Man Down

I fell off Etienne on my way to work today. I am uninjured, as is Etienne, but I was really scared. I was on the second-to-last road, the last stretch of the grueling uphill climb to the bike rack, when I began to skid on construction gravel. The traffic on the road moved along very slowly due to the steam and death sounds coming from the jackhammers. I feel like if I had more room to manuever, I could have righted myself, but just as I regained my traction the wheels caught on those ginormous steel plates they use to cover up holes.

I felt the bike whiz out from under me toward the left, and luckily I could get my foot on the ground to the right and didn't slam all my weight down on my wrist or arm. I just sort of rolled like a bug. More luckily, the cars moving in both directions were majorly slowed due to the construction so neither I nor Etienne was run over.

Several people checked whether I was ok and just as soon as I stopped spurting cuss words, I assured them nothing but my pride was injured.

What is the lesson here? I don't quite know what to do about the very, very dangerous conditions on that road. It's the only one that leads up to my work building. I don't want to not ride Etienne. Maybe I'll take the bus tomorrow and wade through the danger zone on foot, which may be a tad safer, and hope that the street is all cleaned up by Monday.