[Rickster]

Just a reminder to everyone that it's a dangerous world out there.

Last Sat my brother was coming home from a short trip into town (northern Wisconsin) to get a bite to eat, he said he looked down for a second at some chain noise he heard, and when he looked up again there was a deer 20ft in front of him.

The result was one dead deer, and my brother got to take his first ride in a helicopter.

They air lifted him to St Paul (200 miles) because he wasn't going to live long enough for a regular ambulance to get him to a hospital.

He has one broken finger, a 4in crack in his skull (no helmet), a severely ruptured spleen that may or may not need to be removed, 4 broken ribs, and the reason they needed to air lift him is because at least one of the broken ribs punched into his left lung.

He will be in the hospital special care unit (one step down from ICU) for at least 7 days, past that his summer is pretty much shot, and pain killers are going to be his best friend for a long time.

He bought the bike he was riding (I set up the deal from a friend of mine) 5 years ago, it's a 250cc 1985 Kawasaki duel sport, it wasn't running when he bought it, and it took him till this last spring to get it going. I told him a number of times that because he is a returning rider that hasn't had a bike for 20 years that he is in a high risk group and should be especially careful, he thought I was just being an old fuddy-duddy, I can't tell you how much I wish I had pushed harder to get him to wear a helmet.

Be careful out there people, it really sucks looking down at someone you love laying all busted up in a hospital bed.