Sunday, June 21, 2009

After a Fall

About 15 years ago I bought my wife an audio recording of several Garrison Keillor short stories, recorded by the man himself. One was titled "After a Fall" and discussed what happens after you fall down:

"When you happen to step off an edge you didn't see and lurch forward into space waving you arms, it's the end of the world for a second or two, and after you do land, even if you know you're OK and no bones are broken, it may take a few seconds to decide whether this is funny or not."


Nancy and I went for a ride on Saturday, and I fell off my bike. First time I've fallen since the Hiawatha Pub Crawl. After those few seconds, I decided this was funny. We were riding through Crosby Farm in St. Paul and ended up on the wetland trail. This is a boardwalk that allows you to travel across the marshland. As we approached the end of this section of trail, the boardwalk angled up, sharply. I slowed down some and headed up. And of course, on the other side was a drop of at least a foot that I totally wasn't expecting. The front tire made the drop, and for a brief second I thought I was going to make it. But then my pedal caught on the peak of the boardwalk and I pitched over sideways. Nancy was behind me and said I fell very gracefully. I have a couple of red spots on my left palm, but didn't even break the skin. Nice! We finished out the last 5 miles of the ride, but my wrist was sore.

Later that day, I noticed that it is nicely swollen. And today, well over 24 hours later, it's still nicely swollen. But all in all, a funny experience. Even if my wrist might disagree.

2 comments:

LvilleTex said...

Get well soon. All you can do is laugh at yourself, as long as you're not too hurt.

Sveden said...

I've been on a ride where a compatriot came bombing down that hill and rode off into the marsh area. Luckily he didn't hit any water.