So Sunday July 21st the weather was just as bad as the day before, and sailing was cancelled. Rather than thinking, “all that work yesterday was for nothing?“ I instead just went back to sleep… Until almost 3pm. Got up and grabbed a sandwich and coffee and it hit me, “usually when the weather sucks for sailing, it’s pretty good for surfing” and sure enough almost no wind and a severe beach conditions alert due to a swell that arrived was telling me to paddle out. A couple hours of waist-chest high waves in the afternoon put me in a great mood. As I hopped on my bike to go home, board under one arm, and stood up to pedal… The gears slipped (as they occasionally do on a 63 year old bike) and I lost my balance on a part of the paved strand covered in loose sand. And I took a spill. Luckily it happened in that ‘slow-motion’ motion sort of way that personal falls sometimes do, and I thought far enough to toss my surfboard in the direction of the sand, rather than the pavement. My surfboard should feel lucky because my body crashed on top of my bike and then rolled into the sand. Since I was still wet and in a wetsuit all the sand covered and stuck to me. That picture there of my foot is the worst of the damage, a few other scrapes and a bent front tire fender also happened. At least my board was okay.
Monday rolls around and my foot is still bleeding and my boat shoes were worn to work because they provided the least contact with the top of my foot while still being appropriate - I can’t wear sandals to work, yet, my new job in one week it would have probably been just fine. Anyway after work I rode my other bike, the road bike, to the gym on the strand and on the way a woman with a misbehaving small dog allowed it to dart in front of me, across the pathway and nearly attack some kids on skateboards. I say nearly because I came to a skidding halt, smacking into my own handlebars rather than flying over them as the back tire lifted off the ground, and actually bumped the dog with my front tire, as the owner finally clicked down and yanked on the extendable leash. Another two feet and I think it would have been squished. Close call, yeah. Totally the dog owners fault, yeah. Well on my way home the fasteners for the basket finally snapped off (from corrosion) as I passed through a bumpy intersection. This left my water bottle, gym towel and bike lock dumped out of the basket and scattered across the intersection and almost caused me to go down again because i was moving along no-handed when it happened.
I think I should stay off my bikes for awhile, and do a little maintenance to them.