9.20.2005

Change of Lifestyle

So, two Sundays I was walking down a nice country lane. As I saw a couple of kids playing, their ball suddenly went into the road. Now as it is a kid's responsibility not to be responsible, one of them ran to get the ball without looking out for traffic. His sibling, though, heard a vehicle coming which the first juvenile didn't hear. The tension was building, for the second kid went to rescue his sibling. Now we have two youngens in the road with their ball and an F150 barreling down the road at them.

I see this and react immediately. In a flurry of an action, I sprint for the remaining distance between me and the kids. As I get to them, I can feel the F150 breathing down my neck. THERE JUST ISN'T ENOUGH TIME!!!!

I dive into the road and grab kid number one and fling him to safety. The truck is getting closer and closer. I get two fingers on the second kid and manage to just get him off of the road. But there is a problem. The driver is oblivious and is not slowing down. With a mighty leap I knock the ball out of the way as I try to escape the lumbering vehicle. I feel myself escape the path and think that I am okay. But alas, since I knocked the ball out of the way, my left arm is behind the rest of my body. It gets clipped by the vehicle and I drop to the ground in pain, clutching my wrist.

That is how I broke my wrist.



Okay, maybe not actually, it might have been done in the midst of playing goalie in pick up game of soccer. I just may have been trying to save a point blank shot. I may also have succeeded although not without the casualty of my wrist. The wonderful high schoolers that I hang out with at my church assisted me with the creation of this much more benevolent way of how I broke my wrist. Good idea, guys and gals.

So what does this have to do with the title of my post? Because I broke my wrist, my many forms of exercise have ceased. This stinks because I like playing various sports and with a broken wrist cannot play any of them. Even the simple act of running for exercise is too high of an impact and I like to exercise.

So what do I do? Walking is an option. But there is another option that I believe I will like better. That would be hiking. In this beautiful state of Pennsylvania, there are many places to hike. Not only that, but to get out into nature in the middle of nowhere is completely awesome. So hike I shall. I love nature and to hike is low impact exercise. Therefore for the next 6ish weeks I hope to become a hiking and walking fiend. One problem, I don't really know where to take on such a wonderful challenge. I know a couple of places, but any suggestions are more than welcome.

2 comments:

stephen said...

hike the AT! methinks there's like 11 miles of it between boiling springs and route 11. i'll see if i can find the map.

cunningham falls is also nice. but it would have to be a weekend thing.

Nathan Hackman said...

I'm looking to start my hiking season on Oct. 3. There are literally hundreds of miles of trails around here. I'll send you an email.