Guarded!
As I was driving to the park today, I thought to myself, "Self, those wrist guards haven't been any use at all, I don't think you should bother putting them on today." But when I got out of the car it just seemed natural to put them on, so I did. I will never again think about not wearing my wrist guards until I am so good at unicycling that I can amaze most circus performers.
After a few minutes I was back to long rides; there were certainly plenty of false starts, but they're getting somewhat more rare. I rode to the corner. I walked back to my trusty support and turned around and rode 50 or 100 feet in the other direction. I rode to the corner and used the yield sign to ride down the sidewalk. I used a couple of other supports, including a tree on the left, to complete the loop (mostly). I rode back to the corner, used the yield sign to ride down the sidewalk, and successfully negotiated the corner that took me back into the park.
But at that point, I was getting tired, because this unicycling stuff is much more strenuous than it looks. Or than it looked to me, anyway. I was passing the tree that I'd used for a support the last time around, and either because I was tired, or because the grade changed slightly, or because a butterfly in Greenland changed direction suddenly and upset the local wind currents, I UPDed and couldn't quite manage to get my feet off the unicycle. I fell forward, and I remember thinking during the eight-tenths of a second that I was falling, "No knee pads! Watch the knees! Wrist guards!" It was probably more like, "kneesnowrist!" but whatever it was, it worked. All I ended up with were two tiny scratches on two left fingers and one tiny scratch on a right finger. Yep, those wrist guards will be staying on for the forseeable future.
I played ball with a dog that was out with his owner (who remarked that I'd improved a great deal, so I guess he's seen me before -- the owner did the remarking, not the dog) for a while, then walked back to my trusty support (Fido didn't seem to want to move out of my way when I tried taking off from the tree, so walking seemed the judicious approach). I had a few more really good rides, including a successful negotiation of the yield sign corner. When I UPDed on the sidewalk, I decided to walk across the park to my trusty support instead of trying to ride around again since I was getting tired. At that point I just rode down to the car and called it quits.
A very good day. Due in part to a couple of now-slightly-scuffed wrist guards.
After a few minutes I was back to long rides; there were certainly plenty of false starts, but they're getting somewhat more rare. I rode to the corner. I walked back to my trusty support and turned around and rode 50 or 100 feet in the other direction. I rode to the corner and used the yield sign to ride down the sidewalk. I used a couple of other supports, including a tree on the left, to complete the loop (mostly). I rode back to the corner, used the yield sign to ride down the sidewalk, and successfully negotiated the corner that took me back into the park.
But at that point, I was getting tired, because this unicycling stuff is much more strenuous than it looks. Or than it looked to me, anyway. I was passing the tree that I'd used for a support the last time around, and either because I was tired, or because the grade changed slightly, or because a butterfly in Greenland changed direction suddenly and upset the local wind currents, I UPDed and couldn't quite manage to get my feet off the unicycle. I fell forward, and I remember thinking during the eight-tenths of a second that I was falling, "No knee pads! Watch the knees! Wrist guards!" It was probably more like, "kneesnowrist!" but whatever it was, it worked. All I ended up with were two tiny scratches on two left fingers and one tiny scratch on a right finger. Yep, those wrist guards will be staying on for the forseeable future.
I played ball with a dog that was out with his owner (who remarked that I'd improved a great deal, so I guess he's seen me before -- the owner did the remarking, not the dog) for a while, then walked back to my trusty support (Fido didn't seem to want to move out of my way when I tried taking off from the tree, so walking seemed the judicious approach). I had a few more really good rides, including a successful negotiation of the yield sign corner. When I UPDed on the sidewalk, I decided to walk across the park to my trusty support instead of trying to ride around again since I was getting tired. At that point I just rode down to the car and called it quits.
A very good day. Due in part to a couple of now-slightly-scuffed wrist guards.
posted by Rich | 4:40 PM
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