"Helmets are for those "ah, slipped" moments" Topic

Beautiful day! In dramatic ways too, not just the weather. I've had an "incident", a learning experience, and deliverance by Grace, all at the same time. Of course, I did my part by wearing my helmet. I've gone over that particular gutter bump, into that driveway entrance, to get to the sidewalk, to take my shortcut (to avoid 4500 South) literally hundreds of times, and not once have I even come remotely close to losing it. Today I approached the driveway the same as always. I think that I was putting as much attention into my bike riding as always (that is "Rule Number One" for safe driving, after all, and I have always applied it to bike riding as well, if not even more so). So when my front tire contacted the c. 1.5" high edge to the driveway, and snapped to the left to parallel it instead of climbing it, the result was instantaneous: bike and body pitched to the right, and body contacted the ground, sidewalk to right knee first, and both hands second (left hand hit the bike, I think, the right hit the grass), and head third: HARD. I had the barest instant, a nanosecond, to see the water meter cover in the grass sticking out at a raised angle, then my gord had smacked that rounded, upraised edge and I was fully laid out and stunned. Only for another barest instant. I said America's favorite expletive, and sat up. The next words out of my mouth, after taking off my helmet and seeing the damage, (which would have been a fractured skull over my right ear), were: "Thank God for helmets!" I swore then and there never to take to a bike without one. No more soaked baseball caps in the middle of the summer. No sir. The other damage to my body was slight: a cramped/torqued upper right calf muscle; a torn middle left finger right under the nail (but this I could not discern through the blood, until I washed it off in my Mom's bathroom sink: I was gratified that there was no cut, it sure bled enough to be a cut!); a slight abrasion through my jeans to the side of my right knee (the pants suffered more than my skin – time to get out the super glue as "fray check"). My bike got away with the lightest of damage: a mere scratch at the end of the right fork, an equally light scratch to the end of my right brake lever, a scuff on my right grip, and finally some light scratching on the right pannier buckle. My handlebars needed the teensiest of tweaks to align them with the front wheel; but this I didn't even notice until well into my bike ride home. (I will get a pic of the scene of the stupid accident on Friday.)

Lesson learned number one: no matter how "good" you get, you can always slip up. Remember it. Lesson learned number two: always, always, always, wear a helmet. You can kill yourself. You don't need anybody else's help.

Congrats on your escape.

Thank you.

Btw, "ah, slipped", should have been capitalized, "Ah", as in "I", with an accent (from some movie where the really deadly shooter got taken out, and his reason for it was "Ah, slipped"; can't recall the movie though….).