The overdramatic bruise
Today while opening some ridiculously tough clamshell packaging for an iPod cord, I must've pressed the packaging too hard against my thumb, resulting in an instant bruise that started off blue but is now purple. I broke my thumb at this exact place over 4 years while downhill mountain biking. I was practicing for a national race when I bent my thumb backwards too far in a crash, snapping the bone. I guess the bone didn't quite go back where it should and the area is always going to be tender.
It was this injury that made me really think about how downhilling could possibly cause me to wreck my skills as a musician. Hmmm, or was it the times I pinned my fingers into a tree on "Two Trees" at Wintergreen? Or the time I slid down a hill headfirst with my arms pinned under my chest, stopping only when my head plowed into a felled tree... my neck bending to absorb the shock, my body going tingly and numb?
Incidentally, the event where I broke my thumb was the first time I saw Berny Pizzarro race. She ended up in a coma due to a crash in a downhill race. (Fellow racer Jill Kintner's blog about Bernadita's accident is at the link here):
http://www.jillkintner.com/home_blog/2006/08/post_1.html
I miss downhilling. And I do miss the pain and thrills it brought. But I'm glad I can play the guitar and bass still, and play the piano if I so choose. I'm also glad I can walk. I got out while I was ahead.
Without my downhilling experience, I wouldn't be where I am now: Right now I'm trying to figure out a way to get kids to employ techniques learned in school orchestras to rock bands at my music school... to go not just "Bach to Rock" but to incorporate Bach AND rock into the same musical pieces. If I didn't race downhill I wouldn't have had the guts to take on this challenge.
It was this injury that made me really think about how downhilling could possibly cause me to wreck my skills as a musician. Hmmm, or was it the times I pinned my fingers into a tree on "Two Trees" at Wintergreen? Or the time I slid down a hill headfirst with my arms pinned under my chest, stopping only when my head plowed into a felled tree... my neck bending to absorb the shock, my body going tingly and numb?
Incidentally, the event where I broke my thumb was the first time I saw Berny Pizzarro race. She ended up in a coma due to a crash in a downhill race. (Fellow racer Jill Kintner's blog about Bernadita's accident is at the link here):
http://www.jillkintner.com/home_blog/2006/08/post_1.html
I miss downhilling. And I do miss the pain and thrills it brought. But I'm glad I can play the guitar and bass still, and play the piano if I so choose. I'm also glad I can walk. I got out while I was ahead.
Without my downhilling experience, I wouldn't be where I am now: Right now I'm trying to figure out a way to get kids to employ techniques learned in school orchestras to rock bands at my music school... to go not just "Bach to Rock" but to incorporate Bach AND rock into the same musical pieces. If I didn't race downhill I wouldn't have had the guts to take on this challenge.
posted by Mansard at 3:08 AM
1 Comments:
Got my cycling shirt ready for a serious new year downhill bash, its one of the world jerseys ones. The froot loops one. I almost went for Frosted Flakes but Froot Loops won the day.
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