Part I
Yesterday, after a long day in a Board meeting and wearing a suit, I decided to ride half my age for my birthday. I arrived at the Great River Trail before 5 PM and headed north. After about six miles my left leg became very painful and I stopped to investigate. My prosthetic socket had begun cutting into the back of my knee. Searching through my seat bag, my solution was to roll up paper towels to shim my leg up higher in the socket. I knew this would only be a temporary fix before the towels compressed too much, but allowed me to ride another six miles before stopping.

I stopped every six miles to rest the skinned area and make adjustments. By 7:30 I had twenty-one miles in and decided that was enough with all my technical difficulties. Well 21 was close to half the age of my date the evening before.

Part II
For Thursday night’s events I asked a lady to go to the University Board Social Hour and Dinner with me. She is not a bicyclist, but I met her in class and she is a really nice person. Going to such a formal event for a first date made me a little nervous, as the dress was business attire. She was a little intimidated because people were older and she only knew me. I used my backup plan and introduced her to the only two other students attending the event, whereas the evening was saved. We ended up sitting at the rowdy table, joking and having a good time.

I did have a GrannyGear moment at the Social Hour and my mind wandered. I did not get my bicycle fix for the day and was caught staring at the John Deere bicycles 20 feet away. My mind was thinking how much fun it would be to jump on that bike and ride circles around the 70 plus people and tractors in the John Deere Pavilion. My date brought me back to real life when she touched my arm and asked if I was paying attention. It is probably a good thing that I was not consuming mass quantities of free alcohol like the others.

It is our plans to go out again. She does not seem too interested in bicycles, but maybe my enthusiasm will rub off.