i follow the weather pretty diligently, so i was surprised when it started snowing in the evening. was this in the recent forecasts and i just happened to miss it? maybe it'd be a dusting at most, but enough snow fell that the road was covered in a thin layer of white, and more seemed to be coming. i actually like riding in fresh snow, seeing my wheels carve a trail. i couldn't help but to look back a few times, admiring my handiwork. all was well until i arrived at observatory hill. the photo op was too good to pass up, a white parking lot with a line cutting across it courtesy of my bike wheels. i spent a little longer than anticipated, because my iphone was telling me i'd run out of storage space, so i had to switch to my oneplus one phone (the photos aren't as good). once finished, i got back on the bike, content in my admiration for newly fallen snow. that good feeling only last for so long: as i was rounding a corner going downhill, my wheels slipped in the snow and i crashed to the ground.

i've been in enough bike (bicycle and motorcycle) accidents to know that the first thing i felt was embarrassment. nothing on my body felt broken, but i did smash my right cheek on the pavement and it hurt. i couldn't see out of my right lens, either it was cracked behind repair or it just fogged up from the snow. the bike seemed okay, nothing bent in an unnatural angle. i quickly noticed that the bell bike was gone though. after a few minutes of recovery, i got back on the bike and continued on my way home. i full survey of the damage would take place when i got back.

i had no idea how badly my face was injured, but in my mind i was horribly disfigured, and must've had bloody flowing from the side of my face. i touched it with my glove, figuring i'd pull back a hand saturated with blood, but there was nothing, which was a good sign. i wasn't paying attention and a wobble in the snowy road caused me to fall a second time. this time i didn't go down, managed to lock my legs in the frame. something felt loose on the bike (the chain?) but a sidewalk inspection revealed everything was okay, so i continued onwards, riding even slower than before.

after parking the bike in the basement i took a selfie to inspect the damage. my face seemed okay, but the right arm of my glasses had snapped off. the only reason why my glasses didn't fall off my face was because my head was so bundled up, that it sort of held the glasses in place. back upstairs inside the house, i went in the bathroom to get a better look at my face. there were some scratches on my right check (some embedded gravel too), but otherwise i seemed to have escaped injury free. after washing the wound, i put some neosporin on it. i figured it'd bruise by tomorrow.

i called my mother to let her know what happened. moments later my father called back, asking me if i was okay. as for my broken glasses, besides the busted right arm, the right lens has some nasty scrapes on it as well, but the damage was on the side of the lens, not the part i look through, so it was just cosmetic. there was enough linkage to superglue the arm back (at this point both pair of arms on the glasses have been broken and glued back). using a pair of needlenose pliers, i bent the arms so they were even again.

later when i examined my helmet i noticed the deep scratches on the right edge. i think if i wasn't wearing my helmet, a whole lot more of my face would've been road rashed, and maybe damaged an eye to boot. bike helmet saves the day! i'm definitely going to be wearing a helmet a lot more often now.

my father has a down jacket with a rip in it. i tried closing up the tear with some tape but it always falls out after a short period of time. tape is still the way to go, but i wanted to find something designed for jacket repairs. so i decided to ride down to EMS in harvard square this morning, figuring they'd have something. i went around harvard yard along cambridge street to get onto brattle to eliot. fortunately there wasn't much traffic on a sunday morning, so it was an easy go. i couldn't find what i was looking for so i asked a sales clerk. he pointed me to the hiking gear department, and sure enough they had just what i needed. i ended up buying a roll of clear mcnett tenacious tape ($5.50). while paying for my item, i noticed a display by the door selling these new sleds call the zipfy. they look pretty interesting, but for my sledding money, an inflatable inner tube is the way to go, because of the cushioning effect of the donut (better for rear ends on hard compact snow).

before leaving for belmont, i made two batches of smoothies. one was a beet + frozen fruit + ruby red grapefruit juice + banana + ginger; the other was a almond milk + frozen fruit + banana + ginger. the one with the almond milk was sweeter and creamier, the one with the beet had a nice deep pink color with a touch of sourness from the grapefruit juice. i poured them into insulated thermos for transport.

Vivamus lorem risus, dictum et ipsum et, ultrices auctor nibh. Vivamus accumsan eros quis malesuada egestas. Aenean dictum, turpis vel accumsan faucibus, dui felis ultrices urna, sed tristique urna sem sit amet magna. Donec convallis pretium nibh, sed molestie neque tempor id. Suspendisse dignissim quam rutrum ligula interdum bibendum. Phasellus ornare pellentesque eros, ac aliquet libero convallis ac. Fusce semper, sem vitae posuere convallis, mauris lectus dignissim mauris, et suscipit nunc massa ac lacus.