a driveway (for Sun) where people are often turning in, and I sometimes have to slow down a little if people are annoying and pull over in front of me. Well, today people were double extra stupid about watching, I was double-extra without the brake I needed, and I went ass over teakettle and landed in a heap on the street -- luckily I didn't hit anyone and there was no traffic coming, or things could have been much worse than just a simple fall.

None of the several people whose inconsiderate driving contributed to this accident stuck around. Fortunately, a nice guy did see me, and asked if he could help. He gave me a tissue for my chin, which was gashed, and advised me to go to an Urgent Care or a hospital and get it sewn up. He was quite willing to take me, but since we were close to my work, I called my co-worker, who very nicely offered to come and get me and take me to get fixed up. He disassembled my bike for me and waited with me until she came, then helped put my bike in her trunk. I forgot to ask his name, but if he ever runs across this entry, I hope he knows who he is and knows that I'm very, very grateful to him for his help. As I am equally grateful to my co-worker, who picked me up, stayed while I was fixed up, helped me drop off my bike at the shop (it's getting a full tune-up and fixing of any additional problems, though there was little if any apparent damage to it), and brought me back to work.

I'm all sewn up now, and I've learned my lesson, hopefully for good, but definitely for a long time: I will always check my bike's basic components before a ride, and if something is wrong, I will fix it. If I can't fix it, I won't ride.

I also learned that the extra money I spend on good biking clothes and gloves is well worth it. My gloves saved me from some serious road rash today, and while my knee and elbow are a bis scraped and bruised, there's no notable injury other than my chin, and there's no apparent damage to the clothes that covered my knee and elbow. I saw some new scratches on my helmet, so I suspect that I did bump my head and it may have saved me from cuts, scrapes, or something worse.