La Petite Princesse

Let me set the stage: a bike path, a confused pedestrian and my brand new, shiny new virgin birthday bike. Never before ridden! I wish I could relay it all to you using one of those 1920s Charlie Chaplin-style films, you know the kind they made before the talkies came about. But I guess I have to settle for this rudimentary collage.

I took my shiny new Specialized HRXC on its maiden voyage last week. It was a beautiful day. Birds were literally chirping. I was just finishing a nice little 5 mile loop by the river and was about to get off my bike and exit the bike path had a confused pedestrian acting more like an indecisive/confused squirrel not gotten in my way. I breaked my shiny new brakes to avoid him and flipped over my handlebars. So traumatic. I don’t know what was worse – the pain, the possibility that I sprained both of my wrists, or the crowd of people that gathered to see if I was ok (except for the pedestrian, who ran away, BTW!) as my bloody palms lifted my bike off the ground as the chain pathetically dangled off of the ring. This one bypasser actually was like, “Wow, that looked really impressive!” WTF?! I wasn’t trying to be Evel Knievel.