Bike accident, CUSFS, stuff
Aug. 21st, 2003 03:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjwatsonErm, yeah, I seem to be forgetting to post about stuff again.
On Tuesday morning I got on my bike and headed for work as usual. At the bottom of the Milton Road there's a traffic island with a cycle lane on it, and usually you get to avoid some traffic by using it, although the downside is you have to turn right to get onto it. So, I was riding down towards the island and had started to bear right when I noticed a bus looming up behind me. By then I reckoned I was committed, so I accelerated to be going faster than I normally would at that point so that I could escape this bus, and turned right feeling pretty rushed.
Unfortunately, there's a lamppost separating the pedestrian lane from the cycle lane on the island. Why, I don't know; I've thought in the past that it seemed like an awkward obstacle for no reason. There was nobody around, and I had a moment's indecision about whether to take the pedestrian lane, since I wouldn't need to swerve as much to get onto it. Then I hit an awkward bump which throws me off balance, and: oh shit, here comes the lamppost. I hit the brakes hard, the front wheel locks solid, I take an impromptu flying lesson over the handlebars, and bodily hit the lamppost in a pretty spectacular way. Crunch.
Once I'd lain curled up on the ground for a bit (I was heading straight for the lamppost, so one leg was on either side, and ... well, you get the idea. I'm just glad my pelvis is where it is so I didn't actually hit anything important), I decided that now was probably not a good time to cycle for another ten minutes to work, so I pulled myself up, wheeled the bike home, and called in sick. Then I lay down and had a couple of cups of tea until I stopped shaking.
Apart from a couple of grazes and a stiff shoulder, nothing seems to have been seriously damaged apart from my dignity, at least ...
I drove into work yesterday, partly because I still wasn't really in the mood for cycling (and it turned out this morning that the chain came off in the crash, so I'll have to mess with it a bit anyway), and partly because I'd promised to help move the CUSFS library that evening. The library's been in the Union building for some time; they wanted us to move it out because of damp in that room, but it's been a source of hassle for some time and I think we might be just as happy not to move it back in again.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crazyscot and I turned up with cars, and ceb, Ian, lark_ascending, and a number of others packed a truly enormous number of books which we moved to Relativity. Yay, sanity in the library, with any luck.
Now I'm hoping the network doesn't collapse before I finish writing this entry, since it seems to be groaning under the strain of the latest Windows worm. If you can read this then it worked eventually. :)
On Tuesday morning I got on my bike and headed for work as usual. At the bottom of the Milton Road there's a traffic island with a cycle lane on it, and usually you get to avoid some traffic by using it, although the downside is you have to turn right to get onto it. So, I was riding down towards the island and had started to bear right when I noticed a bus looming up behind me. By then I reckoned I was committed, so I accelerated to be going faster than I normally would at that point so that I could escape this bus, and turned right feeling pretty rushed.
Unfortunately, there's a lamppost separating the pedestrian lane from the cycle lane on the island. Why, I don't know; I've thought in the past that it seemed like an awkward obstacle for no reason. There was nobody around, and I had a moment's indecision about whether to take the pedestrian lane, since I wouldn't need to swerve as much to get onto it. Then I hit an awkward bump which throws me off balance, and: oh shit, here comes the lamppost. I hit the brakes hard, the front wheel locks solid, I take an impromptu flying lesson over the handlebars, and bodily hit the lamppost in a pretty spectacular way. Crunch.
Once I'd lain curled up on the ground for a bit (I was heading straight for the lamppost, so one leg was on either side, and ... well, you get the idea. I'm just glad my pelvis is where it is so I didn't actually hit anything important), I decided that now was probably not a good time to cycle for another ten minutes to work, so I pulled myself up, wheeled the bike home, and called in sick. Then I lay down and had a couple of cups of tea until I stopped shaking.
Apart from a couple of grazes and a stiff shoulder, nothing seems to have been seriously damaged apart from my dignity, at least ...
I drove into work yesterday, partly because I still wasn't really in the mood for cycling (and it turned out this morning that the chain came off in the crash, so I'll have to mess with it a bit anyway), and partly because I'd promised to help move the CUSFS library that evening. The library's been in the Union building for some time; they wanted us to move it out because of damp in that room, but it's been a source of hassle for some time and I think we might be just as happy not to move it back in again.
crazyscot and I turned up with cars, and ceb, Ian, lark_ascending, and a number of others packed a truly enormous number of books which we moved to Relativity. Yay, sanity in the library, with any luck.Now I'm hoping the network doesn't collapse before I finish writing this entry, since it seems to be groaning under the strain of the latest Windows worm. If you can read this then it worked eventually. :)
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Ooh, that smarts
Date: 2003-08-21 07:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-23 05:08 pm (UTC)And does that imply that Relativity now has no floor space?
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-23 05:19 pm (UTC)(welcome back!)