Stasia's Place Of Grace

Sunday, August 04, 2002

 

Jobs Well Done

This evening, ignoring overcast skies, I biked 6.08 miles. My average speed was 10.6 mph, and my fastest speed (downhill, of course!) was 23 mph. It took me 34:08 minutes.

Considering that two years ago I couldn't stand up, and that this past April I ended up in the ER after a serious motorcycle accident, I think this is pretty good!

I have been biking for about a month, and it is one exercise which doesn't cause me so much pain that I have to stop doing it. This does not mean that it doesn't hurt (especially when a bug flew into my eye tonight.) But I am learning to ignore the pain and "sweat out my demons."

I biked around Lake Five. I have no idea where Lakes One through Four are, but Lake Five is about a mile down the road, past a little farm that has one horse, who just had a foal. He was grazing beside his mother in the pasture as I biked past. They are both Palominos and are a lovely golden color, with pale manes and tails. Seeing them was one of my rewards for ignoring pain.

There is something one notices while biking up hills and having to go slowly - the sounds. The wind isn't rushing past you, so you can hear the wrens warbling their evensong while hidden in the trees... the "sskkkkkkkrt-chk-chk-chk-chk-chk" of a lawn sprinkler that sprays you as you hurriedly pump your legs while in the lowest gear, getting nowhere fast... the chirp of the crickets in the damp, leafy forest litter.

And the smell... the immediately-recognizable scent of a fresh, inland lake - a combination of eau de worm and moss - is gulped thirstily by aching, straining lungs. These, too, are gifts in exchange for putting the pain out of one's mind. They make it easier.

Today was an extremely lazy day for us. I wasted most of it. (Well, not wasted, but I constantly felt like I needed to be doing something, yet didn't have the energy to attempt much.) But at 7 p.m., I installed my new bike computer, and went out to give it a test run. I'm proud that I turned my lethargy around.

Socks in Lorna's Laces "Vera"; Regia Jacquard "#5270"

I am also proud that in the last 24 hours, I turned four sock heels. I am working to get caught up on my knitting- and spinning-in-progress, and to thereafter limit myself to a single project at a time. I hope that by concentrating my efforts in a single area, I will remain more focused, less pressured, and gain a greater feeling of accomplishment by finishing creations more quickly.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

Today I didn't do much, but I did do these things, and for that I'm grateful.

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