This morning was a perfectly good morning. So at least there was that.

At work, arriving back from a brief vacation, I found many, many things needed doing, which is to be expected. Later I discovered offhand that a decision was made without my consultation to make a major and dramatic change of direction on a project on which I have invested quite a bit of effort. So that was nice. Ah, deadlines.

On my bike ride home from work, my first since the change in daylight time that makes things far darker far earlier, I was riding quickly when a car ahead of me saw what I assume was an open parking space and abruptly turned on his signal and pulled into it. I, who was rapidly approaching on the right, crashed into said vehicle, breaking off his passenger-side mirror, damaging my front wheel, and throwing me over the bike and into the curb.

The driver was extremely concerned with my well-being, as were two concerned citizens who witnessed the accident. I declined the driver’s offer of transportation to a hospital but did get everyone’s info (at their very good suggestion) and accepted a car ride the rest of the way home.

My pants were ripped and bloody and I had abrasions on my left hand and wrist and my right elbow, as well as a contusion on my right thigh. As the day progressed I discovered neck and jaw pain.

Despite this, and after disinfecting and bandaging myself up, I went through with pre-arranged plans for some video gaming over in Lincoln, and while I found the destruction of aliens particularly unsatisfying today, I did enjoy the company of others and stayed, against my better judgement, until everyone headed out at about 4:00am.

On the road, contemplating the route we were taking, the events of the day, the pains I was experiencing, and the extreme lateness, I accidentally drifted slightly onto the highway shoulder, encountering the New England paving feature roughly analogous to Botts’ Dots. The sound and vibration of the experience, rather than jarring me awake (as I was already fully awake), intrigued me. I a second time drifted slightly and deliberately onto the shoulder for a brief span. Satisfied with my “investigation” and seeing that the shoulder was narrowing ahead, I reset my route and continued driving.

So yeah, I got pulled over for that. The officer seemed convinced that I was neither drunk nor disorderly and let me on my way, but indicated that a $100 fine would be forthcoming. So I have that to look forward to, on top of everything else.

Now it is 4:45am, I’m home, I’m tired, and I’ve finished with this happy little explanation of my happy little day. Igor comforted me with a Russian saying, roughly translated as “the morning is wiser than the evening.” Morning is quickly approaching, but for our purposes let’s call it evening and maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get a solid 8 hours, and perhaps this day will be better than the last.

*Update (11/17):* Modified paragraph 2 to reflect additional sleep and common sense.