I give you...

The finger. No. Not that finger. This finger...

I've been having some issues with this guy lately. I smashed into a tree over a month ago on a ride. Nothing new there. I thought I had a pricker or something in it because it had this weird bulge at the top and I actually squeezed bloody yuck out of it. It has been discolored at the joint and there's a raised purple blue bump. Last night I was talking to Mike about it and after I mentioned it still hurts pretty bad, he pointed out that it is crooked and there is a bump on the side as well. Perfect. I haven't really paid much attention to it because my hands hurt frequently and my joints and that pain is much more uncomfortable than this. This is just a nuisance. It has been really achy lately and I've noticed at yoga I'm having trouble straightening it out for planks and down dogs and such. I realized that I can't straighten it without pain. So I went to get an x-ray, mostly to make sure there was nothing in it...pricker, wood, metal, plastic...sounds crazy but for those of you who have raised me, lived with me or those that know me well you understand that none of those things are out of the question. I do weird shit.

Got an x-ray. It's broken and has been for a while. Looks like it's tried to heal and now has started to heal in a curved position. Awesome. The doctor suggested I go to a specialist because he thinks it may need to be re-broken and re-set. Not sure if the splint will do anything now. Hello. No way. I'll see how this splint thing works out. I've already had it off a few times at work today because I'm a chronic hand washer at work. I'm going to try to keep it on. It does hurt quite a bit now that's it's forced to be straight in the splint. Already putting together my 'riding' splint for the weekend...

popcorn dreams

There's really not much to report. I've been pretty boring. Leaving the house around 7ish all last week and not returning home until 8ish on most nights. Not much fun. Not much time for much else. Flare-up last week. Mouth sores and the whole thing. Not sure if it was work or the previous week on the bike. Probably a little of both. Saturday, I tried to ride but it didn't work out. It felt like my appendages were going to rip off at the elbows, knees and ankles and I was weak as all hell. I started with Mike and Gerry from our house and ended up circling the lake home. I actually took pain killers on Saturday. I don't do that very often because they make me feel so horrible a few hours in and the day after. I have quite the collection (Percocet, Oxy, Vicodin, Ultracet). It's a 'hillbilly heroine' jackpot in my cupboard. I was miserable and had to cave.

A day and night of in between asleep and awake and some really screwed up dreams (Mick Jagger and Orville Redenbocker were my next door neighbors who rescued parrots and hamsters and ran the Utopia deli. Mick was excited for the bear hunt. Orville liked to give me free popcorn. Mmmm.) and I awoke Sunday with a hangover and disappointed there was no popcorn. I rode to Waway for a ride by myself. Didn't want to commit to anything more in case I felt awful. Well, I did feel awful. Just a drug induced awful. It's like a hangover but without the fun.

I worked some things out on the ride over (mentally and physically). I stopped for some dry heaving and a reexamination of my plans for the day. I finally made it to the park and started to feel better. I ran into some freeriders and rode with them for a while. They always put things into perspective for me. I realize what a wuss I am most of the time.

Hunting season started to day. Bear and deer. That puts a damper on the local woods. Not ready to give them up quite yet. Snow will take them away soon enough and I will be under 40 lbs. of clothing on the road. Boo.

Turkey Daze

I started off the morning planning on making it to the boat launch for the annual Thanksgiving Waway ride. However, I had wardrobe malfunctions of sorts and was missing two right winter gloves and I had done a nice job of inside-outing the liner in the one complete pair I could find. This took sometime to correct and a few tantrums were had in the process. After shoving a wooden spoon and working a screw driver into the fingers I finally was able to wear gloves without having to cut off a finger or two and get out the door. Because I was late I rode in the back of the park in hopes to run into a ride and decided whatever group I ran into I would ride with. I was still feeling the 6 hour race and was hoping to run into a nice group with a leisurely pace. After an hour I found life on Rockadendrum. Guess which group I ran into? Mike's group. Happy Thanksgiving. They stopped to regroup but it wasn't the leisurely pace my legs and I had hoped for. I hung in and it was still a good time.

So it has become a tradition of ours that we go to Boston Market on Thanksgiving and pick up a spread and bring it home. It's not for a lack of places to go. We do get invited to various Thanksgivings. We've just made the decision that if we are going to deal with any Turkey Day shenanigans and family craziness it will be our own. Plus, I think the last Thanksgiving I crashed was a vegan Thanksgiving and I'm still having nightmares about tofurkey and some sort of odd wild rice/tofu/seaweed side-dish concoction. Just thinking about it still gives me the chills.

It has also become tradition that while I am waiting to pick-up the food at one end of Boston Market Mike goes to the register and buys a brownie platter which he consumes on the ride home...

After picking up the food we decided to stash the food in the fridge and go back out and enjoy the day. My legs and hands wanted nothing to do with the bike again so I decided to trail run at Jungle while Mike worked off a few brownies on the bike. It was so beautiful out and Jungle is a great place to trail run.

Saturday was a Skyline Drive/Ringwood day and it hurt me. It's been a while since I've been in there. Technically I was fine. I had just forgotten how demanding the terrain is if you want to keep moving forward and not be off and walking. That was a beat down. I pulled over to throw up at one point while Gerry and Mike watched. Fun times. Not sure if I was cooked or sick from my pumpkin pie eating clinic that I had been running the last couple of days. I'm sure a little of both.

On Sunday, I pedaled for way too many hours. I started by myself in the morning and then part of my day was spent busting ass and criss- crossing the park to find George and Rossi. I got in a short ride with them. When I hit the road to spin home my legs and body gave me a big "F You". I could hardly turn a pedal. The wind kicked up around the lake at one point and I wanted to pull over and have Mike come get me. I could see my road. I just couldn't get there. I left my bike outside. Showered. Passed out on the couch. So much for my big day of running errands and doing things around the house. Definitely overdid it all week. Hoping my body doesn't punish me for the week. I have to take it easy this week and let my body rest or I could be in for a major flare-up. Tis the season.