General Jackassery

Atleast that’s what I thought yesterday by the end of the day. Yesterday was one of those days that you wish you’d never gotten out of bed. I started out still fighting allergies and still feeling generally bad. Work was boring and tumultuous as I still haven’t figured out what I’m supposed to be doing with regards to travel, but since I was supposed to leave tomorrow and I don’t have orders I won’t be going anywhere this week. Really that was a good thing I thought. It would give me two extra days to train for the Cheaha Challenge which is this weekend.

By the end of the afternoon, I felt like the floor of a taxi cab, just generally bad, coughing, tired and not happy. I left work at 5:30 and headed over to Johnson to meet Sarah, I was going to help them carry the boat down to the pond and then I was going to ride. Still feeling like *%&$ I told Sarah that I wasn’t going to wear my helmet because if I was going to hit something I wanted to hit it hard. I didn’t want to limp away from the wreck. Those turned out to be prophetic words. I DID decide to wear the “Brain Bucket” as Sarah calls it. Sarah said, “Oh, so you decided to wear the brain bucket huh?” I said, “Yeah, so they’ll have something to scoop my brains up with.” Anyway, I started to ride and I felt terrible, my throat was burning and I was coughing, I was literally forcing myself to stay on the bike. Anyway, 8.5 miles down and I figured I’d ride another 6.5 or so, I make the turn between the Engineering building and Madison hall and I’m cruising at about 22 mph, I look up, see a car coming the opposite direction, think nothing of it. I look up again, “Oh SHIT!” “STOP” I think “I’ve got to shut down!”, I slam on the brakes and try to angle away, then I realize I’m slowing too much, he’s going to T-Bone me. I look left, see the car, let go of the brakes, and start to pedal. I apparently moved my left foot out of the way just in time. “POW” the sound of bumper rupturing carbon fiber strands! I feel the back of my bike slide about two feet to my right, I’m still up though. Had the curb been two feet further away I would have stayed up, but I hit the sidewalk curbing and ditched. I roll over and sit up, the bike still between my legs and look to see if the guy is going to stop. He was going fast enough that I did all that manuevering and crashing, then sat up and looked at him before he was able to stop the car. Anyway, he stops gets out and asked if I’m okay. For the first time I get up and sort of assess the situation, but the bike worries me more, a good sign that I’m okay. I felt no real pain. I was shaky from taking the fall and the thought of being t-boned and on the hood of a car was so nice. I looked at my bike and realize that what I had heard was my worst fear.

Trek 5200’s have an MSRP of $2800 and a carbon frame is not really something that can be repaired! “Oh CRAP!” “You busted the frame!” The guy is like, “I don’t care about the bike, we can get you a new bike, are you okay!” I said, “I’m fine, you *BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPing* broke my bike!” “Do you realize how much these cost? That’s Carbon fiber, I can’t afford to buy another bike!” Sorry I was a little over dramatic about the bike. Anyway, I said, man, I don’t know what to do. He said he didn’t know what to do either. I said I guess we need to exchange addresses and names, call the police and your insurance can handle buying me a new bike. He said he didn’t want to do it that way, he didn’t want his insurance or the police knowing that he’d run over a pedestrian. He said that he had the money and that he’d just buy me a new bike, he didn’t care he was just glad I was okay.

So stupidly, I took his word for it and got is address and phone number and he took my name address and phone number and we agreed that I would go find out how much it would cost and get back with him. I told him there was only one TREK dealer in town and who they were. So I walk over to the duck pond and tell everyone what happened. Sarah was like, “you didn’t file a police report?” I said I didn’t and she basically said I was going to get screwed. That was the first time I’d thought about that. So a little later I decided to ride by the guy’s house and his car was actually there. So I let it go at that. I just figured I’m twice his size, I know where he lives, I’ll hunt him down if he screws me.

Later that evening the realization that I’m not going to be able to ride in the Cheaha Challege hits me. I have mixed emotions about that. I really wanted to ride this sunday, I wanted to see if I could somehow pull it off. On the other hand, I know in my heart I couldn’t have done it! I didn’t train hard enough for it and I would have pushed until I hurt myself.

This morning: I wake up a little stiff, but decide to play hockey anyway. No problems no residual effects from the dumping of the bike and everything is cool. I come into work and tell Ron that I’m going to the doctor for the respiratory health physical that I’d already had scheduled and then I’m going to the bike shop. Good sign number two, the bike shop knew I was coming because the guy that hit me had already called and asked what a new frame would cost. I talk to the bike shop guys, they look at the bike and tell me that I’m basically going to have to get a new bike. By the time to buy a new frame, and a new rear wheel, replace the components that are pretty well shot you’re talking the price of a new bike. So I call the guy and tell him. He says, “let me make some calls and I’ll get back with you.” I run fill the truck up with Diesel and head to the firestone store. (My tires aren’t wearing like they should and the firestone guy is going to put two new tires on the truck at a prorated cost.) Anyway, while I’m talking to the fire stone guy, the guy that tried to run me over calls and says he has the money and asks when I want to meet him at the bike shop. I told him 1:00 would be fine and I met him there. True to his word, a BRAND NEW TREK 5200 has already been ordered, will be shipped today and I should have it next Monday or so. He asked if he could take my bike and try to fix it, and I said “you bought it so you can have it.” So, I stripped it down, took the pedals, the seat and seat post, the computer and the mounts for my lights and seat bag and gave him the frame and wheels. The guy that bike shop told him at the very least he could sell the components that still worked on ebay and get some money back.

Anyway, if the guy hadn’t run me over and we had met in some other way I think we could have been friends. He’s a super nice guy and very honest and straight forward. So I earned some respect for him. We talked for nearly and hour today and it came up that I was interested in maybe selling my truck and getting something more economical and asked how much I wanted. Told me to call him in July if I hadn’t sold it because he was VERY interested in having the opportunity to get in a truck like that for that little.

So I went from a totally crappy day, to being the proud new owner of a beatiful TREK 5200, with the prospect of selling my truck and all I had to do was skip a ride that I probably wouldn’t complete and get a little banged up. Now that’s the second TREK 5200 that’s been bought out of pennace for someone running me over! *poke* Sorry Ryan!

So, no Cheaha, challenge, but my new bike will have a granny gear on it so I should be able to climb just about any hill I want to! I still plan to do the Cheaha Challenge course, just on another day!

So that’s my life for the last two days.

Todder, out!