I faced down fear and lived to tell the tale.

I'm getting a bike! I felt like a kid again, powering down the road with nothing between me and the asphalt but the bike and my good balance. I let my fear of the bike get in the way (I refused to rent a bike in Acadia National Park in Maine in 2004 and still kick myself over it) for too long.

Basically, I'm afraid that I'll look over my shoulder, see a big blur of metal, feel a strangely numbing blow, wake up in a cast and wonder how I ever got there.. Being hard of hearing has wiped me of any sense of distance between myself and the source of sound. When that source of sound is cars, and when the wind masks their roar, well, that just makes me nervous.

But I won't let that get in the way (besides, I don't plan on riding down Nicholasville Road--even the hardiest road racers won't ride that road). Jon has a system of signals to communicate to me what's coming, and I'll work on my balance and gear-shifting so that I'm as comfortable on the bike as I am in my own skin.