It's kind of a funny story now. Kind of.

Ben told me last night that his co-worker is going to give him his old bike. My husband is king of getting free stuff from people. Up until this past Christmas we had been using a grill that someone was going to throw away before Ben offered to take it off his hands. There was no temp control, only off and on, and the glass window on the lid was busted. But if you could get past all that and the singed arm hair from lighting the thing, it was really a fine grill.

Anyway, this new addition will be the first time there's been a bike in the Blair household in over a year. We had two when we moved here two years ago. They were our first big purchase together, made before we even got married. They were a couple of Schwinn's that we got a good deal on because the sales woman thought we were a cute couple. This was before Schwinn sold its soul to Wal-Mart and started making low-end bikes. Within the first few months of us moving to Pasadena, Ben's bike got stolen from our apartment complex. We hadn't bought u-locks yet, so it was kind of our own fault. Pasadena's known for its underground bike theft ring. But I have to ask - who's heart is so hardened that they would steal a bike with a bell that said "I heart my bike" on it?

Then there was one.

While getting my teeth checked out on Tuesday, the dentist asked if I had been in an accident and suffered any blunt trauma to the head because I had a chipped tooth that indicated as much. As a matter of fact, I had! There was this incident about a year ago when the other bike got totalled. It's been a year since the accident. A year since I was determined to be 100% at fault for getting hit by a car. A year since I ruined my laptop and had to buy a new one. A year since the police report screwed me over and made it impossible for me to get reimbursed for anything. I'm still going to contest the report and possibly take the nice man in the BMW to court, but I've got too much on my plate to really tackle that right now. But I will. If nothing else but for the principle of the matter. I am a woman of principles, after all. And although it was foolish of me to think I should go through the intersection just as the light turned yellow, I'm pretty sure one is not supposed to proceed through an intersection unless it's clear. Clear of, say, a young woman biking to school.

So, then there were none. But in memory of that shiny yellow bike and the crash we both suffered from, I thought I'd post some pictures of the aftermath of the accident. They're kind of graphic, but I think you can handle it, Internet. Yay for not dying!