Adrenaline Rush

My dear Watson and I needed some potatoes for our Pumpkin Soup dinner yesterday, so we stopped at the BYU farmers market to get a bag of delicious Idaho potatoes.  While we were taste-testing spicy pepper jelly on a Ritz cracker with cream cheese, we heard what sounded like a rear-ending car crash.  It didn’t take long to realize it was a rear ending, but it wasn’t two cars; it was a bicyclist who rear ended the car.   My dear Watson rushed up there and started telling people to get paper towels or napkins. One of the people who ran up to help was a CNA so she took over dressing his wounds. 

The biker was changing lanes from the bike lane towards the left, as if he was going to turn left at the light just ahead.  There were 2 lanes of traffic so he was probably looking to the left to make sure he was clear in the second lane, and misjudged the car that was stopped in front of him at the red light.  His head hit the back windshield and shattered it.  He had deep, deep cut about ½ inch below his eye and the CNA was pulling glass out of it and trying to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.  He also had a cut on his arm.  My dear Watson was talking to him and the man kept asking what city he was in, what happened etc.  At one point he said something like “I never crash.” A random lady was claiming she does “energy healings” and it was like she was doing the actions to Popcorn Popping right in his face—over and over. It was WEIRD.

He was laying in the middle of the lane, so some of the bystanders were directing traffic around him. It took the paramedics forever to get there because it was right during rush hour traffic around Provo.  Eventually we saw a woman riding up on her bike and it turned out to be his wife. They were biking together and she got far enough ahead that she didn’t know what had happened. She turned around when she noticed he wasn’t behind her.  She seemed a bit shocked. 

It couldn’t have happened at a better time, really.  There were a lot of people close by at the farmers market who were just ready to help right away.  When they needed ice and paper towels we communicated that back to the Farmer’s Market booths and voila! we had ice and paper towels.  I think he’s going to be okay. He was wearing a helmet and biking sunglasses, which is probably what protected his head and eyes. 

My dear Watson got some blood on his new jeans, but for a noble cause (and it washed out well). 

I stood there watching as a grown man lay helpless on the road, and random strangers got blood on their clothes to help relieve his pain and suffering.  It was a humbling experience as I considered if it had been me, how grateful I would be to those people for helping me. It was quite the adrenaline rush.