(I totally encouraged these photos. Sorry for the nipple slippage)

You know how when you fall asleep, everything kind of fades out? You don’t quite remember the moment of losing focus, you just remember being really tired and then waking up semi-alert. Wednesday night I faded out while on my Salsa bike on my way home from a night out with friends. I woke up on a stretcher in the ER at Harborview Medical Center. The morphine helped.

Jane was called in around midnight and Chris and Emily were nice enough to drive her out and accompany her through the long night. A young aspiring neurosurgeon did the stitches on my eyebrow. He did a great job, and made sure that everyone knew that he did. We didn’t get out of there until around 5:30am, so I spent all of Thursday sleeping.

Norman came over later in the day to take me out so we could get some soup and ice cream. These two items turned in to my new diet for the next few days since my face was too swollen and my front teeth were hurting.

Jane finally tracked down my bicycle at the fire station on 4th ave near the King Street Station. She had called probably 10 different places trying to figure out just what the hell had happened. Nobody ever filed a police report and the stories kept changing about anything that might have happened in the area at that time. We didn’t find any further evidence on the bike itself. The front tire was popped in a pinch flat, but the wheel was still true. The fork was bent but the frame looked okay in general. My helmet was barely scraped at all. To be honest, my face took almost all of the damage.

Eventually we will receive a copy of the medical report with a bit more info on the case. I’ve mostly lost interest at this point. Shit happens; sometimes it can really hurt. I’m disappointed that I can’t remember, but maybe it would just be worse to have a memory of it. I can’t really be too angry at what I don’t know.

Jane perfecting a beer hand-up to Andrew

I’ve had a lot of support from friends on all fronts. Norman, Michele and Peter all made me soups and paid me a visit while healing. Andrea got me a discount on a new pair of glasses and got a rush on the order so I didn’t have to go more than a day without proper vision. Hahn Rossman moved up my wait in the queue for a new cyclocross bike. I should have something to race on this next weekend if everything works like it is supposed to. None of this includes all of the warm calls, emails and texts that I’ve gotten in support. Thanks to everyone.

On Sunday, Jane and I got out to a cross race at Evergreen High School that I was going to compete in. We were there as spectators, which was still a blast. I admit that I was pretty jealous to not be on a bike getting muddy though.

Long story short – I’m doing fine. Thanks for asking. I just want a damn cyclocross bike to race on soon.