I was biking a few weeks ago at Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve, and as I started into a fairly steep descent, my right foot just flew off my pedal. I’m not sure how, but it lost the grip of the little screws that are on the pedals, so instead of my shoes on my pedals, I ended up riding the remainder of this steep, rocky downhill with half my weight on my right shin. Not super pleasant. It ended up leaving two unassuming but painful holes in my shin. 

I don’t know about you, but my shins have taken a beating over the years. As I looked at these new scars on my right shin, I glanced at my left shin for a playground battle wound that was left many years ago by this thing:

My siblings and I were in Gainesville for violin lessons, and we were killing some time at a park. And it was the 80s, so playgrounds were, well, different. No plastic slides and rubber mulch. Solid metal, hot-as-can-be jungle gyms and slides. And the classic merry-go-round. But oh, what fun. When it was your turn to sit in the middle, you just spun and spun and spun. If you were brave, you’d try to walk back and forth along the railings. And then it would be your turn to push. And that’s what I was doing when I created a permanent mark on my shin. I pushed and ran with all my might. And when I thought it was as fast as I could make that merry-go-round go, I jumped up, intent on landing on this giant spinning beast. Usually I was successful. This time, however, I wasn’t, and the full weight of my landing body came down right on the 90-degree metal edge of the merry-go-round. It was so long ago, I don’t really know if I fell off completely or if I bounced and made it onto the merry-go-round. I do know that almost 40 years later, there is a white oval in my skin and a divot in my shin bone. I guess the upgrades they’ve made to playgrounds over the years are probably warranted.

Whether you are spinning on merry-go-rounds, careening down hills on your bike, or playing it safe and sticking to gardening, we hope that you have a great holiday weekend. There is nothing like an extra day to get to all the fun that a regular weekend doesn’t always let you have. Kerby’s will be open from 9 am to Noon on September 2nd for Labor Day and regular hours the rest of the weekend if you need any extras for your garden. We’ve got a full restock on our seeds, and while it is still a little early for veggie plants, it is a great time to get seeds started for when veggie season does arrive (don’t worry, it’s only a few weeks away, along with our veggie seminar series on 9/14 and 9/21). And veggie gardening isn’t the only fun we have planned this fall. Starting September 7th with Yoga in the Garden, we’ve got tons of Fall Fun in the Garden coming. We hope you’ll join us!