Otherwise entitled: Excuses, and good ones at that.
So the big wheels of the bike aren’t turning quite as much as they should be right now. I was so enthusiastic about getting the bike. Could picture myself wheeling freely down the road, hair blowing in the wind, what hair there is sticking out of the helmet. But the excuses come later, just wait.
What’s with those helmets? I know, it’s not fun to have your head cracked open like humpty dumpty, but if you are a woman of a certain age, you grew up without them. I can’t believe that our parents let us go out of the house on oversized rickety bikes, with no protection. And most likely faulty brakes, you need to be around 50 ish to understand me, it was a different world.
We would whizz down huge hills hands free, looking back and flinging comments at the riders we had left behind, hardly recognizing that the gravelled road was shared with larger vehicles. We had a healthy respect for cars, it’s just that we were young, and … kids.
Do you remember your first really good wipe out, yes, the one where you went sliding through the gravel on the top of the paved road, and most likely only stopped after a good chunk of skin was removed. But you got up, limped the entire way home, and held back those tears until you slipped through the door.
Did your Mom wash your poor ragged elbows with scalding water, and Epsom Salts, oh that is a torture I can still remember today. Knee pads, helmets, caution, that is something that our generation’s had to learn the hard way. Neighbourhood father’s teaching their kids to ride, hanging on to the back seat until the wobbly rider managed to stay afloat for seconds. It was the origin of tough love, fall down, and get back up on that bike, the bandages comes later.
Now for the excuses:
I have hurt my neck somehow, rather painfully, and can’t turn my head, it’s freezing cold outside, and it rains a lot. It’s all conspiring against my getting some exercise. The bike was for a few days, winning big time, forgot to take off the 400 page manual on the spokes and looked like a dork, the warning stickers worry me. I had to sign a waiver just to get out the door of the store, what’s with that? It’s wobbly, and it’s seemed I had lost my center of balance. The helmet makes my head itch, and it keeps choking me under the chin.
At first I thought I had made a rather big mistake, my arms hurt, my shoulders hurt, my wrists hurt from leaning over, and this was called a comfort bike. But I did some research, I am very tall, and this is the biggest size frame, I need to get a extension for the handlebars so I don’t lean so far forward, my pants have been untangled from the chain, and the grease might come out. And the wobbliness is going away, if I lean back a little.
Persevere Jen, it will warm up, the sun will come out, and the wobbly ride will straighten out.
Now I want to hear all about your wipe outs, after all, misery loves company.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
Oh my gosh are you bringing back memories. I used to ride on the handle bars of my brother's bike. We made make shift ramps, popped wheelies and power slid through mud puddles. Showing those cuts and scrapes covered with the pink skin stain of mercurochrome the next day was bragging rights!
ReplyDeleteSorry Jen...I just can't let my fans know of my failure to capture the free easy bike riding spirit that I never seemed to grasp!
ReplyDeleteOh horror's. How did we ever survive? LOL! We rode everywhere for miles from home. Today we cannot let the kids out of our sight.(which is a shame) We rode in all kinds of weather, in rains and even on the ice on the creeks in the winter. That was a sliding thriller when going through the ice and coming back with frozen stiff clothes from the water, not to mention feet and hands. I took my cousins' brand new 26 " Huffy down over a hill on the highway one day and ended up hitting a rock and flying over the handlebars landing on my face in the road. The bike or my nose one made a groove into the road. Tore his new bike up and broke off one of my front buck teeth. Skinned all up.LOL! Ouch! But that did not stop us from getting back on and going again. I could have used your helmet that day Jen.
ReplyDeleteI hope your neck gets to feeling better. They make the handlebars so much lower nowadays. My back would not take it. Besides I would be half over the handlebars even before I wrecked. LOL!
you poor darling, you just can't win for losing! I admire your stamina to keep keeping on though, speaking as someone who cracked their noggin really good, )brain injury) I think I would have trouble with the helmet too, my family told me I had to wear one at all times after my head injury and actually the doctor said its not abad idea, can you imagine!!!!I hope it all works out and it will, it will just take time, hope your neck fixes itself, take care and go safely,
ReplyDeleteTHOSE were the days! We rode everywhere. Daredevils! If you fell you got up and back on the bile. Felt like freedom to have the wind in your hair. I did have one bad fall and killed my ankle. Just a sprain, but it felt worse as I couldn't ride my bike. The worst time was when my dad took my bike away for 3 weeks as I went somewhere I wasn't suppose to go. That was torture! I remember that the most speeds a bike had back then was 5! What are they up to now? We rode on roads, rutted trails in the apple orchard, trail through woods, etc. No mountain bikes here. I had a Huffy bike.
ReplyDeleteI hope your neck heals fast. Wet weather never helps those injuries. Hugs, Teresa
My sister lost a chunk of her heel in the spokes of a bike when she was a kid. She was riding on the back of a neighbor's bike. Still has trouble with that heel...be careful!
ReplyDeleteI love to ride a bike but it can make you sore in places you don't realize...until the next day. Here are my tips...only ride when the weather's nice and there is no wind. WEAR THE HELMET! And get some padded undies. I can't ride without them! heehee! It's very invigorating to ride a bike...at any age!
ReplyDeleteHubby loves to tell me how when he was a kid his mom would send them out in nothing but a speedo and flip flops on their bikes. Can you imagine the road burn wearing that?! I never wore a helmet as a kid and it's been tough learning to wear one now but I'm much more concerned about hurting myself these days so I bear with it.
ReplyDeletewell..
ReplyDeleteI had enough wipeouts on the gravelly dirt road..left my share of skin on the paved roads..
my worst bike mishap was with the Christmas tree in the living room, occurring in the wee hours of the morning..before anyone was up..didn't take long to wake the entire household.
Then, in front of God and everybody, was my behind beaten, my new-first-time-ever-bike was taken away for the entire day,,.
The other kids were allowed to ride it all day long while I was only allowed to watch!
Yep, I cried crocodile tears and my 8 years old heart was forever broken..
Well..at least until the next day when my mom saved me by declaring the punishment over and the bike was once again mine..all mine!!!
warmest hugs..
Loui♥
I had a bike. A blue one. We lived in the country on a farm. The farm had what we called The Big Lake. It became my job to ride my bike the quarter or so of a mile up to the big lake to see if there were any trespassers fishing or swimming in the lake and report back to dad so that he could go run them off. Our roads back then were gravel country roads so I never had the joy of riding on smooth pavement. In 5h grade I traded my bike for a horse, Sunny, a golden palomino. I don't remember any grand wipeouts on the bike, but boy did I take some falls off my horses. Helmets? Were there such a thing back then? I even raised my own kids without helmets. I have thought here lately, at the urging of my doc, that I should get a bike. I am sitting in his patient's room and he is googling on his laptop how many calories bike riding burns up, especially ,he says in a very excited voice, if you bike up hill and go out for 6 hours. He can't even eat enough and he has to eat before bed to get enough stored up to bike the next day--an all day ride. I look at him. He is young--30ish. I am 65 (no ish about it). He is the ear nose and throat specialist. He wants me to exercise. Ride a bike up hill. So you keep at it. Soon the wobbles will be gone and you will feel the wind in your helmet and you will burning calories.
ReplyDeleteI too have a bike and also good intentions. I have never been skinny and always fighting battle of the bulge but still intend to conquer the twenty pounds.. I was a fifties child so remember so well those days..
ReplyDelete