Healing From My Motorcycle Accident

A pictorial retrospective in celebration of today - I drove the car to work! First time in 8 weeks I haven't had to ride the bus or get someone to cart me around.


My left hand - 1 day before surgery. I don't really have pictures of the BEST colors it turned - I looked like the living dead for a while - green, purple, and yellow.

My left hand - 1 week after surgery, all bundled up in plaster. Most things were hard if not impossible: bathing, buttoning jeans, opening any type of container...





My right hand - 1 week after

2 weeks after - plaster came off and I could see the stitches!

I got pretty blue plastic casts


4 weeks after - stitches came out - yuck!



6 weeks after - I skipped a few weeks due to losing the camera! That's ok - the only thing we missed was the heat rash.

I have a place

So, I have an apartment to move into. It's 3 blocks from where we are now - and I don't know my address yet. I move in Sept. 11th because our Home Owner's Association, in their infinite wisdom, decided to not allow move-in or move-out on the weekends as it may tie up one of the elevators. Note that most of those who go to the Home Owners meetings do not work.

John quit his job last week and they asked him to stay until the 15th - which is good, but he is ready to be done now. He went to a meet-up in Canada this weekend with other globe-trotting motorcyclists and had a good time - but almost got killed on the way by a woman who fell asleep at the wheel. He says that if he had been 100 yards further he wouldn't have been able to do anything. As it was, she came careening across the highway at him - went airborne out of a gully and slammed into a tree without applying any brakes. John was first responder and had the opportunity to practice his first-aid skills. He said she had a broken arm and leg, but not critically injured. Other than that, he had a good time.

Meanwhile, on Saturday I drove with Tianna to Auburn to get some roller skates she bought on Craig's List, then we ate lunch in the International District. After that, I went to see Little Miss Sunshine - it was really great - I highly recommend it! Sunday - well - what the hell DID I do on Sunday?!? Apparently not much.

Goodbye Grandma Olah

Thursday morning my Grandmother Olah died. She had been transfered from assisted living to the nursing home two weeks ago and wasn't doing very well. I have been listening to some recordings that John and I made of her and Grandpa talking about their life. It's weird to hear her voice and know that she isn't here anymore. I am trying to break them up into smaller tracks and amplify the sound a bit so I can send them to others who would like them.

We will be going to the memorial service in Pocatello, ID on Saturday, Sept. 2nd. Dad says that a few years ago she had written down what poems to read, what music to play, what to do with her remains - she made sure that everyone knew what to do.

I don't know how to write about this right now - maybe later.

In which Strange Things Happen at the Gym

I went to the gym today for the first time since my surgery. The exercising went well - I can do the recumbent bike (even with the broken foot) and some core exercises on the ball. The thing is though, that getting dressed is an exercise in itself. Putting on a sports bra with two broken wrists is quite an arduous proposition - but it's nothing compared to trying to take it off.

I was happy, but sweaty and trying to get out of my clothes and into the shower. Shoes - a few tugs and twists and they were off - no problem. Socks, shorts, not a big deal at all. The shirt was a little tricky, so I decided to take off the arm braces before attempting the bra. I managed to get it up over my breasts and almost get an elbow through when I got stuck. Yup - there I was in the middle of the locker room being held prisoner by my own bra. Luckily I was close to one of the small curtained alcoves and I ducked in before anyone saw me flapping around like that. OK - so I was now not being watched, but I was still stuck. I considered begging the help of strangers. I imagined their shock as I flapped toward them, a weird sweaty woman with vivid wrist scars that resemble a suicide attempt begging help to get out of her bra. Not the best option. I struggled a bit more, cursed a bit, attempted to rip the damn thing by pulling out with my elbow, and finally got my arm through. I emerged triumphant from the curtain, donned my towel and had to sit and rest for a moment.

At this point, I was more than ready for a relaxing shower and a soak in the hot tub. I wandered over to the upper part of the locker room where they have the showers, steam room, dry sauna, and whirlpools. There is a large open area outside the showers consisting of a "Roman bath" of sorts - large comfy chairs in a "courtyard" surrounded by the whirlpools and saunas. It is not unusual to find a woman resting in a towel on one of the chairs and wearing some sort of mineral mask, but what I saw as I entered was another story.

There were two women seated in the chairs next to the wall and speaking very loudly to each other in Russian. One of them had a thick green goo covering her face, the other - a white foam that looked suspiciously like shaving cream. The one with the shaving cream face was sitting sideways on a chair with her right foot propped in the chair beside her. Since the towels at our gym are no more than glorified wash-cloths she was inviting all who walked in to see her up- close and personal parts. And then she took out the straight razor. I almost stopped dead in fear of what the hell she was going to do to herself. She calmly, luxuriously placed the blade against the skin at her ankle and began to shave her leg. I walked to the shower as quickly as possible and contemplated the absurdity of it all.

I left the shower, ignored the Russian show, and got in the whirlpool. The thing I like best about working out at our gym is the whirlpool when you're done - it's magnificent. It never feels that good if you go in for just the whirlpool (yes, I admit, I have done that) you really have to have honestly worked out hard to get that bone-melting relaxation at the end. I stayed in the pool long enough to do my wrist exercises and climbed out. The Russians were at it again. They had washed the goop off of their faces, and I presume finished shaving without incident. One of them was lying back on a lounge chair while the other leaned over her and began to squeeze the pores on her forehead. People coming in were giving them looks varying from incredulous to disgusted, but they didn't seem to notice. I was tempted to tell the on-lookers that they had missed the good stuff at the early matinee, but I thought better of it and padded back to my locker instead.

We Sold our Condo

We accepted a bid today for $20,000 less than we were asking, and now our condo...is sold. And now I am sad. It's not that I don't look forward to the future, I just really loved it here.

For those who are having a hard time keeping up with the plan - I shall recap. Due to my unfortunate inability to prevent myself from running into a chain of cars which stopped rather quickly on the highway, I totaled my motorcycle. In the process I broke both of my wrists and thereby ruined our previous plans of traveling round on motorcycles for the foreseeable future.

The plan has changed several times since then, but is now nailed down to this: I will rent an apartment in Seattle, finish healing, and re-learn how to ride a motorcycle and John will ride to places south, eventually ending up in Tierra Del Fuego (as far SOUTH as you can drive in South America.) He will then have completed the Tip of North America ( Prudhoe Bay) to tip of South America ride. We will then meet up in...oh..France, Spain, Italy maybe...somewhere that I will be able to ride my motorcycle - the logic here being that I honestly can't handle the roads south of the US Boarder now- but Europe is another story.

So, I am looking for an apartment that is affordable, but I want to stay downtown because I like it here. Downtown and affordable do not go together though, so the job is harder than you would think. It's midnight now - I should go to bed - more later.

Family Reunion

We went down to eastern Oregon to the Rucker family reunion this weekend. It was great fun and too much food! John and I stayed in a cabin by the lake with Grandpa where we had to be careful not to walk into a deer as we went outside. Unfortunately, our camera is gone so I have no pictures to share. Perhaps I will be able to link to some that my cousin Andy took!

There is a Blues, Brews and Bronze festival in Joseph every year that corresponds with the weekend of the reunion. John & I did not go to the festival since it was $25 to get in - didn't think it would quite be worth it.

It's funny to watch family dynamics in play. Watching my dad and his sister together was really interesting - he's quite quiet around her most of the time. At times I could almost see what they must have been like growing up together - something I haven't thought too much about before.

Grandpa Jack was in rare form. His hearing has gotten much worse and his eyesight is pretty bad - he says this gives him an excuse to practice his Braille technique on the women around him! Ruth says that it's dangerous to let him drink as his jokes get raunchier - he says he doesn't need to drink to tell the raunchy ones at all. I think a trip out to Olathe to take him out for a beer is in order soon.

My sister Sheri was not able to go to the reunion, but many times people mentioned the last one she attended. A branch of the family (the Lathrops) still operate a farm in the area so we all troop out for lunch every year and Sally puts on the biggest ranch feed I have ever seen. In previous years this has always included fresh fried chicken and lamb - which is raised on the farm. The last time Sheri was there she was in high spirits and loving the chicken until someone pointed to the pile of feathers and let her know that she was eating REALLY fresh chicken. She then decided to only eat the "roast beef". It wasn't until after we got back to the campsite and she was praising the great roast beef that someone told her it wasn't beef - "remember those cute little sheep out back?"