The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

So, my crash on Saturday, I went to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center this afternoon (thanks for the lift, Patrick!) to have my consultation with the plastic surgeons who are going to repair my broken and dislocated jaw. I arrived after a little tangling getting off the freeway. Soon, I found myself in the bowels of the hospital at an admitting desk, filling out a form in pencil that had several checkboxes for status of address (”Permanent, Temporary, Jail, Car”). A while later, they called me.

I sat in an exam room for a while. Then, someone came in to ask me a whole bunch of questions. Then, another somebody came in to check me out as I sat on the paper table. No answers. Then, I’m alone in the room with a new iPod without headphones (yeah, I forgot them). Finally, a nurse gets me to ask me some financial information and stuff.

Finally, this is the verdict: “The extent of your injuries is great enough that we don’t really have the expertise to take care of you here.”

Tomorrow, I’m going back to Stanford.

So, on Saturday, I was stongly considering wimping out of my scheduled 100 kilometer ride and going on Sunday instead. If I had the last 36 hours to do over again, I’d have done just that.

43.5 miles into my ride, after a decent enough hammer up to Portola Valley, down through Woodside, and missing my hoped-for 45 mph descent down Woodside because of cross-winds, I was racing the sunset home. Cruising through Menlo Park, I noticed I had about an hour and twenty minutes until sunset and 20 miles to go. I can do that.

I paced another cyclist in a Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club kit. He jumped the red-light at Valparaiso. “Moron,” I thought. “That’s really a great way to get hit by a car.” I should have jumped the light with him.

I got my spin going pretty well. I was up to about 22 mph, when the guy in the traffic lane in a white truck decided he needed a video and attempted to turn right down Ashton (or was it Gordon), just before Avy Avenue in West Menlo Park. There was only one problem with his unsignalled turn. I was going straight down Alameda de las Pulgas. One moment, I’m thinking about how awesome it’ll be to knock out those last 20 miles, get my shower, my pizza, my disco nap, and head on up to the clubs in costume tonight. The next moment, I’m thinking “HEY, HEY” and I’m on the ground, spitting out pieces of my teeth.

A gaggle of witnesses came rushing out from the nearby cafes and sidewalk to help untangle me from my bicycle. Menlo Park Fire Department and paramedics were there in minutes. Despite the unquenchable desire to jump up and beat the hell out the driver, I stayed on the ground. I kept spitting out chunks of teeth and answering the paramedics’ questions. No, I didn’t lose consciousness. Yes, I can feel the pain in my mouth, ears, jaw, face. They put me in a neck brace. Wait, please take the cyclometer off my handlebars and bring my trunk bag — yeah, the black one with us. My digital camera, Palm Pilot, keys, and cellphone are in there. Yes, that’s my wallet.

We went to Stanford hospital, where all the ER nurses are cute and so are the doctors. I was in the ER from 5:40 pm PST through the time change until about 3 in the morning. I had the volunteer lady call Emmett, who dropped his Hallowe’en weekend plans to run to my house and get me some clothes, my iPod, and some other miscellany. He really deserves all praises for coming to my rescue and spending ridiculous amounts of time at the hospital with me.

After two cat scans, they determined that I had not broken my neck. That’s a relief. That neck brace was getting uncomfortable. After a while, they told me that I had dislocated and broken my jaw and that they’d need to look at the x-rays and scans, but they could probably reduce it (put it back into joint) and make me feel a little better. Then, a neurosurgeon came to see me. “You look pretty serious,” I said.

“Do you know what I am?” “I see neurosurgeon on your lapel, so I’m taking it you want to remove my brain and find someone for it who will actually use it.” “That’s funny. You have a sense of humor.” He asked me lots of questions and told me that I had a small fracture in my skull running behind my left eye from the impact. They needed to run another cat scan and keep me overnight to make sure I wasn’t bleeding into my brain.

That’s the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. “You could go home right now, but if you are bleeding into your brain, you could hemorrhage out and die before you can make it back to the hospital.” Okay, dude, make more jokes or you will fucking lose it right now. My face is messed up, but I’ve never been that pretty. My brain, though. That’s fucking serious.

After another cat scan at 4am, I was sent back to my room, which had lots of beeps and they happened to be set to an interval that would let me start dozing when another loud set of beeps would come through with “DR. RECTUMWORM TO 306. DR. RECTUMWORM. 306.” Another twelve hours of drifting into and out of short periods of sleep, having the cleaning lady come through once an hour to clean the sink, my cellmate buzzing the nurse every six minutes to get something adjusted. I have very little to bitch about considering I shared my ER with a multiple transplant recipient, a diabetic with some other problems, and a guy who already had a couple of heart attacks - in addition to sharing a room with a guy who underwent major surgery on his back. As lucky as I should feel that I only destroyed my jaw, I am still not going to be able to eat solid food for a long time.

Emmett chased down and wrangled nurses and doctors for me and got a clear understanding of when I could go home. He drove me home, took me to the pharmacy, endured my Vicodin-induced vertigo turning into motion sickness, and walked me home when I realized that I could not ride in a car without needing to stop to throw up.

You are a prince, Emmett. I cannot thank you enough and you have no idea how grateful I am.

I’m at home now. My friend, Patrick, is driving down from San Francisco to take me to the hospital in San Jose to consult the surgeons. I’m hoping to return to work some time this week, because I get paid by the hour (oh, yeah, and I have no medical insurance, thanks to lack of information about whether or not I was automatically enrolled or if there was a specific time period to show up).

But, scratch the rest of my cycling this year. Scratch my sister’s memorial ride next summer. Scratch dancing, eating, socializing, travelling to Idaho for x-mas to see my babies. And scratch these ripped legs and a body that I’ve been working on for three years. A liquid diet for the next few months is certain to see me losing quite a bit of weight.

But, I’ll live. Here’s to what’s next. Thanks for reading this far.

Also, before I forget. That Giro Eclipse helmet saved my fucking life. Do not ride your bicycle without a helmet. Please.

This afternoon, I called the Apple store, because I went in on Monday and they didn’t have any. Today, “You want it in black or white?”

Today had to be the day. It was raining, so I didn’t bike to work. I need a reward for my 16000 marker. I went into the store, found an employee, and said the magic words:

“Yes, I’d like a white 60 gigabyte iPod video, please!”

Five minutes later, it’s mine. And it’s sexy. Oh, my goodness, you have no idea. It’s ridiculously more sexy than my first-generation iPod. With 12 times the storage capacity, I guess I’m loading it up tonight with some and ripping some CDs this weekend.

Nicely done on the device, Apple. This really puts the ball over the back wall.

Another stupid three-day week this week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were fine, but high winds and rain wimped me out for the whole rest of the week. Better try again next week.

17 Oct:  36.13 mi;  1:51:18 (19.5 mph avg; 32.0 mph max)
18 Oct:  36.22 mi;  1:53:03 (19.2 mph avg; 30.5 mph max)
19 Oct:  36.08 mi;  1:50:05 (19.7 mph avg; 33.5 mph max)
Total : 108.43 mi;  5:34:26 (19.4 mph avg; 33.5 mph max)

Month so far:  429.65 mi.
2005 so far : 6537.53 mi (130.75% of goal).
2005 goal   : 5000.00 mi.
Remaining   : complete - (1537.53 mi over)

Rained out on Tuesday, I completed the rest of the week, until I noticed the high temperature projected to be about 63°F on Saturday with winds averaging about 25 mph. I decided to sit it out.

Yet another week nearly two hundred miles short. I need to find my rhythm again. Damn.

Despite the short week, a spactacular zip on Wednesday, which let me write a 20 mph average in my log book, pushed my week to a higher average speed than any before.

10 Oct:  36.25 mi;  1:51:26 (19.5 mph avg; 32.5 mph max)
12 Oct:  36.78 mi;  1:50:31 (20.0 mph avg; 35.5 mph max)
13 Oct:  36.21 mi;  1:50:12 (19.7 mph avg; 31.5 mph max)
14 Oct:  36.21 mi;  1:51:10 (19.5 mph avg; 35.0 mph max)
Total : 145.45 mi;  7:23:19 (19.7 mph avg; 35.5 mph max)

Month so far:  321.22 mi.
2005 so far : 6429.10 mi (128.58% of goal).
2005 goal   : 5000.00 mi.
Remaining   : complete - (1429.10 mi over)

Last week’s spectacular mileage stands in stark contrast to this week’s mileage, which is less than half. On Monday, my itchy foot tops sent me to the urgent care to find out why the hell my feet are super itchy (again, not on the soles, but on the tops). I was prescribed some kind of special ointment to clear it up (contact dermatitis), so I missed Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, I got out of my cube late and ended up 16 miles short for the day. Thursday and Friday were great riding days, with a new chain and back tire replacement on Friday. On Saturday, the high temperature was 63°F and it was extraordinarily windy.

Sounds like a good day to sit out to me. In order, though, to get some other things done that I’ve been working on lately, I’m going to trim my schedule back a little bit for next week.

05 Oct:  26.26 mi;  1:21:50 (19.3 mph avg; 26.0 mph max)
06 Oct:  43.06 mi;  2:12:22 (19.6 mph avg; 31.5 mph max)
07 Oct:  42.23 mi;  2:11:34 (19.3 mph avg; 31.5 mph max)
Total : 111.55 mi;  5:45:46 (19.4 mph avg; 31.5 mph max)

Month so far:  175.77 mi.
2005 so far : 6283.65 mi (125.67% of goal).
2005 goal   : 5000.00 mi.
Remaining   : complete - (1283.65 mi over)

Before this week, my longest week was just over 230 miles. This week, I decided to go for a week distance record. By Friday evening, I rolled through 200 on the week. The Saturday ride put me way over. I passed the 240 mile mark for the first time. There goes 250 miles. So much for 260. My week ended up just a shade over 270 miles, nearly 40 miles more than my previous best.

On Wednesday, I finished my 6000th mile of the year. Saturday had me descending Edgewood Road pushing for a nice top speed. A third of the way down the hill and I’m already reading 45. Push it a little bit…46, 47, 48, 49! Whew!

What a great week.

26 Sep:  40.52 mi;  2:03:41 (19.7 mph avg; 34.5 mph max)
27 Sep:  41.42 mi;  2:06:58 (19.6 mph avg; 32.0 mph max)
28 Sep:  41.29 mi;  2:07:10 (19.5 mph avg; 35.0 mph max)
29 Sep:  41.30 mi;  2:08:01 (19.4 mph avg; 31.0 mph max)
30 Sep:  42.09 mi;  2:09:07 (19.6 mph avg; 34.0 mph max)
01 Oct:  64.22 mi;  3:26:47 (18.6 mph avg; 49.0 mph max)
Total : 270.84 mi; 14:01:44 (19.3 mph avg; 49.0 mph max)

Month so far:   64.22 mi.
2005 so far : 6172.10 mi (123.44% of goal).
2005 goal   : 5000.00 mi.
Remaining   : complete - (1172.10 mi over)

After grabbing lunch at Chipotle, I headed out for my ride today at 1:30—almost six hours before sunset. My route was pretty much the same as last week with an extra mile thrown in. Like every Saturday in recent memory, it was substantially cooler and windier today than it was during the week. This is starting to drive me crazy.

I made decent time on my wind up to head out of Sunnyvale. Pushing a pathetically wimpy pace toward Foothill Expressway caused me to shed a bunch of my average speed, which I tried the whole ride to regain. Climbing to Portola Valley past the newly paved intersection at Alpine Road spared me from a headwind for about two miles, but by the time I neared the top, I was hard at war again.

Heading down Edgewood Road, I was surprised how quickly I was at 46 mph. I screamed down that hill and blew away my old top speed (the aforementioned 46) by three miles an hour. I pushed as hard as I could for 48 and overshot it by a mile an hour. Exhilirating!

Finally, I steamed home, salvaging half a mile an hour on my chart, and did my final loop home. I made it with no danger of having to change to the amber lenses. It’s so much better when I get out the door when I plan to.

Today:   64.22 mi;   3:26:47 (18.6 mph avg; 49.0 mph max)
Oct  :   64.22 mi;   3:26:47 (18.6 mph avg; 49.0 mph max)
2005 : 6172.10 mi; 327:47:34 (18.8 mph avg; 49.0 mph max)
Goal : 5000.00 mi (1172.10 mi over : 123.44% complete)

Oh, my goodness, that was a phenomenal movie. Joss Whedon brings back Firefly back to the big screen in a two hour romp that kept my eyes wide open the whole time.

After my ride this afternoon, I picked up Daniel and his buddy (Casey?). We headed over to Shoreline Century Cinema 16 in Mountain View to meet up with the rest of the group. Bill was there, along with Cyn. Lots of Daniel’s friends showed up. By the time the final moments before they started letting us head into the theater got here, the line to see Serenity was out the door and down the sidewalk. Getting to the theater early is a good idea.

The movie was really spectacular — better than anything I’ve seen in a long time. The special effects didn’t interfere with the story. It was significantly more action-packed and faster-paced than the Firefly TV episodes were, but with a $40 million budget, Joss did what George Lucas couldn’t do with three times that amoung (Attack of the Clones)—tell an intelligent story with great characters. All of the original TV cast are back in this movie and I’m not going to give any plotlines away, but I will say that I enjoyed every moment of this spectacular picture.

As a die-hard Browncoat, I have to do my part to see that more Serenity/Firefly movies are made. I have tickets for tomorrow night and I’ll go see it on Sunday and probably next weekend a couple of times as well. I have to do my part, after all, just because I want more. Can’t stop the signal.