daskobtimburt

I just had to come back and post this. All this talk of bicycles and assulting and the holiday reminded me of an experience my husband and I had once, and I guess it is sort of related, just goes to show that there is always someone lower on the food chain. Here it is, A CHRISTMAS EVE TO REMEMBER:

One lovely Christmas eve, my husband and I were walking down the sidewalk in Arroyo Grande, Ca. A fairly small town on the central coast, Arroyo Grande has many, many tourists year-round because of its close proximitiy to Pismo State Beach. This is important, as it translates out to an endless supply of unsuspecting victims. Anyway, the presents were wrapped, tree trimmed, etc. and we decided to go there to see if we could pick up some unique last minute gifts while getting a little walking exercise. We were on the (rather wide for this area) sidewalk when I saw a man approaching on a bike, heading the opposite direction down the same sidewalk that we were on. He wasn't going particularly fast, but he was rolling along, alright. At this moment my husband, who had been walking shoulder-to-shoulder with me, paused for a split second because something in a store-window caught his eye. At that point, the biker was still a good 40 ft. away, and I kept my eye on him because I wanted to make sure that he had plenty of room to pass us. Like I said before, the sidewalk was plenty wide, wide enough for two big 'ol people side by side, and a bike too. Now my husband's right shoulder is just behind my left one, because of his pause, we are taking up even less room on the sidewalk than before. The bike is closing on us and the guy on it won't make eye contact with me even though I know he sees us. 25 ft., then 15, is he accelerating? Oh! THAT SUCKER IS AIMING FOR ME!!! Too late. Even though he hit ME and not my husband, who was partially behind me and never saw it coming, he hit me with such force that I crashed backwards into my hubby, knocking him down behind me. The last thing I remember before I was knocked out was my face impacting the bad biker's shoulder. It was probably good to be knocked out at that point, because after he knocked me down, he proceeded to RIDE OVER MY BODY! What an absolute STINKER!!!! I hit my husband so hard that he was knocked out cold, too. When we woke up, (after about 2 minutes, witnesses told us) the bad biker was out cold in the middle of Grand Avenue, the main drag through town. Concerned shopkeepers who had seen the whole thing asked us if they could do anything to help us, but we were dazed and in shock, and the show wasn't over yet! Apparently the shopkeepers recognized the bad guy, and were wary of him. There he was in the middle of the street, we couldn't tell if he was even alive from the sidewalk. Although an ambulance had been called, no one approached him. It was just the shopkeepers, the bad guy, my husband and myself. Then one of the shopkeepers took action. This particular man had his arm in a sling, A mishap had twisted it and nearly broken it, and we found out later that his doctor had told him to keep it absolutely still, hence the sling. He ran out into the street, to where the bicyclist was still laying, motionless. He checked to see if he was alive, and began talking to the bad guy while trying to warn off cars. The bad guy began to come around, and when he did, he screamed at the shopkeeper "LEAVE ME ALONE!", dragged himself to his feet, and proceeded to stagger in a dazed circle before he passed out again and hit the pavement with a THUD. Nice shopkeeper, worried for the bad guy's safety, crouches down next to him saying over and over "just relax, hold still, help is on the way". Well, this was enough to bring bad biker around again, and this time, he grabbed the poor shopkeeper by the arm that was in the sling, and twisted it almost all the way around! Poor shopkeeper begins to scream with pain, and bad guy won't let go, everyone on the sidewalk is just astonished, (the crowd of spectators had grown) frozen in disbelief. When the poor shopkeeper was finally brought to his knees in the middle of the street by the bad guy, still having his arm twisted and screaming, that's when we heard the approaching siren. Bad biker (who was still actually laying in the street at this point) drops the poor guy's arm, jumps up, sort of jogs to his bike, gets on it a flees! Poor shopkeeper can't even get up, he is in such pain from the attack, now he's in the middle of the main drag, on his knees, crying, oh poor guy! The other shopkeepers help him back to his feet and onto the sidewalk, and that's when the ambulance finally arrives. We were literally in shock and refused treatment. My clothes were ruined, scraped off me in some places. I was bleeding, my jaw was swelling to immense proportions, I was sore all over, and to top it off I had a knobby-tread mountain bike tire print bruise that went from my groin all the way up my body and off the top of one shoulder! I guess I was lucky that he didn't run over my face and head too, he was a heavy guy on a heavy bike. The ambulance guys left, and after a few minutes of dazed refuge in one of the shops, we left to walk back to our car. After about 40 minutes we started getting angry, REALLY angry, and drove to the police station to tell them what happened, perhaps we could keep this from happening to someone else. We were young, tough and strong, but this sort of thing could kill someone less hardy! So we go to file a report, and guess what they tell us? They know EXACTLY who this guy is and where he lives, he's done this before, more than once and would we care to accompany them to the house to i.d. him? YES! YES WE WOULD! We get there, and his bike is parked out front on the porch, big as life, with him inside watching the tube, content with his day's activites. Apparently this was sort of a hobby for him, he'd been jailed for it before, and even told by a judge that he was not allowed to ride a bike or even own one for that matter! They took him in, said he was goin' away for violating his probation or whatever. No need to press charges, he was outta there. Merry Christmas, they told us. We were still hurtin' past new year's. Now we laugh about this, it was many years ago, but maybe we shouldn't, he's out by now, and got a new bike too, probably. Oh no! a 65lb downhill bomber perhaps?

bkrownd

Heh, those crazy Californians...

wabbit

Recently, in Ottawa, this wacko cabbie deliberately ran down a lttle boy on a bike, chasing him into a parking lot and running him down. WHile the poor kid was lying on the ground, the cabbie said, "Better stay out of my way!" The kid has some injuries and scrapes. THe cabbie company is still trying to find out who did it. What a sick f***!

chemcycle

For someone not intent on insulting anyone....you do a pretty good job.....of insulting an entire community.

Roody

[sermon] I don't see how you can be a safe cyclist if you always expect the worst from members of one group, and, conversely, believe that motorists from another group are safe and don't have to be watched out for. Keep an eye on everybody, but feel glad that deliberate assault on cyclists is very rare and not to be brooded over. [/sermon]

Thank you very much.

Roughstuff

Yes...see another thread in this Forum, "Sometimes the good guys win." Of course I am being vain because i started it. If there is one advantage of cell phones, it means you can get right on and report them, maybe even get a photo of the car and plate. Not much is likely to happen if this is an isolated incident; but a pattern will get police attention.

roughstuff

caloso

Wow, daskobtimburt! Sounds like he knocked the <return> key right out of you.

And let me say on behalf of all Hispanics that familia is the most important thing to us. That's why when we go out to assault cyclists, we take the whole family, everybody from Tia Rosita to cousin Chuy, to Don Evaristo, and the little muchachos.

lilHinault

Let's hope Bad Biker had a good time in jail, aka hotel assrape.

henesse

What goes around come around.
You'll probably see them shot dead on the news one day.
as horrible as that sounds its reality.

PainTrain

Is that a generalization about how Hispanics eat a lot of beans?








j/k

lilHinault

Then how come I can eat beans 'til the cows come home and get nothing in the gas department from them? And I'm criminally Anglo.