Birds of a Feather

After being rather cooped up for the past two days, I decided to take a walk tonight to get some fresh air and natural light. Since I live right next to it, I wandered over to the Hudson River Park. Because the weather was nearly perfect, there were hundreds of people out for a nice, evening run. Suddenly, I felt sorry for myself yet again. I've been battling the self pity every day and some days are better than others. But I'm human, and the sight of everyone running in such great weather made me sad.

I was starting to head home when I saw a guy with a brightly colored parrot. You see a lot of strange things in New York so I almost paid it no attention until I saw a bunch of other parrots milling around the park. I stopped to get the scoop and before I knew it, I was sitting in the grass with parrots on my shoulder with a bunch of strangers. They were a lot of fun (the birds, not the strangers) and instantly cheered me up. The green one liked to be petted while the yellow and orange ones liked to play in my hair. One saw his reflection in my glasses and climbed right onto them. And in case you're wondering - yes, I got pooped on eventually, but only a little. Apparently I'm lucky he hadn't been eating cherries today.

I continued to improve today so I did my first trainer ride. It was difficult since I couldn't lean on the handlebars and had to keep my shoulder completely isolated, but I'm sure I'll get used to it after the multiple sessions I'll inevitably end up doing. I felt great and was able to ride a lot harder than usual, although I had to take two 30-second breaks to get comfortable and catch my breath. The trainer is not my idea of the best time, but now that it's all I can do, I'm thankful to be able to do it. I read about another guy's crash today that was so severe he required major facial reconstructive surgery and is looking at a long rehabilitation. Another girl had an accident that didn't sound so bad, but she tore her spleen and can't do anything for 6 weeks. So I'll take the trainer and the elliptical, and eventually my one-armed swimming at the pool. Things could certainly be a lot worse.

Biking (trainer)
Distance - 16.2 miles
Time - 1:00:00