shovelhd

Same here. I always pay so it comes down to the wire.

sarals 

+1 !!!!!

AzTallRider

I'm in New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival, and my sister-in-law's wedding (Monday) - doing my taxes at a coffee shop, LOL. Taxes is daunting, because I also do the returns for all 3 of my step-children. I make their dad pay me.

But Chuck, we already had breakfast at Mother's.

And Chuck, for me, the pain left pretty quickly. I was off the Percocet, which I had been taking mostly to sleep, in I think about a week. Problem is that those narcotics mess you up in other ways. They can make the pain feel like an ok option.

revchuck 

Thanks for all the well wishes! AzTR, I'm going to use the Percocet only as long as I need to. I have family members who've been roped into depending on that stuff, and want to stay far away from that.

shovelhd

Understood. Just be smart about it. If it takes a dozen Tylenol, you're better off with the Percocet for another day.

LAJ

For whatever reason, my deal was 180 degrees the other way. Waiting 10 days for surgery, just plain sucked. Grinding stuff, uncomfortable, sleeping on the recliner... No good! Outpatient surgery, and it was like the switch was flipped. In at 10, out at 3, home by 4. Hard part was coming out of the anesthesia.

I do hope it smooths out for you revchuck.

sarals 

As do I!!!!

sarals 

Had to visit Sea Otter today with my trusty helicopter and crew. It seems a fella on a mountain bike took quite an impressive header right in front of some fire/rescue guys on a monster descent. He tried to jump over another rider who had crashed in front of him, and well, he didn't make it. Fire said he did quite a few head over tea kettle summersaults before he finally hit the ground. He ended up out cold with a separated shoulder, and a nice helicopter ride. I got some good pictures. Fun day!

revchuck 

Thanks! It has smoothed out a good bit - the pain is down to being dealt with by extra strength Tylenol and I can move much more freely. Getting in and out of bed, which was a major hassle, is almost back to pre-crash ease. Boredom is now my major hurdle.

I've been reading. The first book was Redeployment, a collection of short stories by a Marine vet of Iraq. It was strange, because the vocabulary, the cadence, the acronyms, the places are all familiar to me, but would be strange to someone who hadn't been in the military. The book has had lots of critical acclaim, but most of what I've read has been from critics without military experience. It must've seemed exotic to them. The author went from the USMC to a Dartmouth MFA program. His first year at Dartmouth must've been...interesting.

I'm currently reading Thinking Body, Dancing Mind. I've been peripherally aware of some of the principles presented through my shooting sports experience, but it's good for me to get into more detail at this point in my development. I'm about a third of the way through my first reading. It's going to take several readings to internalize this one.

One of the things I wanted to do when I retired was re-read some of the stuff I read when I was younger. First up will be Zen and the Art of Archery, which I first read in college. It should be interesting to see the difference in understanding separated by 40+ years of life experience. Then I'm going to start working my way through the books I first read as a college freshman French major in a course taught by an elderly Austrian professor - the old school "here's this 600 page novel in 18th century French, read it and be prepared to discuss it next Monday" style. After three years of high school French, I was thrown into the deep end of the pool. Now that my French is much better, I think I'll enjoy them a bit more.

I'm going to pull the rear wheel off the Allez and bring it to the shop to have it trued, and replace the brake pads on the Allez too. I got the replacement name plates for the shifters, so they'll go on as well. We're into spring weather in Louisiana, but that's as close as I'll be able to get to riding for a while.

Cleave

revchuck, continue to heal well.

revchuck 

Thanks, Cleave!

The rear wheel just needed truing, so repair costs to the bike are $54 for the shifter name plates. Looks like I'll break even on medical costs.

sarals 

That is good news!!

Racer Ex 

Good to read.

On the reading subject, the periodic down time has allowed me to catch up on a bug back log of New Yorker magazines. As always, some terrific articles ( an interview with Adam Lanza's father, the rise of Valley Fever) interspersed with stuff I'm not really interested in (Netflix vs. "Old TV").

Came across this gem written by Roger Angell.

One of the best pieces on aging I've read. Funny, sad, and hopeful.

sarals 

It was all of that, Ex. A wonderful read.

AzTallRider

If you haven't seen it, and can, watch the 60 minutes story on Shalane Flanagan, and her training to try and win the Boston Marathon this year. I love what she says about competition, talking to her legs, etc.

Racer Ex 

Saw that. Good piece.

AzTallRider

I'm showing my age. Am supposed to do the practice crit tonight, but the gritty wind is blowing 20mph, and it's always windy on the back straight even on calm days. So I'm skipping racing alongside 125# kids as we turn into a 25mph cross-wind.

AzTallRider

Friend Anna Sanders got third at Joe Martin in the women's pro road race yesterday:

Hermes

Nice. Which one is she?

AzTallRider

Stage right, in blue.

sarals 

And a Tibco gal in the center. Strong team, them. Congrats to your friend!

AzTallRider

As of awhile ago, today she was in a three-woman break with a 3' lead.

globecanvas

The New Yorkers usually stack up on the bedside table, but every single issue seems to have at least one really excellent, in-depth, very well written article that you want to share with all your friends. It's the only magazine we subscribe to. That Angell article was great.

globecanvas

I couldn't decide between the Hunter Mountain RR May 10 (fun course, small fields, very local) or the Bear Mountain RR May 11 (kinda local, never done it). So I signed up for both. It's going to be a long weekend, especially because Hunter is in the afternoon and Bear is early the next morning.

I expect Hunter to be a lot harder because it's almost twice as long and more than twice the climbing, with smaller fields (they will probably start the 40+ and 50+ together). Given the course profile I expect to do better at Bear.

I guess I'll try to be super conservative at Hunter, resist the early breaks, let other guys chase stuff down, etc. And be sure to eat and spin out for a while after the race. Either way it will be 120 miles, 6500 feet of racing in less than 24 hours.

revchuck 

So I went to see the bone doc last Wednesday. Staples came out, and the collarbone is healing nicely. I'm cleared to start using my arm again. "When can I get back on the bike?" "Come back in a month, we'll talk about it then."

Thursday I went to my urologist for the Fickle Finger of Fate. No additional nodules on my prostate, so that's good news, but he's concerned that I can't completely void my bladder in spite of the meds (Flomax) I'm taking. He starts making noises to the effect of my prostate may need to come out, even though there's no problem with the cancer. He sent me for a bone scan today, CT tomorrow, and an appointment with him next Wednesday to discuss a way forward.

I've always been healthy. I passed the broken collarbone off as a "war wound" that's temporary. But this invasive surgery stuff? That's for old guys.

Oh, wait...

This is the first (metaphorical) bullet I haven't been able to dodge as I age. I'm not sure I'm depressed...more like deflated. The fact that it'll probably entail more time off the bike doesn't help my state of mind. I'll get through this, but I'm not enjoying aging right now.