I'm blessed to be alive.

I'm sitting here still pretty shaken up over 24 hours later. Amazed that despite how bad I'm hurting. That things didn't go dramatically worse. Given what happened it could have gone in a very different direction and you wouldn't be reading this blog post.

Kat was taking off with her mom and aunt out of town. Which is no big deal. My plan was to do one of my infamous "insanity" bike rides that would take me around 10 miles give or take. After taking it over with my mom and asking to borrow some money so I could get a bite to eat. She insisted that I trim it down to five miles. Which I agreed.

On the Beach Cruiser I have I tend to take side walks. Bay Rd in Saginaw is not a bike friendly street. Very busy traffic. Side walks are a must. Most times I take the south bound side of the walks because it's more of a straight shot. Pretty easy to move around and most times no real things I need to navigate. In this case their were a few issues I ran into that I felt would be less than fun to try and move around. For a five mile trip or so I stop at Bay and Tittabawassee and then turn around on the same side of the road. In this case I decided to cross and take the other side most of the way back.

A few hours after being in the area and just going around it was on my ride back almost a mile and a half from home that I had the problem. On a pedal bike their are a lot of things that can and often times will go wrong. Most common is either the chain or the tires. Rare is the crankshaft or pedals. I was just about to cross a drive entrance I was pointed at an angle to reach the next section of side walk when I felt my left pedal give way and heard it hit the ground. Next thing I know I'm on the ground on top of the bike almost in traffic on Bay. I landed in an odd way with my left knee taking a direct hit and my right bicep feeling like I had been impaled by part of the handle bar.

I've fallen before. It is a constant danger with me. This isn't the first time I've had the crank break. In fact over the 8 years I've had the bike this is the third one that has given out in the same way and spot. I was flat on the bike for a few mins before cars pulled up and people helped me to get up. They called MMR and I was checked out. No broken bones. All soft tissue damage. You fall as may times as I have. You know what your body will do. You know what kind of damage to expect.

But it still shakes you to the core. I have no idea how close I got to being in Bay Rd. From my best guess it was pretty damn close. I'm beat up. I'm hurting all over. But I'm very much alive. Very much blessed. Another half a foot and it would be a different story. Rather sobering thought. Still this was one of the bad one. But By the Grace of God I'm still standing.

I end this with a little appeal. I'm still looking for help with the Lego Church Project. See "What can you do to help?" Would mean a lot to me. Thankful for the support I do have. Right now I'm just trying to heal up and rest.

-JM