An Unproductive Week

Well it's been a long and unproductive week.  Between the dull ache of broken bones and the side effects of various analgesics from hydrocodone to ethanol, it's been harder than usual to get things done.  I shouldn't complain, though, compared to the last time, when I broke the other collarbone, the pain has been relatively light and I've been doing OK on regular Advil most of the time.  Every now and then I'll reach or something and the pain level will jump from dull to very, very intense, but otherwise it's not really that bad.  Typing with my right hand, for example, isn't bad at all as long as I keep the keyboard very close.  Using the mouse with that hand is more of a challenge, and I've been doing a lot of left-handed mousing at work.  The touchpad on the laptop is actually a lot easier to deal with.  The real challenges are walking the dogs and getting dressed.  Even if I'm holding the leashes with my left hand, it one of the dogs tugs on the leash it gets transmitted over to the other collarbone.  The really fun thing is getting dressed.  This morning was the first time I successfully pulled on a T-shirt.  It's not that the collarbone itself is less painful, it's just that I've refined my technique!  The problem is that I really can't lift that arm above my shoulder -- not even close, actually.  Anyway, it seems to take me half an hour to get dressed, and even then it's not quite up to my normal standards.  Next, I have to put the x-brace back on and tighten the straps, which has been challenging since The Wife has been away at a conference all week and it would normally involve reaching behind my back.  If I stick the velcro just the right way, though, I have enough slack to get the thing on, and can still reach the ends in order to pull them tight.

Anyway, it's been a long week.  On Monday a friend, who was a club member and sponsor, died suddenly.  I learned about it shortly after getting back to work from my neighbor's funeral. Two in one week was really hard. I went to the visitation today, rather under-dressed since putting on a sport coat and tie is entirely out of the question right now, and the place was absolutely packed.  Ronnie was a fireman and a very outgoing one at that, so he had a lot of friends.  Although he never did much actual racing, he really liked being part of the club and up until the last few years was a regular fixture on training rides.  He'll be missed by a lot of people.

So it feels really strange not having any plans for the weekend -- not even the Giro Ride.  I've been off the bike for five days now, and I think that maybe I'll be able to get on the trainer in a day or two, although I doubt I'll be able to put any weight on my right arm for another couple of weeks at best. Fortunately it happens to be a good time of year to take a week off!  The hard part is going to be on Sunday when the cool front comes through and we get a few days of spectacular fall weather.  Now that's going to hurt.  In the meantime I need to replace my smashed helmet, check out the bike, and think about building up a new bike with that Campi 11-speed stuff I got from Matt a few weeks ago.  I don't guess I'll be building much of anything until I can use my right arm, though. Yesterday I made travel arrangements for the November 2nd USAC Local Associations summit in Colorado Springs, from which I go directly to D.C. or the annual NCURA conference.  Hopefully the collarbone will be significantly better by then.