A little trouble

Once again, I'm way behind in posting things on this blog. The reason this time is that I took a spill on my scooter and I'm a little banged up. It's hard to concentrate and everything takes more effort.

I fell on the way to work on Thursday, November 18. It's kind of hard to admit but it was a stupid mistake on my part. There is a sharp left turn (it's essentially a 90° bend) on the way and I usually slow way down for it. But that day, a car was coming the other way around the curve. Instead of slowing down even more to let the car finish the turn before starting it myself, I kept going. I took the turn a little wider than usual to give the car plenty of room (not that the car was taking a wide turn). I just took the turn too fast and too wide and before I knew it, I was nearly off the road. I made the double mistake of a rookie on a powered bike - I turned too sharp and I hit the brakes! I fell to the left and skidded along the road until I was in the ditch. It didn't hurt at first. I was more embarrassed than hurt (at first) and I wanted to quickly get the scooter up and make sure no one was coming that might hit me. I stood the scooter up and walked it out of the curve.

I made a quick check and adjusted the mirrors. I started the engine and it sounded OK. The tires looked fine and the brakes worked so I headed back toward work. Then the pain hit. My left shoulder was killing me and my knee and elbow were stinging. When I got to work, I cleaned the scraped areas and put bandages on them and took a few aspirin to help with the aches and pains. I put a long sleeved shirt on so I didn't look quite so ghoulish. Then I remembered the plan for the day - we were going to be sitting in a conference room for four hours watching a video presentation. Under normal circumstances, I'd be able to get up from my desk whenever I needed to take care of some problem that cropped up but I couldn't ask them to pause the video presentation every time I needed to check a new pain or adjust my bandages. It was going to be a long day.

Somehow, I made it through the day. I wasn't happy about having to ride home that night on the scooter but, once again, my embarrassment over the whole situation kept me from asking for a ride home. Plus, I remembered all those cowboy movies I'd watched as a child - when you fall of a horse (or a motor scooter) it's best to jump right back on. So, I did. My family was at the hospital where my wife and mother-in-law were getting radiation treatments (see this post and this post for more information) so I arrived home to an empty house. I cleaned up and took some more aspirin. I wanted to tell my wife about it but she was going through a tough time getting the radiation treatment schedule organized. She was having a hard time sleeping and was getting headaches. Her mother was having the same problems.She didn't need another thing to worry about. I'd tell her in a day or two. Now that I'd made it through the day, I knew I hadn't broken any bones and my only problem that I was going to be stiff and sore for a while.

Well, it's turned out to be worse than I thought but not much. Yesterday was the first day I really felt like doing anything. Of course I had to keep doing things but I certainly wasn't enjoying them. My wife was upset when I told her but she understood why I waited. I may go to the doctor this week as a double check that nothing permanent is wrong but I pretty sure I'm fine. As I say, it's been hard to concentrate on things and since a lot of my job is concentrating on things, my work has suffered. I hope to make it up this coming week.