My parents came down to visit me yesterday but had to leave this afternoon to get back to work on Monday. It was nice to see them though since I don’t get a chance to go up north and visit too much anymore. Plus, with my parents here Frank got the evening off of babysitting me and could go and have some fun with Steph.

I was rather limited to what I could do but I was still able to walk around the mall with my parents and most importantly go grocery shopping. I sort of forgot how nice it is for someone to buy your groceries for you. Mom and dad you are welcome anytime!

I have got a bit of a routine down over the past few days since I got home from the hospital. I get up in the morning and immediately take my pain medicine because my back really hurts when I first get up. Then before I move Frank has to put my back brace on and help me get out of bed. I usually try to eat some breakfast but have had a hard time with that because I have not had that much of an appetite.

After I take my medicine I have an half of an hour before I am drowsy and fall asleep. I usually sleep for about an hour or two. Once I get up I have about an hour window where I can am able to be productive and do something like update my blog or eat again before I have to take more medicine. Once I take the medicine I am asleep in a half of an hour and the cycle starts all over again!

Today had to be the worst. I got up at ten to brush my teeth and then feel asleep again until 3:30 PM. It ended up eating breakfast at 4:00 in the afternoon and shorlty after that I was dozing on the couch again.

Pretty much I sleep, brush my teeth, sleep some more, eat once in awhile and talk on the phone a bit. This typing is actually making me a bit fatigued………maybe tomorrow will be better I will will actually be able to function?

I am liking my new Calvin Klein lounge shorts I bought in NYC last week……………..I have not taken them off yet but should probably wash them!

later,
g.

Here are a few picture of me with my parents and my new cot so I can watch tv laying down.

I thought I would send an update to everyone and let them know my situation. Sunday was my last race in Souderton, PA and it was good. We made it back to Milwaukee on Monday to start the offseason. Tuesday I was already bored with the offseason so decided to run and my legs got really really sore.

Wednesday evening Frank, Wes, and I went for the usual Milwaukee river trail mountain bike ride. Tom the ride leader was not there because he was in Madrid being the director for the USA Worlds team so we rode and kept the tradition going.

The ride was fun but at the end Frank and I decided to do an extra single track section. There was this loop-de-do section we rode and my front end got to high on my bike and I landed flat on my back. I had a hard time getting up and knew something was not right and told Frank to call someone. However, we were about a mile from the road so I mangaged to walk out of the woods and lay on the side of the road until the ambulance came.

I spent the entire evening and next day at the hospital getting x-rays and all of that good stuff. The nurses were really nice/attractive and treated me very well…….maybe that was just the painkillers they were giving me? Anyway, I had a broken back and I was feeling really good. The entire time though I was nervous and keep moving my toes and poking my feet with pencils to make sure I could feel them.

There were doctors everwhere and one nurse in particular, Julie, was awesome and helped me out tons. I will probably never see her again but thanks Julie. I was released from the hospital the next evening into the care of Frank.

Frank has been awesome and without getting all sentimental and stuff I would not be able to be home without him. He cooks me breakfast and puts my brace on and does all of the stuff I can’t do. Luckily I have not had to go to the bathroom yet because I might need some help……involving toilet paper! I will see how good of a friend Frank actually is?

The final prognosis is that I have a few compressed/broken vertebrae (for the science people out there the T3, T4 or T5) My spine is fine maybe a bit bruised or something but good. I have to wear my brace for 8 to 10 weeks but that is variable depending on how things heal. I will find out more when I go back for a check up in two weeks.

At least this happened in the offseason and mark my words I will be absolutely flying come January. Watch out because I will be back, faster, stronger and better looking than ever.

I am also done riding mountain bike so if someone wants to buy my Schwinn Homegrown in the picture let me know. I am done riding it. I am also going to wear my seat belt from now on. This was a bit of a wake up call for me and even though I am made of steel, steel can sometimes break!

later,
g.

Karl left the other day and now Hartman is gone. Wes left yesterday afternoon for Iowa eventually making his way to Boulder, CO. I hope that he has a safe trip and I think he will like it out there.

Now I have a room to myself which is nice. However, without sounding gay having Wes as a roomate was not that bad and I might even miss his horrendous gas problem!

Things have been sort of crazy for me the last few days and if one this is for sure I have some awesome friends. Frank, Wes, Becca, Adam, Carol, Jon, my mom, dad, and Shane. plus many others. Thank you.

Later,
g.

I just witnessed Wes consume 1.75 quarts of Edy’s cookie dough ice cream. That is approximately 1,820 calories which is a bit over a 1/2 of a pound of fat. On top of that he had to replace another bag of my chocolate chips which he ate today. I think that is about the fifth bag he replaced for me and I have ate maybe……….two!

I took the healthier alternative for dinner and had a box of spiral Mac and Cheese. Well probably not healthier but it tasted great!

I think he has been hanging around Menzies a bit too much? I might hold the liter record but Wes holds the Edy’s ice cream record. Can anyone match that?

later,
g.

Karl “Cry Me a Fricking River” Menzies is gone………..time to celebrate! Just joking, I hope he has a safe flight back home and I will see him in a few months. His flight is crazy long. Wes calculated yesterday that he is going to be on a plane for 35 hours and won’t get in until Thursday morning. I hope his “fairy white” anti-embolism socks work out for him! They looked hot! His legs sort of looked like boiled bratwurst if you know what those are like.

After that I went back to bed and got up at a more reasonable hour. I had a few errands to run and the most important was to bring my shoes to the cobbler to get fixed. Cobbling seems to be an out of date profession and it impresses me that someone can still make a living doing it. However, I am very thankful they still can because my broken shoes are going to get fixed. I wonder how much it is going to cost?

I was suppose to take it sort of easy for the next few weeks but two days into my offseason and I am already bored. I made it until about 5:00 PM and that is when I cracked and went for a run. Last fall and winter I used to run for 1 hour and 37 minutes everday and today I only managed 43 excruciatingly painful minutes. My legs are sore!

Other than that I ate, got beat at darts by Frank, and checked my email about thirty times. The good thing is that if you send me an email you will get a prompt response. I also started organizing the 5000 songs on my ipod and got sick af it before I even got out of the “A” lettered songs.

What should I do tomorrow……………………….?

later,
g.