Unca Stewart,

I'm glad to hear you're recovering quickly!

I can relate to much of what you wrote about, having landed on my face after being knocked out of control by a pedestrian who decided it would be fun to punch a cyclist. When I blocked (bad move,) my arm contacted his and it was like clipping a handlebar on a stationary object. My front wheel turned 90 deg. threw me over the bars.

I remember getting up and seeing four women staring at me, asking me if I was ok. One remarked (quite inappropriately) that it looked like my teeth had gone through my lip. I was dazed enough to think, "Oh, she can't be serious." Little did I know my face was covered with blood. My teeth had not actually gone through my lip, but I had a handsome gash under my nose, like when a tomato splits on impact. I guess it's the mercy of our construction that we don't always feel all the pain until later, at least, that was my experience.

Had that similar brief interview with a policewoman as the ambulance unloaded a stretcher, which was when it began to dawn on me this was more serious than I realized. Dazed as I was, I had the presence of mind to ask the officer to be very careful how she broke the news to my excitable wife. She began the phone conversation (I learned later) with, "Mrs. Clark, first let me tell you that your husband is ok." That didn't go over too well, either. There's just no good way to report bad news, I guess. Like you, I was grateful for the quick response time, which was probably due, in part, to the efficiency of that ambivalent invention, the cell phone, and the close proximity of emergency response teams in that neighborhood.

Wishing you a complete, rapid and relatively pain-free (in so far as that's possible) recovery, brother-man.