Life in Hollywood, below-the-line

Life in Hollywood, below-the-line
Work gloves at the end of the 2006/2007 television season (photo by Richard Blair)

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Hiatus Week






















Some weeks are harder than others...

This was a tough week, not so much for the work -- which I'll get into later -- but because last weekend I had an adventure involving a car, a bicycle, and Newtonian Physics. The car was the clear winner by a first-round knockout, leaving the bike a battered loser that took two days and $175 worth of parts and labor to fix.

Having been aboard that bike, I ended up as collateral damage of the soft-tissue variety, still under repair after four hours in my friendly HMO, an arm full of shots, a bottle of antibiotics, fistfuls of Vicodin, and lots of nasty scrapes and bruises. It's been a long time since I had any kind of potentiallly serious accident, allowing me to forget just how vulnerable the human body (particularly an aging one) really is to the combined effects of momentum, inertia, friction, and gravity.

Now I remember just how hard that pavement really is...

The good news -- other than some serious road rash, nothing was broken. All bones remain intact. The bad news -- everything hurt -- and after spending a Sunday hobbling around on a cane feeling 140 years old, I still had to go to work on Monday morning. The details will come later, but for now, let's just say it was a long and painful week. Still, I got through it, and as this missive goes to post, I should be cruising north up Interstate 5 through California's Central Valley for a brief visit to the Home Planet.

Which also happens to be the in the home turf of my team, the newly-crowned World Series Champion San Francisco Giants.

Truth be told, I never thought I'd live to see this team win it all. Will miracles never cease? Does the Apocalypse draw near?*

I'll be back soon. Until then, I'm off the painkillers and in recovery.


* Considering the results of last Tuesday's election, maybe so...

5 comments:

A.J. said...

Yikes! I'm glad you survived your adventure (more or less) intact. Hope you're relaxing up there! You totally deserve it...

The Grip Works said...

Wow Michael ... a bicycle in LA sounds dangerous (not that I know LA). I am working in Berlin on a movie right now, and a lot of people in Germany cycle. Even in the freezing winter here. I find it unnerving, how fast the traffic drives, and how close to cyclists they often are !

Penny said...

Ouch! Sorry to hear about the accident, but happy to hear no broken bones. Glad you're avoiding the pain killers too - I took a Vicodin after some dental work and turned as green as my only trip on a cruise ship... :/

Hope you mend well Mike!

D said...

Glad you're ok and headed to that oasis up North. Travel safe.

Michael Taylor said...

AJ, Sanjay, Penny, and D --

Thanks for the good wishes. Bikes are definitely dangerous in LA, as is everything else. If you're careful (and lucky) things generally work out okay. I was careful enough, but had the bad luck of crossing paths with the wrong old man. He said he never even saw me...

I touched down on the Home Planet safe, if not exactly sound, but at least won't have to worry about hauling cable, climbing 12 step ladders, or hanging lights for the next three weeks. With any luck, the wounded ankle will stop barking during this absence of heavy lifting.

The view's a lot better up here. Now I just have to talk myself out of climbing those trees down below to do some trimming...