Philosoraptor Plays Hooky from NSA, Gets Hit By Truck Instead

So my department Chair decided to go to the NSA, thus sparing me from a 10-hour round trip + $100 hotel room charge. If this program takes off, I'll probably still participate, but getting to this meeting was going to be quite a pain, probably for little gain. So my plan was to stay home and get some work done on this #@&* book...but, on account of the on-going insomnia problem I have to take out several hours a day to exercise in order to have any chance of sleeping that night. I've been riding my mountain bike on the trails near Bolin Creek and the Chapel Hill airport, but I cleverly injured my feet a couple of years ago, and the trail riding was putting undue stress on the injuries. So I decided to do some riding on the roads.

Now, I used to do some road riding, and I when I first thought about trying mountain biking, the latter seemed a little scary. After mountain biking for awhile, however, you come to realize that it's a lot safer than being on the roads with @*$&%&ing idiots who don't know how to drive zooming past you all the time, barely in control of their land dreadnoughts.

So anyway, I'm on the road for less than five minutes, riding along at a good clip, doing everything right, when I hear a truck coming up on my left. It starts to pass me, and I note with some alarm that it is WAY too close, despite the fact that nobody's even coming in the other direction. I move over to the very edge of the road. This is happening pretty fast...I'm thinking this a**hole is going to hit me...when I see out of the corner of my eye the back end of the truck going by.

That's when the trailer hit me.

It was a glancing blow, barely catching me in the ribs, hitting me mostly in the left triceps. It knocked my left hand off the handlebars, and sent me and the bike off the road, wobbling wildly. Fortunately the shoulder expanded into a relatively wide, grassy section just as I went off the road, and I ended up far enough down and back on the bike that I managed to keep from going over the bars...in fact--and I still don't know how this happened--I didn't even fall over.

By the time I come to a stop, the truck that hit me is at the top of the next hill, turning left. I managed to flip him off and yell some naughty words at him, but then he was gone. I got on the bike and rode after him like hell, but I knew he'd be long gone by the time I could get up the hill. It looked like a kind of groundskeeping truck, and I think what hit me might have been a tow-behind wood-chipper, but I can't be sure. I spent the next hour and a half riding around the area looking for 'em, but, of course, couldn't find them. Just as well, probably. I must admit I was pretty pissed, and not looking to talk about the matter.

In the end, I got off pretty easy. Some scratches and bruises, a sore triceps, and a little bit of neck and back pain, but nothing serious.

But, just the same, I think I'll stick to the trails from now on...