Community and Synergy

It's been ten days since I FOOSHed and my arm is still quite broken. As a matter of fact, I'm really just beginning the real healing process today. I had surgery this afternoon to reduce (aka "set") the fracture and install a metal plate and some screws that will hold it all together as it heals. It had been set a few days ago but it was still a bit misaligned and unstable so surgery seemed like the best option to get me rolling again as soon as possible.

While this experience has been a bit of a downer overall, I'm also impressed with how an injury like this can turn your life sideways and help you to see and think about things in new ways. For instance, I've been riding with the Seattle International Randonneurs for two years now. In that time I've met a lot of great people and I've made some friends. But I mostly saw SIR as a group of folks to go riding with. But after the FOOSH SIR people came out of the woodwork offering sympathy, stationary trainers, suggestions on how to get moving quickly, encouragement, and the stoker position on a tandem. I realized that it's not just a cycling club that I belong to. I belong to a community. I can't begin to express the gratitude I feel for those who have reached out to me. Thank you all so much! It feels good to be part of something bigger than yourself.

I guess some of the other things I've learned over the past few days are not quite as profound, but still somewhat interesting. Like this:

• Two useful hands have a lot of synergy. A good example is typing. One handed typing is not even close to half the speed of two handed typing. Maybe that's obvious but it had never occurred to me before.
• Starting a coat zipper with one hand is nearly impossible.
• Same with tying shoes.

(Hmm, maybe those last two are just extensions of the synergy thing)

• One can ride a stationary trainer with one arm. And while it's not nearly as much fun as flying down High Bridge Road in the Snoqualmie Vally, it's still better than not riding at all.

Back to the two handed synergy thing, I haven't been blogging because my typing is ridiculously slow and frustrating. But I should be receiving a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking in the next day or, so stay tuned for some Kerouac style rambling stream of consciousness blog posts in the coming days.

In the meantime, play safe and by all means don't FOOSH.

P.S. By the way, this coming Saturday is the first SIR brevet of the season. I'm going to have to stay off the bike for this one but I'm looking forward to cheering on my rando friends from the safety of one of the controls. See you out there!