Crash and Burn..... An exciting day in the life of Syd.

[Syd Valentine]

Yesterday, I went on a 7mile bike ride. My son was at a friends house and I have a two-seat-er cart that pulls behind, so I buckled up my girls and off we went. It was a wonderful day for it; overcast with a nice breeze so not too hot. We rode around a couple of lakes and checked out the water fowl. I had just kicked ass up a descent size hill and was enjoying a nice coast down when I came to a four way stop. I guess I forgot how much momentum those carts have coming behind you because when I pressed on the brake and thought I was stopped completely, I took my hand off the handle bar to press the crosswalk button and put my foot down at the same time. The cart kept moving though, rolled up on top of my foot and I lost my balance. My bike started to fall on top of me but I couldn't catch myself with one foot stuck under the cart so instead, I 'ate s***', as only I am capable of doing, right there on the cold hard concrete on a busy street.

NICE.

I sat there for a minute laughing at myself then looked up at the girls to see how they were doing. The baby had fallen asleep a while back and didn't even budge. My 3 year old, looked at me and said "WHAT, Mom?"
Obviously, the cart had served it's purpose so I began to survey myself for the damage: scraped elbow, knee and jammed wrist. Nope. Nothing but my EGO had been seriously injured. At that point, a nice looking guy with a mentally handicapped young man in his back seat pulled up next to me in his car and asked if we were OK.

"Oh, yes. We're OK. Embarrassed, but OK." I said.

"Well, I didn't even see what happened..." he began and explained he had been distracted by his companion and the next thing he saw was us, on the ground. I thanked him kindly for stopping and assured him we were all fine. I thought it was a nice thing for him to stop. He could have laughed his ass off and drove away, just like the TONS of other people that had been stopped at the intersection. GOOD GRIEF. I picked myself up, dusted myself off and rode the rest of the way home with blood dripping down my left shin. All and all, though, it was a nice ride.

I guess I felt the need to subject myself to more physical abuse because I decided to go to the gym that evening. As I came to the traffic light exiting my subdivision a lady parked in the middle of the lane signaled for me to pass her. I saw her looking into the sky so, of course, I looked too.

(This is EXACTLY what I saw... The caption on the photo is giving the same intersection I was at, even.)
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/slideshow/19707372/detail.htmlindex.html?currentSlide=6&taf=den

A large, ominous, dark cloud was hovering just north of me..... a white cone shape protruding out of it's midst.
"WOW," I thought to myself, "That sure looks like the beginning of a tornado." I looked around at other drivers to see if I was the only one gawking at the heavens. No one seemed to be paying any attention. I kept an eye on it. It was getting a little bit bigger and the cloud around it was getting a little more 'swirlier'. I was about to enter onto the highway when I saw a truck pulled over to the side of the road and a man standing next to it, talking on the phone and pointing. I knew then that I wasn't just seeing things, that there was ACTUALLY something happening.

Driving on the highway, watching the funnel cloud, my train of thought began to charge forward.

I should turn around. No. I'm getting excited over nothing. Nobody else seems to think anything of it. Just those two other people...who might be professional storm chasers and were busy calling in a warning. What if it's NOT nothing? What if this is one of those situations like the Tsunami in Thailand where people were sitting on the beach going, "That's weird. The ocean just sucked back into itself. Huh. Oh well. Guess I'll keep suntanning," and then 'BAM' they get hit by an enormous tidal wave? WHAT IF a tornado is about to touch right down in front of us and I could have avoided it by following my intuition and NOT going to the gym today? Then again, what if it's not REALLY intuition? What if it's just me being dramatic and overly excitable?

I took the exit ramp off the highway and saw the traffic lights at the stop being tossed about in the wind. Wouldn't people be pulling over? Wouldn't there be a storm warning on the radio? A warning I could hear on my radio that DIDN'T WORK? I called my parents to see if they were near a TV or a computer with internet access and could do some research for me. It just so happened that my mother was sitting around with the laptop in hand so she GOOGLED severe weather reports in Colorado and sho' 'nuff.... tornado warning for upper Adam's county, Erie and Northern Thornton. Following was news that a funnel cloud had been spotted above Thornton at 4:45pm. YUP. That would be the one I was looking at.

As I turned into the gym parking lot I kept looking for people in distress; running to their cars, jumping in ditches. No one. By this time the cloud banks had passed over and continued to the north east, still dark and threatening with occasional lightening strikes bouncing around inside, but the white cone had disappeared. I got out of the van to unload and heard the sounds of helicopters. Two were flying stationary, like giant hummingbirds at a feeder, on the outskirts of the storm. I assume they were news crews waiting to catch something exciting on tape. For me, seeing the funnel cloud was exciting enough! I'm usually the one that misses those kind of things. This time it seemed I was one of the few that saw. I finished up my day with a gut-wrenching, lactic-acid producing "No Limit Cardio" class and hit the steam room.

[Edson Carlos]

EPIC! I can't wait to meet you Syd! !! A+++ would read again, glad you're ok!