3/18/08 Bicycle blues

I went home after work today, for a few stolen minutes before tackling the fray. It's a cleaners night, which triples the chaos and nonstop work around here.

Right as I was about to leave for pickups, Melissa called. Katrina had pulled a bicycle down on her head and was bleeding a lot. I quickly revised my plan of picking up the boys first and drove grimly to Melissa's, forming a plan as I went along. Call Dave to pick up the boys. If Katrina needs stitches, take her to Los Gatos Community (where she was born). Call Dave again and tell him to take the boys out to dinner. This is standard fare for the Ryder family, but none of our kids have ever been to an emergency room!

And our streak continues. Katrina was fine -- she just got bonked hard in one spot on top of her head, from some sharp object on the bicycle.

The bicycle belongs to a 10-year-old girl who's my height, so it's no small kids' bike. Melissa saw Katrina making a beeline for the bike parked momentarily in the driveway, but wasn't able to catch her before it toppled. I assured Melissa it could just as easily have happened here and it was fine, as she was very upset! She had to experience someone else's baby bleeding and crying a lot.

When we got home, Katrina went straight to our fenced-off utility room and screeched for this little push-wagon. Apparently her experience didn't put her off from wheeled vehicles at all, and I have every expectation she'll continue to go straight to any bicycle or tricycle she sees!

One good thing came out of this: I followed up with part of my plan, which was to call Dave to ask him to take the boys out to dinner after picking them up. Why didn't I think of this years ago?! It's a lot of work picking up the whole house on cleaner's nights -- that's what restaurants are for! He took the boys to Gumba's in Cupertino, whose management has changed recently and has gotten great reviews from my mom's group. And he liked it!! Dave, that is. The boys, easy. Dave, not so easy. Julian had ravioli, pizza and lasagna.

Meantime, I had a nice time with Katrina alone, and got to do some deep cleaning of toys and junk in relative peace. She was in pretty good shape, other than not eating a whole lot.

This evening is best summed up with the cliche: win some, lose some.

3/18/08