For the birds

Yesterday, my son and I decided to enjoy the glorious weather and go for a rollerblade/bike ride. The roads aren't too busy on Sundays and it is a perfect time to practice our bike safety rules, hand signs, etc. To get him motivated, I mentioned a nearby playground that he had not had the opportunity to visit since before this he would not ride his bike. So, off to the playground we go, me on my blades and him on his bike.
We arrive safely at the park, where he gets to play on the swingset while I explore the "tricycle" path that this development uses as a selling point for perspective new home owners. I start along the path that is adjoined to the playset. It's relatively smooth, with a few ups and downs so you can easily pick up some speed. Then there is a rather steep hill that leads up to a bridge that overlooks the playset. Oh look, there is the little monkey. "Hi sweetie, mommy is going to go down the hill, come watch" I'm ignored, but that is ok, since I've just now looked down the other side of the hill. It is not a straightaway, but an "s" curve with a severe hairpin curve at the bottom. This is a tricycle path, I'm sure it was designed with the little children's safety in mind.
Here I go. Made the first curve, lets put a little break on..whoa whoa, I'm not going to make that turn, I'm going to skid out...oh oh oh..crash.
I actually didn't skid out, but managed to launch myself over the earth berm at the edge of the hairpin curve. Luckily, the ground must have been watered recently since there was some give upon impact. After finding my glasses, which had flown off my face with my less than graceful landing, I was able to do a visual survey to see no real damage was done. The impact on my knee was on the scar from my last rollerblading accident, so that skin was already toughened up; my wrist seems to be moving ok and the shoulder I landed on just had a few more creaks and pops to add to the ones it already had from the first time I had separated it many years ago.
By this time, my son had wandered over and decided that it would be cool for him to give it a whirl (how Mommy on the ground, groaning in pain, is an incentive, I don't know). He with all the recklessness and invincibility of a 7 year old, went down that hill at Mach 3, missed the turn, did a jump in the air and managed to land safely on the grass some distance away. Was he afraid to go again after missing the turn and almost crashing? Of course not. Off he went again, to go faster around that curve, to prove that he could do it. And he did.