So I’ve been on crutches many times in my life. (Relax, I’m fine.)
The first time was when I was 7, when I got a fracture in my lower leg from an accident involving a lawn aerator.
Then it seemed for the next few years of elementary school, I was suffering from an bacterial inflammation (if memory serves) in my hip joints that would alternate, and I’d be on crutches because it hurt so much to walk.
I was fine until after high school when on a trip to Germany and Austria with the local youth orchestra I jumped down some stairs, fell, and tore a ligament in my left ankle.
The same thing would happen later in college but to my right ankle.
It was when it happened in college, that I really began to miss walking on my own. And running. And bicycling. Probably what made me miss it the most was that I was away from home with no one to care for me except my roommate and an ex-girlfriend who I got back together with because of her taking care of me.
This week, my job in Lodi finished a day early, and so Friday when I got home, I changed clothes and went for a bike ride. If it wasn't been for the crosswind in the teens, I probably could have gone further, but I only made it to what Jennifer and I call Costco Point. That’s about 15 miles round trip. Today I did 19 miles stopping just before the Richmond shoreline park trail. Same crosswind.
When I got home, my expense check was in, and I was too tired to get on my bike again and head to the bank. So I rested, had lunch, and then walked along the Emeryville path to the bank.
On the way back, I remembered a psychology class I had been taking for general education. One of the questions we asked in it was “what is something people take for granted every day.” I was on crutches at the time after the fall, and I said, “Walking.”
On the job site, I walk every day. I walk around checking the perimeter. I walk back and forth from task to task, checking on the other geologists, engineers, and/or scientists to make sure they are on track, on task, on schedule. I should really track some day how much walking around I do during the day.
Tomorrow, I’m going for another ride to see if I can make it to Craneway Pavilion. No matter how windy it is, and no matter how far I end of riding, I know I’ll enjoy it.
