Wiped out

I wiped out in the parking lot at work today. Haven't done that in a LONG LONG time. Fortunately I was wearing lots of clothes including leather gloves (it was like 37 degrees out), and I wasn't going very fast... and I was in the parking lot not on a busy street. I had just popped off the curb when I lost control and went down. I don't know what happened, it just all went so fast and I wasn't able to throw my foot out to catch myself, and instead landed on my arm. It hurt, but inspecting my windbreaker afterward, it looks like I came within about a cetemeter of landing with my funny bone on a piece of hardware... and that REALLY would have hurt. I don't know what caused the accident, but I did find a rip in my shoelace which suggests that perhaps it got caught in the bike gears. Also, the chain was derailed. I considered going straight back inside and calling Josh to come get me, but decided that if I did that, I'd probably just end up to scared to ever get on a bike again. So I tucked in my pant legs and my shoe laces, "re-railed" the chain, and biked home. I was also afraid at first that my windbreaker might have been ruined where I landed on it, but it seems fine.

So now my wrist is a little sore and my hip is seriously bruised... nothing I can see (yet), but it hurts a little all the time and is very sensative to pressure. Lovely. Fortunately it is well below where my backpack belt will ride. Otherwise I would probably have to bail on the backpacking trip I've been organizing. Also, as I said above, I feel extremely fortunate that this happened in the parking lot. In the future, I will keep my shoe laces tucked in. And I will make sure I am 100% in control of the bike BEFORE popping off the curb.