Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
There having a 4th of July concert and fireworks at the local high school tonight. I don't know how they managed it (he's originally from this area) but Joe Welsh is the feature performer at the concert. Prior to Mr. Welsh's performance will be orchestral music and a well regarded local band. The high school is about a mile down the road from where I live. Unfortunately I can't go due to a bizarre set of circumstances.
I live about 5 miles from where I work. During the warm weather months I commute to work on a bicycle. As I was leaving work yesterday I had changed into my cycling gear as I was putting on my helmet the chin strap broke of all things. Since it's an old helmet I just tossed it with the idea of picking up a new one. That should have been my first warning sign. I rode home, with no incident until I arrived at my condominium complex. As I enter the complex on the lane to my unit it's slightly down hill, passes a round about and then takes a sharp right onto the lot where my unit and garage are. It's a sweet little technical turn and I ussually take it aggressivly as it's quite fun to go down hill, through the round about and execute a sharp right turn at about 20 mphs. Well this time, my rear tire lost grip as I executed the right turn and my wheel slid out from under me. I subsequently determined I had made a poor choice in tires (that's tyres for you Tom
as this particular brand is, unknown to me, known for having poor grip at high speeds. So when the wheel slid out from under me I went down hard right side landing on my elbow and chest. It felt like I'd been blind sided in the ribs by a linebacker. Hurt like hell, bruised my ribs and got a slight case of road rash on my elbo.
Oh but wait! It get's better. I jumped right back up and though it hurt like hell and knocked the wind out of me these things are to be expected when you ride aggresively from time to time. I picked my bike back up, thankful that I had not hit my head on the fall (figures the one day I ride with out a helmet I wipe out!). I walk over to my garage. The door opens electronically either with a remote or by entering a pasword into a numeric key pad on the side of the door. I entered my code and the door opens. I walk in, put my bike up, and start taking off my cleats when the door, which had fully opened by then, unexpectedgly started closing. I ran to the other side of the garage and hit the open/close button inside the garage but it didn't work. The door garage door closed and as it closed came the distinct sound that electric motors make when they burn up. Griiiind, click, click, clickl.....silence.
So no biggy, just pull on the emergency cord to trip the manual emergency releaste latch on the electric door opener so I can open it manually, right? So I did, and the cord breaks off. So I get a hammer and I start pounding on the latch to get it open....it won't budge. I tried prying of loose with a screw driver. Nothing working there either. Oh...and did I tell you that it's about 120 degrees inside the garage? Well ten minutes have gone by and I'm all ready drenched in sweat and it's pooring off of me. So I just figure I'll remove the armature from eletric garage door opener off and just open the door manually. Then I realized. I took my wrenches into the Condo the other day for a DITY project and left them under the sink. So I reach into my back pocket to get my cell phone to call my wife. Guess what fell out of my jersey pocket with out my knowing it when I crashed? Yup, my cell phone. That's when I realized I was in trouble. I figured i could either yell for help and hope a neighbor hears me or I could bust out one of the panels in the garage. I've been in there for 20 minutes by now and I try the yelling option first. After about 10 minutes of yelling one of my neighbor hears me. Guess what? They don't have any wrenches. So they call the complex emergency maintenance # and call the maintenance man on call. He's not in! FUCK! So the neighbor lady says time to call 911. To make a long story short. The fire dept arrives and we open the door just enough for them to slide some wrenches through, I take the armiture off and open the door manually. Emergency over but by this time I had been in a 120 degree garage for an hour. When I went inside my condo and was cleaning up I weighed myself. I lost 5 lbs of water weight in one hour. Good thing I got out when I did.
So now I'm still kinda feeling a bit lousy from dehydration but my rib cage is hurting me (just stiff and sore mostly). Looks like I probably strained some of my intercostals. Oh no problem breathing so nothings broken but it just hurts a little anytime I move my upper body and I couldn't sleep last night or today cause it's uncomfortable to lay down......it's just uncomfortable enough that I can't sleep. Oh....and I got in trouble with my wife cause I was late for dinner cause I was locked inside my own garage with no way to get out and by the time I did dinner was ruined.
Anyways that's why I'm not going to a free Joe Welsh concert tonight.
I live about 5 miles from where I work. During the warm weather months I commute to work on a bicycle. As I was leaving work yesterday I had changed into my cycling gear as I was putting on my helmet the chin strap broke of all things. Since it's an old helmet I just tossed it with the idea of picking up a new one. That should have been my first warning sign. I rode home, with no incident until I arrived at my condominium complex. As I enter the complex on the lane to my unit it's slightly down hill, passes a round about and then takes a sharp right onto the lot where my unit and garage are. It's a sweet little technical turn and I ussually take it aggressivly as it's quite fun to go down hill, through the round about and execute a sharp right turn at about 20 mphs. Well this time, my rear tire lost grip as I executed the right turn and my wheel slid out from under me. I subsequently determined I had made a poor choice in tires (that's tyres for you Tom
as this particular brand is, unknown to me, known for having poor grip at high speeds. So when the wheel slid out from under me I went down hard right side landing on my elbow and chest. It felt like I'd been blind sided in the ribs by a linebacker. Hurt like hell, bruised my ribs and got a slight case of road rash on my elbo.Oh but wait! It get's better. I jumped right back up and though it hurt like hell and knocked the wind out of me these things are to be expected when you ride aggresively from time to time. I picked my bike back up, thankful that I had not hit my head on the fall (figures the one day I ride with out a helmet I wipe out!). I walk over to my garage. The door opens electronically either with a remote or by entering a pasword into a numeric key pad on the side of the door. I entered my code and the door opens. I walk in, put my bike up, and start taking off my cleats when the door, which had fully opened by then, unexpectedgly started closing. I ran to the other side of the garage and hit the open/close button inside the garage but it didn't work. The door garage door closed and as it closed came the distinct sound that electric motors make when they burn up. Griiiind, click, click, clickl.....silence.
So no biggy, just pull on the emergency cord to trip the manual emergency releaste latch on the electric door opener so I can open it manually, right? So I did, and the cord breaks off. So I get a hammer and I start pounding on the latch to get it open....it won't budge. I tried prying of loose with a screw driver. Nothing working there either. Oh...and did I tell you that it's about 120 degrees inside the garage? Well ten minutes have gone by and I'm all ready drenched in sweat and it's pooring off of me. So I just figure I'll remove the armature from eletric garage door opener off and just open the door manually. Then I realized. I took my wrenches into the Condo the other day for a DITY project and left them under the sink. So I reach into my back pocket to get my cell phone to call my wife. Guess what fell out of my jersey pocket with out my knowing it when I crashed? Yup, my cell phone. That's when I realized I was in trouble. I figured i could either yell for help and hope a neighbor hears me or I could bust out one of the panels in the garage. I've been in there for 20 minutes by now and I try the yelling option first. After about 10 minutes of yelling one of my neighbor hears me. Guess what? They don't have any wrenches. So they call the complex emergency maintenance # and call the maintenance man on call. He's not in! FUCK! So the neighbor lady says time to call 911. To make a long story short. The fire dept arrives and we open the door just enough for them to slide some wrenches through, I take the armiture off and open the door manually. Emergency over but by this time I had been in a 120 degree garage for an hour. When I went inside my condo and was cleaning up I weighed myself. I lost 5 lbs of water weight in one hour. Good thing I got out when I did.
So now I'm still kinda feeling a bit lousy from dehydration but my rib cage is hurting me (just stiff and sore mostly). Looks like I probably strained some of my intercostals. Oh no problem breathing so nothings broken but it just hurts a little anytime I move my upper body and I couldn't sleep last night or today cause it's uncomfortable to lay down......it's just uncomfortable enough that I can't sleep. Oh....and I got in trouble with my wife cause I was late for dinner cause I was locked inside my own garage with no way to get out and by the time I did dinner was ruined.
Anyways that's why I'm not going to a free Joe Welsh concert tonight.