Adventures in bike riding...

I was in Wal-Mart today and a supercool mountain bike caught my eye. It has camo paterning on it, six speeds, and suspension for doing jumps. Because I really think that every six year old in the world should be cavorting around on wheels jumping over things. Really.

I decided to purchase the bike because I have a lot of plans for this summer. One of them includes riding around CowTown with my nephew, going to the corner store, buying freezies, and sitting on the swings at the school to eat them.

I quit riding my bike when I was twelve. I had a hideous accident one summer day that knocked all the teeth out of my head. I had braces at the time, and managed to put my top braces through my bottom lip; only, before I did that? I managed to get a rock wedged into the wire between my front teeth. I landed in the gravel on my face with such force that my face left a half-foot long skid mark in it.

My friend and I were standing on the road laughing because I had flown over the handle bars and made really good air time. The bike was in the ditch and when I saw the rim of the tire bent to one side, I knew that no good was coming to me. Then I saw the blood on the road. They I realized that it was pouring out of my mouth and that I couldn't open my mouth.

So my friend looks at me in horror and she's like, your braces are stuck in your bottom lip. So I went to scream, but in the process, I ripped my braces out of my lip... and then I discovered the rock that was in them. By later that afternoon, there was an almost inch wide space between my two front teeth. When we saw the orthodontist the next day, he told us that the only thing holding my teeth in my head was the wire of my braces.

Of course, there was a large gash in my elbow as well, a gash that had rocks and debris embedded in it that I had to let my father pick out with his own two hands. My knees were a mess and I couldn't really move for days; further, I ended up not eating for a couple weeks because, oh yeah, MY TEETH WERE NO LONGER EMBEDDED IN MY HEAD.

Everything healed, of course, and the braces saved my teeth and I still have my naturals. I have a nasty scar on my elbow that is all bumpy and nasty and sometimes I wonder if my dad forgot a few pieces of gravel in there.

At one point today, I let go of the seat of my nephew's bike and he fell. I had a hold of his jacket and he fell fairly softly, but he fell nonetheless. He was pretty mad at first, and I examined him and saw no marks, no scrapes or scratches, and I decided to impart my wisdom on him.

"You know, Precious Boy, I once had a really bad fall off my bike, too."

*Sniff* "You did?"

"Oh, yeah! It was so gross. When i got up there was bl-"

"What?"

"When I got up, I just hopped back on and rode away! YES! I rode away! Because falling is a part of bike-riding!"

Oh, the lies we tell children. I'm planning on getting back on my old bike some time this summer, after I get it some new tires and grease up the old gears and such. I looked at it yesterday and other than needing a good scrub down, nothing too wrong with it is very apparent.

All in all, it's shaping up to be an exciting summer, full of bike riding adventures and strawberry-picking shenanigans.

Toonses