Yesterday afternoon, my nephew's buddy came over for a visit and possibly a trip to Lake Lanier to do a little wakeboarding. While the boys were waiting to leave, this friend decided to do some tooling around on his mountain version of a skateboard. If you're not familiar with them, they look like this:


Next thing we know, Cody's leaning up against his truck bleeding from his chin, his palms, both sides of his stomach (where he's ground down the flesh nearly to the bone where the sides of his pelvis are), he's busted his lip badly and we're not sure at that point about his teeth or his noggin.

See, Cody was riding this thing on the street barefoot with no shirt and no helmet. And apparently he had just six months prior had the first of three or four surgeries to repair a horribly broken upper jaw after an accident saw him drive his own knee basically through his top teeth and more.

The reason I post this is that I don't care that kids don't think helmets look cool. They need to wear them. My nephew doesn't ask not to wear a helmet to football practice, yet he and his buddies will tear off on scooters and all modes of transport dressed only in shorts.

Parents, tell your kiddies that the rules are simple: No shoes, no shirt, no helmet = No riding.

By the way, we're still waiting to hear how Cody's doing. When his parents came to get him, the dentist was already waiting for him to assess the damage. We were also a bit concerned about a concussion, but we'll see what happens when we know more...