That Was Quick!

 That Was Quick!

Sept. 27, 2020

It’s been cool and cloudy all day, so after the church service was over on Facebook, (the technical aspect went great, and the speaker was wonderful), and we had a short chat session on ZOOM, I signed off.

I made a tossed green salad for lunch, and the avocado was just perfect, along with bell peppers, tomatoes and lettuce, with a dash of Olive Garden Italian dressing. I’m still trying to lose that liver fat the doctor is worried about.

My blood pressure is down in the normal range now, and I’ve lost about 15 lbs, mostly around my waist. I would have lost more, but my bike riding puts on muscle to replace fat, so although I have taken up a couple of notches on my belt, and I no longer have to exhale to get my pants to button, I have been maintaining weight for the last month.

I haven’t been out to visit my wife’s place at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in a few weeks, and I decided to clean up my mountain bike, oil the chain, air up the tires, and ride from Wilma’s house (she’s my sister-in-law) to the cemetery. If you have ever been to Wilma’s house, you know why I left the racing bike at home and brought the mountain bike.

I parked at her house, unloaded the bicycle, and left her the car keys in case it got dark or I had trouble. 

I donned my helmet, orange riding shirt, and turned on the red tail light.

Things felt great as I turned onto McLean Rd. and pedaled south. I coasted into the bayou, past the new gate I installed this summer. It’s funny, because I have been expecting to come back and level the gate after the post finds its final tilt, but it hasn’t moved at all.

When I am going past it to the north, it looks like it’s sagging a little bit. When I am coming by it going south, it looks like it is high and needs let down a little. But it has stayed level - I carry a carpenter’s level with me in the car and I’ve checked. That ten foot power pole I hung it on must have been big enough.

I geared down to a lower gear and started up out of the bayou. I have measured that hill, and it’s an eleven and a half percent grade on dirt and gravel. I made it to the top without going to the lowest range on my front gearset. I was huffing and puffing, but pulling hard all the way. That’s what I’m going for!

As I crested the top of the hill, I shifted back to the high range on my front sprocket and clicked up a couple on the rear sprocket as I started down a fairly steep grade. I was probably speeding along at about 15 miles per hour, not even thinking about the dirt road surface. 

Rookie mistake!

All of a sudden I found myself being battered by some terrible washboard ruts across the road. My wheels only touched down every now and then, and when they did, the seat broke. I guess that means my ass needs to lose some more weight.

I thought I might catch it, but in an instant I came down at an angle which steered me right into the ditch on the left side. I went down on top of the bike, luckily, but crashed through a tall stand of Johnson grass and into the reddest mud I’ve ever seen. 

By the way, Oklahoma is an old Indian word for “red mud” I think.

It was a soft landing, and the only thing I hurt was my pride and dignity. Those were smashed up pretty bad! I had to stand up in the mud to drag my bike back to the road, and it went over the top of my shoes and halfway up the side of my pants. 

I slowly rode back to the house, got my car keys back, excused my self to drive home and shower up and throw my clothes in the washer. I scrubbed my arms where I might have brushed up against some poison ivy as I crashed through the brush beside the road. I still have a bar of Fels-Naphtha lye soap, and I put it to good use.

I don’t feel any bruises at all. The only physical injury was some small grass cuts on one arm from the Johnson grass. 

I’ll live to see another day, I guess. I’ll find out in the morning if there were some banged up places that haven’t announced themselves yet. 

Some days luck is better than common sense. I could have hit a tree!