My first bike incident... What a joy

Ok the folks at Intelligent Confusion would like to apologize for the delinquency in the responses lately. Yours truly has been really busy. Who knew that not having a job, would actually make me more busy? Well just to let you know that the blogging will continue soon. Look for a two part series on American Independence starting tomorrow or Sunday. Also look for the continuation of my series on leadership next week. Ok, I had to share the following story as it is probably one of the most embarrassing, and yet hilarious moments of my life thus far:

I was riding my bike from my place in Shoreview to my parents house this morning and as I approached the intersection of Highway 96 and Lexington Ave I had what I will call an incident. It was about 8 a.m. so rush hour was prevalent, and needless to say there were a lot of cars on the road (as well as a few bikers and joggers). As I approached the intersection I reached out for the post to push the button for the walk sign. Well let's just say that I somehow missed the post, and I was rolling at the blazing speed of .4 mph towards Highway 96. I put my right foot down to brace myself as my blazing rate of speed was not enough to keep my bike balanced. Incidentally my foot got caught in my toe clip (awesome toe clip) and being that my weight was going toward the right, I toppled over like Humpty Dumpty.

Now I am normally a pretty confident guy who doesn't like to have anyone see my fail or screw up, but this was the epitome of (insert adjective here). I fell over, and got my right leg caught under my bike (still in my pedal mind you). I was struggling mightily and my ego was starting to become significantly bruised. There must have been forty or so cars that saw the fall, and a handful of bikers and walkers. Did anyone stop?? I think not (actually I am really glad that no one did). I finally got up, sat there and waited for the longest stop light in the world (or so it seemed). I drank some Gatorade and spit it out (to look cool), pretended like I knew what I was doing as I checked my clips and gears, and flashed a smile a time or two. I have to say that if I was in a car and saw myself do that I would have lost it laughing. I must have looked like the biggest moron. Who can't keep a bike stable these days? Anyway as I pulled off and passed the biker who was across the street I noticed that I had a significant amount of blood on my knee, so at least I have a battle scar. When all is said and done I checked the bike and I have a bent handle bar and gear post (awesome), a scared knee, and a severely bruised ego, but everything else is in order.