JoeKahno

Yeah... Well... It's still more popular than the alternative.

I'm 61 and on the don't get sick health care plan. The balls of both feet are messed up bad enough that I'm *very* careful getting out of bed in the morning while I find out what kind of day it's going to be. About six years back I blew out my left knee. It healed without surgery but it took almost a year to get full mobility back. There's a sensation that isn't really pain. It sets off mental alarm bells, like, too much of the wrong load will finish wrecking it. Back in '85 I was in a motorcycle crash that left me with a shattered pelvis. The orthopedic surgeon who put me back together must have been some kind of genius. He got eight breaks lined up so I could heal without cutting me open and loading me full of hardware. One foot gets to the ground a little quicker than the other but I can go through airport security without having to grab my ankles. I could go on but you get the picture. What does it all add up to?

A bike with a Nexus 3spd that has the top gear set around 66 so first is low enough for stop and go traffic. It means a wide saddle and upright seating position if I want to be able to ride for more than an hour. Eventually I hope to find the right saddle and adjustments to let me ride for two hours a day and still be able to walk. It means dropping over forty pounds since last October to get my blood pressure and glucose levels back to something close to normal for a guy my age. And it means being a little lonely sometimes. Out of the couple dozen people I ran with when I was a rowdy young party animal there are three of us left and I wouldn't bet more than pocket change that either of my friends will still be sucking wind a decade from now. But I can still say;

Life is good.

Joe Kahno