Stupid Hurts

Dec 23rd-Jan 2nd
So back on the 23rd of December I had a pretty bad seizure while riding my bicycle home in the middle of the night. It is nice to know my meds are working properly. I wasn’t lucid right after the seizure so I don’t really remember clearly what happened, I do know I couldn’t talk again, and it seemed like it would be a bit before I could again. So I just dialed my mom and handed my phone to a police officer. I had lost a lot of blood at that point so I went on to pass back out. Slept well to, I do have to get sleep when I can, insomnia can be a harsh mistress.

Yes I spent Christmas eve in the emergency room. It is not so bad really, I  spent my birthday in a different E.R. So two bags of saline and 11 stitches I was getting ready to leave. No I was in the E.R. because of a bicycle, and now I am being told that I came in without a bicycle. That’s not exactly the sort of thing a cyclist wants to hear, so a game of 20 questions later. I felt like I was talking to a brick wall. Actually that’s unfair to several to several brick walls in the city.

Considering the shape I was in, my sister called the local police dept. for me in an attempt to find bicycle.  They told her she would have to come down to the station to look at the report. This is where things took a turn for a weird. She got down there and the report said, “left his beyonce with hospital security.” My sister has a similar personality as mine, even more so when she is dealing what she perceives as stupidity. She goes on to ask the person person behind the counter would I really let any of you have my beyonce, and would I leave it anywhere. We went on to call everyone who had peeled me up off the side of the road or dealt with me in the hospital. To no real luck. I did learn from the police that an accident report and incident report  are two different things, and the police can be looking at one, and still will tell you that they don’t have the information you need if you ask for the other.

Later on that week I had a seizure and fell on my face. I ended up breaking all of the stitches in my face and found myself back in the hospital again. I realized several things, I have been to that particular  E.R. 8 times in 2008, not including the times I have snuck out and there are trips to the 3 other E.R’.s in the city, who knows how many trips I have total. This was my first time going to the E.R. under my own power and wasn’t really sure how the registration worked. Waiting rooms suck worse than the accident that got me in there in the first place. I learned one more important thing, after spending six hours waiting we got hungry, so I ordered a pizza. I found out that if you put in the E.R. address, my name and phone number come up. I am still trying to figure out if that is good or bad. I ended up with 16 stitches later and 8 hours later.

I was still looking for my bicycle as this point, and it was getting near New Years. I had gotten to the point we had found the patrol car and officer listed in the report and placed several calls asking for him in particular. Two days later, and a day after New Years my bike shows up in a place several people said it wasn’t and I had been several times looking for it. They also knew who I was when I walked in and were ready for me to take my bike and leave. Apparently I had stepped on a few feet over the course of the past few weeks looking for my stuff.

I know it is a little late. These things happen. Happy New Years! everyone, I hope everything makes sense so far, and if you ended up praying into a toilet for New Years, I hope it was clean.

Mine was sursprisingly quiet, but I am ok with that.

I found video clips of New Years Fireworks from around the world. Some of them are pretty impressive and I am glad I caught them.

There was something else going on, but I don’t really want to write about it until I have all the details. And currently I am missing a few points right now, but it involves the local city police dept. misplacing one of my bicycles, thats makes me a little unhappy.

Looking at my bike, it took the worse of it, but my eye is trying its best to swell shut.

I was leaving a store with Ben when we saw a group of messengers who knew me and told us about a bicycle race that was coming up in a few hours. The race was part of a benefit to raise money for a messenger who had been hit by a car and had his neck broken.  I think some people just need a small excuse to get drunk and some of us just need a small reason to race. Before the race had started some of the guys where already getting started drinking.

The race started with four people. There would have been five, but one of the guys popped both of his tires in the process of getting ready. (Probably a sign you need to stay home.) I was a little unfamiliar with Atlanta so I had a map drawn for me. We got moving and were holding a pretty fast pace. I didn’t feel really good and several times I thought about quitting, but I couldn’t just let myself quit. Somewhere shortly before the third stop I pulled out my manifest so I could check my map, and figure out where I was. I probably should have slowed to below twenty mph. I got hit by another bicyclist in the race who was going to cut through the parking lot I was in front of. I was moving fast enough to hit the ground and slid and have time to think “I hope I don’t slide into that curb.”  Once everything settled I was hoping I didn’t have a seizure on the side of the road, then I thought about my camera since it was in my bag. The other guy who crashed was one a brakeless fixed gear, so there were not a whole lot of moving parts. So once he got stretched out he was able to get moving again. We were both in first so I was hoping he would make, I found out he and someone else caught a flat tire later. So Ben won by default.

I picked up my bike, and was hoping to ride it to the next stop. It didn’t agree with me in the slightest bit. My bike looked like the back of a dress on prom night, There is no happy word it.  Even after adjusting the brakes and screwing with the drivetrain it was obviously not being pedaled anywhere. So I just threw it over my shoulder and started walking to the next stop. I stopped by a Krispy Kreme on the way when blood started getting into my eye, and I have learned people take their doughnuts pretty seriously in Atlanta, and you can get to the front of bathroom line pretty easily when you are dripping blood. It was swarming with people in the Krispy Kreme, and I had never seen someone sit down with the intention of eating an entire box of doughnuts. Apparently this is a fairly common thing.

The worst part of all of this, is the fact I spent a solid hour getting lectured by my dad about racing, crashing and hurting myself on my bicycle a few days ago.

Holy shit, it has been three years since I started StupidHurts.org, I do need to rewrite most of the site, but that has been a constant thing for months now.

Oh and I found my gloves that I had lost in the bicycle wreck a few months ago, that makes me happy since I don’t have to buy a new pair now. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.

I have been been meaning to replace my brake cables for sometime several months, and I figured as while as I was doing it, I might as well write a guide on how to do it as well. Before you start replacing your own brake cables. Read all the directions all the way through, and make sure you have everything you need first.

First off you need need Cables.

Teflon grease.

Cable ends.

Something to cut the Cable Ends.

And a 3 Way Hex Key.

It is nice to have a towel.

We are going to start off with the front brake.

You will start off by opening the the hex bolt on the side of your front caliper, and then removing the existing cable that’s already there. You cut off a cable end if there is one there already.

Now open up the front of the shifter and this is what you are looking for.

You are going to pull that all of the way out, pay attention where you pulled that cable from.  You take that white bushing that the arrow is pointing to and put Teflon grease on the sides and top of it, then put that bushing on your new cable like so.

Next you rub Teflon grease on the side of your cable, it will help it last longer. Then you stick the cable back into the hole it came from. Sometimes you have to move the cable around to find the hole, the is also part of the reason you lubed it. Once you have fed the cable out of the bottom. Pull it out of the bottom and screw your adjustment screw all the way in before adjusting your brakes.

Cut off about “2 fingers”  of cable. and put on a cable end.

Tighten as needed, and there you have it. You did the front, now for the rear.

The beginning is the same, you will start off by opening the the hex bolt on the side of your back caliper, and then removing the existing cable that’s already there. You cut off a cable end if there is one there already.

Now open up the shifter and this is what you are looking for.

Pull that bushing out. Lube it up with Teflon grease like last time.

Cut off about “2 fingers”  of cable. and put on a cable end. Tighten as needed, and there you go.

Now make sure both levers have about the same amount of movement. Try to stretch them as well and make sure they stop the bike consistently. Also make sure your weight does not move the handle bars.

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If there are any questions don’t hesitate to email, oh and wash forget to your hands once you are done, the cable ends are lead and I don’t want to be responsible for that.

It is the little things that make living here interesting. Every year the Regions building decorates their building with Christmas light like this.

I haven’t forgotten about Stupidhurts.org. It has just been a rough week. I have been having a lot more seizures lately, and it is really hard for me write and focus after that.

I lean my weight forward and lock my heels together. Then listen to the back tire as it skids across the pavement.

I lock up the back tire and come sliding up perfectly to the line at the traffic light.  I was unneeded as usual, but, it was fun. I think showing off is probably the entire reason I ride a fixed gear sometimes really.

Then I hear my name being called.  Which is really surprising. Considering there are really only a handful people who should know me on sight.  Those people are mostly coffee shop rats and firefighters. Then I look around, and spotted in an ambulance two slots behind me Emt’s leaning out, waving, and calling my name. You gotta have friends I guess.

But I was struck right then. Do you really want to be on a first name basis with the local emergency response crew. And know that you are on that basis because of how many times they have cleaned you up, from bleeding out of random ditches.

There have not been as many post lately. Mostly because I have had really a hard time expressing myself lately. I will start a thread or an idea, than lose my train of thought and not be into anymore. Or I will get done with something and it will not be as good, or at least not to share with the general world.

So I should have seen I had an interesting weekend coming when I had a disgruntled bus driver named Anne giving me a ride to the ferry

I did make it where I was going, went to the Sci-Fi Museum and the mall and a I happened to find myself in the path for the rally for proposition 8 . So I hung out and people watched for a bit.

You know, when the life of my story is done, I hope the librarian reads it and mis-files it in the travel humour section.

I haven’t been called “Cowboy” in a very long time. And truthfully I sorta miss it, but really only when a certain person does it. I was talking to a friend of mine last night, and she brought up the last time we hung in Alabama together.

Here is more or less how it happened
We were walking downtown headed away from the Alabama theater. She teased me so I spun her around pinned her to a wall and looked into her eyes. She looked at me and her eyes flashed mischievously, her lips curled up at each end into that beautiful smirk she has. With my hands on the wall at both sides of her head, she just titled her face playfully to the side and said.

“Cowboy I think today is the luckiest day of your life.”

Looking back I think Sarah was right.