Hi everyone,

As some of you know, I had a blatant reminder of my mortality about
2 weeks ago. Since I leaked to story to some and no doubt rumor
has flourished, I thought it would be best to let you allknow what
is going on.

The short story is that I was hit by a van while I was on my 
bicycle on my way into the physics building a couple of weeks ago.
I'm OK, nothing broken, just got scared and my right arm is still
not perfect.

It was in a roundabout...those of you from or in New Jersey know
all about roundabouts. They are alot like a video game, but it's real.
In England they have added a new dimension to the game by forcing 
cars and cyclists to use the roundabouts even  if there are bike
paths leading to and from the damm things.....and I won't even
start on van drivers...OK I will let into van drivers...but first
the longer story.

It was about 6:45am in the morning and there was almost no traffic.
I had bought really bright halogen bike-lights and I have special
reflecting bands around my pant legs, so I'm lit up like a christmas
tree. The roundabout is only 3-4 blocks from our house. 

I got to the roundabout and was pleased to see no cars on the road.
I pull in and keep to the outside....it is always a good idea
for a cyclist to keep to the outside on one of those things. 
I had to pass 2 exits before I could catch the bike-path again.
Passed the first and buisiest with no trouble. Then I was passing
the second. 

Next thing I know I see this flash of brown and hear a bang.
And I'm flying through the air. I knew I'd been hit by a car
and I could only think of two things while in the air.

1). Why am I still conscious?

2). WHEN YOU LAND GET OUT OF THE ROAD.

After a good 5 minutes in the air (...it seemed to take a long time to
land for some reason....adrenaline has become my drug of choice) 
I hit the ground, rolled once, popped back up with the bike (somehow)
and dragged it to the grassy shoulder. The whole thing couldn't have
been more than 4-5 seconds. 

You notice some strange things while running for your life to avoid
on-coming traffic. For example, I remember noticing that my bike
lights had stayed on and intact and I was pleased. Why the fact
that my back wheel was 'S' shaped didn't displease me at the time I
am not sure. Oh, and I forgot to mention. 85 pounds of pressure in
a bike tire makes a pretty impressive bang when it blows....ripped the
inner tube (a punchure resistant inner tube) lengthwise about 10 inches.

Amazingly the guy in the van stopped. He then tried to tell me it 
was my fault because I wasn't on a bike path. I informed him in
no uncertain terms that there WAS no bike path where I had to get
on the roundabout. He then tried to tell me that I should have 
been in the center of the roundabout if I wasn't going to turn down
the exit. I pointed out 3 more cyclists doing exactly what I did to
him and also pointed out that it is normally much more dangerous 
to have cars on both sides of you than on one side. 

What was amazing to me was that he actually claimed to have been
watching me the whole time. If he knew I was there why did he think
he had to race me to the exit? I'd have been past in 2 seconds. 
It's not like there were any other cars on the road so that he 
had to get into a lane or miss the exit. It was about this point
that the adrenaline really kicked in and I yelled at him for about
5 minutes. He probably got a little scared, he was backing off and
trying to get me to calm down. I managed to get control of myself
and at that point realized that I really wasn't hurt at all.
Just really scared. We looked at his van.

I am very proud to say that I put a good sized dent in the back of 
his van and scratched his shiny new paint job all to hell. It will
cost him a great deal in either insurance or direct money to fix it.
Turned out that he had just passed me doing something like 30mph
when I turned into him on my way around the roundabout (because you
of course, can't see who is behind you on a bicyle). So my right
handlebar caught his van at mid rear-passenger door and scratched
his paint the rest of the way back. When the handlebar hit the van 
it flipped the front wheel sharply to the left.  Then the 
principle of conservation of momentum took over...I fell into the 
rear of the van as he drove past putting the nice dent in 
the rear side with my shoulder. The energy of the impact is 
I think what shot me into the air and clear of the dancing bicycle.

Since it wasn't a head-on collision I don't think I would have 
been killed no matter what, just maybe seriously maimed....unless
someone had been behind us to finish me off.  But I broke no 
bones. There was a brilliantly colorful bruise on my left leg about the
diameter of a softball. Hey, it looked better than a Rothko....at
the moment it looks like the acretion disk of a black hole.  The 
real pain has been my right arm.

At the time of the accident, and until about noon that day. My
right arm was a little sore if I moved it in certain directions
but really wasn't feeling too bad.  I talked with the guy in
the van for a while, calmed down, and was feeling pretty damm
lucky. So I just let the guy in the van go. I figured that nothing
was broken and there was no blood, so I'd be OK...and I did trash
his van (a fact of which I am proud)...so we shook hands and he 
left.

Man though, that arm did it get worse! But I've always said a 
little pain never hurt anyone....it was probably the big brown
van. 
I think there was some internal bleeding or ruptered lymph nodes
because I could barely move it by 1pm that day.  But this forced an
issue that Noreen and I had been putting off. We went and registered 
with the National Health Service.  

I walked in to the clinic around 2pm, told the recepionist what
had happened, lied a little about when we moved to the area, and told
her I needed to see a doctor about my arm and that we both had to
register. She gave me two forms, and got me in to see a doctor 
that very afternoon.  I saw the doctor. He agreed that no bones 
were broken, gave me a perscription for an anti-inflamatory cream
and said if the pain doesn't get better in 2 days come back in, and
if it is not significantly better in a week come back in.
Total cost for this... zip, nada, nothing.

Total cost to me for the 100gram tube of special ointment with 
base ingredients that look like the chemical composition of
plastic explosives...5.65 pounds.  I did not have to go to an
emergency room. Imagine how well I'd have been treated if
I'd have been in the best health-care system in the world?
(Yes, Ed, I've been saving back some of the ointment...your
on your own for the blasting caps though.)

I think that Jim Hoff can take some credit for me getting off 
so lightly here. He had been teaching a certain recalcitrant pupil 
with a Ph.D. how to fall (Jim has several black-belts...
rumor has it that he also has argyle socks.) Also the fact that 
I've still got enough balance to ride a unicyle probably kept the
damage to sacrificial limbs. Carol Hawk also deserves some credit for
ragging on me at Fermilab until I got into the habit of regularly
wearing a bike helmut.

Our cat CLEO wanted to help me get better by sleeping the 
the crook of my hurt arm and purring. She would roll over
on her back and try to get the right arm to rub her tummy...it
didn't. But she tried. 

Noreen resisted the temptation to dote. She has learned to leave
me alone when I'm hurt and just make sure I'm fed and caffinated.
Also it seemed to bother her more than it bothered me for her to
watch me attempt to use the arm. She would moan in pain when 
I tried to move it. It's getting much better now, so it's all 
worked out in the end.

Well that's pretty much it. This has become quite long, so I'll
save the diatribe against van drivers for another day.

I'm off to CERN again for the second week of March. This time
Noreen will come along and we'll try playing tourist in 
Switzerland. But you have to play tourist with a vengence because
everything in Switzerland closes at 5pm...and nothing is open
on Sunday.

Hope everyone had a better Valentine week than I did!

Cheers,

Todd