Motorcycle accident

I've been riding a motorcycle for about 6 months now, and have put something on the order of 5,000 miles on my bike. It's a 1981 Honda Silverwing which has been well maintained and runs like a dream.

It all started late last summer when I met up with my sister Kat and her husband Jim down in Auburn one night really late at a casino. They had their motorcyles with them, and Kat took me for a ride on the back of hers, out on the freeway for a little while. It was the most exhilarating experience I'd had in ages, and I was instantly overwhelmed with desire to get a bike and use it rather than a car.

So I signed up for a 2 day introductory motorcycle rider's safety course, which was incredibly helpful since I'd never ridden before. I took to it like a duck to water, passed the test at the end with flying colors, thus got my motorcycle endorsement, and a month or so later I had purchased this lovely silverwing along with about $600 in safety gear including a full set of riding gear (jacket, overpants, gloves) and a nice full face helmet.

I find when I go somewhere on the bike, I feel amazingly happy when I arrive. And I feel pity for all the poor suckers who are driving along in their cars.

Today I was incredibly glad that I bought and wore all that safety gear, because I had a collision with a car at something like 25 or 30 miles per hour, and laid the bike down on it's side, and thwacked the back of my head *really* hard on the concrete road surface. I must have hit it hard because I have a couple of smallish memory losses surrounding the accident. This is extremely wierd for me because I generally have an excellent memory, and there are just these *gaps*!

Then I spent the next 6 hours or so at the emergency room of the local hospital--mostly just waiting. They did a CT scan, and cleaned out and bandaged a small puncture wound on my left leg. My leg is *incredibly* sore, and the whole left side of my body is incredibly sore. The doctor said I have a concussion, and to take it easy for at least a week.

I suspect tomorrow I'll barely be able to walk. The soreness has gradually been increasing the whole afternoon and evening.

If I hadn't been wearing that big helmet, I suspect I'd be dead, or have serious brain injury, or something like that.

My poor bike is somewhat tweaked, which is very sad because it was a nice bike.

I'm hoping the insurance situation works out in such a way that someone else pays to have my bike fixed, but I'm not totally sure that's going to happen.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I seem to be okay so far, for which I'm very grateful.

If any readers of this blog ride a motorcycle, please if you're not already doing it please make sure you have a good helmet and good gear and *always* wear them.