Every Day Provides a New Allegory

[cbertsch]

Someone unexpectedly opened a car door into my left shin while I was riding through the parking lot at the "Bagel Place" -- the Starbucks/Einstein Brothers at Oracle and Ina -- this morning. It has swollen to double its normal size, though I don't think anything major is wrong with it. I was in shock for a while, then started to feel the pain mount. But what really has me frazzled is the aftermath of the incident, in the course of which I somehow managed to end up feeling A) guilty for having this minor accident at this particularly stressful juncture; B) foolhardy for not stopping when the car slowed down in front of me; C) embarrassed for providing an example to the father of two young children at Starbucks, who said, "See, that's what happens when you don't watch where you're going. Just look at that man's bruise;" and D) stupid for not manifesting the extent of my injuries fast enough to mobilize myself or other patrons to take down the license plate of the white Mazda Miata convertible, driven by someone I later, in a burst of compensatory irony at the Wild Oats check-out, described as "a sorority girl from Pima Community College." In other words, the pain in my leg is nothing compared to the pain in my head.

Comments

[duccio.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Too bad. Here's the good side of it though: you at least got the seven hours of somewhat fitful sleep instead, should this have happened last night on your midnight ride, five-and-a-half hours of growing pain and sleep deprivation. How lucky can a guy get?

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

Ha!

Actually, though, I feel safer at night. There are fewer cars at midnight and I can see what's behind me, more or less, so long as it has headlights. I almost collided with a huge owl once, but that was too cool to complain about.

[letter-2elise.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh! I'm so sorry. But after something as awful as that, certainly you have fabulous karma-balancing moments in the near future.

Feel better!

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

I've accrued so much good karma that Saudia Arabia is demanding I release some of it into the global oil economy before they will consent to up production.

[xxxpunkxgrrlxxx.livejournal.com]

laaaame.

i've never been to that einstein's; i work at the other one.

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

That one is much nicer, I think. I like the space. We sit at the big, long table. And there are "outsider" types who frequent the spot, which is nice.

[pissang.livejournal.com]

Maybe the god of the Old Testament was punishing you for eating fake bagels.

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

It could be. Really, though, I was just delivering a wallet that had been left at home, so he must have been punishing me for past transgressions.

[flw.livejournal.com]

I saw a dipshit from Nevada hit a shopping cart (being pushed) at the Trader Joe's parking lot yesterday. They almost hit me. I looked in as they drove past at... I'd guess 15 mph, and saw that it was a mother daughter team. They were arguing about how to work the navigation system, and paying NO attention to anything else. They ran smack into a little old lady's shopping cart and then HAMMERED the gas. I really should have done something, but for some reason I didn't care at all.

I got hitted and runned within a month of buying my bike. It is infuriating.

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

Nice seeing you today! I've noticed the same thing with those systems. Until they get automatic override in cars, the technology isn't going to make things safer.

[flw.livejournal.com]

How's your leg doin' now? It must have turned a glorious green and purple...

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's a pain, literally and figuratively. I'm on antibiotics, since it apparently got infected, despite my best efforts to prevent that turn of affairs. And my ankle and foot swell each day to the point where I can't wear shoes. Sigh.

[flw.livejournal.com]

Here's some centuries old medical advice that has passed down through my family for generations: "Walk it off, you pussy."

Feel better? No? That's how you know it's working, you pansy. WALK IT OFF!

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

If only I could get my shoe on, coach, that would be a lot easier. . .

:-)

[flw.livejournal.com]

quit yer bellyachin'.

(is it working yet?)

How's your shin?

[zendoug.livejournal.com]

How's your shin? As a massage therapist, I am obsessed with bodily injury, especially involving the sensitive anterior lower limb.

Doug

Re: How's your shin?

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a lot of bruising, which has now migrated down to my foot. And the foot is swollen. It hurts more than initially, but not that much.