It wasn't so many years ago that good health was not something I could take for granted. I still remember not being able to walk a city block without stopping to lean on my cane and gasp for air, having all the joints going thermonuclear at all hours of the day, and being so tired that getting to the safety of the opposite sidewalk while crossing the street felt like the last mile of an ultra-marathon in the waterless Sahara.
My health isn't perfect now, and I have to really force myself to exercise when I don't want to (and that is more often than not). But I've finished two consecutive Belgian Wafer Rides, ridden 4 solo rando permanents, commute everywhere almost exclusively by bike, cycled up both the highest and the steepest paved roads in the county, hiked many rugged miles with my buddy, and even given a good impression of an Energizer Bunny at my workplace. It's all a lot of work that isn't always even slightly pleasant, but every bit of it is worth it.
Use it or lose it, my oncologist mom used to say. And, darn if she isn't right. I may bitch about things, still, but at least I do have the energy left to bitch - for which I am very grateful!
Luck, has also been on my side so far. No, I haven't won the lottery or anything. But, to be on foot or on bicycle in traffic almost everyday in the USA for 8 years now and still haven't gotten hit by any car yet takes just about as much luck as it does constant vigilance and skills. 2019 has been a terrible year in my cycling family accident-wise. You can do all the right thing, and still get broadsided by inattentive driver. A few of my friends separately ran out of luck this year. Now one is dead, one paralyzed, and another still recovering from spinal fracture.
When people take their eye off the road while going 55 mph, they cover just over 80 feet every second completely blind to where their car is heading. That's over half a football field every 3 seconds. There isn't much I would be able to do if a driver drifts into me at that speed, even if I see them coming in my helmet-mounted rear-view mirror.
Needless to say, though, being situationally aware and taking all possible caution decreases one's chance of being hit, or hitting something on the road. But sometimes it is just down to luck to not be in the path of a car that isn't being carefully driven, or to not have a suicidal squirrel squirrels into your front wheel and sends you flying off to who-knows-where when it locks up and does an impromptu endo.
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| There were also a lot of luck involved in running into these lovelies with the camera ready to shoot. |
What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows also come from trees and from living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? - Mikhail Bulgakov, Master and Margarita
There are many mundane little things, and many more substantial things that I am grateful of, of course, but who has time to read this when there are turkeys and green beans and stuffing and many other things in the oven and on the stoves to keep an eye on today? This has already gone on long enough, so I'll just stop now and wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving with many things to be grateful of all year long.
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