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9 years ago, I seriously injured my back moving a bag of heavy wet grass. I was, for all practical purposes, paralyzed for a few days.

When I could stand again, I looked at myself in the mirror. I was crooked.

I would fall asleep every night knowing in less than 2 hours, I would wake with pain that no pill could make go away.

When I walked again, I had to use a walking stick. I was still crooked, but I started straightening out.

One of those times while I was lying there, I didn't know if I would ever be able to move normally again. It was terrifying. And I thought of all the things that I hadn't been allowed to do, or found time to do, that might never be possible if I couldn't move.

One of those things was learning to ride a motorcycle.

I was left with permanent nerve damage on my left foot. It still doesn't feel normal.

I kept at it. I straightened out. I added strength where it mattered, and stuck to it.

Nothing about this was easy. I'm a slow learner when it comes to learning to move my body. I failed an excellent basic rider training test. Twice.

After much practice, I did well on the DMV test and got my endorsement.

In March 2010 I bought bike #2 -- a green 2009 Kawasaki ZX6R. In July of 2010 I crashed. Badly. I spent a few days in the trauma recovery unit. A few inches in a different direction and I would not have survived the impact. I had 8 broken ribs; 5 were broken more than once. I shattered my left shoulder blade, broke my left collar bone, and bruised my left lung.

My rib cage healed up with the broken rib tips offset & interleaved rather than back together where they broke apart. I have a titanium plate and 7 screws on my collar bone that helped put my shoulder back where it's supposed to be.

I put the bike back together too; it wasn't broken as badly as I was. The insurance company totaled it. They tend to do that when you wreck your bike.

I put myself back together again. More exercises, and I stuck to it.

This past saturday, almost exactly 9 years after my back injury, I got to spend 20 minutes on the track with my bike.

It was awesome.

waiting...