Last Friday I fell off my bike again, but this time I swear it was not my fault. I came around a turn in the bike trail and there was a fair-sized tree down across the pavement. I tried to stop by a combination of braking, turning slightly, and rolling on the ground. It was the last one that finally worked.
My left hip and the first two fingers of my left hand took most of my weight. The bruise on my left hip is one of the most appalling things I’ve ever seen on a body that wasn’t in a hospital; I’m almost proud of it. But it’s the sprained fingers that have really been incapacitating for writing or reading, which is a significant portion of what I do. I’m by no means a ten-finger typist. But I am an almost wholly unconscious typist: I think of what I want to say and some clicking sounds are emitted by the keyboard and the words go up on the screen. Except for the past week or so the clicks have been accompanied by the muttered refrain, “Ow… ow… ow…” as I moved the injured fingers without thinking about it. So, in short, I didn’t get much writing done, including this week’s Blog Gate post.
I finally did put something up today. For one thing, the sprained fingers are healing up and, for another, I was outraged/annoyed/totally unsurprised by a gross blog-post from someone whose work I once made some effort to like, and then gave up from dislike of the man himself. This got me thinking, if that’s not too strong a word, about the cost/benefit ratio of author-blogging. (Thanks, if that’s not too strong a word, to james_nicoll for the link, and to kythiaranos for the snarky phrase “Blog against Blogging Week”–which I thought was a brilliantly original coinage of my own until I googled it.)
I think you really outdid yourself with this phrase:
its author is a porcinely gross, foul-mouthed, bloviating bag of toothless malice squirting flatulent saliva-streaked jets of verbal poison into the eyes of any innocent web-wanderer who happens upon his blog
Thanks! (And that was the revised, toned-down version.)
A follow-up of sorts to your great post about leavng the game if you don’t win at internet on the first try.
Hope your fingers feel better.
“A follow-up of sorts to your great post about leavng the game if you don’t win at internet on the first try.”
That sounds too good to be mine. But I’ll gladly make off with any credit that’s not nailed down.
The fingers seem to be on the mend; thanks for the good wishes.
Have you considered carrying a gas-powered chainsaw in your bike panniers? Useful both for downed trees on the bike path and for vengeful bloviating homophobes, should any attempt to ambush you during what is clearly the most perilous part of your day. I ask because that gross blog post made me want to reach for my electric hedge-trimmer.
I would never threaten a homophobe with a chainsaw. As far as anyone knows. It might be useful for killer trees, though.
I see that Whatshisname has taken down the offending post and has put up some non-apology apologies. I shrug in his general direction.
Ah, the non-apology apologies. I crank the volume on my imaginary stereo and blast “Your Racist Friend” by They Might Be Giants in his general direction.
You’re just rewarding bad behavior, there–but they probably won’t appreciate it, so that’s justice.
Ouch! Hope you’re alright by now. I was really lucky I didn’t have any gnarly spills when I was biking some of the limes. I’m pretty sure I mentioned how the handlebars of the bike I was borrowing kept coming loose. All I could think when I was flying down 30% grade hills was “If I have to make a sharp turn/stop… it will be the last thing I ever see…”
That’s the great thing about biking around the Great Black Swamp–no hills!
I hope your last few days in the Old Country go well.
Have you considered checking the calibration of gravity in your area? I’m starting to suspect it needs tweaking.
–Jeff Stehman
It must be gravity’s fault. I’ll have sharp words for it the next time I encounter it.