That is the leading edge of a bike helmet that has encountered the pavement. What does the head that was contained in it look like after that encounter?
At first it looked like this (warning: do not click if you are the least bit squeamish).
After self-administered first aid, the head -- which belongs to #2 son -- looked like this:
(He emailed me those last two photos the night this happened. The others I took today when he came to the lake for the weekend.)
Those are just scrapes, though. Check this out:
He must wear the wrist brace until Tuesday or so, when he will get a cast. Yep, he broke his wrist -- specifically, he has a radial fracture.
The story is this: he was biking to his car after work and was a block or so south of Franklin on Lyndale, for those of you familiar with Minneapolis. He had just checked his helmet-mounted rearview mirror for traffic behind him and while his eyes were averted from the road immediately ahead, his right handlebar clipped a parked car. Bam! and down he went, skidding across the pavement. He said his first thought upon raising his head from the ground was, Damn, my bike in in the street! Did it get run over? Then he stood up, leaned over the bike, and wondered why there was blood dripping onto the street.
I am so grateful that there was no moving automobile involved in this incident. It could have been so much more serious. He could easily be dead had there been a car coming at the wrong moment. The other thing we are all grateful for is that he has health insurance (which only went into effect in June or July) through his job that covers these medical bills.
