Her SHOE flew OFF!

So in order to properly read the title of this post, watch this fantastic Dane Cook skit, particularly at 1:26. Ok.

Today I was biking to work as usual, trying my best to avoid potholes but sometimes failing as usual, when all of a sudden the pedals were spinning out of control and I was missing a shoe. The faulty pedals were easy enough to explain--the chain had slipped off--but I really can't figure out how my shoe ended up in the middle of the street instead of on my foot.

The best part about this was that my lovely bicycle does not have hand brakes, so with no chain to backpedal, I could not stop. I couldn't drag my feet because I was missing a shoe and didn't think one foot would be sufficient. So I coasted.... eventually came to a stop a little over a block later... and then had to walk back barefoot to retrieve my shoe. Thankfully neither it nor I was run over by a car.

Last summer when I was doing research for ASP, the brake line in the car I was driving snapped--the repair garage happened to be at the bottom of a large hill, so I passed it right by and had to turn around on flatter ground and drive back. I think maybe I just have bad luck with brakes.

UPDATE 7/16/09: Very bad luck. Today riding home from the 7th Ward, I almost got hit by a bus. Why? Because the moment I needed to stop behind a parked car to let a bus pass was the moment my brakes decided that they are only going to work 50% of the time. I was sandwiched between the bus and a car so tightly that the bus almost scraped my elbow. Tomorrow I will be heading to a repair shop to see how much it would cost to buy and install a hand brake. If it's more than $30, then I'll be heading back to Walmart to exchange the bike from hell for a new one that hopefully will not try to kill me.

UPDATE 7/18/09: Today I exchanged my bike--the new one is a rather noxious shade of purple, but it has hand breaks! It was also newly on sale, so it ended up being cheaper than the one I originally bought. I will put the savings towards buying a cushy new seat, because the one that it came with is extremely uncomfortable.