Things that can go wrong when cycling

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I recently had my bike refurbished and was having a blast doing short rides in another nearby neighborhood.  From my house to the other development had me going up our street, over on a mildly busy country road, and then into the loop. Once around and then back home was exactly a mile.  How handy, right?

I had worked up to two miles and then one day, when trying to get off, my foot got caught on the bar. It was weird to be suspended there and unable lift my leg that one more half inch to free my foot. I used to be able to push off, swing my right leg back over the rear wheel, settle on the seat, then place my foot down on the pedal.  The reverse of this enabled me to hop off.  Smoothly, gracefully, and safely. Nope, can’t do that move anymore.

As I said, I got stuck.  My new chain had stretched just a bit and fell off so I needed to dismount to fix it.  And there was me, balanced with one foot sticking straight out in front of me and the other on the asphalt.  I kept feeling like I was going to fall backward.  Seconds stretch out when you are facing a possible serious injury.  I focused all my will to stay upright telling myself several times, “You will NOT fall down!” I was really thinking it was going to happen…

Then I looked down and the weight of my head tipped the balance in my favor!  I did a couple of hops back away from the bike and then had room to pull my foot the rest of the way off and down to the ground.

The takeaways from this incident are:

  1. I need to continue riding to help me with my balance.
  2. Although I can ride, I will need a step-through frame (aka: a girl’s bike).
  3. Riding will continue to rebuild the muscles in my legs after the knee surgery and it is not so boring!
  4. Riding alone is maybe not so smart.  I need a friend to ride with.  Just in case.
  5. I need to think about going to one of the walking/biking trails, after all, we have so many! Then, I won’t  have to worry about giant tractors on the country roads and/or the pick up trucks that look like they guzzle steroids instead of gasoline. <—- click here

I will be riding again soon, but need to sell a few things to afford the new girly bike.  Which leads into my next post on Swedish Death Cleaning…

Coming soon!

The Meaning Behind the Math Quiz…

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On September 15th I ended my post with a little math quiz; It had a purpose.

1 × 70
2 × 35
5 × 14
7 × 10
10 × 7
14 × 5
35 × 2
70 × 1

I mentioned that most all of you would know what this is and asked if you could discern it’s significance.

Most of you figured out that each multiple equaled seventy.  These are the *Factors of seventy. However, only one of you figured out it meant I had turned seventy. Thank you Steve.  BTW, the day was back on April the 22nd actually.  It was a crazy time for me.  Hence the late b-day post.

As it happens, and in the grand awareness of current world events, I find it meaningless now. Instead I am taking to heart Ephesians 6:10-18

The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Ephesians 6:10-18 NIV

Don’t be slack where your faith in the Lord is concerned.  Pay attention to the signs of our times.  The prophets of the scriptures recorded everything we need to know, but we were slack, fell away, and have forgotten the end of the story. Be aware, be strong, and armor up!

Love you all,

Lynda

*A factor, in mathematics is a number or algebraic expression that divides another number or expression evenly and with no remainder.

 

 

 

 

So this just happened

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Was in the bathroom blow drying my hair when it suddenly POPPED, once, and shot sparks and flames out of it’s @ss. I shrieked, Bob asked, “What happened?” and the smell of Ozone and burning ensued… I yanked the cord out of the socket and dropped it onto the tile.

It was a good hairdryer. Bob bought it for me about 20 years ago when I was recovering from surgery in California.

Guess I’ll need a new one. 😯

What is the value of a word?

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I love writers who paint with words. I used to encourage my 1st and 2nd graders to do this and they actually became quite good at it.

Years ago I read a treatise from a few educators in California, whose plan it was…

“To teach only the most most basic of vocabulary as it was not necessary to have more than one word for red.”

 It is mind numbing to contemplate. Where would we be without ruby, wine, or crimson? Each of these can bring to mind items which are exactly described by these colors.  Yet, the lack of imagination those educators would put upon us would leave us all with an 8 box of Crayola colors.

Test yourself by imagining Renoir if he only had red, orange, blue, green, purple, yellow, brown, and black?  Oh, sorry Renoir, you only have eight colors to chose from and you aren’t allowed to mix them.  You needn’t be an artist to envision how your efforts at illustration would be limited.

I do get discouraged with the product of the last thirty years of our educational system,  when I see that many of the 18 to 30 year olds will write reviews on a book they didn’t finish. Their main complaint ?  “The book was too wordy”  or “The author spent too much time on describing the setting; it was boring,” They are the very ones who want illustrated novels and/or to watch the movie instead.

Can this be corrected for the future of our progeny?  Am I a rebel to rage against a system that produces this mass of unimaginative and under-educated people who will replace me when I die?

Perhaps, but it needs to be said.

an OOPS and a notice..

This was supposed to publish on Sunday, my error.  And please also note that my profile has suddenly disappeared!  Was it something I said???  (probably)  I’m not going to take this post back, that would be confusing, but I will be rewriting my profile and try to get it done by Sunday.  😀