We're expecting a high of around 90F today. Geez! I mean; it's the friggin' end of October. You'd think I could power down the a/c by now. This is supposed to be the first month with a low electricity bill! Fall around here is usually a pretty brief and sporatic affair, and I'm by no means wishing for really cold weather, but where are those crisp, cool mornings we're supposed to be having? The weather man isn't offering any hope for another week yet. Tomorrow night there will be a lunar eclipse, so at least this high pressure that we've been suffering under should give us a reasonably clear night for that!
I am trying to shift into off-season mode now. This morning it was pretty dark until we were way down the levee. It's hard to tell who is in the group until the sun starts to come up. I was feeling kind of contemplative today, thinking about winter training rides and wondering why my legs still feel a little sore from last weekend.
I talked for a while last night with Kevin, the guy who crashed badly in Sunday's race. They won't be doing surgery on the collarbone - they'll just let it heal, which is pretty typical. He said he's got road-rash pretty much all over, and the neurologist wants to do another CAT scan. I've always found it a little disturbing when the doctor in the ER reads the CAT scan, and then later when an actual neurologist takes a look at it the next day he sees stuff that makes him want to do another one. Kevin's wife is a little worried about his face. He had some fairly deep cuts up around his forehead where I think he got clipped by someone's pedal and/or chainring as they were rolling over his head. My experience has been that face skin heals pretty well and I told him so.
It sounds like someone started to go for the finish rather early, as Cat. 5s often do, and a couple of guys streamed past on the left. Kevin latched onto the train, but right about that time the guy in front of him suddenly slowed down - either he blew up or he had to avoid something - and Kevin clipped his wheel and went over the bars. He sounded really disappointed because he felt strong and was in a good spot with a clear shot at the finish line when it all went down (pun intended). After he fell, we kept him on the ground until the ambulance came, which took probably 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes or so for them to strap him down and load him up. We were talking with him the whole time, although he was definitely a bit confused. He asked about his bike, told us what hurt, etc. Well, he doesn't remember any of that. All he remembers is "waking up" in the ambulance, which means his short-term memory wasn't working for probably 20 minutes to half an hour. Anyway, it was nice of him to call around and thank everyone who was there making sure he got taken care of.
Especially considering that he's taking some heavy-duty pain meds right now.
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