Bike Safety

I dropped the kids off for a few hours yesterday morning and had a solo trip into Booming Metropolis.

I spent a bit too much money at our new Bulk Barn and had the single greatest customer service experience I have ever had while exchanging my broken satellite radio at Future Shop. Then I came home to find a message on my machine from Future Shop saying that after 3 weeks of shuffling my computer from one place to another, they'll need $650 from me before they can fix it, thereby returning the universe--and my opinion of Future Shop--to normal.

I tiptoed up to a couple of doorsteps like the tooth fairy to leave homemade baby gifts at the doors of some new parents I know, and had a blissful browse around Fabricland.

And yes, I know I just told you to stay out of the stores. I promise, I don't make a habit of this.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my car crash. So I was thinking about this as I drove from one part of the city to another yesterday and noted that the warmer weather has brought out the cyclists. What amazed me, though, wasn't the number of people out on the roads on their bikes. It was how many of them weren't wearing helmets.

I don't want to lecture you all two posts in a row, but I'm a bit of a helmet nut. In 2001, the Captain, who at that time routinely utilised Big City's bike path system, had a very bad accident. He was on his way home from work and, for reasons we will never know, went head-first over his handlebars at a pretty good speed. He landed on the concrete on his head, knocking out one of his front teeth, ripping open his top lip and leaving him completely unconscious and bleeding on the path until a passing dog-walker found him and called 911. When I arrived at the hospital, I found him in a state of confusion, covered in blood and unable to tell anyone what had happened to him. For weeks afterwards, he was irritable and cantankerous (more than usual, I mean) and generally not himself from the head injury. To this day, he still doesn't remember anything about the accident.

The Captain, thank goodness, had been wearing his helmet. And the one thing I remember the doctor telling me as I stood over my befuddled and semi-conscious husband, was that had he not been wearing one, the force of the impact would have most certainly fractured his skull.

So I implore you all, if you're getting out on your bikes this spring, please protect your head. It's not like a kidney or a lung. You only have one! And if you don't, you could end up looking worse than this:


Yeesh!!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Too Old for This @!#%

Between Christmas and the New Year, I decided to treat myself and subscribe to In Style magazine for a year. I like clothes and makeup and all things girly, so it seemed like a fun thing to look forward to receiving in the mail every month. And it is. But I have some complaints, and I think they have more to do with ME than the magazine. WHO?! : In my teens and 20's, if you named a celebrity--a singer, actor or anyone famous for anything --I'd have been able to pull up a mental image and a list of things they were famous for. Today, I flip open the pages of my magazine, see an actual picture of a celebrity with their name printed underneath, and I STILL have no idea who the hell I'm looking at! Kristen Stewart --hmmm...name sounds familiar...is this someone I went to high school with?! Judging from her youthful photos, I'm guessing not. At least HALF the people featured in this magazine elicit this response from me now. Apparently, I really need to get with the program...
Read more

The Luck Of The Irish

Image
As far as I know, I do not even have 1% Irish in me. The last time I looked into it, I found that I was 99.9% English with, I think, a tiny smidge of Scottish if you go back far enough. This, however, does not stop me from going hog wild on St Patrick's Day. I already have the beef marinating for my Steak and Guinness Pie tomorrow. This year, it seems I've cashed in all those lucky four-leafed clovers I found out back as a kid. In just over a year, I have won no less than FOUR blog giveaways! Blogging is turning out to be better than the lottery! Two of those giveaways I won this month within a week of each other. A big thanks to Nezzy for the fantastic $40 gift code at CSN Stores , which I gave to my overworked mom who has been playing nursemaid to my dad after his knee replacement surgery. At the risk of making a sweeping generalization, anyone with a man around the house knows what it's like to look after them when they're under the weather. Am I right?! My mom dese...
Read more

Real vs Fake

Image
The Captain has only been gone 2 weeks. Already I've committed the ultimate marital sin. You hear stories about the things wives get up to while the husbands are serving overseas. The wife who moves a new guy in the minute her husband's gone. The wife who clears out the bank account and does a runner. The one who takes all his extra tour money and spends it on new shoes. I never thought I'd become one of those nuts who does something crazy while he's away. But I have. Yesterday, I bought one of these: Okay, fine. For the average marriage, this is not the ultimate sin. But when the Captain finds out, things may get a little heated. You see, the Captain grew up with a real Christmas tree in his living room every year. It's a tradition that is important to him, and one on which he will not compromise. I grew up with a fake one, so the idea of a real tree doesn't bother me too much. I admit, I like the gorgeous, fresh pine smell that fills the room when you bring ...
Read more