That kid is getting all growed up

We've been taking care of some major life changes recently and as part of that, doing some major cleaning of the house that we are trying to put our home in- getting rid of lots of stuff from the past and things we no longer have need of.

I have had a pair of roller blades for 20 years and I used to ride them once a week or so from Azusa to Irwindale CA along a paved recreation trail beside the San Gabriel River to my office- about a 16 mile round trip. I would ride my mountain bike a couple of the other days. The first day I ever used the skates to get to work was a disaster. The trail takes you across the Santa Fe flood control dam for a couple of miles and then down the other side in a long steady downward grade beside the spillway and across Arrow Highway to my office and then it continues south to Disneyland, and Angels Stadium in Anaheim and then on to Long Beach and the Pacific Ocean. I was riding down that grade on skates for the first time- remember, I had only owned the skates for a week. I was alarmed at how quickly I gained speed and was losing control. I was switching back and forth to the right and left to each side of the trail in an effort to slow myself, but I took a major tumble and scraped, bruised and otherwise sliced up half of my body. I got up and brushed myself of at a point where the trail levels for a moment before it continues down for the second half. Rather than taking off the skates and walking down the remainder of the dam, I said, "Well, I'm halfway down and I just learned a lesson, I'll just finish it up." I was again alarmed at how quickly I gained speed and was losing control. Near the bottom, I took another major tumble and I scraped, bruised and otherwise cut up the other half of my body. It was knees, elbows, chin and cheeks, (the cheeks on my face AND the ones on my backside) shoulders, hips- I was a bloody mess. I called my wife when I got to my office and said, "I made it... I'm bleeding." Had I not been wearing a helmet and some leather gloves my head and hands would have been included in the bleeding as well.

Shaw saw the skates in a pile of things that were to go to a local charity and he couldn't resist having me help him strap them on and show him how they work. They are way too big for him, but he figured it out in about 3 minutes and was skating up and down the block like an old pro. Notice he's wearing a helmet too.