A wonderful spring day. Oh, wait...

Well, we had a nice warm day here in the Pittsburgh region yesterday. I had gone down to Morgantown to try and catch the ride. I'm kind of glad I was late since it turned into a hammerfest. I wound up riding 4 hours on my own at a good early season pace. I like days like this, but I also know that I have to force myself a bit more to get out on the bike in the following days as it will be getting colder. These rapid weather changes really goof with my system and the built in barometer I have in my shoulder usually lets me know about the coming changes. It's one of those dull aches that really let you know it's there, but there isn't much you can do about it. Anyway, back to my ride. Riding along in-town trails, you really learn just how much people exist in the world as if they are the only ones there. I look out for others, even if I wish they'd just fall in the stream when I approach sometimes. There was a couple out taking a walk with their kids. One of the kids was in a stroller, the other was on a little toddler bike. This was all well and good, except the one of the bike was about 50 yards behind them and not looking to sure of himself. I slowed almost to a crawl as I got up to him, not wanting to be going to fast past him. At walking speed, I got up to him and with his parents finally calling to him to pull to the other side of the trail, he looks over at me and rides directly at me. I pulled further over and then suddenly my rear wheel hits the edge of the pavement and the wheel starts skittering out from under me. I gave it a quick acceleration to try to right the ship or at least get beyond the little guy when finally, gravity took over and I went down in a heap. I was about 10 or 15 feet beyond him when I hit and I dug up my knee and elbow. Now comes the good part. The parents then went 'Awww Breez, are you ok?' and then scurried him off. Not one freaking word to me like 'we're sorry, are you ok?' Their lack of parenting in the situation caused it and their boy wasn't even touched. I'm lying there bleeding and my bike got scraped up. It took just about all my strength not to be a jerk about it, but damn, how nice are you supposed to be? There was another family riding their bikes who stopped and made sure I was ok and that maybe cooled me down enough to just go on my way, but it wasn't the best way to finish a ride.