Streetcar tracks: they’re the femme fatale of cycling. This afternoon, my bike’s tires got so cozy with them that they decided to stop moving and hang out for a while. Unfortunately, the laws of physics mean that my body had to continue its journey without the bike underneath.
What I still have:
- my bike
- my health
- my fantastic humour
What I no longer have:
- a few layers of skin on my wrists
- and most tragically: my laptop. Yes, my precious Macbook Pro was an unwilling participant in my maiden flight. I somehow landed on my bag and crushed the contents. The laptop boots but can’t find the hard drive. Uh oh.
So why am I whining about this calamity? Consider this a Public Service Announcement to inform you that I’m going to be operating at limited capacity until I either salvage my hard drive or get a new laptop. If I owe you emails, writing, photos, etc, you’ve been warned!
at 8:46 am
Edward A Robinson:
Dam man, get well soon. Also you clearly still have (my fantastic humour) because this was a very entertaining read!
No desktop?
at 9:50 am
alice:
Something precious had to be sacrificed =(
At least you didn’t lose anything else!
at 11:03 am
Sameer Vasta:
Ohno! Glad you didn’t lose your fantastic sense of humor though! =)
at 6:59 pm
Allison:
Weirdly, my laptop is what I think about whenever I get on my bike. Not, you know, my skull. My condolences! If you happen to get that dent fixed at the same time, please feel free to bill me…
I did the streetcar track flight move on my maiden voyage with my current bike, which has much thinner tires than my old CCM hybrid. I messed up the front of my bike – fixable, becuase my Dad is awesome – and gravel continued to emerge from a scrape on my hip for about a year.
After that, the internet taught me that I should only take on streetcar tracks at close to 90 degrees (even the back wheel!), not pedalling. It was a lesson well-learned.
at 7:41 pm
Kevin Richard:
Ouch, that sucks! Thinking on the bright side you don’t have any broken bones or teeth (I’ve seen that situation before, not pretty!). Hopefully you’re up and running again soon!
at 7:48 pm
Andrew Louis:
@Ed: I have an old Macbook which just-barely runs. Using that temporarily. Desktop at home is also pretty unusable.
@Alice: Well my 50mm lens isn’t autofocusing anymore…
@Sameer: It was tongue in cheek but hey, I’ll take what I can get ;)
@Allison: Apple Store is saying the laptop’s going to be a write-off. You won’t have to worry about an invoice.
I have mountain bike tires and am still pretty careful about tracks but I think the rain+wet tracks made the difference.
@Kevin: Ya, could have been much worse.
at 9:00 pm
olya:
I hope you both feel better soon :P
at 1:05 am
josue salazar:
Something similar happened to me today. I landed on my backpack (good thing since I’m pretty sure I would have broken my spine otherwise) but I was lucky enough not to break anything in it (it was loaded! Thanks Golla!).
Anyways, do you think it could be as easy as replacing your hard drive?
at 1:11 am
Andrew Louis:
Woa. Glad you’re ok. Streetcar track too?
It got dented pretty badly so I can’t pull the case off – can’t get to the hard drive. I’m going to defer to a pro tomorrow. Hopefully they can pull it out.
at 10:50 am
josue salazar:
@Andrew I’m missing some skin here and there but I’m alright. Thankfully my accident was no where near a streetcar (My handle accidentally hit my wife’s as we were biking together and I flew over my bike flipping mid air and landing on my back and knee).
Biking near a streetcar is really dangerous, and clearly bad accidents can -and do- happen.
Good luck with the MBP!
at 4:30 pm
hyfen.net » Venturing into Ontario’s Badlands:
[...] of past electronics-related tragedies, I decided to play it safe and stow away my camera. The remainder of the afternoon was spent [...]
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