Wolfwerx

I am just getting back to full days at work from time off because of a bad crash at the beginning of this month...

I was on my way to work, about 7:30-ish AM. It wasn't fully light, yet, but it was light enough that some cars were out there without headlights on. I ride with a headlight, reflective jacket, and a blinking taillight.
There is a huge black spot in my memory, but what I remember/have been told is that I was approaching an intersection when a young girl (on her cell phone, scourge of the biker) turned left in front of me. The last thing I remember is seeing the tail-end of a car and me death-gripping my break levers. Next thing I remember is staring up at the sky with a crowd of people looking down at me.

3 broken ribs, broken collar bone, collapsed lung, completely separated shoulder, and a bashed side/hip so bad that it tore/scratched (?) the kidney on that side. 5 days in the hospital. Weeks worth of missed work, so far. Totally the girl's fault. Cited for "failure to yield" which seems painfully lacking, to me. "Attempted vehicular homicide" seems more appropriate.

There are tons of funny things about this: The day before this, I had "forced" myself to commit to commuting by bike by leaving my work-shoes at my desk, I finally registered here (I've been lurking for quite a while) so I would have a group to keep some peer-pressure on me, and that night I finally switched the crappy steel wheels on my bike with some aluminum ones. So much for those wheels...
Also, in a completely awesome coincidence, the car that was behind me and witnessed the whole thing was a customer of mine. He doesn't work anywhere near me, he just happened to be going down that section of road. He didn't even realize it was me on the bike until he hopped out of his car to help. He called my boss for me, talked to the cops, called my wife, took my bike to my office for me. I am very grateful to him for his help.


RIP: 1974 Schwinn Le Tour. 64cm, lugged steel beauty.