Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Squeamish

First off, this is my 301st blog post here at Blogger. Woohoo! I had many more posts at two previous blog sites, but the first one crashed and I lost everything. The second site wasn't so great. I guess my old posts are still there...

Speaking of crashing...

We have a community bike trail through our neighborhood that goes to the park and around the pond. From our house, around the pond, and back home again, the trail is about 3 miles. That makes for a good bike ride, especially since we all have bikes and can ride them. (Jacob learned how to ride training wheel-free on Thanksgiving Day.)

A few times now, various members of our family have ridden around the trail. The last two times, the boys and I have gone after finishing school. It's a great way to get some fresh air and exercise and enjoy where we live.

Today the boys and I went on another tour of the trail. I stopped here and there to snap a few pictures with my phone since parts of the trail are pretty with bright yellow flowers (weeds?) right now. The wind wasn't blowing hard, and Jacob was content to ride behind Caleb for a while instead of whining about not being first. The riding was good and argument-free.

As we were heading into the stretch near the pool, the boys split off from me. They like ride on one side and cut through the grass while I stay on the main trail along the pond. They came out a little ahead of me as we neared the playground. That's when Jacob decided he wanted in the lead. His sudden burst of speed caused him to lose control. He slipped off the side of the sidewalk/trail, then over-corrected, got back on the concrete, and started wobbling back and forth. I knew what was coming...

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. I tried to hurry up to them as I watched Jacob's bike slide to one side. He hit the ground and slid. From my point of view, it looked like his face scraped the ground. I had flashbacks to a similar wreck I had when I was 8 or 9 years old...

Jacob was lying on the ground, holding his arm and screaming. I jumped off my bike and almost lost my balance as I let it fall to the ground in my rush to get to him. I didn't see any blood on his face. I was afraid I was going to see his arm laying at an awkward angle. My stomach was dropping. As I dropped down on the sidewalk beside him, I was relieved to see cuts and scrapes and an arm not broken or disjointed. I helped him up and over to a bench so I could better see the damage. He was freaking out over his bleeding cuts. I'm not a fan of blood, either.

Once I realized he was okay, I started feeling woozy. The adrenaline rush was too much. I sat on the bench beside him and put my head between my knees, all the while telling him that he was okay and to take slow, deep breaths. I was trying to do the same. Hanging my head down wasn't helping matters, and neither was the fact that we were all in desperate need of water. I knew I couldn't make it home yet if I tried. I slid to the end of the bench and lay down with my knees up. Thankfully that helped. I hated to think I'd pass out and scare the boys to death. Once we had both calmed down, I told the boys about my bike wreck, when I ended up in the ER and was told to rinse my mouth out with hydrogen peroxide since I had scraped my gums on the road, along with various other body parts.

After story time we were all feeling better. Caleb had already gotten all the bikes up and put down the kickstands. He sweetly offered to ride his bike and pull Jacob's along, but I nixed that idea. We didn't need another accident. Jacob couldn't decide if he wanted to try to ride his bike or walk it back home. Caleb took a good look at it asked why the handle bars were all weird. The impact of hitting the ground twisted the handle bars at a strange angle from the front wheel. I tried to straighten it back out but couldn't. I reassured him Dad could fix it.

The walk home was uneventful, except for reading on Facebook about my friend's son's bike wreck yesterday. He lost his two front teeth and had to get stitches. His helmet saved him from head trauma. (Thus the boys learned from a close source the value of wearing helmets. We all wear them when we ride, even though we don't like them very well...)

I got Jacob's cuts and scrapes cleaned, medicated, and bandaged as well as he would let me. Then he spent half an hour laying on the couch watching Caleb play Wii Sports Resort for him. :o) I think his afternoon snack of S'Mores helped cheer him up a bit, too.

He didn't get back on his bike today, but he did ride his scooter this evening after supper. He's fine, though he might have a bit of a black eye tomorrow. I saw the slight scrape later, but it's become a little more noticeable now. I hope he'll ride tomorrow. He doesn't need to let this keep him off his bike.

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