Like I told you all before, friends, neighbors and loyal readers (all three of you) I am a reluctant gym rat.
Normally, I drag myself to Planet Fitness three times a week out of a sense of obligation.
But this summer – due to the ferocious heat and my, um, advance years – I had to cut back on my preferred physical activity and ended up doing the PF thing nearly every day.
Hated it.
But wait! What just happened?
This morning I prepared my bike for the customary short ride to PF.
Turned on my helmet lights. Check.
Set my Apple Watch on outdoor cycle. Check.
Adjusted my rear-view helmet mirror. Check, check and check.
And then it hit me.
No, not a car. Hell, I hadn’t even left my driveway yet.
It hit me that…that…
…I was enveloped in cool air!
Lower 70s air.
Wafting around me on a – be still my beating heart – honest-to-gosh autumn breeze.
So I got on my bike and dutifully headed to PF.
And rode right past it.
And I proceeded to meander.
Rambling from one neighborhood street to the next. And the next. And the one after that.
No particular place to go. (Chuck Berry plug here.)
Free at last! Free at last! (MLK plug there.)
Oh, did I tell you about my knee?
Yeah, I just got back from Iceland. And I’ve been hobbling around like Chester on Gunsmoke ever since.
Turns out that blundering through lava fields and tip-toeing down seaside cliffs isn’t exactly conducive to good knee health.
Been paying for it ever since.
Trip to the orthopedist. X-rays, Knee braces. Ibuprofen morning and night. Alternating ice and heat. Whole nine yards.
Listen, it hurts when I sit down, and it hurts when I stand up again. Now I gotta start going to PT. And with my bum luck, can surgery be far behind?
But something miraculous, even magical, happens when I get on my bike.
Yeah, it hurts getting on. And getting off again.
But when I’m riding….NO KNEE PAIN.
It’s a miracle. You oughta try it,
(Disclaimer: I’m no doctor, but I have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.)
Same thing this morning. Meandering through neighborhoods. No particular place to go.
And no knee pain.
Thumbing my nose at climate change. At least for now.
I’m gonna celebrate my new found liberation this weekend.
Maybe take my road bike and rack up some miles on the Palatka-St. Aug Trail.
Get some love bugs on my teeth, for a change, instead of my windshield.
No particular place to go.
Free at last, free at last!
