Face Plants Are Us

There's nothing like watching a middle-aged woman go down on the asphalt in the middle of the street to bring out the compassion in a New Yorker. For example, the fellow careening down the road toward me very obviously tapped his brakes. And three bicyclists rode by. One of them called out, "Ouch! And good morning!" as he pedaled past.

This would be my fifth NY tumble, if I'm not mistaken. As far as I know, nobody got a picture of the mishap. If they had, it would have looked something like this:

And as I was lying there on the asphalt, I was not thinking to myself, "Ouch." Instead I was thinking, "Oh shit! I'll bet I put a hole in my favorite REI thermal leggings!"