What Mom has been up to (or down)

This year for Mother's Day I got to be on crutches for the first time in my life. The ordeal started the previous week when I brought home my brand-new first ever road bike, a "women's specific" bike by Specialized. The bikes designed for women have more compact frames with smaller diameter tubes, plus saddles and handlebars made to fit women.


I also got biking shoes with the new "clip-less" pedal system.

Pedal--see the back and front "clips".... the cleat on the bottom of the shoes fits into this. (This is what the shoes look like after my first big ride. They didn't stay clean and shiny very long.)

So Tuesday, May 6 was the big day. I got fitted on my bike at the store and practiced with my shoes and pedals with the bike in a "trainer." Then I took the bike out to a quiet residential area and practiced some more. Took one minor spill when I lost my balance starting from a stop. I should have taken the hint, but I was eager for more riding. So I talked Larry into a ride that evening on the Centennial Trail. We rode from 84th down to Machias Station and back. I practiced more at Machias with the pedals before we headed back. I was doing great and loving the speed and lightness and smooth shifting....until about one and a half miles to go, disaster struck. As we approached 60th St., I flipped my shoes to detach them so I could put my feet down in case a car was coming. Sure enough, we heard a vehicle approaching from the west, where there is a somewhat of a blind curve when you're going north. We stopped, and Larry went on after the car passed. I planned to start out with my shoes "unclipped" and reattach them at a later point, like after that stupid gate thing. But as I pushed off, suddenly another vehicle came from the west, so I decided to wait (don't like to cross unless I'm sure the driver sees me). However, in trying to put my feet back down, my right shoe attached itself to the pedal and pulled me over hard to the right. Wham! I hit the pavement quite hard. The driver stopped and asked if I was OK as I shakily got up to my feet. "I'm not sure, " I mumbled. But the car went on when the driver saw Larry coming back. I pushed my bike painfully across the street and through the gate, then re-mounted. I attached my shoes and let the bike do the work the rest of the way back. Once back to the trail head, I found out that I couldn't walk.

The next day I had Larry rent crutches for me. I have deep tissue injuries (sprain) to my lower back, right side, and right pelvic and groin area, and now get to visit my chiropractor three times a week.

This is my new type of exercise!

I had "fun" going to meeting on Mother's Day. Larry and the girls keep leaving me way behind. A lot of people were sitting in different spots on Sunday morning, so I got "lost"--didn't see where they sat down, I was so far behind. Same thing at gospel meeting. Although they sat in the back row, they sat on the other side from where we'd sat in recent previous meetings, and it was hard to see them because they were already seated when I came in. John M. noticed me looking, and pointed them out! (So embarrassing.) The other negative was that Caroline whined all day long that she didn't get what she needed at the store and was begging to go shopping--on Sunday, on Mother's Day! (How selfish! Yeah, my kids save their very worse for Mother's Day every year, sorry to say.) The bright spot was that Rosanna made me a nice card and put a flower in a vase for me. (Too bad it was one of the only tulips in the flower bed, though.)

Also we went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and the waitress gave me a carnation.