Monday, February 8, 2010

Why we wear bike helmets

Hi, My name is John, and it's been two and a half months since my last post.

Yesterday, it was a beautiful Spring-like day here in Portland. After helping a cousin with moving some guy-stuff(dirt bikes, power tools, wooden boat, etc.), My son, 6-ish, and I went for a short bike ride around the neighborhood. As we got started, I noticed his helmet, mandatory in these parts, was too loose. Naturally he behaved as though I were killing him during the strap adjustment - "It's too tight, Too Tight! T'T'TOO TIGHT!, AHHHHH!!!!". I finally had to resort to the "No hemet, no ride" decree.
Off we went down the sidewalk, to the paved path through the "don't stop here" apartment area(really, don't stop there, it's just not pretty), over to his grade school four blocks away, back up the "you have to push me" incline and almost home. That's when I, the intrepid biking dad, managed to dump over an eighteen speed fully macho mountain bike while going up a eight inch curb. I of course flipped over the handle bars at somthing bordering on the speed of Yikes, with aproximately the force of a 140 lb sand bag, and landed crookedly on my head and shoulder, all with my son coming towards me six feet away and watching the whole thing with fascinated awe. Bouncing back up very quickly and remounting the bike in typical "nobody-else-saw-that-right?" fashion worthy of any house cat, I casually said "Now son, did that totally on purpose demonstration adequately illustrate why we wear helmets and keep them on tight?" (yeah, I sometimes speak that way to my 6-tomorrow son - it's a gift, right?) He excitedly responded that yes, he saw that now. Of course, he had to tell his Mom ALL-ABOUT-IT ... IMMEDIATELY.

I'm fine, by the way.