Motorcycles, Life and Impairment...(long)
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 2:09 pm
Motorcycles, Life & Impairment by CaptCrash
Ever ride impaired? Come on…be honest…admit…admit…Wait, first let’s go to the dictionary and look up ‘Impair’.
im⋅pair; verb, to make or cause to become worse; diminish in ability, value, excellence, etc.; weaken or damage: to impair one's health; to impair negotiations. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc.
Wait a moment…where’s the alcohol? Why doesn’t it say: Impair; to make worse with alcohol? That’s because culturally we’ve hijacked the word to mean only one thing. In America when we talk about impairment we almost exclusively talk about alcohol; you know: booze, joy juice, rot gut, lightning in a bottle, the hard stuff, satan’s bile—whatever you call it, when we talk impairment we’re talking adult beverages.
But not today. I’m not. I’m talking the pure meaning of the word. To make things worse.
Ever impair yourself? Make a situation worse? How about that time you got pulled over by that slightly pudgy cop? And you WERE speeding and he LOOKED like he had one too many donuts? Did you open your yap and make the situation worse? Did you impair your driving record?
Girlfriend/wife ever ask: “How does this look?” and then you flat out told the truth? Situation got worse? Did you impair your relationship?
When we talk about being impaired we’re taking a verb and using it as a noun. Say we’re out drinking tequila and we drink too much. We say “I’m impaired” when we mean “tequila has impaired my judgment, or my ability to talk, or make relationship decisions”. Tequila is the subject, impaired is the Verb, and Judgment is the Object. So, when we say “I’m impaired” what we’re doing is using a VERB to define ourselves. “I was impaired” isn’t really a complete sentence. How was I impaired? What about me was made worse? When we drink our driving skills become impaired. Our judgment is impaired.
Let me tell you about the last time my I rode when my operating skills, and physical motor coordination were brutally impaired. Hoping for a tequila story? Nope, this is a DIABETES story!
I ride motorcycles and I take insulin. The danger is that when you ride, you don’t want your skills or judgment impaired. Every day I get up and I take a shot. The amount of long term, slow release insulin I take is a judgment call. Some days, when I know I’m going to be extremely sedentary I take a little more; days where I’ll be active I take a little less. It’s a judgment/gestalt kind of thing. Then, as the day progresses, I take short term insulin to process sugars that I put in my body—long story short: eat = take a shot.
If I screw up that equation then I can end up with my skills and reasoning seriously impaired. Low blood glucose levels are a lot like being drunk, you lose short term memory, motor coordination is affected, reaction times slow, judgment is impaired and you think you’re a lot better looking than you really are. (And for me? I can get mean, curt, and ill-tempered as well. ) Frankly, a low blood sugar while riding is a VERY serious problem.
When my sugars are low I feel it. I know what it feels like to be low. Years ago I’d get sweaty and shake. Now I get this weird feeling at the base of my skull (like my heads floating just a little) and I get sick to my stomach. When I feel the symptoms of a low blood sugar I immediately pull over and check my sugars using a small portable monitor. If I’m low I reach into my magic bag of stuff and pull out a Powerbar or other glucose booster (OK, a Snickers) relax, wait for my sugars to come back up, check my sugars and once they’re up, off I go.
Part of this equation is being able to catch your problem early. For blood sugars 80 to 120 is normal range on your glucose index. I get below an 80 and I feel it. If I get below 60, I start thinking things like—maybe I had some bad fish, or maybe it’s just too hot in here. Below 40 and I KNOW I’m in a real bind. See, there’s a point I get to where I’m impaired enough to trick myself into believing I don’t have a problem. If I pay attention early and realize, uh-oh, I might be low and I act quickly then there’s no problem. Are there false alarms? YES. Sometimes I’ll pull over and check because I THINK I might be low. My mantra is to fix the problem before it is a problem, while it’s still small and manageable.
It’s odd, but it seems that when you’re a little impaired you’re willing to admit it. “I’m a little buzzed”. When you’re a whole lot of judgment impaired it’s easy to tell “I’m soooo toasted”. But right in the middle? Boy, you’re good looking and smart, you know what I mean?
Booze and Blood sugars aren’t the only things that impair your judgment. Sickness, hypothermia, hyperthermia, sleep deprivation, stress, hunger—all these things can diminish your ability to make sound decisions. Here’s a trick Diabetes has taught me. If I think: Man, I don’t feel right I stop and chances are, something’s probably not right. Don’t wait. If you’re thinking, “Man, I’m tired.” You probably are and guess what? Are you thinking about riding or being tired? (Hint: if you’re riding along and can’t stop thinking about being tired—your capacity to ride has been diminished i.e. IMPAIRED.)
Don’t take chances. If you think you might be impaired listen to your inner voice and act ‘cause if you wait too long that other voice will show up and it’ll be telling you “you’re OK…it’s gonna be alright…and dang, you just keep getting better looking”…that’s when you are in real trouble.
The better angels of our nature, listen to them.
Ever ride impaired? Come on…be honest…admit…admit…Wait, first let’s go to the dictionary and look up ‘Impair’.
im⋅pair; verb, to make or cause to become worse; diminish in ability, value, excellence, etc.; weaken or damage: to impair one's health; to impair negotiations. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc.
Wait a moment…where’s the alcohol? Why doesn’t it say: Impair; to make worse with alcohol? That’s because culturally we’ve hijacked the word to mean only one thing. In America when we talk about impairment we almost exclusively talk about alcohol; you know: booze, joy juice, rot gut, lightning in a bottle, the hard stuff, satan’s bile—whatever you call it, when we talk impairment we’re talking adult beverages.
But not today. I’m not. I’m talking the pure meaning of the word. To make things worse.
Ever impair yourself? Make a situation worse? How about that time you got pulled over by that slightly pudgy cop? And you WERE speeding and he LOOKED like he had one too many donuts? Did you open your yap and make the situation worse? Did you impair your driving record?
Girlfriend/wife ever ask: “How does this look?” and then you flat out told the truth? Situation got worse? Did you impair your relationship?
When we talk about being impaired we’re taking a verb and using it as a noun. Say we’re out drinking tequila and we drink too much. We say “I’m impaired” when we mean “tequila has impaired my judgment, or my ability to talk, or make relationship decisions”. Tequila is the subject, impaired is the Verb, and Judgment is the Object. So, when we say “I’m impaired” what we’re doing is using a VERB to define ourselves. “I was impaired” isn’t really a complete sentence. How was I impaired? What about me was made worse? When we drink our driving skills become impaired. Our judgment is impaired.
Let me tell you about the last time my I rode when my operating skills, and physical motor coordination were brutally impaired. Hoping for a tequila story? Nope, this is a DIABETES story!
I ride motorcycles and I take insulin. The danger is that when you ride, you don’t want your skills or judgment impaired. Every day I get up and I take a shot. The amount of long term, slow release insulin I take is a judgment call. Some days, when I know I’m going to be extremely sedentary I take a little more; days where I’ll be active I take a little less. It’s a judgment/gestalt kind of thing. Then, as the day progresses, I take short term insulin to process sugars that I put in my body—long story short: eat = take a shot.
If I screw up that equation then I can end up with my skills and reasoning seriously impaired. Low blood glucose levels are a lot like being drunk, you lose short term memory, motor coordination is affected, reaction times slow, judgment is impaired and you think you’re a lot better looking than you really are. (And for me? I can get mean, curt, and ill-tempered as well. ) Frankly, a low blood sugar while riding is a VERY serious problem.
When my sugars are low I feel it. I know what it feels like to be low. Years ago I’d get sweaty and shake. Now I get this weird feeling at the base of my skull (like my heads floating just a little) and I get sick to my stomach. When I feel the symptoms of a low blood sugar I immediately pull over and check my sugars using a small portable monitor. If I’m low I reach into my magic bag of stuff and pull out a Powerbar or other glucose booster (OK, a Snickers) relax, wait for my sugars to come back up, check my sugars and once they’re up, off I go.
Part of this equation is being able to catch your problem early. For blood sugars 80 to 120 is normal range on your glucose index. I get below an 80 and I feel it. If I get below 60, I start thinking things like—maybe I had some bad fish, or maybe it’s just too hot in here. Below 40 and I KNOW I’m in a real bind. See, there’s a point I get to where I’m impaired enough to trick myself into believing I don’t have a problem. If I pay attention early and realize, uh-oh, I might be low and I act quickly then there’s no problem. Are there false alarms? YES. Sometimes I’ll pull over and check because I THINK I might be low. My mantra is to fix the problem before it is a problem, while it’s still small and manageable.
It’s odd, but it seems that when you’re a little impaired you’re willing to admit it. “I’m a little buzzed”. When you’re a whole lot of judgment impaired it’s easy to tell “I’m soooo toasted”. But right in the middle? Boy, you’re good looking and smart, you know what I mean?
Booze and Blood sugars aren’t the only things that impair your judgment. Sickness, hypothermia, hyperthermia, sleep deprivation, stress, hunger—all these things can diminish your ability to make sound decisions. Here’s a trick Diabetes has taught me. If I think: Man, I don’t feel right I stop and chances are, something’s probably not right. Don’t wait. If you’re thinking, “Man, I’m tired.” You probably are and guess what? Are you thinking about riding or being tired? (Hint: if you’re riding along and can’t stop thinking about being tired—your capacity to ride has been diminished i.e. IMPAIRED.)
Don’t take chances. If you think you might be impaired listen to your inner voice and act ‘cause if you wait too long that other voice will show up and it’ll be telling you “you’re OK…it’s gonna be alright…and dang, you just keep getting better looking”…that’s when you are in real trouble.
The better angels of our nature, listen to them.