Why I do as my wife says

I go to the gym every morning. It's one of my secrets to staying beautifully fit and handsome. I'll cycle to the gym unless I'm with Mrs. Crankee, then we take the Honda. Today I was going alone and decided to bring my Surly Steamroller.

"You need to pick something up for me, so you'd better take the car", she said.

"But it's such a nice day and I want to ride my bike", I whined. I do that a lot.

She won, I lost. Surprise.

Well, 3o minutes into my warm up stretches, I hear a loud bang and thud. I look out the second floor window of the gym and stared at the spot on the corner where I usually chain my bike, right by the Chez Toto restaurant street sign. This is what I saw:

Where I usually chain my bike

Apparently some poor sap lost control of his car, plowed though the Chez Toto sign, jumped the curb onto the sidewalk, continued straight down the block, destroyed the awning belonging to a seafood restaurant, crossed the street and crashed through a small fence. The couple in the car didn't seem terribly hurt, but the wreck they left behind them will certainly give their insurance carrier a fit. First thing I did was email the wife and thank her for forcing me to bring the car instead of the bike.

Smashed awning

Had my bike been chained by the street sign I would have been spending the afternoon picking up bits of Surly and cursing my bad fortune. Unfortunately, Muto san, one of the gym employees, wasn't so lucky, his scooter now looks like Godzilla slept on it.

"Ah, no worries, I was planning on buying a new one anyway." he said.

Damn Japanese optimism.

This is a good place to park

Wipe Out!

Riding back home alone yesterday afternoon after the BBQ I hit a concrete excrescence on route 19 and faster than you can say "Fuck" I was on the ground tasting some of Nagoya City's finest Asphalt. I can't explain how it happened, I can't even remember much after it happened. All I know is that I got up quickly and staggered over to the sidewalk to check for damages, on the bike, not me. The leather handle bar strap was ripped, I noticed a deep scratch on my wrist and felt pain on my right knee. But I knew that I wouldn't become fully aware of my physical damage until the next day, so I got back on the saddle and rode over to Circle's bike shop to have Makoto san fix my handle bar strap. This morning I took inventory and counted 8 bruises and cuts on my leg, hip, arm and shoulder. This is only my second spill on a bike in the last 5 years. I'm still getting used to riding my new track bike and the awkward riding position places the center of gravity further forward than my road bike. In addition, my Surly Steamroller is much lighter than a road bike and this makes it easy to fly forward through the air like a crazed gymnast whenever you hit a pothole. Did I mention how many people approached me to offer assistance? Zero. That's cool. I probably wouldn't approach me either.