[Barracuda]

Took some Google-foo, but found a picture of an xray that matches exactly with the type of hardware they put in my collarbone. A little different than some of the other pin type of fixations I’ve seen: http://eorif.com/sites/default/files/clavicle-sonoma2wk2.jpg

[Barracuda]

was going fairly slow (considering I was on grass), which was part of the problem I suspect. Not enough to get the big 700c wheel out of the hole, just enough momentum to send me up and over the bars and then straight down on the shoulder. Been feeling like ass all evening after having to mess with the main computer due to more blue-screen-of-deaths. Finally got around to running MemTest, bad stick of RAM was apparent pretty damned fast. So working from the laptop now.

[Barracuda]

In other news, went and found the spot that sent me flying. Looked worse than I recalled actually. Took a few pics, but haven’t gotten them off the camera yet. Probably get them pulled off tonight. Basically they had a drainage problem due to a ridge of ground preventing runoff from the field to make it to the pond. So they installed 3 plastic pipes (3-4″ diameter or so) to get water from one side to the other. Instead of finishing off the dirt on either side nice and gradual like the rest of the ridge, it’s a hard edge cut. The wheel fell into this spot, wheel stopped, and as we all know, I didn’t.

[Barracuda]

re: rear wheel out of true – there’s only so far that you can fix an out of true wheel depending on how bad it is. If you’re already stripping spokes, it sounds like either a really old wheel, a really bad wheel, or both. Adding a lot of extra tension to some spokes to pull it back into true also takes tension off others, and can quickly become a no-win situation where you end up weakening the wheel to a point where it’ll very quickly go out of true again. I suggest taking it to a local bike shop and see what they have to say about it.

re: Bottom Brackets – depending on the type, they can either be quite easy or extremely difficult to work on or replace. Most (~95%) of bottom brackets made these days have non-servicable bearings. Once the bearings are trashed, it’s time to replace. I’d need photos of the bottom bracket & cranks attached (if still attached) to be more help on how to proceed. Most bottom brackets and cranks need specialized tools to remove and service. While most aren’t super expensive, sometimes they can be more than having a shop do the swap.

[Barracuda]

My wife won’t let me either, which is why I’m starting to hack it down.

[Barracuda]

2-week beard growth after not saving since the break. Managed to hack through enough of it to get it trimmed down to a robust goatee for now. I’ll spare you the pictures of the incision and bruising around it.

[Barracuda]

Spent some time yesterday going through my directories looking for good choices. Amazing how few ‘stripes’ occur in nature, which is by and far my most common subject, but I did manage to come up with a few options. Think I’ve got 4 possibles, so just need to send one to the B-squad before this evening.

[Barracuda]

Good to hear all worked out well in the end. In an online world of internet tough guys it’s easy for someone to give the virtual finger to someone over such issues.

[Barracuda]

while I haven’t exactly been doing jumping jacks since the break or surgery, having that rod in there is certainly going to be helpful in keeping those bones stationary while it heals. Now I just have to slowly start working on range of motion so I can do the World Wide Photowalk on the 13th. The good news is that I’m kinda-sorta back to work today. I’m working remotely from home for a while till I’m healed enough to get back behind the wheel and sitting at my office desk for 8hrs a day again. Spent part of the day getting things setup to work from here, making a list of things that I can get done from here and all that fun stuff. Suspect I’ll be working from home through the end of the week at least.

In other news, I’m now out of the oxycodone prescription, but never fear, hydrocodone is here to keep the pain at bay.

[Barracuda]

Wasn’t in much of any condition yesterday to spend any time online. Today has been significantly better, but still no walk in the park (unless said walk in the park involves being attacked by killer bees). Hoping tomorrow will bring another marked improvement in my condition and I’ll be able to make some plans to get back to work, at least working from home, starting Tuesday. I’ve run through the rest of my vacation time I had for the year and some of my remaining sick days too. Not sure how the job’s going to treat my time out, but needless to say I”m now rather low on paid days off left in the bank. My wife goes back to her usual teaching schedule tomorrow as well, so if I get bored perhaps I’ll start that “stoned guy” thread after all.

[Barracuda]

Well done to the 3way tie winners. I’m satisfied with my rankings this week all things considered. Going to have to dig into the archives for next week as I doubt I’ll be much up to doing much photography for another week while the shoulder mends.

[Barracuda]

yesterday wan’t bad at all, but only because I had a nerve block done on the nerves in the shoulder. That wore off around 10pm, and have been at a moderate to high pain level since. In fact this is the first time I’ve turned on the laptop all day. Mostly I think it is the incisions that I am feeling, one on the front of the collar bone, and two smaller ones on the back side. I’m staying on the recommended max dose of Oxycontin since midnight last night, decided that if I took one at 6hr intervals, and then a second one 1hr offset at 6hr intervals it would keep the the ends of the dose schedule from being quite so rough. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow, but suspect I won’t be doing much of anything till Tuesday.

[Barracuda]

Thanks all. I had the option on if we were going to do surgery or not. Since it’s my left side and I’m left handed I decided not to risk loosing range of motion or have other issues with it not healing well. Doc said it was displace enough that he recommended it, but natural healing could have been fine put would also have been a longer recovery. Hopefully this way I’ll be able to participate in the photo walk on the 13th as well. May have to use this as an excuse to buy another camera bag though, one that’s designed to go over one shoulder only perhaps?

[Barracuda]

Surgery scheduled for 9:30am tomorrow. I’ve been prescribed some heavy duty pain killers, so perhaps I’ll have to start a “Ask the stoned guy” thread in Total Fark Discussion. It’s an old tradition of mine in the BikeForum’s off topic Foo forum, but that part of the forum has kind of died over the last year or so.

[Barracuda]

Thanks, ‘Cuda! I had a really hard time discarding some of those B’s, especially the first 4.

I could have easily picked 5 for this contest, maybe a few more. Now to try to find a few options for Stripes for next week since there is near zero chance of me getting out with the camera between now and Wed evening.

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