Saturday, June 4, 2011

Sometimes I Fall Like a Sack of...

       A few months ago I posted about falling in the snow while I was cross country skiing. I hoped the neighbors didn't see me as it was rather embarrassing getting myself out of the deep snow. One of my blog readers had a good comment as she said, "You just had to tell about it." Since that time two people told me that they saw me struggling awkwardly to get myself out of the snow. They were ready to come out and help me.

      At my age falling is a serious issue. As I just told you it can be hard getting back up. But mostly the risk of serious injury is quite high. Also falling can be caused easily because of poorer vision and less sense of balance. However, I do not let these issues deter me from being active. In other posts I have told of my participation in skating, cycling, running, gardening etc.

      It's cycling season now and you guessed it I fell off my bike!!! One of those slow awkward embarrassing falls. And again I hope nobody saw me but it's alright to write about it. I started on my ride and suddenly the pedal stuck and I couldn't move my right foot. I looked down and saw that my shoe lace had caught in the large sprocket and that the shoe lace had wound around the crank. So there was my foot tightly held against the pedal. I couldn't pedal anymore and so soon the bike was going to stop and I would have to think fast as to how to get myself out of the situation. I couldn't tip to the left as my right foot was caught and I would be hung up with nowhere to go. I couldn't tip to the right as my right foot was caught and I wouldn't be able to put my foot on the ground to balance the bike and remain upright. So I more or less did a semi controlled fall to my right. It worked. I then got my shoe lace unwound and got up with no harm done. One more surprise. The chain had come off the back sprocket and jambed so when I tried to pedal the cranks wouldn't turn.

      So I felt like I was a sack of something falling on the curb with a quiet plop! Hopefully that's the last fall I have this year.