If you hadn’t heard, our friend John, who also happens to be a colleague, severed some tendons in his hand two months ago. A few weeks prior, John had taken delivery of a brand new Evergreen SL. Not just any Evergreen mind you, it’s custom painted, has a lust worthy build kit, and of course, was designed specifically for John. He was going to log so many miles. He was going to ride D2R2. He was going to know all of the dirt roads within a hundred mile radius of our factory. He was going to launch it off berms. He was going to zig and zag. He was going to be king.
One problem. When the good doctor sewed him back together, he sent him home with some disheartening news, “No bike riding.”
There are worse things that can happen, John would be the first to tell you that. Even still, taking away a prized new toy from a guy that loves to ride as much as John, changed his demeanor for a couple of days. We all felt for him. He looked pathetic. Typing with one good hand and one cast was a source of frustration. His beautiful bike was pilfered from the employee lot and put in the showroom to be displayed, adding insult to injury. All the while, each and every person at Seven continued to ride, as we always do, and left John behind. Poor John.
All the while John listened to his doctors and his physical therapists, and completed strength exercises day in and day out. It started with moving his fingers into a fist. He described how it felt, which made us woozy, but kept at it. Soon he had graduated to something called strengthening putty, though it was obviously just colored Silly Putty, that he would squeeze all day long, no matter how much we poked fun and how uncomfortable it must have been. Soon the cast was off, and he was typing again. He was making progress.
Yesterday, a day less than two months after surgery, John had a check up with his doctor. When he came back to the office he floated through the door on a cloud visible to us all and announced what the doctor had told him. “Go ride your bike.”
John makes riding more fun, and while he was missing out on summer rides, we were missing out on riding with our pal. This morning, we celebrated his return with an easy ride up and down the Minuteman Bikeway, and his smile was as big as it has ever been, as were ours.
Welcome back friend.