Riding for Juvenile Diabetes: Beware of the Goose and the Squirrel

Emily was the kind of child who got into the mud.

She developed type-1 diabetes when she was fourteen.

Emily earned a degree in nursing from Ohio State. 

Naturally, she went into diabetic nursing care later.

 

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THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BEFORE MY SECOND RIDE ACROSS THE USA.

AS WAS TRUE THE FIRST TIME, I WAS RAISING MONEY FOR JDRF.

NOW THAT the weather is turning sunny, I can get my bicycle out and rack up some decent miles. Today, I managed to log 77.  Right now, I feel pretty good about riding across our great country.  I’m six pounds lighter than when I started last time.

Then again, I’m also four years older.

Still, it was great to be out in the fresh air this afternoon and even though I’m 62, I’m not so old I can’t still learn something.  At the 73-mile mark, I learned that a goose can be stupid. I was whipping along at a healthy clip, using the sidewalk not far from the Blue Ash Airport.

Two geese were close to the walk, and I yelled to alert them to my approach. One scuttled out of my path. The other seemed perplexed. (Can a goose be perplexed?) At the very last moment, this dim-witted fowl skittered across the sidewalk and I rammed into it with my front tire. The bird went flying one way and I went flying (winglessly) the other.

Luckily, I landed on a grassy hillside and neither the goose nor I was injured.

This is probably a stupid pun: but I learned today that you should honk at a goose before the goose honks at you.

Not the goose that tried to assassinate me.

But is it suspicious these geese are hanging around a cemetery?

AFTER POSTING THE ABOVE TO FACEBOOK, I RECIEVED SEVERAL COMMENTS:

Liz Ball went with the cheesy pun, herself, saying, I should “have ducked.”

Vicky Leroy Busby displayed a little goose animosity:  “Ha! Was it one of those Canadian geese? If so, you should’ve run over the blasted thing. How those birds were ever on the endangered species list is beyond me. They’re everywhere and many of them are too stupid to migrate.”

My brother Tim weighed in with warning: “John: By the way; Joe Ossman took his worst fall when (on the American River Bike Trail) he had a squirrel run into his front wheel, get partially caught, and locked his wheel, when said squirrel made a 1/2 revolution. So, watch both geese and squirrels!”

Joe’s a good man. I’ve ridden with him before...and he went coast-to-coast last summer with Rich Fowler. So, if a squirrel can get Joe, I know they can get me.

Liz commented once more: “Oooh I witnessed something like that at a kids’ bike race in Ann Arbor. A squirrel ran into a kid’s spokes and was fragmented before the crowd. The kid didn’t even know what happened except his wheels made a funny noise and the crowd made a group ‘ooooooooooooo’...”

So: Be careful out there bicyclers. I’m going riding today, hopefully, at least 50 miles. It depends on the wildlife, I suppose. 

In 2010, I raised money by painting a three-story building in Glendale, for a community group, and donating the profits to JDRF. 

I lost twenty-five pounds on that hot, hard job. Then I gained the weight back. 

When I pedaled across the USA in 2012, I lost twenty-five pounds again. 

Total raised for JDRF by both means: $21,500.

THIS LINK IS NOW DISABLED:

If you would like to donate to help find a cure please click HERE!  Then click “donate to this event.”  Finally, click “Biking and Painting for Diabetes.”

Donate $4 and I promise to ride 4,000 miles.