With my brother Sean at the Mountain Bike Park. YIKES! “Safety Takes A Holiday!”

Please, stay with me to the end!

Yes, in the “old days” when we were kids, we used to ride bikes without helmets, and ski without helmets, and ride in cars without seatbelts. Contrary to some modern beliefs, why can’t evolution be real?

As some of you know, I’m a guy; that’s plenty of danger right there. I work in a hazardous occupation, in a hazardous location, with hazardous chemicals, power, potential, and let’s throw in the part that is not so deep down; I’m an artist with an overactive imagination, flighty concentration, and often questionable cognitive abilities. I like safety!

In the world today, ski helmets not only provide a safety element but warmth to your head. Bike helmets not only provide a safety element but can come equipped with lights to see and be seen better as well as a place to hold your action camera to film your bike rides and then bore the death out of others by asking them to watch it……….HEY……..I didn’t say I was talking about myself! Don’t even start on the one in 25 Gazillion (still not flagged by the spell checker) time a person wearing a seatbelt was actually killed because of it. As a famous police quote says ” I never unbuckled a dead person.”

OK, OK, OK……….lecture complete. Sorry if it sounded a little pious. I’m a believer, so let’s throw out some interesting and amusing safety stuff.

1. When PPE (personal protective equipment) might not help. Paul Simon Lyric.

“It was in the early morning hours
When I fell into a phone call
Believing I had supernatural powers
I slammed into a brick wall”

2. Mary S.- Believing she was actually Lance Armstong when she rode her bike (minus the steroid abuse), attempted to stand and “power up”……only to have the bike spin out on a large patch of sand, and bring her down on her pumpkin head. She destroyed her, 1 hour-old,”brand-new” bike helmet, but was “OK” enough to remember my phone number and call me….or my truck… or me…….no, it was my truck she wanted.

3. Gus…….you remember Gus……..being a good sport followed Zulu Delta over to see the large “city cattle,” down by the lighthouse. Overwhelmed and annoyed that Zulu would want to stop and look at cows, he forgot he was practically “stalled out” and clipped in; down he went. A few scrapes, a little anger at Zulu, but the helmet saved his head.

Not a cow, but the goats in Norway do like bicycles!

4. Zulu Delta, riding up to John B to see if he was ready to ride, forgot he was clipped in and practically stalled out (see a pattern?) fell over flat on his bike and hit his head. Bike helmet in place……only a bruised ego.

5. Bill S. (Cathy’s Husband) once told me that if he’s riding down the bike path and someone who is riding is not wearing a helment waves or says hello, Bill does not wave or greet them back. This is funny, militant, and awesome!

Surprisingly, with all that cement in our heads, a helmet is still a good idea!