11-16-07: Emails...

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I have received lots of emails wishing me well and a speedy recovery, all of which is greatly appreciated. I've also gotten suggestions to offset boredom.. and the recurrent key question.

Regarding boredom. Hasn't been a lot of that. Therapy takes up two to three hours of my day, six days a week. I don't read a lot of books, but do subscribe to a number of magazines and two newpapers. I have a computer with an internet connection, so I follow assorted websites with the latest info on something of interest. I don't follow websites that entertain, however, like YouTube or interact with MySpace. Not a gamer unless it's with a real deck of cards. I'm old-school with my use of the internet... emailing, researching to satiate my curiosity about whatever, and presentation in the form of a basic website. And a lot of TV is pretty mindless, so I don't watch it..

Nevertheless, my accident has given me what I never seem to have enough of, time... not to waste, but to use to think and then to write some of those thoughts down. In addition to these ramblings, I'm writing some poetry, dabbling with photos taken during one of Peggy's and my many adventures, and then perhaps combining the two.

The recurrent question has been, "Will I resume riding a bicycle?"

I think I will... have covered a lot of miles in my 25 years of serious riding. During that time, I have been hauled away in an ambulance three times:

• An old lady in an old pickup truck turned left in front of me north of Escalon. Bruised my left leg pretty good on her right fender and broke her windshield with my helmet as I rolled over the hood and landed on other side.. totaled the bike, but got a new one financed by her insurance and was back on the road in six weeks.

• A faulty weld on my handlebar stem broke on Parker Ave. between Roselle and Claus. While holding on to unattached handlebars, my bike lurched across the road and narrowly missed traffic going both ways. I hit some soft dirt on the other side of the road, which launched me into the air and landed hard enough to crack my helmet and a couple of ribs... and partially collapsed my left lung. I was in the hospital for three days with a suction tube in my side to suck excess fluid off the top of my lung to help it reinflate. Cannondale rebuilt the front end of both my Cannondale bicycles for free to avoid a lawsuit. That particular handlebar stem was recalled and discontinued... back on the road in two months.

• Cruisin' along Needham Ave on the way home.. you know the rest of the story...

Riding a bicycle is a lifestyle thing, I suppose. Or as I had inscribed on my iPod that I like to listen to while riding the country roads around Modesto and other central valley towns...

Ridin' n Rockin' n Free