Wednesday

I have a story of a business friend who has managed to complicate his life because of a cycling accident last weekend that makes, by comparison, my lament from my own accident a mere whimper in the breeze.

My lawyer friend Steve, a year or two older than me, was out Sunday afternoon on his Harley Hog tooling along on one of the country roads that I use for bicycling, when a kid bombs out of a side road without any consideration to passing traffic. Steve's choices are limited, and he elects to lay his bike down rather than hit the vehicle. I don't know all the details at this point, but the bottom line is that he broke most of the major bones in his right ankle, and had surgery Sunday night to insert a metal plate and nine screws. He'll be in a non-weight bearing cast for 6-8 weeks.

We Boomers have some issues. I don't think that it's a Middle-Age-Crazy thing. We did that 15-20 years ago when we tried to fool ourselves into thinking that we were still 25. It may have taken a weekend 10K with one of the kids, or one too many late nights with younger business associates who actually could hit it hard at night and get to the office in the morning. Whichever. We did eventually, albeit reluctantly, conclude that we were past whatever prime we once enjoyed.

But as Toby Kieth might say, the Boomer mantra might be, "I'm not as good as I once was, but I am as good once as I ever was". Disregarding the double entendre, we Boomers still have the idea that, while we can't do it all anymore, we still can do some things. In many cases, financial means allow successful Boomers to enjoy the luxury of a toy car (me?), preferred parking at the game (my Pal Roy?), or gratuitous boys' trips for golf, fishing or wine-snobbing.

Motorcycling is one of these Boomer things that I have just never quite "got". Neither the bug to do it myself, nor the understanding as to why others choose to participate in such a dangerous activity. And I know of many local Boomers who have spent lots of money on very nice Harley's or comparable equipment. "Donor cycles." Steve moves to Example One on my list of why I think these guys are nuts.

The Harley Davidson manufacturing company has enjoyed some financial success as a result of this Boomer resurgence. The stock price is now off it's highs of a year ago and I really don't follow it. Travolta starred in a movie last year, Wild Hogs, that took a comical look at four over-the-hiller's who tried to re-live some of their youth on a motorcycle trip. I didn't see it. Probably because the concept of "Old Guys on Bikes" just didn't resonate for me.

I may have mentioned here before that I owned a motorcycle when I was an Air Force lieutenant in Korea. The bike was one of those things that was sold from one airman to another as they rotated to and from that base. Since I had to get back and forth between several locations for my job, my logic was that the motorcycle was a great solution. I had it for about a week before I mistakenly "popped" the clutch as I was leaving one of the repair shops that I was in charge of, and proceeded to lay it down in the middle of the street. I was luckily uninjured, and I sold the bike the next day. And I haven't been on one since.

Anyway, my friend Steve is now going to have to have his new bride (second marriage for both, last Summer) truck him around for the next two months. Daily living for me with the thumb issue was inconvenient. Steve's life will be work. Sell the bike.

I'm off to C-town for two days. Din-din with 3 tomorrow night. Does that qualify as FFF?

BCOT.