The Day I Saw Someone Fall on the Walkway, a Car on Fire, and Drunken elderly German-Americans

Call this the oddest day of the fall. Call this the oddest day of the summer. Call it what you will, but don't de-rock me. Apologies to those who got the Tesla reference. Then again, you probably thought that an obscure hair metal reference was pretty cool. I'll take a few points for that one, but I digress...

So it was mile sixteen in my seventeen mile bike ride. Things were going well, as usual and the extra pedestrians made for an exciting game of rad racer. First off, Miller called me and I picked up my phone while on the bike. I might have been going seventeen miles an hour...its probably not a good idea, but it was the only bikeride I ever planned to have the phone on during my ride. That should have been an omen of strange things I did. Anyway, things began to go awry when I passed a few bikes and got back into the right lane. An oncoming rollerblader was cruising along when she hit a fat twig and fell down. I should have stopped to see if she was allright, but one person already stopped to see if she was okay. One hundred yards later, I approached a freshly planted accident scene.

A car had slammed into the guardrail at the end of an off-ramp to the recreation parking lot. It was on fire. Everybody was standing up and staring at the scene. Unsure of what to do. The driver's passengers had apparently pulled him out of the car and he was writhing in pain on the ground. Cellphones were already out. The fire got bigger and everybody pulled the guy further from the fire. During the fire, some people stopped in their tracks, others biked right by the fire without noticing. Most just stood there. A cop didn't show up for about five minutes. Two minutes passed before the firetruck came. Another two minutes passed before the ambulance came. People were freaking out about the ambulance. Those nine minutes before the situation is 'stablilized' could be hell for the freak-out types. After the fire was put out, things were back to normal....poor guy..he probably broke an arm.

The Afternoon was capped off at Oktoberfest. Yes, germans all over the world will spend this month celebrating all things german. There was a good polka band, big-ass steins of beer, brats, and drunken old folks. For a few moments, it felt like I was back in Wisconsin. Then I realized that was probably just crazy because I never went to German Fest. Anyway, two steins, a brat, and a few laughs later, I was back at home by 8:30 on my couch...with a warm and toasty buzz. That effectively ends my night...which was a good thing....

Its 11pm on a Saturday night...its bedtime.

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