Heft on Pavement

Heft on Wheels

I've decided that, since I haven't made as much progress in the last month as I'd like to report, I have to post photos.  I freely confess that I'm that guy, as in "Mom!  Look at that guy on the--what is that?"  If you ride a bike like mine, you have to be comfortable with two things:  1) explaining to people what it is; and 2) falling over at stop signs.

It's a recumbent bike, and one of several ignored loves in my life.  I was inspired to buy it after I hurt my back in a bowling accident and read Mike Magnuson's book Heft on Wheels.  Be relieved that I haven't been inspired to photograph myself as he is depicted on the cover of his book.  It's not pretty,  I'm jus' sayin'.  Someday, I'd like to ride her from my house to my favorite spot on Lake Superior.  Maybe this year.  Wouldn't that be great?

The only problem with an often ignored, but beloved recumbent bike with clipless pedals is that since I don't ride it very often, I have to reteach myself the little move it takes to detach my shoes from the pedals.  If I don't do it just right, I panic.  Panic leads to forgetting about gravity, and forgetting about gravity leads to me falling over at stop signs, in my driveway, in the parking lot at the hardware store.  You can call that Heft on Pavement, I suppose.  Fortunately, I don't have a photo of that, but you can imagine how it sounds.

Kid:  "Mom!  Look at that guy on the--what is that?  He fell over!  He just stopped and fell over!  It looked like he forgot to put his feet down!  I don't know what he's doing, but I don't think he knows either."

Mom:  "It's not nice to laugh at people.  He could be hurt.  Why isn't he getting up?"

Kid:  "I think his feet are stuck to the pedals."

Heft with Bat

The second photo is of my good friend Doug pitching a wiffle ball to me in the hallway outside my classroom.  Answer me this:  Isn't this the most soul-killing hallway you've ever seen?  You can only see about one-third of it in this picture.  What you cannot see is the devastating hit I got just a second later.  Wouldn't it have been exciting if I'd hit the sprinkler?  I hope this gives you a picture of how hard English teachers work.  Actually, this was just this afternoon, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.