May 27, 2000 -- 10:17 PM
EST
I've been out of sorts with the
weather. Today, I had to do a 1.5 hour walk session for marathon training
schedule and with the heat index at 100 deg F, I only stuck it out at my
steaming gym for 45 min. The previous walk on Thursday was also yucky. I've
been frustrated and cranky-assed about it all in
the training
log. This summer might be another sweep of bad fires through here because
of the drought. So I am screwed for outdoor walking and gym walking. Neither
will be fun and I will just have to endure.
I think Paul felt sorry for me
because he suggested we go riding when it was cooler, and I sacked out on the
futon with an ice pack trying to BE cooler. We got ready to go at 7:45 PM --
about 20 minutes before sunset.
We decided to ride towards
downtown, so we started cruising along the bike path around the lakes and ogled
the big, fancy houses. It was great! Emerald lawns, gorgeous houses, people on
the lakes on boats, a duck, sunset streaking orange fingers across the
sky...
We must have been riding for about
and hour and a half before I kissed pavement.
It had gotten very dark and I hit
a hole I didn't see in the ground. I honestly don't remember anything much
other than grunting. Instinct took over and the only thought in my head while
falling was "Easy!" meaning "Fall as easy as possible!"
The next thing I knew I was
rolling over to my back and staring at the sky and howling, "Owwwwwwww! My
elbow!!!!"
Paul came running over to me
saying, "Oh my God, are you ok? Are you ok?"
Bodily inventory revealed minor
scrapes: a bit on the shoulder, the knee and the hand all on my left side
because that's what hit first as I tucked into a roll. The elbow isn't scraped
up, just jostled around from the shock of impact.
"Wow!" he said.
"Not wow. OW." I
replied.
"No, wow.
On the one hand, when I heard your
yelp and l turned to look, I was thinking "Arrrrgggggh! She'll get hurt!
Aaaaah!" And on the other hand, I was really impressed because I never saw
anybody roll up and fall so neat and tidy like that. I can't fall like
that!"
"I don't remember rolling up.
I don't remember anything."
"You did. You even laid the
bike down -- that was really neat! I wouldn't have thought of that while
falling."
I laughed. When you've fallen as
many times in your life as I have you tend to not want to fall TOO badly. I
used up our bike water to rinse the grit off of my knee and hands. We walked to
the nearest 7-11 to recheck ourselves. I started to feel faint but not from the
fall -- from lack of food. After I washed up, I got water, ice, and a banana. I
held the ice on my elbow and ate the banana and felt much better. Then we
headed home.
We had to walk the bikes for
awhile because we were out of bike path or sidewalk in that section and we
didn't want to ride in the road proper with all those cars zipping by us in the
dark. Hoofed it across all this sand. Me in my new shoes. Ugh. And then it
started to rain. By the time we reached base I was laughing. What a wonky 15
miles!
 You'd think I'd be in a bad mood with
everything that happened, but I actually feel better. The rain was cool and not
too heavy, the ride was a lot of fun, and the fall was nothing serious, so all
ended well. I tore up our
favorite Einstein shirt very badly though, so I'm sad about that. Paul's
playing nurse and applying hydrogen peroxide and making me move all my parts
all around. I don't think he's ever had to nurse me. Usually, it's me nursing
him. Sorta fun actually to be the patient this time.
Damn! I just realized that is the
first time I have fallen off a bike in 18 years! Man, what a record I had going
there... The last time I fell was off my white and orange Huffy in the first
grade when I was trying to ride it! Ah, well.
~Astrophe
  
|
