This morning Ruben left the house for school but left his backpack behind. I'm not sure how, it's large and weighty – he must have felt very free cycling without it. Ines suggested that I take the bag up to the school (with all of his books, lunch and sports gear in it). The school isn't far and I was going to drive up but my wife in her commitment to increasing my physical activity reminded me that someone has just given me a bike to ride and I should break it in on a glorious autumnal morning.It is a glorious day. I realised very quickly that I hadn't noticed that we live toward the bottom of a steady incline and my decrepit self was going to struggle. I was right. The school is about 2.5k at the top of the incline. I made it to the school, handed the bag in, trying not to pant like a dog on a hot summers day and looked forward to cycling (fee wheeling) back down the steady incline all the way home.
About half way home I picked up some speed, the cars were pretty close and I was feeling a bit hassled but I was trying to enjoy the sun and autumn colours when disaster struck. The front wheel of the bike went into a drain hole, the bike stopped suddenly. I stopped less suddenly and gained 'air time'. I stopped suddenly when my face acted as my landing gear on the road, my specs landed a little further off and the thought went through my head "I'm about to be run over and I wonder if the house insurance will cover my glasses if they are broken". No one ran me over and no one stopped and my specs are fine. I picked myself up; thankful for life, that I wasn't run over and the leather jacket I had on to protect me from the autumn wind had taken the worst of the scrapes.
The front tyre was flat and I was in no state to ride anyway. I hobbled home: in shock and shaken but still under the anaesthetic of adrenalin. Life is fragile – things could have been very different this morning. But here, on a glorious day, with a body just beginning to let me know how jarred and battered it was and a great start of an impressive black eye, I'm refreshed in my thankfulness for life and life more importantly in Jesus Christ.
Over the next few days I hope to be meeting with church leaders in the surrounding area. The black eye will no doubt give a good opener to conversations and won't leave a bad first impression! Over the next few days I'm determined to be thankful – even for the aches and pains of getting over the accident. Over the next few days I'll probably make the most of Ines feeling awful at suggesting the bike ride and Ruben feeling terrible about me getting injured in the pursuit of being his father. Over the next few days I will do no more exercise and will undoubtedly be healthier for it!
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3 comments:
When I saw the title of this post, I thought you needed a Proverbs 22:13-style rebuke ("The sluggard says, 'There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!'") However, I shan't go there. Sounds nasty! I knew I was right never to do any exercise...
:o sympathies! And thank God that you weren't more badly hurt - I'm never quite sure cycling in Brum whether it's more dangerous to swerve round the many potholes when cars are dangerously close, or to risk going into them! I did gasp at you landing on your face - leather (or denim) is remarkably effective at taking scrapes, but how good you didn't do in your neck landing like that!
But do keep it up - yes, when drivers think of an area as flat, cyclists know better, but drivers never get the joy of freewheeling down a huge hill on a sunny day, or the satisfaction of reaching the top going up it :) I've just got back into cycling over the past couple of weeks having been using the car far too much before then - my car tax disk got lost in the post so I didn't have a choice! But I'm continuing with it: it's healthier, cheaper, quicker (it really is quicker for me to cycle to the train station or to Birmingham campus, than to drive!), easier (oh yeah - no parking, no getting stuck in traffic lights) and better for the environment. Of course, it can also be wetter and more dangerous, and you can only bring as many books to a CU as you can fit in a backpack, but the good outways the bad!
Oh, and I'm afraid you never get out of feeling hot and sweaty in the first few minutes after you finish cycling any decent distance, I'm afraid. But during it, what a lovely breeze on a hot day...
Now I need to go get my chain ring and chain replaced!
that was simply hilarious. i almost feel sorry for you!! ha ha ha!! you should come to saturday sport - there are many pot holes there! rest assured we put brightly coloured objects in them so we can remind people how blind they are when they fall in! :) love you mate hope this post has been more encouraging than my emails!!! xxx
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