Humiliation...

This morning I went for a short bike ride in the cool air. I decided to make a little loop of a couple of miles, since I am still trying to get my legs under me. I thought my expectations were plenty low.

The firs thing I discovered is that, with my son-the-bike-mechanic gone, and my bike left unridden for several years, it isn't really all working as it should. I could only use one of the shifters, and couldn't adequately change my gear speed. But worse than that was the ever-so-slight incline at one part of my relatively-flat ride, which wore out my poor old legs entirely. I kept telling myself, "Don't stop, get to that next street, then you'll turn and it will be down hill again. Keep going." Well, by the time I was approaching the turn, I knew I had to stop or fall over. And as it turns out, I managed both.

I decided to pull up near the corner and get off the bike for a few minutes to let my legs recover, but somehow, as I swung my leg over the bar, I got tangled in the bike somehow, and we both fell down, sort of in slow motion, onto the rocks and the anthill beside the curb. I felt really stupid, but that was before I looked up.

When I looked up there was an elderly lady with a cane standing at her mailbox across the street from me. "Are you OK?" she asked. "Oh, I'm fine! I just decided to stop for a little rest and got tangled, err, I'm fine!" "I saw that front wheel start to wobble," she observed, "and I thought to myself, 'She's going down!'"

That's when the feeling of humiliation started. I know it's good for me to be reminded to be humble, and this was a low-cost reminder since I wasn't hurt at all. But I don't like it much. At least I brought something interesting into that little old lady's day. I bet over supper she'll be telling the story of this ridiculous woman riding a bike...