Bikes and bruises and blood, oh my!

Posted by admin on Nov 2, 2006 in Community | 0 comments

It sounded like a good idea – we would ride our bikes to Ethical Addictions, spend an idyllic afternoon studying there, and then leisurely ride back in the warm sunshine – until I remembered my last bike ride, which included rusty barbed wire, sharp coffee tree branches, a log across the path, and lots of blood, mud, and bent metal.

But this time there would be sidewalks, relatively flat roads, no sign of barbed wire, and no coffee trees. What could go wrong?

So against my better judgment, my roommate and I set out confidently on our bikes. However, it wasn’t long before I was standing beside the road looking at my scraped-up, slightly-bleeding calf, that I realized that my slippery sandals were probably not the best choice for biking. But a little bit of blood never killed anyone, so after hiking 50 metres to collect my sandal I set forth resolutely once more.

As we approached the busy intersections of Langley, I realized a second thing: my roommate was used to riding her bike in a busy city. She wove fearlessly through the traffic and seemed to flout both pedestrian and traffic rules, leaving me gasping for air in the middle of an intersection completely confused. Somehow (my eyes were shut, so I couldn’t tell you how) I managed to get to the other side and to Ethical Addictions safely.

Time passed swiftly and soon we were outside unlocking our bikes. Since we were in a walk-only zone, I was fairly relaxed. A mistake I quickly realized, when I stepped backwards only to be nearly run over by a speeding bicycle. In order to avoid killing me, he swerved in and out of the path of a massive black dog. The biker sped on.

The dog, obviously annoyed by this turn of events, decided to express his feelings at me with an aggressive snarl, lunging, and managing to get a hold of my gluteus maximus. As soon as his owner called him back the dog sat down and eyed me passively with his large brown eyes. Not knowing weather to giggle or break into hysterics, I stood in shock.

After calmly walking our bikes out of that zone, we managed to make it back home with only a few more stops and incidents. Once home I decided to weigh my gains and losses.

Losses:
– Scraped up calf.
– Near-loss of my life at the intersection.
– Near-loss of my life from the crazy biker dude.
– Possible rabies infection.

Gains:
– Lovely new bruise.
– The 20 bucks that the dog’s owner insisted on giving me (he was scared so I only took the money to make him feel better).
– Five dollars saved on bus fare.
– A gorgeous sunset on the way home.

Most importantly, I learned that to laugh at oneself is the best way to make the hardships of life seem a little less daunting. Even though it seems like this sort of thing could only happen to me (and does so repeatedly), if I can learn not to take myself so seriously, then at least I know my life will never be boring. However, seeing as things tend to ‘just happen’ whenever I get on one of those contraptions, I think I will steer clear of bikes for a little while.