When I was about fourteen, my sister and I received these brand-new, white and red ten speed bikes for doing well during the school year on our report cards. Riding bikes was a favorite past time, mostly because everyone on our street did it, but an added perk was we would ride to the front of the street to the snowball stand every day for a snowball. (I absolutely love strawberry shortcake snowballs. I would venture trying a new kind once a summer, but I would usually regret it, wishing I would have stuck to my favorite).
It was on one such trip on this new bike that my canvas shoe got stuck in the spokes of the front tire, and I was thrown head first over the handlebars, skidding to a stop using my wrists and the flesh of my legs. I was pulled from under the bike to assess my injuries, and nearly passed out as I took in my bleeding knees and sprained wrists (I literally almost passed out. Those who know me, know that I did this all the time, or so my mom says when she blames me for her gray hair).
I’m not going to say I never got on a bicycle after that, but it was damn close. I got a new bicycle after that one did not survive the incident, but it rusted in the shed.
Which of course meant that riding a bike had to go on my list because I had put everything else that I’d ever been afraid to try on the list. But I thought I’d wait a bit longer before trying it out. I actually put it down on my 2012 list. (Yes, there is a list for next year. I couldn’t fit it all into one year.) The opportunity to ride a bike arose though, and I went for it because my philosophy this year involves taking advantage of all the opportunities that come my way.
Contrary to that old saying about how it’s just like riding a bike, riding a bike is not so easy to those balance challenged. I thought my balance had improved; I mean I exercise on a BALANCE ball. I was wrong. I’m not sure how my daughter just hopped on her bike and figured out the balance thing on the first try. For six miles I gripped the handle bars, occasionally (Okay, so more than occasionally) veering off coarse as my balance wobbled.
How did I do it as a child? I would consider myself clumsy back then but not at this point in my life.
It is good exercise though, and by the end of it I didn’t look worse than my six-year-old learning to ride her bike. I didn’t wobble so much, and I could actually glance to the side without the bike veering suddenly off course.
I’m not saying I was ready to go again the next day. Bikes really need to work on having more comfortable seats for one’s butt, but I can no longer say I haven’t been on a bike in seventeen years. It is one more experience that I can mark off my list, as the list dwindles down.
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