Entries this day: mountain_bike

mountain bike

10:30pm Wednesday 3 March 1999

Today I did laundry and got my hand written diary caught up since New Hampshire while watching the clothes tumble in the dryers.

Dude and I met with Desmond and Thomas, working out details on how we can share abilities and resources; Desmond does telephone stuff, Thomas is great with PC hardware and MS certified, and Dude and I do website stuff. We plan to sell our services in one seamless package to businesses who need computer stuff.

Tomorrow Dude and I are going to Beaumont (hi Cathy!) and will help install some cable (telephone and data lines) in a new auto dealership building. Cool. It's nice to occasionally change the type of work we do from web design to something else.

After the meeting, Dude and I took his and his wife's mountain bikes, and his dog Bailey, and went mountain biking down at Memorial Park. We rode through trails and trails and trails that wind through trees and up and down small valleys or creeks or rivulets or something.

This is the same set of trails I rode with my downstairs neighbor Stefan (or was it his brother whose name I have forgotten?) a long time ago and came back with 4 cracked knuckles. Stefan (or his brother) said, "you wanna go on the easy trails or the big trails?" and I was all, "let's start big!"

Suddenly we were at the top of the Ho Chi Minh trail (I think that's what they called it and how it's spelled) and he zipped down then up and turned and down and perfectly stopped at the bottom.
I zipped down then up then did not turn and BLAM my hand, tightly gripping the bike handle, crushed into a tree and I flipped over the front of the bike. Ow.

I kept riding, though my hand pretty much could not grip the grip anymore. Ironically, we were on flat ground and I hit something sharp, puncturing one of the tires and we had to walk the bikes back to his truck.

On my left hand I had fractured the lower knuckle on my index finger, the lower and middle knuckle on my middle finger, and the middle knuckle on my ring finger. Wore a cast for 6 weeks and haven't ridden a mountain bike since.

(But I have ridden a racing bike since, and ended up crashing into a chain link fence and getting like 25 stitches in my face and ear, but that's a different story (and it's all true))

Today was different. I had quite a delightful amount of fear as I approached each of the valleys. Dude would zip right down and back up the other side; I would stop and contemplate. Hmmmm. Fear would tense my stomach and heart. Holy cow no way and I enjoyed the fear emotion in me.

I eventually went down each hill we reached, and one time (maybe twice) made it back up the other side without getting off the bike. One time I wrecked into a tree, but this accident did not involve a hill. We were quickly navigating some turns and I didn't quite make it and BLAM my right forearm scraped pretty harshly against a tree. I flipped kinda across the bike but was okay. I was wearing my helmet.

I survived. I didn't end up in the emergency room. I find it intriguing that if we had been on skates, I would have easily negotiated all the turns and hills (assuming they would be paved instead of dirt and roots and stuff).

To Fuddruckers we ate with Wende's and my youth group. We marveled at the new Delaware quarters and told jokes and stuff. David asked me to say HI to him on the radio tomorrow; I can't mention his name, but I do plan to say something at 6:30am.

"This song is for everyone who is trying to wake up now," and I'll play a rockin' obnoxious song; maybe by Beastie Boys back when they were punk.

I'll be on the radio in 5.25 hours!! Gotta go to sleep.

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