First and foremost I have been fund raising and thinking about fund raising, because to volunteer with Bike and Build I have to have raised $4500, and asking people for money puts me way out of my comfort zone. I have sent countless emails and letters, spammed my facebook, had family members spam their facebooks, and I have plans to make a fund raising video. I am also looking for additional fund raising ideas, so if any of you have ideas please don't be shy about letting me know. Because of the generosity of the 24 people that have donated thus far, I have raised $1530 of the required $4500.
Because I reached the $1000 hurdle a couple of weeks ago, I was allowed to order my new Giant Defy 3 road bike. After many days of waiting and wishing, and after spending the better part of last Thursday refreshing the UPS package tracker website, to my delight my bike finally arrived. I didn't waste any time putting it together with the extremely helpful and detailed instructions from the nice folks at Bokoo Bikes in Minnesota, however in my excitement I forgot probably the most fundamental rule of knife safety: always cut away from yourself. While cutting the last zip-tie holding the bike's frame together with the front wheel, I cut toward myself to be sure that I wouldn't cut the tire, and instead accidentally stabbed myself in the face just below my right eye when the zip-tie finally broke. After three solid minutes of freaking out with my roommate Aleya about whether my eye was okay and bleeding on the floor, we decided that we should go to the urgent treatment center to get the wound stitched. After two hours of self pity and reminding myself that most of the lessons that I learned when I was seven are still applicable today, I was back home with my wound glued shut. Obviously immediately upon returning home I finished putting the bike together and took it for a short test ride, because it was already too dark to go on a "real" ride.
The cut under my eye; it looked a lot worse on friday, but mostly it was just scary close to my eye. |
Self-pic in my cycling get up for the first time Video that I took from my bike on the levee trail I'm sorry for the ridiculously long post, and I promise that the next ones will be shorter! The primary purpose of this blog is to update friends and family while I am on the trip, but I just wanted to catch everybody up on my pre-trip progress. I have also been doing some 'sweat equity' with the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, however this post has already gotten out of hand, so my next post will be all about that! I guess that I should stop blogging and start getting some real work done! Again if you're able to donate, you can go to my rider page at: http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/5768 and click the "donate" link just below my picture. Keep checking in for more posts! |
Good luck, Jackson! What a great place to ride and train! When is your deadline for donations? I raised several thousand for a charity a few years ago and was also learning to ride-->I'll send you my old blog posts about the learning process and fundraising. I've also had a zip-tie incident that required stitches, but not bike-related. Glad your eye was spared!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the support Stephanie! My deadline for donations is technically the start date of my trip, however the next fund raising deadline falls on March 24th when I need to have raised at least $2,000. I would love to see your old blog posts, and maybe learn a little bit about fund raising, riding, and blogging!I am also very interested to hear about how a zip-tie incident caused you to need stitches as well. I had a feeling that I must have been the only one! Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing from you!
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