bicycle dilemma
May 31, 2008
A LONG time ago —
I got hit by a car while riding a bike. It was sort of my fault. My dog was trained to run beside my bike. And to stop at stop signs and stuff. He knew the rules of the road. When the car came at us, well, rules of the road were gone but my dog did not know you could throw those out. My dog did road rules I taught him the end. And the one thing going through my head was, my dog weighs forty pounds, I weigh over a hundred. So I shoved between my dog and the car.
It was real interesting. I was on an asphalt street —
And then I was on a lawn with no idea how I got there.
I keep thinking I would like to get a bike, that a bike would be maybe more interesting than all these damn exercises.
But I have had two altercations with cars when I was on a bike and both times the person on the bike lost.
Bikes are not for the city I think. Not for me and the city any way.
where the art work comes from :
that is from peter christoph
celluloid blonde 
Although I’m vaguely concerned about the bike, and the dog, how are you?
Hope you feel better.
Maybe ride the bike on a bike path instead of the city? Only thing you’d have to worry about is squirrels and mountain lions…
Geez o Pete, are you alright?
“And the one thing going through my head was, my dog weighs forty pounds, I weigh over a hundred. So I shoved between my dog and the car.”
Just something over 100 pounds against the 4000/5000 [minimum] of a car in motion.
Really brilliant. I hope the dog remember this.
Anything broken?
I mean you, not the car.
Wait wait wait, back up, this is not recently hit by a car.
Wow I am sorry — talk about betrayed by a tense.
Okay I fixed that opening. At the time I was kind of bruised up and sore for a while but nothing broke. Wow I better check tenses on Bicycle II.
Close calls are the worst.
At least if you know you made it through something bad like getting hit by a car you don’t spend time wondering ‘what if ‘.
I really want to bike here but I’d only do it because practically my whole commute is Riverside Drive in Griffith Park then Forest Lawn. Home to WB there’s two lights and three stop signs. Still scary though.
Wow I so do not play what if games. What if I had not limped away from those bike accidents? What if I had not pulled myself out of that burning car? What if I had not jammed my arm into that dog’s mouth before it got my face? What if I had not caught that balcony railing on the way over the side? What if I had not escaped that time I got abducted? My life is a series of “wow lucky I walked away from that one” scenarios, if I thought about the what if’s, the what if’s would have been really bad.
Oh, wait, my favorite, what if I hadn’t gotten up to check the dryer fifteen seconds before that car came through the laundromat wall? That one was fun.
Max, you are just too exciting for me. I’m not sure my heart can take another one of those, so do please be careful with your tenses in the future…
Kisses for your booboos
Max! Bike Los Angeles? — my brother-in-law was killed riding a bike here. Not maimed. Not roughed up.
Dead.
Sorry about that Janie. My bad.
Pete, I am so sorry about your brother-in-law. And yeah, I like bikes, but I just cannot see actually riding one in L.A. unless I lived out at the beach or something and was just doing bike paths. Too many cars.
Wow, Pete. What a way to sour a thread. But for real, sorry about your brother in law.
Be careful Max. It just as dangerous here but then, some of these cyclists are irresponsible and veer right in front of your car when you have the right of way or they get nasty when you’re rollerblading on the bike path and you don’t hear them coming.
My friend’s friend got hit by an SUV while on a bicycle. The lady tried to say it was her fault but she DID have the right of way. She broke almost every bone in her body.
Motorcycles are just as scary. I was a day short of finishing class for a number of reasons, one being everyone I knew begged me not to get one.
Ahem, anyway. Does everybody have a scary bike story or what?
I will not get on a motorcycle. They call those organ donar machines in the ER for a reason.
Amsterdam, Max … everybody rides bikes in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam cars do not hit bikes, bikes hit pedestrians, and given that pot is legal — well, connect the dots.
We called them “murdercycles.”
“What if I had not caught that balcony railing on the way over the side?”
I want to hear that one soon. No wonder you write movies. Your life is an action movie. How about a stationary bike? You can watch the tube and ride and not worry about getting too far from home and too tired to ride back.
Forgot to say, that is a gorgeous bicycle photo.
The balcony was one of those things, if you put it in a movie no one would believe it. One second the floor was breaking away, the next I was hanging one handed over a two story drop. I still do not know how I caught that rail.
Isn’t the photo great? I was all happy when I found that.
Was it an earthquake? You have to write up a full post about that.
Yeah, I want to jump into that photo and just sit there for a while.
No earthquake. Just old weak structural stuff. I will try to remember to post it.
Max, with your adventures even staying home isn’t safe. I rode a motorcycle for years and the worst thing that happened was tipping it over in some gravel and the fuel costs….whee, not that is something I can afford. If I could just figure out how to fit my kids all on the back of one.
Oh well adventures go two ways. Good and bad. I just have a gravitational field for big events.
I was going to make a crude, yet perfect comment about bikes and poor people, but out of respect for Pete, I’ll keep my mouth shut. Sorry Pete.
Yipes. Don’t post about bikes anymore; the universe is listening. Google “Mexico bike race drunk driver” if you want to know what happens when the universe wants to reinforce a blog post.
I swear I was nowhere near that race.
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