I used to scoff at the idea of wearing a helmet when riding a bike. I didn’t wear one when I was a kid so why should I wear one now, right?

Luckily I gave up that attitude a long time ago. I’m not sure what did me in. Perhaps it was all the rides that required it. Either way, I did it. I started wearing a helmet everytime I got on a bike. Last Friday, I was certainly glad I did.

My wife and I were out riding our bikes and we stopped about a mile from the house to play with this dog on the other side of a fence. This dog is the friendliest dog and loves for us to run with him. So we played with him for a little bit and then got back on the bike.

I started to ride along at a slow pace, looking back at the dog to see what he was doing. Meanwhile, I assumed my wife had started biking too. She had not. I found this out when I turned around and she was stopped right in front of me. I slammed on my brakes at the same time I turned the wheel to avoid crashing into her.

What happened after that would probably make a very comical TikTok video. The back wheel came up and sent me (and the bike) spinning over the handlebars. I remember seeing the asphalt hurling towards my face and that’s it. Next thing I know I’m laying on said asphalt cut up and hurting. From the injuries I sustained it would appear I braced myself with my right hand and left arm before hitting the ground.’

I wound up with a concussion, a sprained wrist and a sprained arm. They thought I had a fractured jaw but after a CT scan, they realized its not fractured just bruised. All-in-all, I’m pretty lucky that’s all it was. I wasn’t going very fast at all since we had just stopped to play with Ranger (that’s the dogs name). But, who knows how bad the injuries would have been if I wasn’t wearing a helmet.