Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Road Warriors!

Wind Racers-1

As I was walking home from the post office today I noticed seven boys at the top of the hill. They were just standing there with their bicycles, shouting at each other in an effort to be heard over the roar of the 30 mph wind. They seemed to be poised for some sort of adventure and it didn't take long to realize that, in spite of the wind and icy road, this pack of five, six, and seven year olds were preparing for a race.

I carefully inched my way to the side of the road and pulled out my camera while a few bikes swooshed past me (is swooshed a word?). The boys were much more interested in racing than being photographed, so I missed a few. I also failed to capture the grand finale at the bottom of the hill where the slippery road made traditional braking practically impossible. In order to stop, each boy had to slide sideways on his bike, slamming hard into a rather solid-looking snow bank at the end of the road. Ouch! Brave souls, those road warriors...or...at least youthfully daring.

But it must have been as painful as it looked because no one seemed interested in a rematch.

Wind Racers-2

See, riding on ice is easy...

Oops

...except when it's not.

6 comments:

Steve said...

I think "swooshed" is a fine word.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Thanks, Steve. Along with Webster's, the Patterson Thesaurus is my most reliable reference for both common & creative vocabulary choices. I should have turned there first! :)

Anonymous said...

And to use such a fine word in a grammatically correct way shows remarkable command of our language! :)

Racing our bikes through snow was never an option around here. Although I would pass on the challenge now, I would have relished the opportunity at a younger age! Your friends look like they were really having fun.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Bryan. I owe it all to the influence of my grammatically commanding and linguistically creative friends who have taught me that sometimes language is (or should be) more like Silly Putty than Super Glue. :)

It's hard to see how slick packed snow really is. When I was walking to school yesterday, the wind actually blew me sideways a couple of inches because my boots had no traction. The sides of the road aren't too bad, but the areas in the middle where vehicles have packed and polished the snow/ice until it's shiny...THAT is some slippery stuff!

I'm sure I would have tried riding a bike on it when I was younger. I'm not sure I would have slammed myself sideways into a hardened snow drift (at any age). Leave that to the boys. :)

R.Powers said...

Boys will be boys at any lattitude.
Swoosh is a perfectly descriptive word.
I can't think of any bad memories that involved swooshing.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Great point, FC! Now that you mention it, I don't have any negative connections either. :)

My computer's auto spell check does underline it in red, but what does a computer know about swooshing?