Red and Green

Red Rocks Open Space was at one time a quarry and a dump, now it's a pretty sweet piece of city owned land with nice trails and connections to even more nice trails.. Click on the photo for a few more.

House

redrocks and house 031 corrected, originally uploaded by Jesse Parker.

So here's the front. It's an old Victorian built in 1899 and will be mine on the 28th if everything goes to schedule..

redrocks and house 025, originally uploaded by Jesse Parker.

Another. I took these during my inspection, hence the ladder in the lawn.

Post Op

Well, the surgery went just fine.  I was hoping I'd be awake for it but apparently the Versed and the other drug they gave me just put me to sleep during the half hour operation.   They gave me a nerve block so my arm was completely dead and I could of been awake if I wanted.  Whatever, it was over before I knew it and I was on my way home shortly after I woke up.

The nerve block was wicked weird, it was like I was touching someone else's hand.  Felt like John's hand actually.  I'd take it out of the sling and it would just flop around like it was dead.  That wore off by around 4 last night and I took a coupla vicadin to fend off the pain.  I haven't had anything since, and it's starting to ache a bit as I use it for typing.  I'll probably just take some ibuprofen and save the good stuff for sleeping.  Doctors apt on the first of June, until then I'm back to showering with a bag on my hand.

The doctor made me a copy of the fluoroscope stills, we'd talked about the screw he was going to use and he made me a copy because he knew I'd be asking for one.  I ended up with a 22mm long one.  02.226.122 to be exact.  I'm going to try and get a sample of that exact screw from my friends in product development as a souvenir.  Pictures in the album below, I'll have more later once I get the digital files from the doctor.

From 2009-05-21 Kompressionsschraube

Under the Knife

This Thursday (5/21) I'm going to get a Synthes 3.0mm headless compression screw put into my scaphoid bone in my wrist. This option will get me out of a cast and back into my normal activities faster and also ensure proper healing of the bone. Should take around 45min surgery time. In the hospital at 12:45, out around 4. This was the option I was hoping for, fixation an reduction of broken bones is something I believe in.. and it should be considering what I do for a living. Unfortunately, these screws aren't made in my plant, I believe they are made in PA somewhere. I'll figure that out at work tomorrow. I'm going to get the long thread version in stainless. I have alot of the cancellous (spongy inside bone) on the other side of the fracture for the threads to bite into. It's going into my scaphoid, which is in the wrist and shown in the picture below (with the titanium short thread version).

The tip of the screw has a steeper (faster) pitch than the head so as the head starts to enter the bone, it pushes the two halves together in a way that the doctor can control by how far he puts the head in. The stardrive (torx) T8 drive makes for a more definite torque transfer and reduces the chance of the driver slipping during insertion. My particular fracture isn't displaced (broken in half), so this will serve to hold it together more tightly and make it possible to just wear a splint instead of a cast while it heals. This will also reduce the chance of a non-union, which would of resulted in surgery anyways after wearing a cast over my elbow for 6 weeks.

Online tilt-shift lens image manipulator makes things look like they're toys instead of full scale. This sorta turned out, I need to find a better subject photo..

I liked this one..

Mortality

Lately it seems things aren't going so well for me. My back hurts, my hands and feet are tingling at random times due to some unknown nerve problem, and then I go and break my wrist... I was starting to get bitter at all the healthy people around me who don't even know what it's like to hurt constantly. People who go on abusing their body with grease and television while I do the best I know how to my body and repeatedly get the short end of the stick.

Then I find out this morning that a friend I've been on a few rides with and some generally great fun with died last night in his sleep. A mid-late 30's friend who rode more than anyone I know, and was apparently one of the healthiest people I've had the pleasure to hang out with. Cause of death, unknown but natural. This person, this picture of what I was starting to get frustrated seeing is now gone.. forever.

It's quite the reality check when you are put back into the realization that you could be gone in the next minute and there is nothing you can do about it.

So I'm not bitter anymore..

New Post

Forgive me, I've been busy doing other things like riding my bike and spending time off the internets. I have a backlog of pictures from some random rides, so here they are... The first one will link to a few more.

This is a ride near where I work, It's currently covered in snow.

From Random

Then we move on to a lesser known ride around here, it starts with a dirt road climb for nearly an hour. Good scenery:

Then you descend into a cool limestone canyon with trail unlike most of what you find around here. Creek crossings, real dirt, more like the east coast than here.. The canyon itself is quite scenic too, limestone isn't very common around here. I did this ride last Friday and it was really cool to be able to have a place all to my own, I spent a fair amount of time just enjoying the scenery.



Then there was the ride on Wednesday before the snowstorm. My friend Kristian just got a Truvativ Hammershmidt, a two speed epicyclic gearbox that replaces the front derrailler and chainrings.

Epicyclic gearing isn't new by any means, but the presentation is spot on for this application. Ground clearance is the biggest benefit, as shown below. It's a way smaller diameter than the typical front chainrings (gears) on a mountain bike. On my Yeti I would of destroyed my chainrings doing this:

Instant shifting is another benefit, you don't even have to be riding to do it..

Weather has been really weird lately, that last two day's I've seen lightning and heard thunder while it's been snowing.. From Wednsday as well:



On a different note, I'm sort of half-assed house hunting right now. Real estate around here is at an all time low and I'm in a pretty good position to buy, so It's pretty much a no-brainer to do it. I'm thinking withing the next 3 months I'll be a real live homeowner.. But that doesn't make me an adult.. that's scary.

A few more pictures taken with the rental lens I took to Silverton. Click the thumbnails to see the wicked sharpness..

This is Ute Valley Park, a city park in the middle of town. It was in the 70's when I took this a month ago. Now it's dumping snow.. Go figure

Ruby!

Silverton

I met Matt Kocubinski ( a very old friend) in Montrose and we spent two days up at Silverton Mountain , a unique cross between backcountry and lift accessed ski resort.  The most notable part of the trip was the heli drop we got to the other of the draw..  Riding in a heli in the mountains was every bit as awesome as I thought it would be.  Click the first picture for 100+ more. 

From Silverton!!!

Plus our pilot reminded me of Ice Man from Top GUN.. which was also cool

The speaker in the hotel that pumped the xm channel "simply Sinatra" at the mere flick of a toggle switch was probably the coolest part though..  

That's what John gets for hogging the placenta.....

Tetons!

Spent three days up in the Tetons, it was really fun.

From Tetons Day Two

From Tetons Day One

Dogsitting

Dog!