Pinky runs

I thought I had finally done it — broken a bone while on my bike.

I went for a quick foothills ride, trying to beat the incoming storms. I got a bit soaked anyway, but was having an absolute blast coming down finger rock wash. I had some warning signs that indicated I was a little bit out of control. But, of course, I ignored them. My little mp3 player was going, so I was maybe a bit out of touch.

Anyway, as the story goes, I went into the round culvert with a bit more speed than normal and the outside was just wet enough to be really slick. 12 more lame excuses later, the diary proceeds. My front tire slid and my right foot clipped out–a natural reaction. But I’m in a small culvert so there’s nowhere for my foot to go. I slide and my hand gets caught in the corrugations.

The crash is minor except that I could tell my pinky is not all right. I was hesitant to look at it, so I just hopped on to ride. It was soon obvious that my pinky was not functioning normally, though pain was minimal. Sure enough my bone was sticking out. I looked away, took a deep breath, then grabbed it and pushed it back in. This was a very bizzare thing to do, but the relief was immediate. Ah, much better.

I rode home with no problem, which was encouraging, but I was sure it was broken, so I rode my commuter bike over to an Urgent Care for an x-ray. Luckily I had the latest Tail Winds to keep me busy as I waited and wondered what all these other folks where in for. The Doc gave me five and awarded me a medical-degree-for-a-day. He was impressed that I was able to relocate my pinky so quickly and perfectly. He taped it to a buddy finger and sent me on my way.

It’s high time I gave my legs some exercise other than cranking pedals on dirt, so I took advantage of a disadvantage by doing some running around the neighborhood in the past week. Paula and I did one run round about 8pm on New Years. Yelled at us from a passing motor vehicle:

“Hey, it’s new years eve, time to party you fuckers! Woo!!”

With an exultation like that, we immediately changed our plans for the nearest watering hole and got plastered. Think what would have happened if the basement dwellers in the car didn’t ring in the new year with a bang? Disaster, surely, disaster.