154th ride

Today was a highly disappointing day in my riding career—and even to put it that way is a substantial understatement. After riding to work again this morning, and then working a longer than average workday (until nearly 4:00), I set off to ride to our 5:15 Weight Watchers meeting. I had been planning to ride by way of Saline again, but unforeseen delays in my afternoon work duties ruled out this roughly 13-mile ride for time reasons. So, instead, I planned to ride south on State to Textile, and take it west to Maple, and then back up to the Weight Watchers meeting. But those plans took a detour, when, riding on State, a little south of Ellsworth, I fell. After my August 29 fall and broken rib, I had vowed to try harder to really focus on safe riding. Particularly distressing to me today, though, in retrospect, is the fact that I do not retain a clear mental image of the environment, or of what I did wrong. I am not aware of having taken any chances, or unnecessary risks. But clearly, I did something wrong—someone insisted on calling an ambulance, and they insisted on taking me to University Hospital and on calling Michelle, who met us there.

In the course of treatment through the ER, I was administered a set of x-rays, as well as a CAT scan of my head (since initial reports indicated that I was acting somewhat "goofy"—but then, I think this is just my nature). Pleasingly, the CAT scan came back completely normal—but not so the x-rays, which indicated a rather severe triple fracture of my right clavicle. Upon hearing this, I was happy to note that there was some justification in my having accepted the trip to the hospital (though, initially, I was a bit chagrined that I hadn't found it within myself to get up and keep on riding).

I am happy to have been sent away from the hospital in a nice navy blue sling, emblazoned with a large maize block M.

As I write this, at home some hours later, I am experiencing considerable pain and discomfort in the shoulder. That has increased greatly since the initial event, which was largely pain-free. But as the magnitude of it has set in to my system, it seems to be overcoming me.

In light of all this, it seems almost unimportant to note that I rode roughly 4 miles today, in about 26 minutes.