Icey Track Bikes and Jr Hockey

So Thursday night I was riding to the gym on the bike path here in Madison -- the one that wraps around Lake Monona. There is a gradual turn to the left on the path that became my undoing. I was only cruising along at about 15mph, which was fine. The problem existed in the fact that sun had just gone down and a fine glaze of ice had formed over the path. Ergo, I flipped about 90 degrees to the left in mid air and came crashing down. I smashed my left wrist pretty hard -- harder than i have smashed it the last 50 times i smashed it riding or skating in my life. I was able to move it around so I knew I didn't break it, but man it sure felt like it hurt enough to make me think I did. I smashed my keys into my hip the way I used to do in parking lots across the south side of Chicago after missing kickflips or some other trick. Aside from not breaking my wrist I scuffed up my new black ripstop fatigues, which is nice, as they hadn't looked broken in at the time.

The next morning my wrist was swollen and really in pain, but I could still move it in all ways so I was still confident I didn't break it. I did make a small vow to respect the snow/ice in town for a few days until my wrist healed up. I can accept it when the bike gives you a nudge to take a break.

Since I can't bike (which is what I pretty much want to do all the time), I opted for hockey tonight. There is a nice public park here in Madison (Westmorland) with boards up that I've been skating at most nights this past week. So I went there tonight to practice my skating, shoot some wristers, and just get my cardio going in place of the riding I've missed these past few days. After warming up for about 20 minutes, 2 kids (maybe 8-10 years old) came up and wanting to play a 3 man pickup game. They were obviously much smaller than me, but considering that they could outskate me any day of the week, it seemed like a decent match up. We played for about an hour and I lost the puck in most battles but scored a few times. For just getting back into skating this past week I was pleased with how I skated and controlled the puck, but I was mostly pleased with how much fun just playing hockey in the 7 degree Wisconsin night was and remembering the pure joy in watching the puck hit the boards cleanly between the two sticks that represented our meager goal. The simple things really are the best ones.

Neil Young is on SNL tonight.

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