Good grannies

I started out the day with a bang, or rather, a bang up. I had my first riding accident this morning. Yes, I'm fine. I just feel a little stupid, and am thankful that I didn't do serious damage to either myself or the bike. I talked my friend, Kristie, into doing the Greenway section of my ride with me, and as we were riding and talking, I turned around to look at her. I realized very quickly that I was way too close to an asphalt retaining wall on the narrow path, and that I was definitely going to collide with it. I also realized that I was not going slowly and that I had the possibility of ending up in a bad location, like the cement ground or the creek to my left. Fortunately, I controlled the bike and just ended up with some major scrapage(didn't know that's a word, did you?) and bruising on my upper right arm and calf. And amazingly, my brand new fancy, shmancy riding shirt(weather resistant, blah, blah, blah) didn't have a scratch on it. That's some amazing technology that can allow that wall to tear up my arm without doing anything to the shirt. I'm thinking my arm would be in much worse condition if I'd been wearing something else. Anyway, I'm ok. I was excited to finally get my bike odometer installed yesterday, so today was my first ride to see my true mileage. I thought that I was somewhere around 15 miles a day, but it turns out that I'm right near 17, so that's awesome.

Then this afternoon had me acting as chauffeur for my 87 yr. old grandmother, for my great-aunt's(her sister-in-law) birthday party. It was sad to hear her ask where we were going over and over, even though she's talked about this party all week. And then when we got there, she was completely overwhelmed by the social aspect of the situation and couldn't hold a conversation with anyone except her sister. But, I think she enjoyed just being around people, and she definitely enjoyed the ride over there and getting to see all of the beautiful Fall colors. And I enjoyed, as always, getting to spend a bit of time with my extended family, particularly my younger cousins, Laura and Rachel.

With my cousins, Laura and Rachel

With Gram

(Great)Aunt Ruth, (Great)Aunt Ann(the birthday girl), and Gram