Mercury

During a drive up to Ithaca, I was relating a tale about a day when my dad had his printer, copier and shredder (3 separate pieces of equipment) die. Now normally that would be bad, but to make it worse it was the day before the tax return deadline and Easter Sunday.

My dad is a tax accountant, and this year April 17th was the deadline because the 15th fell on a Saturday. He had several client's returns that he needed to print and copy. I won't go into the full story, but needless to say my step-mom and I finally found a place open and bought him a printer.

Back to the drive up to Ithaca. When I was finished telling the story, Christy said that a friend of her says that it means Mercury is in retrograde. I wasn't aware the Mercury had power over electronics, but she said that whenever there is a mass breakdown of equipment like that Mercury is to blame.

I'm pretty certain that Mercury rules over communication, so maybe computers, printers and copiers all count. But I'm taking it a step further.

On Saturday June 17, I went for a bike ride with the team I'm training with. Now I have been riding a road bike for well over a year. 10 months ago, I added bike shoes that clip into pedals. (Rather oddly named clipless pedals. I know the reason, but it is still odd.) And I have only fallen once, since switching to them.

That morning started off wrong. I kept forgetting stuff, which made me 5 mins late to meet with the person, Diana, I was riding to practice with - she had just recently switch to a road bike. Not 15 mins into our ride something dropped off her bike, and she had to stop. I slowed and unclipped my left foot, but I missed judged my body position - probably because I was trying to look back at the same time - and ended up tipping over landing on my right side. My head got a good thwack when I landed and I pulled a muscle in my upper back, but otherwise I was fine.

Diana hadn't seen me fall. I told her I had, and that I was fine. I told her mainly because I thought it was a idea good that someone else knew that I had hit my head. I had a helmet on, but it was a pretty good jolt for first thing in the morning.

I got back on my bike and we rode without incident the rest of the way. While on our ride with the team, I had two near misses. The first one was as I was riding around the lower loop of Central Park. I managed to see a bird fly across my path and then the dog that decided to chase after it. I swerved hoping to miss the dog and an accident altogether, but I didn't have much room. I had a horse drawn carriage on one side and runners on the other.

I heard the owner call for the dog, but it didn't actually stop until my foot had hit its nose as I was pedaling. Fortunately, it turned around and ran back to the grass. The dog would've been under my rear wheel if it hadn't stopped, which would have meant injuries for me and the dog - neither of which I wanted to have happen.

I cursed quite loudly, and let my upper body slump as I tried to get my heart rate down. I would have hung my head, but I dared not take my eyes off the road. I heard someone shout after me, "Next time hit the dog!" Not really on my list of things I was even considering. I was more angry at the owner for having their dog off leash so close to the roadway.

Anyway, just as I was recovering, a jogger walked out right in front of me. She didn't see or hear me yell until I was almost on top of her. How could she? She had earphones on, and wasn't paying attention to the flow of traffic. I managed to swerve far enough to avoid her.

But that was it. I was done. I spotted where some of the coaches were standing, and stopped to vent my frustrations.

"I don't know what's up today. I fell on the ride down, and was just now nearly taken out by a dog and then a jogger. It's crazy."

"Maybe you should just go home."

"Yeah, I'm gonna." I replied feeling a little miffed at the rather obvious and somewhat disinterested reply. Not that I thought that he could offer any consolation, but at least a laugh or a 'buck up camper' kind of comment. I know that riding a bike in NYC has its inherent dangers, and my fall and near-misses were all minor occurrences, but just a little soothing would've been nice.

"I just have to wait for Diana. I said we'd ride back together." I finished knowing I wasn't going to get what I needed from them. I rode over to our meeting place where Diana was already waiting.

"Man, it is time for me to get to safety." I announced to her as I rode up.

"What do you mean?"

I filled her in on what had happened on the ride, and gave her her choice of routes home.

"I'd rather ride the path home" she decided. "I'm not comfortable riding in traffic, yet. Besides maybe with all that has happened today, it's not a good idea for you to ride with cars."

I laughed. See that was all I needed. I little tongue in cheek consoling. Off we went.

I decided we'd stay on the street a little longer, and enter Riverside park at W79th St. We got across the intersection, and waited to cross over to the park. I had left one foot clipped in, and was turning my bike to face in the direction we needed to go, when I lost balance and fell again.
The worst parts of it were 1) falling in front of a bus full of people, and 2) landing in a NYC puddle.

Again, I was fine - a little scraped, but fine. My bike seat has a tear in the side now, but otherwise fine. If I could've clicked my heels together and returned home on the spot, I would've. But I lost my ruby slippers decades ago, so I had to get on my bike and continue riding the 6 miles home.

Diana was great about it. She said it was good for her to see.

"Because it puts riding a bike in perspective. It doesn't matter how long you've ridden, you can still fall for whatever reason. You just have to get up and continue riding anyway. Unless you're really injured, of course."

Sounds like a life lesson doesn't, but of course I didn't think of it that way until I typed it just now. At the time, I wasn't thinking of anything but making it home in one piece, which of course we did without incident. There is tons more to this story, but I'm gonna leave it here for now.

I think Mercury was in retrograde, because the signals from my brain to body and from body to brain were out of synch. I can look back now and see the little mistakes I made that caused me to fall. I also see that I managed to avoid crashing twice that day. And I know my stepmom was right in her evaluation that I was riding while exhausted.

But that morning left me bruised to my soul. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's true. All of those events left me feeling beaten. I took the rest of the weekend off. I saw "To Kill a Mockingbird" on the big screen for Daisy's birthday. I had dinner with my dad, stepmom and eldest brother to celebrate Father's day. And I slept. All of which healed me mentally, emotionally and helped some physically.

The only thing left to do is get back on my bike and go for a ride, because that's what you do.