Assault on Bikers

In the past few months, there have been a rash of collisions between a bicycle and a motorized vehicle.  At the late great Jim Dykes behest, I've curbed my discussion on biking and bikes.  But there seems to be an assault on bikes in this area that cannot go unspoken.  

A still uncaught driver ran a biker into a roadside rock near Townsend not too long ago.  Weeks of hospitalization and medical care followed a bike/car collision near Walland.

A fellow who moved to Maryville just last March was turning into his subdivision recently when a driver attempted to pass him on a double yellow line.  And then, most egregiously, a driver so violently objected to a rider in Knoxville touching his car that he turned around and ran down the biker and then got out of his vehicle and beat the biker into surgery.

It's gone from animosity to downright hatred!

I've heard it all.  "Get off the road!"  In Townsend, it's "ride on the sidewalk!"  Sorry folks, but bicycles are vehicles that by state law have a right to be on the roads.

When I've addressed this topic in this column, among the many thanks that I get, somebody will say that we (bikers) still don't belong on the road.   That unless we pay taxes on our vehicles, that we don't have a right to ride roads.

That the roads are made for motorized vehicles and not for bikes.

I'm betting bikers pay plenty of taxes.  We all own motorized vehicles.  My buddy Rat's bike costs more than most cars on the streets (well, more than mine, anyway) and I know for sure that he paid taxes on it.

That we don't pay the $3.50 per year for a Tennessee Drivers License or the 35 bucks or so for a license plate is irrelevant.   And yes, I'm aware that a lot of what we pay for gas goes to maintain roads but does that mean that the guy driving the monster pick-up has more right to the roads than the electric/hybrid car?

So why do people hate those on bicycles?   I wish I knew because maybe then I could fix it.

But when you take your car or truck and purposely try and hit a biker, well that is just plain assault.  Assault with the intent to kill or maim.   When you try and hit me, your motorized vehicle becomes a deadly weapon.  

Do you not realize that we are human beings just like you?   That we have jobs and families and people depending on us?  Can you not understand even for a moment that bikers are riding for their own health and enjoyment and not to inconvenience you?  

And if all you meant to do by driving too close to us is to scare us, well what if you kill us instead?   Would you come to our funeral?                                                                                                                                             

POSTSCRIPT:  My wife said she had the answer to my question.  She said that people hate those on bikes because we slow them down and no one wants to be slowed down.   I said, OK, let's solve that by putting everyone on bicycles.   That slows everyone down.   That probably isn't a practical solution. 

Old Joe/Young Joe Interview

You see interviews in magazines a lot these days.  I love those things.  So I decided to conduct my own interview.  Only this one is between me and my younger self. 

Young Joe:   So, what have you learned in 59 years?

Old Joe:  Are you kidding me?  Do you really think I want to share all that with you?   It would only get you in trouble.

Young Joe:  But what about women?  I really can't quite figure them out.  The ones that I like, don't really like me and the ones that I don't really like that much, they seem like they are all in love with me.

Old Joe:  Men of my generation are always saying "if I only knew then what I know now," but I'm not so sure about that.  As you and I both know, I really struggled with all things female but I think you're supposed to.  It's how you learn.   What I do know now is that you've got to respect them, treat them right, and make them laugh, and then they'll all fall in love with you.   Or I think they would.

Young Joe:  Yeah, but through all that didn't you end up with the "right" one?  I mean, haven't you guys been married like forever?

Old Joe:  Yes I did and yes we have .  I guess it just goes to show you that even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while.

Young Joe:  What the heck does that mean?

Old Joe:  I guess you'll just have to figure that one out on your own.

Young Joe:   OK, can we move on to the other most important thing in life?  I play football and I really want to get good.  Any tips?

Old Joe:  Oh yeah.  Hard work.  Run.  Lift weights.  Eat right.  Do what your coaches tell you to do.  The same formula that has always worked.

Young Joe:  But I work hard.   I bag groceries at the White Store and haul hay just about every day in the summer and we just got that new Universal Gym at school and I get on it every once in a while.  And boy if Coach Ratledge says jump, I say how high on the way up.

Old Joe:  You have no idea.  It's about being dedicated to getting stronger and bigger. You've got to hit the weight room all year round.   Like momma always tells you, eat your vegetables.   Fried frog legs that you and Arthur Bright just caught won't do you much good.  And stay away from the bench press.  It seems like all you do.  It won't really help you much.

Young Joe:  Anything else?  I really want to be a football star.

Old Joe:   Quit worrying about being a star.   Just be the best you can be (later, that will be a slogan for the U.S. Army but right now, you don't really want to know about the Army what with Vietnam and all) and believe in yourself.   Oh, and play everything.   With you, it was all football,  football, football.  Your tennis helps but you should have played basketball and stayed out for the track team.  You need to be more well rounded as an athlete.

Young Joe:  But there aren't many opportunities.  You know that there's not a public tennis court in town. No Little League, only Pinky Russell throwing curve balls at my head down at the ballpark.  No basketball for kids.  There's not even a swimming pool.

Old Joe:  Can't help you much there, bud.  Find a hoop.  Swim in the river.  And quit being afraid  of getting outside your comfort zone.

Young Joe:  Any regrets about your football days?

Old Joe:  Only one.   That I took the dive man (Troy Bowman) instead of the pitch man (Steve Mynatt) in the 1970 football game against Maryville.   Mynatt scored on the play and they beat us 28-35 then went on to win the state championship.   Stop Mynatt and we would have won State.

Young Joe:  Yeah but doesn't that mean that Bowman would have scored the winning touchdown?

Old Joe:  Shut up, kid.

Camp Blackberry.

At the end of this story, you're gonna think that my wife and I are completely nuts or that we're pretty good grandparents.

The 1st Annual Camp Blackberry started last Saturday and ends today.   The name is a combination of our family name and the fact that we grow blackberries.   I'm writing this mid-week to make the newspaper's deadline so maybe by the time this is printed I will have jumped off a bridge somewhere but right now, I'm OK.

The idea is not an original one--we first learned of Bob and Sue Ramger's week-long camp for their grandkids years ago and have simply waited for the first opportunity to do the same thing. Pam Jarvis helped us turn it up a notch or two.

We've spent the week doing fun, educational things like visit the zoo, swim, go fishing, swim, paint, swim, do the Jr. Ranger program at Cades Cove, swim,  and make lots of crafty things that my Martha Stewart-esque wife came up with.

There have been non-competitive competitions and story time and swimming...did I mention swimming?  It seems you can stick a kid in a pool and they will stay until they become prunes or suffer hypothermia, whichever comes first.

And despite pool-side potties, I'm pretty sure our pool would test quite positive for urine.

We went camping (which was only a semi-catastrophe-- the two youngest ones refused to sleep) and cooked breakfast the next morning over an open fire. 

We got one of those "pusher" bikes that don't have pedals or brakes but which teach a kid to truly ride a two-wheeled vehicle.  The week's objective included getting the training wheels off of at least one bicycle.

We've painted every day, partly because the arts are important to becoming well rounded and creative and, well, it is just plain fun especially when it doesn't matter what kind of mess you make.

We picked apples from our "orchard" and talked about Johnny Appleseed.   We talked about where food came from and what it means to be good stewards of the land and why farmers are so important.

Along the way, we hope that they learned new worlds, experienced new foods, and maybe stepped out of their comfort zones, although I'm pretty sure that the 2 year-old and the 3 year-old considered getting outside their comfort zone the mental equivalent of jumping off a cliff.

Four grandkids, the oldest of which turned 6 this week and the youngest only two.   24/7 for 8 days.  By the end of the first full day, I was questioning my sanity.  By the end of the third, I knew the answer.  It was maybe the hardest thing I've ever done and easily the most intense single week of my life.

Meals, diapers, conflicts, baths, snacks, excursions, sleeping, waking, clothes changes, clothes washing, dish washing, food prep, snack prep, messes cleaned, conflicts dealt with.  Up at 6, bed at 11 and ne'er a quiet moment between.  There's a reason that only the young should have children.

But already, at mid-week, I can feel the bonds growing.  I know them better now than ever in their lives.  I understand them better too.  Today, I'm celebrating the end but also looking forward to doing it again next year.

So what's that got to do with sports ?   It is highly likely that these kids will be athletes.   An active lifestyle is part of their genetic makeup and that usually leads to one or more sports. 

And they will arrive in the sports arena believing in themselves with the self-confidence to push their limits and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will have family support in everything that they do.

POSTSCRIPT:   The 1st Annual Camp Blackberry officially ended about 6 PM yesterday when I played Taps on my bugle and we folded the camp banner.   But it really ended about 11 PM when the parents got home.  We had decided that they should wake up in their own home by their parents so we took them home and put them to bed in their own beds.

Let me say that it was everything that it should have been and probably nothing that you would have expected.   You would think that we would have been looking for fun times and entertainment.   Maybe that happened but I was too distracted by the moment to moment experience to notice.   What we got was something much more important.   We now understand our grandchildren much, much better.   Our love, already unconditional, became deeper and broader.  

If you're a FaceBook friend of mine, you can check out the photos for a glimpse of the week.

Dealing with the Heat: Part XXIV?

The official start of high school football around here is tomorrow.   Sure, teams have been working out, running drills, and getting everything into full swing for a while now, but tomorrow, they can all put on the pads and get serious about it.

Because of that, I'm going to talk about the topic I have most frequently addressed in this space:  Dealing with the heat.  This is like "Dealing with the Heat--Part XXIV" or something like that.  It may be redundant but it is important.

We live in the hot, humid south and it is a huge problem for our athletes and the athletic trainers that take care of them.   Rare is the year that among the hundreds of athletes that we take care of, that no one has problems with the heat.

This time, I'm going to keep it real simple:  Stay hydrated and stay as cool as you can.  Basic care and prevention of heat problems, what we call "heat-related illness," really is that simple. 

As for hydration, the debate about water or sports drinks continues.  I happen to agree with  Dr. Dan Benardot, a friend and acquaintance of mine who also happens  to be a nutrition professor at Georgia State University and  a world-renowned authority on heat and hydration.

Dr. Benardot is an advocate of sports drinks.   We know that sports drinks exit the stomach more slowly than water but are absorbed in the intestines more quickly.  What that means is that the water (which is what it's all about anyway) makes it into your system more quickly that way.

We also know that we drink fluids more readily if they taste good, giving further nod to the sports drink side of the debate.  The bottom line is that you need to drink lots of fluids--probably a lot more than you think you should.

We also need to stay cool.  There is a reason that there are so many high-tech, synthetic sports wear companies.  That stuff works. 

We sweat for a reason--cooling by evaporation.  Our skin is a very good mechanism for keeping us cool but these garments help the skin do its job more effectively.  Cotton or dark clothing just don't work and may impede the body's ability to dissipate heat.

In sports like football where the equipment (helmet, shoulder pads) get in the way of evaporative cooling, it becomes more important to take breaks, get in the shade when you can, and stay hydrated.

The best first aid when someone is getting too hot is ice and water.  The very best method is cold water immersion;  putting someone in a tub of cold water.  That's why you'll see a kid's wading pool or horse trough at our football practice sites, since that's where the most frequent heat-related problems occur. 

Above all else, remember that if anyone stops sweating, you have a medical emergency on your hands.  If you don't do the right thing, they may have only minutes to live. 

All about sports?

OK.  Somebody (besides my wife) has complained that I occasionally use this space for something other than sports.  Guilty.

In about 28 years of writing this column, I've covered about everything.   Originally only about sports injuries, I have since strayed far and wide.

I get stopped all the time with folks saying "I read your column."  Just a couple of weeks ago, in the parking lot of a local grocery store (always buy local), a lady pulled in beside me just so her husband could chat about my column.

But I'm obviously not pleasing all the people, all the time.

My wife prefers that I write about what I probably know best--health care, especially as it pertains to athletes.  When I wrote about cats and dogs a couple of weeks ago, she wondered out loud if I had finally run out of topics.

I suppose when I'm getting all preachy about what it takes to be a good parent maybe that should be in the Lifestyles Section but then those parents that seem to need the most help seem to be found around youth sports.

Or when I address obesity, maybe that should go somewhere else too except that the single most important ingredient in controlling your weight is to lead an active lifestyle and exercise and sports are vital components of that.

My personal anti-smoking campaign has little to do with sports except that if you smoke your kids are likely to smoke and your kids are my athletes and I want the best for them (and I think that you do too).

And then there's religion and politics.  I avoid those mostly but I have gone there a time or two, against sage counsel.   I'm not an evangelist but I hope that you see my spiritual side when you read my words.

As for politics, I'm pretty involved in that too.  I truly believe that you are part of the solution or you are part of the problem.  I know with certainty that if you are not involved in the political process, someone else is going to be making decisions about you, how you live your life...pretty much everything.

Including sports.   Politics and sports?  Sure.   Think about the BCS, Congressional steroid hearings, and laws about what to do when an athlete gets a concussion.

I guess the family vacation piece last week was a little far-fetched for the Sports Section but then (you knew something was coming, didn't you..) most of the best athletes that I know have a strong support system and I believe that starts with families.

So at least for a while, I'm going to write about dealing with heat and sprained ankles and concussions and all that.  And about my bicycle.  Can't forget the bicycle.  I might digress a bit now and then but I'll try and stay focused. 

But I guess the reality of it is that I'm still gonna write about life.   Because, in the end, isn't it all wrapped up in the same package?

Prescience

I just got back from a family vacation, a week at the beach.  We had fun but Tropical Storm Debby arrived the same day we did and with four kids under 6, there was always a crisis.   Somebody was always stressed for some reason or another.   Some cried, some whined, and then there were the kids.

I think when we plan these things, our vision is for perfect weather, beautiful scenery, and absence of conflict.   The food is just what everyone wants and the world is perfect.

The reality is usually quite different.   We burn the toast, run out of milk, and the toilet runs over because of something that shouldn't have been put in there.

In my opinion, that's part of what makes these trips special.  I mean, come on...what do you remember about your vacation 5 years ago?  Do you remember the  sunsets and the camaraderie or do you remember the flight delays (which forced everyone to build a living room in your own corner of the airport terminal) or the time you had to make a meal out of just what was in the fridge because the rain was coming down too hard to venture a repeat trip to the grocery store?

Do you remember that you simply found a way to get along?  Or played games for hours because the car broke down and you couldn't get out of the hotel?

We simply don't remember the easy times as readily.  It's the mistakes and problems that we encounter that really stick in our minds.

I bet your family starts lots of conversations just like ours does.  "Remember the time..." is the precursor to many a fine discussion.  

Don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of wonderful trips and this one was most excellent.  I've been blessed to travel a lot and have enjoyed times far and wide.   My family gets along well and we laugh and enjoy each other's company.

But to tell you that they have all been lovely and without conflict is a stretch.  

I think that's the way life is.   We might want everything to be perfect and smooth and always easy but that really isn't real.   Life is filled with obstacles and difficulties.  

Life isn't all about those majestic mountains and walks in the park, hand in hand.  It's not about everything being easy.  Life doesn't mean that you'll never be hurt, that you will never have an argument, that everything will always be perfect.

In fact, that may not be the way it needs to be.   What would we learn if life never taught us the lessons to be learned about dealing with difficulty, hardship, and conflict? 

Life is about saying what you mean and meaning what you say.   About treating others as you want to be treated.  It's about seeing others for who they are and not what they've done for you or what they have.

Life is about who you love, who you trust, and who is there for you at the end of the day. 

Protect your noggin

If you read this even occasionally., you probably already knew that I ride a bicycle.  

Friends, family, and bare acquaintances often question my sanity since I choose to share roads on a two-wheeled, self-propelled vehicle that weighs barely 20 pounds with vehicles weighing in excess of 2000-4000 pounds, wearing what is not much more than a piece of plastic covered Styrofoam on my head.  

I mean, there is no doubt that if a bicycle collides with a car or truck, the bicycle loses.   Every time.  Yet, I'm still out there and plan on being out there as long as my body allows.  

But one thing I will not do:   Ride without a helmet.   Ever.  I won't roll down my driveway without a helmet on my head.

Statistics tell us that bicycle helmets save lives.     According to the New England Journal of Medicine, riders with helmets had an 85% reduction in their risk of head injury and an 88% reduction in their risk of brain injury.  

Unfortunately, the Center for Disease Control, reports that  only 15 to 25 percent of children 14 and under usually wear a bicycle helmet.

In Tennessee, that is against the law.   The Tennessee Bicycle Helmet Statute  (Tennessee Code Annotated 55-52-105) says:  "With regard to any bicycle used on a state roadway, it is unlawful for any person under sixteen (16) years of age to operate or be a passenger on a bicycle unless at all times when so engaged such person wears a protective bicycle helmet of good fit fastened securely upon the head with the straps of the helmet...."

Yet, I see kids all the time riding without a helmet.  

Again, according to the Center for Disease Control,  Head injuries account for 62% of bicycle-related deaths, for 33% of bicycle-related emergency department visits, and for 67% of bicycle-related hospital admissions.

The Snell Memorial Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to research, education, testing, and development of helmet safety standards.   They have found that the number of bicycling head injuries requiring hospitalization exceeds the total of all head injuries from baseball, football, skateboards, horseback riding, snowboarding, ice hockey, in-line skating, and lacrosse.  Combined.

That indirect costs for injuries to unhelmeted cyclists are $2.3 billion yearly. 

And According to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, Ninety-one percent of bicyclists killed in 2009 weren't wearing helmets.

Convinced yet?

What I also see too often is mom and/or dad riding without a helmet but the kids are wearing theirs.  What, your brain isn't as important as theirs?  Suffer a serious brain injury and see how it impacts your kids.

So, the bottom line, is if you're on a bicycle, wear a helmet.   And not the cheapest one you can find at the big box store.   Your noggin is too important for that.

Go to a bike shop and get a good one.  Get a bike shop employee to help make sure it is a good fit and then ask them to teach you how to wear it properly.   If they don't seem to have time, you're in the wrong shop.