A forgetful day

Today was a bit embarassing…my mind wondered a bit today and I ended up forgetting to bring quite a few items today. The first was my bike helmet. For those that don’t know, I bike about 25 miles each morning and evening between Independence, OR and Corvallis, OR most days. On others, I ride to Adair Village (about 15 miles) and catch a ride with a friend to work. My trip takes me down hwy 99 — a surprisingly pleasant piece of road that has the widest shoulders. Anyway, my bike helmet is just a part of my attire. I figure I wear it close to 2 to 3 hours each day (2 hours on the bike and maybe an hour rollerblading with my son), so its something I no longer notice. Well, I got about 4 miles out on the hwy today when I noticed an ich on my head. I reached up to grab the front of my helmet and to my surprise, no helmet. Apparently, I forgot it in my rush out the door. Now, I’m a firm believer in helmets every since this past April. In April, I was riding in the rain, didn’t see a storm drain and got tossed off my bike into the road going about 22 mph right on my head. It shattered my helmet, tore up my hands and left my face a little brused and sore — but otherwise, no injuries. Since then, I make sure I always have my helmet, so forgetting was a pretty big deal.

Anyway, I made it to work, went through the day and decided to get ready to leave. Today was one of those days that I commuted in with a friend — so I changed into my bike clothes and rode out to their house so I could ride the rest of the way home. When I got to their house, I realized that I’d forgotten to change out of my sandals and into my cleats. So I ended up having to call my wife and have her pick me up so I could get my bike, drive back to work and get my cleats (so I could ride tomorrow morning) and then go home. Well, it was late before we headed home, so we stopped at McGraths fish house to have dinner. The food was pretty good but when Kenny told them that he’d had his birthday recently, they surprised him with the birthday fish hat. Here’s a picture:

It was pretty funny — Kenny didn’t know what to think about the whole experience — though he did like the vanilla ice cream that they brought out as well. 🙂