Birding and other pleasures and aggravations, in Berkeley and beyond, by Ron Sullivan.
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2 | By: kathy a. on August 10, 2008 at 02:10 PM
i don’t think i told you about my husband’s bike accident? dude would be dead, but for the helmet. this was about 15 years ago, so my heart has stopped thumping. he was up on grizzley peak near tilden, and it was something freaky—i think the back reflector bounced onto his rear wheel, and acted like a brake when he went over a rough spot.
anyway, someone found him unconscious by the roadside. the paramedics called me. i found a neighbor to stay with the kids, and he got all stitched up and everything. kids, helmets are good.
4 | By: Ron Sullivan on August 10, 2008 at 02:47 PM
You’ll have to admit: Cosmetically, it has a certain je ne sais quoi.
kathy, I’m really glad I was wearing a helmet at the time. Also at the other time when I fell off the other bike on my other side on the other street. Whacked my head good both times.
The black eye came from hitting a curb, somehow, with the hard bit above my right eye. The soft bit behind that—which would have been seriously nasty to hit on a curb—was under the helmet. So OK, it made a believer out of me.
I’m already a seatbelt fanatic. I used to be a pediatric nurse, remember.
5 | By: AngnBrinAshnKevnKai on August 10, 2008 at 08:29 PM
Wow… You got yourself good!!! I want daily pix, just so we can chronicle the progression from purple to mucus greenish yellow… Man, that’s going to REEEEAllY bring out the blue in your eyes!!!
Don’t mean to make fun. It’s just so Kick ASS that my Aunt Ron has an Eye Jammy from extreme sporting!
I know you tried to land that front flip off the 20 foot ramp at the X Games!
It’s ok to tell the world Ron, they’ll respect you no matter what!
6 | By: Ron Sullivan on August 10, 2008 at 08:53 PM
Ha! Next: Frankenstein stitches!
OK, you want to hear something really weird? I keep hearing Mom’s voice in my brain scolding me for the black eye.
7 | By: Sally Mack on August 11, 2008 at 08:21 AM
Ron, are you aware that you should now buy a NEW helmet? Helmets aren’t built to last forever, anyway, and should be replaced every once in awhile but an accident lessens its integrity.
Some helmet companies request that you send the helmet that was in the accident back and may give you some kind of rebate. They study the wear patterns, cracks, etc., to help build better helmets.
8 | By: kathy a. on August 11, 2008 at 10:30 AM
oh, what sally said.
9 | By: Ron Sullivan on August 11, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Sally, kathy—yeah, actually, but the helmet I was wearing both times came with the rental; it wasn’t the one I subsequently bought. I told the guys at the rental that I’d taken a fall.
It would’ve been hard to conceal, since I’d put a little more bend in the end-curl of the rental’s brake lever as well as giving myself a cosmetic embellishment; the brake function was completely unaffected, though, judging by the riding I did at the racetrack parking lot. Anyway I showed them the brake lever and they forgave me. Maybe it was a sort of senior-citizen discount, I dunno.
10 | By: kathy a. on August 11, 2008 at 01:14 PM
the rental folks are probably used to seeing what teenaged boys can do to bikes. oy. [yeah, my son had a couple accidents, too—if you call trying to jump a boulder an “accident."]
11 | By: VS on August 13, 2008 at 09:19 AM
Urgh… We were debating the other day whether any of the young “tour guides” at the Capilano bridge in Vancouver get fired for trying to ride bikes or skateboards across it after hours. I don’t recommend you try it…
12 | By: Ron Sullivan on August 13, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Hell, maybe getting to ride it after hours is a fringe benefit. Don’t worry; by the time I get that far on a bike I’ll be able to climb trees on it.
13 | By: Fairings on August 28, 2008 at 01:00 AM
Gotta be careful with those bikes. Had several stitches from falls myself.
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1 | By: kathy a. on August 10, 2008 at 02:02 PM
painless? well shit, the knees alone sound painful. may as well go aloha, because Mom Sez: everyone wears a helmet.
geesh ron. i’m practically checking hourly to see what happens next. you can probably make that bruise work for the goth/punk/hula crowd, though, with the right makeup. and a lei.