The Spill and YSA conference

Sorry for the long time between posts. I’ve had a lot of fun and unfortunately a pretty bad fall. The fall happened while I was going 20-25 mph on my road bike. My tire got caught in a crack, nay, a small chasm in the pavement and that was the end thereof. I am here to testify of wearing of one’s helmet. Without my helmet I’m pretty sure that I would have permanent brain damage. Luckily a passerby took me to the hospital. Luckily Duke was three minutes away and I had enough sense to insist that he take me to student heath rather than where he wanted to take me; the ER, yikes.

While the doctor was looking me over he asked me, “Start at one-hundred, take away seven and keep going.” I quickly responded, “100, 93, 86, 79, 72, 65…” by the time I made it to 44 he said enough and concluded I had no concussion or other mental damage. He also asked if I’d be getting back on the road bike. After I responded to the affirmative he shook his head. Would you expect anything else from me? I experienced the oft-repeated response of many cyclists after a bad fall; “I’ll heal. How’s my bike?” I am happy to report that the damage to my bike and body was all cosmetic. The bike shop realigned a few components and it was good to go. My body had a bunch of road rash as well as a rather deep abrasion on my hip. Not too shabby for going down on asphalt doing 20-25 mph.

This weekend we had a YSA (Young Single Adult) conference. We had a great turn out with people driving from as far away as Atlanta to attend. Friday we played games, had dance lessons, but mainly just socialized. Saturday morning we were split up into teams to do various service projects. Our team spread mulch on one of the many trails running through the Duke Forest. In the afternoon we had several workshops that we could choose to attend; I attended one on humility and one on the commonalities between Mormons and Jews. We then had Elder Gibbons (our area seventy) talk to us. The spirit testified that he was indeed a general authority; it was awesome!

I hope to have a more insightful\inspirational post next time. Until then…