On Quilt Alongs and Bicycles

Last Friday, despite my iron's free-will choice to fall over on the floor and melt the carpet again, I ironed out some Hideaway FQs and cut my pieces for the Kaleidoscope Quilt Along. Yay!

I decided to use the yellow gingham from the Hideaway line as my 'solid' because I had a lot of it. And I made an executive design choice to use the other gingham prints for the right triangle pieces.

Then I jetted off to take photos of the memorial quilts. And after that, I set up for a nice relaxing weekend. Let me tell you a little story about that.

Remember how my husband's bike was stolen? If not, that's cool. It was stolen a few weeks ago. Then we replaced it with a fancy new bike which we picked up last week. One with a different frame, one that forced my husband into a new riding position. One that put his center of balance more forward than he was used to.

Now imagine my excitement when we could bike together again on Saturday. About 17 miles in, we are officially booking it. I set the pace way too high [by no means am I gloating here, I was just going too fast for the busy area]. And when another cyclist coming head-on pulled out into the center of the path to pass someone else going his direction, I had no room to squeeze by at my speed. So I slammed on my brakes. And so did Sean. Only I kept moving, while he toppled over his handle bars.

Now, when I said twisted shoulders were all the rage, I didn't mean it literally. My heart absolutely sank/broke/crushed all at once when he answered the question "Are you okay?" with a simple "No." He's tough and always positive, so I knew this was really serious. He broke his collar bone from the impact, and as evident from looking at his helmet later in the day, he took a pretty good hit to the head too [note: buy a new helmet]. Thankfully he has had no headaches, memory loss, or vision impairment. We are so lucky that my stupidity only resulted in a broken bone. Praise God. Someone was clearly looking out.

We spent Saturday at the hospital, and were comforted by some great friends who dropped what they were doing because I was pretty much hysterical on the phone asking where the best and closest hospital is. We also have to thank the complete strangers who gave me a ride from the trail to our car, and who stayed with Sean to keep him talking and alert.

Now my focus is elsewhere. It's fun-and-games-with-hubs around here now. I'm currently trying to challenge him to a left-handed wii battle (we're both right handed, and that's the shoulder he injured). I've also considered embroidering something left-handed. If you have any ideas from past experiences with dominant-hand-injuries, or for cheering other people with such injuries up, by all means, I'm all ears.

AND WEAR YOUR HELMET. And wear it properly, with the chin strap and everything. Have it fitted by a professional. A helmet that flies off before impact does no good, and one that shakes around will do more damage than not wearing one. If you don't have one, BUY ONE. I am positive that it at least prevented a head injury, and could possibly have saved his life.

Much love from the not-going-as-well-as-planned northeast.