Do you ever shake your head and say to yourself,

“I did *not* just do that.”

Yeah, me too.

It annoys the daylights out of me.   
Come on, I even have the silver-hair thing
going on and I am still learning some lessons 
the hard way.

When I was younger I would have never guessed I would be so silly at this age.

Why in the world did I do it again?  One would think I would
have learned the valuable lesson the first time around.

*ugh*

I love a good bike ride.  In fact biking is my most favorite outdoor activity.
How could one not love riding a bike through Phoenix?

Sunny skies 99.9% of the time.

Stunning desert landscape.

Beautiful mountains in the distance.

Most mornings Liberty rides with me.  I’m not sure she really loves riding,
but she’s a good sport who stumbles out of bed to ride her bike beside me
most mornings.  We go early to beat the heat.

Years ago I would ride 7.5 miles in the morning, winding my way around our
neighborhood.  Then when Dw came home from work in the evening I would often
go ride another 7.5 miles again, repeating the same route.

I just love bike riding.

This morning though, Liberty wasn’t able to go.

I ventured off alone.

I always have my phone in my hand, just in case I have a problem.

No doubt, it’s early and no one is calling or texting at that time
so it just sits in the palm of my hand.

Except for this morning, when I suddenly felt a buzz in my hand.

Weird.

Who could be texting me this early?

Now let me just back up for a speck.

Five years ago I was riding my bike on a path beside the river
and a text message came in.
I shouldn’t have read it, but I did.  Then, I tried texting back, emphasis on ‘tried’…
cause I went off the path and ended up leaving half of the top
layers of skin on the rocks beside the path, which took months to heal
after the tissue around it developed cellulitis.

It was then that I vowed I would never, ever read a text message while bike riding.

{Don’t worry, I don’t text and drive a car.} 
Ever.
It’s either in my purse or whichever oldest kid is in the car holds it for me.

Somehow texting on a bike seems so benign comparatively.


Back to this morning…

The text arrived.

And silver hair or not, 
I clearly didn’t learn the lesson five years ago.


Seriously?

The corner, curb, road and sidewalk fared better than my knee, leg and hand.

I laid on my back on the sidewalk for probably 10 minutes, bleeding, stinging, wondering, 

“Do I call Dw to come get me or do I try to limp my way home?”

Followed by my second question, which was far more important than the first:

“Do I suck it up and tell him that I was texting and 
riding cause I know stinkin’ well what he’s going to say?”

And I’ve been limping around the rest of the day
shaking my head and realizing,

“Apparently some lessons are just not learned easily.”