Ouch!

Well, I was off today after my classes this morning, so I went for another ride and run. It was going fine until it happened. I haven't had a fall in a long, long time. It's no fun to fall off the bike. The ground -- actually the pavement, of course -- is, if you hadn't noticed, hard. And falling on it hurts, as I was reminded today.

I was rolling along at the top of the Winsted hill recovering from the climb and looked down at my computer to check my heart rate. When I looked down I realized I was on the wrong page so I had to hit a button to get to the heart rate. I'd been telling myself for 3 weeks now that I need to reset the computer so that heart rate is on my main page, but hadn't done it. Anyway, while I was fiddling with the computer I lost track of how close I was getting to a car parked on the street. When I looked up I was right on top of it. I slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel to avoid hitting. I didn't hit the car, but I did go over the handlebars of the bike -- I did an endo. I'm sure one of those ridiculous "Funniest Videos" TV shows would love to show the crash.

(I HATE those shows. I don't understand why people want to watch other people get hurt. Yes, I know I'm in the minority, and people call me a stick in the mud for not laughing at those things, but they just make me cringe. And yes, I've been told it (being entertained by the misfortune of others -- schadenfreude) is just a normal psychological reaction of relief that it's someone else getting hurt or humiliated. "It's not really malicious, and doesn't mean you're a bad person." But that doesn't make it OK. Not to me.)

Anyway, I went flying over the handlebars and came down hard on my right shoulder. Fortunately I didn't break anything. I've had two broken collarbones from similar crashes. This time I've just ended up with a sore shoulder, so far. It seems like I landed on the fleshy outer part of my shoulder (that's where it mostly hurts now) instead of the bony top. I think that's what saved me.

[Listening to Pandora's "Genre" station Classical: Choral, Baroque, and it's really good. Calm and well-performed so far. Whatever you may think of religion, one unquestionably positive impact it has had on the world is the wonderful music.]

I went ahead and finished the ride -- fortunately, the bike was OK as well -- and did the run I'd planned. The run started out really slowly, but I loosened up after a while. For the first mile I was afraid I was going to have to stop. It was 3 miles before I started feeling right. Falling is a shock, physical and emotional, and it's tough to recover. It's tough for me, anyway.

Remember my friend Chad? He raced bikes for 16 (??) years. Had numerous falls, of course. But about 2 years ago he was almost home after a long ride when he lost focus for an **instant** and caught his front tire in a crack and endoed. He wasn't really hurt, I'm glad to say. He didn't have to go to the hospital, anyway. But it really shook him up. And after spending decades riding his bike, he essentially quit. Because of that one crash. I suppose it was just one too many, and -- he says -- he's now "old" (he was, I think, 34 then). I guess the point is just that falling off a bike is tough on the body and the mind. Anyway......

On another topic.... Had a conversation with June yesterday, and she's slotted me in to a May Term class. I was glad. I'll be the only non-full-timer teaching in May Term. So I'll have a May Term and a Summer I class, but not a Summer II, at least not yet. I think that'll be OK. The income would be nice, but the time off will be nice, too.

Plus, I'm doing the AP Government and Politics exam reading this year. So, Spring ends on May 8th, May Term starts on May 12 (long weekend in between) and ends on Friday, May 30. I fly to Daytona Beach on that Sunday, June 1, and return on Monday, June 9, which is the first day of Summer I. So I'll miss the first day. I hope I don't get fired....

And I hope the AP thing is not too bad. We'll see about that. I was surprised they asked me after I backed out of doing it last year. It'll be an interesting experience, anyway.

And speaking of experiences, the experience I need now is sleep. I'm beat. I was up late last night watching election returns, and today ended up being a kind of hard day.

Till next time....