First of all, thank all of you for your good wishes. I’m getting better, nothing is broken (that’s good news), but I will not be able to ride for some days, not sure for how long (bad news), as I can’t do it one-handed.

...It happened around 5:45 p.m. last Friday, on my way from work. I just cleared the narrow part of the LFT next to Ohio Street beach...

...there was almost no one there, except for couple of people on bikes, heading south, may be two or three hundred feet ahead. I just started to speed up, when one of them, a girls about 11 or 12, turned right in front of me.

The last thing I remember before hitting the concrete, is the sparkling fragments of my bicycle mirror shattered by that metal basket mounted on b-cycles.

Boom!

I am almost sure I did not hit the brakes—that would have sent me over the handlebars. I landed on my left side: left hand, elbow, knee, left eye, but my bike was on its right side when I peeled myself off the ground. The tip of the right grip was literally shaved off by concrete.

My theory is: I managed to avoid a headlong collision, but the b-cycle kicked my bike from under me, hitting the frame behind me from the left. I’ll never know for certain.

Was it possible to escape the whole thing altogether? I don’t think so. I saw them, mother and daughter on bicycles, riding in opposite direction, didn’t notice anything unusual about them before the daughter swerved right in my path. I was told by people who helped me afterwards that they saw that girl shortly before my accident; she was, apparently, zigzagging all over the place. Had I seen her for a bit longer, I might have given her a wider berth.

So, the first lesson: Beware little girls on bicycles.

Lesson two: I usually carry with me a small medical kit, but that little Neosporin spay thingie is totally not enough. Need a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, iodine, gauze, etc. Just in case.

Three: if you wear glasses, have a spare pare with you. I didn't.

*****

. . . Anything else?