The most reckless I’ve ever been!

Now I know I’ve entitled this journal “Richard’s Reckless Travels,” but today I think I outdid myself. Of course, it was on my bike. Mom will probably disown me after finding out about it…but man! What a rush!

So I’m riding up Downing St., between 6th and 7th Ave and I’m riding alongside car “B”. In front of Car B is an A (an Audi A4), and in front of the Audi is a truck carrying a crane, or car “C”. I’m just about to get to 7th Ave when the truck carrying the crane (Car “C”) takes a right (without a turn signal, the bastard). I’m going 10,000 mph as I typically enjoy going so…that doesn’t leave me much, if any room to stop. I’ve tried to illustrate the current situation:

cCC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
c

AA
AA
AA

BB R
BB R
BB

C = Crane truck, c = This huge danging crane bit, A = Audi, B = BMW (the car I’m next to), R = Me on my awesome bike

I’m riding on just to the left of the parked cars, literally ducking and contouring my body so I can avoid the rear view mirrors. So, the cars slow down, but since I’m going so fast, I don’t have many options to chose from:

Option A: Crash into crane truck
Option B: Crash into parked car
Option C: Crash into Audi
Option D: Take a chance, and be reckless

So I chose option D and this is the way it played out, as an illustration:

Part 1 of 2

cCC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
R
cR

AA
AA
AA

BB
BB
BB

Part 2 of 2

cCC
CC
CC
CC
R     CC
R     CC
c

AA
AA
AA

BB
BB
BB

For those who can’t tell from the diagram, what happened is this. I swerved between car “A” and behind the truck carrying the crane “C”. However, midway through this maneuver, I discovered I couldn’t make it unless I became excessively invisible. So I chose that route – I rode between the dangling bit of the crane (I had to duck to miss the crane itself) and the back of the truck which was unexpectedly enormous and sticking out.

But I made it! Talk about an adrenaline rush.

Wrapping things up with 8 days to go

So, in addition to seeing concerts, riding bikes, and working out. I have been killing my time with unethical activities as well. These have come in the form of writing Lenny’s girlfriend’s economics final paper. She paid me a hundred dollars to write it, and frankly, as an economist and a miser, I couldn’t say no. I finished the paper up yesterday (it’s due May 1st), and I’m about a page over the limit. So it’s not like this was a difficult task for me – it’s about the analysis of the current state of the economy, which is perhaps my favourite pastime! However, in order to do my research, I’ve needed internet. This is unethical activity number 2 – I’ve been stealing internet the past 6 months. Actually, that only counts Denver, as I stole internet the entire fall semester up at CSU. Hey, if they don’t secure it, that’s their problem. But all my good stolen internet connections have either disappeared or been password protected now. So I had to go downtown to a cafe to finish up Valerie’s (Lenny’s girlfriend) paper. I was there for a couple of hours after riding down there during rush hour.

Now that I think about it, that’s another one of my favourite pastimes, something I’m really going to miss actually. There’s a roughly 1 mile stretch down 15th St down the middle of downtown that I go flying down. The lights are all timed so when it’s a red light for the cars, it’s a walk signal for the people, and well, I’m not a car. It takes a certain kind of frame of mind (unsurprisingly, recklessness comes to mind…dauntlessness does as well) to go flying in between cars during rush hour, but man, once you get use to it – it gives you a rush of your own. You have to worry about people changing lanes unexpectedly, fitting (you and the bike) between rear view mirrors, pedestrians (can’t stress this enough), and bad roads (you’d be surprised how many Paraguay-like holes there are in the roads). I kind of view it like learning Spanish and traveling abroad. It’s something that’s terrifying and impossible at first, but you get a hang of it over time, and while still remaining a formidable challenge, it’s not nearly as intimidating as it use to be.

Other news, is that I went to a shoulder specialist to get my arm looked at. It’s been bothering me since I got back from South America. His name, Raj Bazaz, was enough reason for me to go in – I would’ve gone even if my arm was healed. However, Raj kind of gave a feeling like Kumar of Harold in Kumar. He was in his 30′s, came in, slapped my hand and said, “What’s up bro?” So after a series of diagnostic tests to test my movement and strength, he showed me a shoulder joint and said I had problems with my upper rotator cuff and my biceps tendon, which were causing me pain when I made upward or outer arm movements. I told him I didn’t really have time for therapy because I was leaving for Nicaragua in 9 days to which he responded, “Oh, my wife taught business in Nicaragua with Peace Corps.” Or in other words, she did exactly what I’m going to do. He said his wife extended her service one year and stayed 3 years because she enjoyed it so much. Nuts – 3 RPCV’s from Nicaragua in Colorado that I’ve met.

In the end, Dr. Bazaz ended up giving me a cortisone injection (STEROIDS!) in my shoulder and my strength was instantly increased because the pain was dulled. Apparently my bursa in my shoulder is being aggravated without any legitimate reason. I had the choice of doing nothing and resting it, or getting a cortisone injection and fixing it now. He also pointed out that it could be a tear in my arm, but he didn’t think it was since I was young and in good shape. So here’s hoping everything will be better with it now.