Monday Blues: Sit-Side Tattooed

 

When last we spoke (Saturday afternoon), I left you with a promise to pick up where the latest up-canyon adventure story had left off, so...

there I was heading towards home, riding along some extraordinary unofficial trail in the canyon of San Antonio. There were some big Ribes plants along the upslope side of the trail on which the flowers were beginning to do that puffing up thing they do when the berries ripen, and I was kind of checking them out with one eye while watching the trail with the other. Next thing I know, I'm pitching forward and sideways, over the bars. Needless to say I met the ground coming up as I was going down. Though there was a decent thud, I was also kind of hung up, or at least my bottom half was, and had to give a few swift kicks to untangle my legs from the bike, the branches of the Ribes, and some lower growing vines that were threatening to drag me off into the underbrush. That took long enough that I had time to let out a few choice words, but eventually made back to an upright stance. Just what the hell caused that I wondered aloud; those words were quickly drowned out by birdsong which sounded strangely like laughter. Examining the scene of the crime I noticed a solid looking trunk lurking beneath a covering of cascading vines and branches. So that's what tripped me up, what I landed on top of and, as I was beginning to feel, left a red welter on my sit side.

Truth is, I could have done without the tumble, but it is the occasional price we put up with for the privilege of being able to pedal out into those places we love to be. 

Now, just what is it that makes bicyclists feel the have to share photos of their injured parts, bloody or, in this case, not? This is an equal opportunity, keep in mind, I see just as many women sharing pics of bloody legs and arms, temporarily marked up bums, and what not. Is the old badge of honor thing a hold over from when we were kids? Is it wanting to prove we can fall with the best of 'em, get right back up and keep on going? Shock and awe? Commiseration? Who has an answer?