Bicycles

After I had finished reading my daily section from Cheryl's old high school American history textbook this afternoon and Dad had come to a stopping point with his project (putting all the old cd's from all the old computer program we've had, going back about ten years, into a BIG cd case) he suggested that we drive over to Crystal Springs Farm and pick some Green (and yellow and purple) beans.

We got in the car. Dad looks across the garage in the general direction of the bicycles and then at me.
"We could bike."
"It's only 3 miles round trip." I had measured it on Friday when I tried to get eggs. There were no eggs to be had. But I noticed how far it was! I also noticed that there was a very large and step hill at the end of the trip but I apparently had a brain cramp just then and forgot.

We got out of the car and climbed on our bikes instead. Over the past week I have started to bike around town when I could instead of using the car and I thought that I could handle 1 1/2 miles without to much problem. I had forgotten one thing. Dad bikes faster than I do.

I remembered to shift down gears once I remembered. I shifted down again when we got to the hill. And again. And again. Yet before I got to the top of the hill I was off the bike. It wasn't very far but I just could not make it. When I climbed off my legs buckled under me. Only by holding very tightly to the bike did I stay upright and only by concentrating very hard on the edge of the road did I not weave all over the road and into traffic.

It was only after we got to the farm that Dad reminded me of yet another thing I had forgotten. The gears on the bike I was using, which was my Mom's as I don't have a good one, were on both the right AND the left. I had in fact shifted gears down one third of what I could have.

We picked beans and then got some fresh mint, chives, and eggs. The bean plants are much lower than pea plants were. I spent the whole time on my knees shuffling along in the dirt looking for a mature bean pod which seemed scarce but obviously wasn't as there was about a pound and a half in the bags when I looked at home.

The trip home we much faster. We hit 27 mph going down that hill and, instead of the 5 minutes we took to climb it, were done with it in 20 seconds. Five minutes after that my pelvis started to ache. It felt like the bones were being pushed apart. I won't say anything to Beth when she says that her pelvic hurts ever again! And Dad seemed to be trying to go as fast on the flats as he was down hill.

I get home and my legs feel like noodles, my bottom hurts, my head aches from oxygen deprivation, and my arms and legs start to itch from the sap or something that got on me from the bean plants I was kneeling it as I forgot to bring long sleeves. Life is miserable so I do the only thing that a girl can do. I try to make life miserable for everyone else. In other words I gave birth to a small and extremely strong hissyfit instead of helping make dinner. I might not be proud of it, but there it is.

Moral? Well, there are two that come to mind. One is that it's probably worth it to be in shape when you forget things, as a general principle. The other is don't forget!