month of pain: ACL surgery recovery

ACL replacement surgery was followed directly by a month of pain.

January 2014 was month of physical pain and discomfort. Staples, holes, scabs, stiff, sore, weak. Weird flexible needle in my thigh, swollen and useless knee, weird pain killer high,  and laying down all day made for some uncomfortable days.

My family was great.  My mom came into town, Ruth took good care of me and the kids were helpful and kind.  The cats.were constant companions. 

During this phase, Kalamazoo got continuously hit with snow. It just kept piling up.  The urban ski scene should have been huge. The pavement on side streets was probably a foot deep on many the best hills in the neighborhood.  Did anyone finally ski Hilbert street? 

Meanwhile I am stuck watching ski movies and reading ski blogs.  Watched the Heroes of Telemark,  read a lot of Telemark East, and bought some new ski boots.  On Telemark East I started a thread called :The Slippery Mitten: Skiing in America's high five.  The irony of this is not lost on me.

After the surgery my leg looked pretty good really. The staples were annoying, it was stiff and weak and all drilled and poked.  The swelling was persistent but nothing like the initial injury. Over all ACL surgery was considerably better than the initial injury.

You can see the placement screws for the Ligament in these two x rays.

Super huge thanks to Fun Til Death brother peter who snow blew my drive way everyday as the sky dumped snow. Feet of Powder.  Which pete also skied almost every day at Timber Ridge which is a nice little ski hill here in South West Michigan

The Worst 20 minute bike ride....ever.

   

The Worst 20 minute bike ride...ever.

  A quick bicycle ride becomes a 12 month ordeal.  

Why did i crash? who ever knows? i have been the victim of speed wobbles, pot holes, faulty crank arms, lack of skill, and lack of focus. Every serious climbing fall has been a lack of focus. Skateboarding crashes generally seem like a lack of skill...bicycles have been both lack of focus and faulty equipment...

I am chocking this one up to lack of focus. I had been putting alot of miles on a Shogun touring bike, and what was intended to be a short intense ride on the fixe, was only about 15 minutes long...including the limp home after the crash. I figure i got about 4 minutes of ride...5 minutes of crash and gathering of wits, and then 6 minutes of limping home with a broken bike, a blown out knee and a jacked up shoulder. 

Paying for radness, putting blood into the game.

  So....as you can see from the pictures that this training ride for ski season, ended my ski season before it started.  What you see above is a shredded ACL.  Below the massive bruise on my shoulder.

 And...the condition of the bike.  The wheel is twisted and cracked. I have not had the heart to give the forks a good check.  I think that in 2014 I will filp this over to single speed free wheel, give myself a little more margin for operator error.

Paying the Price of radness

   Paid the price of radness at Charlotte Skate Park. The video emphasizes how lame my skating is.  I was skating pretty well before i got my trucks hung up and smashed my face.

5 stitches later- essentially 100 dollars per stitch.  Price of radness = 500 dollars.

old guys at upjohn park

nothing like a finger in front of the camera lens to make a great video.
The price of radness is paid at the end of this little video. 

learned to drop in and Coleman slide.

Good Day. After riding the Honda CB450 out to Glendale I figured out how to drop in. I am unsure if i will be able to translate that to stuff that is much bigger, but it seems that i should be able to. The rector of this blessed temple of the church of skating is Todd. Below are some pics of him caressing the alter.

And then....I learned to drop in.Below is some video of it, and frankly it is pretty lame. That said, while skating it, it felt completely rad. 

And then....i went home and finished up my DIY slide gloves. They are as simple as could be. I hope that my wife likes the new cutting board..because i just cut up the old one to make these beauties. To qualify as fun til death,  there has to be some element of danger. This quality and events in which this element comes to life is called " the price of radness."   The Cost of learning to Coleman slide was significantly higher than dropping in.  Thankfully i was learning on smooth pavement and only got burns rather than cheeze grater.
Also managed to rip the butt out of my pants.
Below is my knee. Similar marks on both elbows too.