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 Jane, 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.