It was a Sunday evening in October and the sun had been down for hours it seemed in gray Corvallis. My little scooter doesn't always go the speed limit because she's got such a small engine and I was going down a small hill thinking to myself, "I wonder if I'm going the speed limit?" I looked down, and sure enough, I was! I starting congratulating Lola on her ability to go so fast when I saw out of the corner of my eye, the flash a set of eyes running at me. I remember thinking that I had been hit, but I don't remember the impact. I don't remember letting go. I don't remember hitting the pavement. I do remember rolling on the asphalt, not knowing which way was up. I remember hearing the scrapping of Lola, my helmet and not being able to control my movement as I felt my body being bashed from every angle. I kept asking myself when I was going to stop rolling because there was so much momentum, I just kept going round and round.
When I finally stopped, I couldn't feel anything. I stood up to see if the deer was okay and my left leg gave out from under me. I figured that was why I had two legs and began to drag my dysfunctional leg behind as I limped to the dying deer. I had made it only a few steps when I heard a voice screaming across the street for me to sit down. "Oh, right. I could be hurt," I thought. I decided to sit down on the sidewalk while she talked to the police and within seconds I was being strapped and duct-taped into a stretcher and being rushed to the hospital. I was mostly just bruised and bumped. Nothing broken. I was able to hobble away that night, only having to deal with the massive swelling from being thrashed around between the asphalt, Lola and the deer. The only thing I have to show for it today are the scratches on Lola's paint and a small divot in my left shin that is barely noticeable.
It took me six months to get back on and still, to this day I can't ride in the dark because everything looks a like deer out to get me. The glint of a trash can or mailbox is enough to keep me inside as soon as the sun goes down. This is not a problem during the summer in Oregon, but the rest of the year, I live in a world of gray. There is no sun. This means that she doesn't get out very often and she suffers from neglect.
Exhibit A: she gets left out in the snow.
Exhibit B: She resists starting because it's been so long since I have taken her for a ride.
I am not planing on taking Lola to CA with me because I don't think I will be able to ride her much while down there and I have no way to get her there. I found her keys the other day in storage so I decide I should ride her over to the Honda shop to have her serviced for storage. The only problem is that I have no idea where my helmet is. I could just borrow someone else's helmet to ride her there. But then I thought about the nasty weather we have been having and then I would need to also borrow a jacket and gloves and that was starting to sound ridiculous. I should just have someone ride her there for me and I could follow behind in my car. But whom to ask? I thought of all the people that I knew with bikes, who would be cool enough to ride a pink one, and who wasn't gone for spring break. The answer was Jimmy.
Little did I know that she was going to put up a fight. She was not happy that it had been so long since I'd given her any attention and did not want to go. We coaxed her along a for bit till she had warmed up enough to keep chuggen along and then Jimmy hoped on and drove away.
Well, kinda cuz it only she only went a few feet before she stopped.
My friend was a little shaken by his near death experience (not really) when she decided not to go anymore. He's tough though, so it was okay.
We walked her across the street and began calling to see if there was someone who had a truck that would be able to help us in the middle of the day. Turns out that people with trucks are harder to track down then people with motorcycles. After spending lots of time on the phone and hoping that Lola would decided she'd been enough of a stinker for the day and would decided cooperate, she decided to work!
So, off he rode.
And I followed behind. We made it there safely! I should probably try to get over my fear of deer so that embarrassing things like this don't happen anymore. But I wont have to deal with the until September when it is time to move to wherever the military sends us. So... I wont tackle that fear until later. In the mean time, I'm glad to have friends that have my back.
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