Adventures at the Camas

Well, It's been a while...I'd bet that's the most common beginning to blogs. Well, nothing like being mediocre, oh well. Anyway, since the last post Josh and I have been out snowkiting a couple more times. Each time was different, but in some way rewarding. We made it out one saturday with Josh's family. That was the only way Hilary would let him go. Michelle tagged along too so she could help with the kids. Naturally, there was no wind.
(This is seriously one of the only pictures of me and my kite)

We did show up earlier than the wind normally does, so the wind was not to blame. We found a decent hill for the kids to sled on and they had a good time.

Meanwhile, the wind was slowly starting to build. I went and drove around a little to see if anyone else had made it out and was kiting. I saw a couple guys up in the hills, but that didn't look to friendly. We ended up catching a decent amount of wind near the Pine turnoff. Josh was on his new Flysurfer, so he was cruising around just fine. I was underpowered, but still managing to get out a little ways and make it back without losing any ground. It was okay, but not really. Just enough to be frustrating.

Two weeks later on the 18th and 19th of February, Josh and I headed back up to the Camas for Snowkite Soldier. The wind forecast was a little light, but we didn't mind. We went up planning on camping in the snow to save a trip back to Boise. We met up with a couple local guys that had a trailer and a motorhome. They also had some firewood. That was the nice part. If we hadn't have started a fire we would have gone to bed at around 7:00 p.m. As it turned out we sat around the fire and talked for a couple hours and then hit the hay. Josh and I both slept in our tents and were warm thanks to the clouds that had rolled in.
During the night it snowed a little bit. It was completely calm all night though.
The sunrise was kinda cool looking.

Once we made it up, tons of people started showing up for the event. Murphy's law of course mandated that it would be windless. It was. We met some guys from Flysurfer that helped Josh get a little better acquainted with his kite and how to tune it. They were some funny Canadians that kept say "eh". Classic.

Well, that brings me to today. The forecast and wind sensor for today indicated 20+ mph and gusty to possibly 45 mph. We were a little spooked and nervous about going out, but fortunately forecasts and sensors don't always tell the whole story. We hit up the snowmobile park and the wind was a steady 16-18 mph. Perfect. We set up and off we went. The snow was firm because it's been in the forties recently. Fortunately it had snowed overnight. The wind had kinda whipped it around so there was probably 1"-2" of soft stuff on top. It was again...perfect. We cruised upwind super easy and Josh finally got a day good enough to start jumping in. The main reason he decided to get into kite sports was for the hang time, so he was super pumped to be able to get in the air. I didn't see all his jumps, but the ones I saw were pretty decent for being his first real chance to do it. I'm not so brave, but was able to jump a couple times. It's violently awesome. To jump you basically have to turn the kite a different direction than you're moving and then pull the bar in. It totally yanks you off the ground. Freaky at first, but if you've got the moves (I don't) you can get pretty high up. There was a guy there boosting 15' in the air and just floating. It was cool.

About a half hour before we packed up, the wind kicked up another couple mph to around 20+. I was tired and was doing okay staying upwind and cruising around, but it was more work than I had the energy for. I kited for another 15 or 20 minutes before I decided to go chill by where we had launched. Josh kept going for about 15 minutes, but eventually came in and we helped land each others kites. On the way to the car the wind picked up even more. Three local guys happened to be heading back from a kite trip to Utah and decided to stop on the way home and see what the wind was doing. They showed up just as we got to Josh's car.

All in all, we both had an awesome time. Easily the best time ever. Hopefully the snow stays around long enough for us to get another session in. I'm ready for it...well, not today...I'm to tired.

A delayed Kiting post

The snowkiting season is in high gear in our neck of the woods. Who would have thought that one of the best areas to snowkite in would end up being an hour and a half away. Josh and I along with our snowkiting buddy Nick, took off work early on the 14th of January and headed up to the Camas prairie to try our luck at hitting the wind just right. Fortunately we did...eventually. We followed some other snowkiters from Boise up to the prairie. By some ridiculousness we ended up going to a different spot than they did. It was all just a case of bad communication. Anyway, after we stood in a large empty field for an hour, we decided to hit up the spot that everyone else had gone to. Cha-ching! It was blowing in the mid teens, which ended up being perfect for us. You see Josh and I are relatively new to the sport of snowkiting. Josh has been able to get around better than me for a number of different reasons, but that day was just right for figuring out some technique issues. For me, it was because I had none. Fortunately I was able to find some and ended up figuring out how to go upwind. What a cool experience. Just incredible.

As you can see, Josh was cruising around like he owned the place, and what a big place it is. You might be wondering, if you've visited this blog recently, how I was able to get out and snowkite with a bum ankle. Fortunately for me, ski boots offer a phenomenal amount of support. There was a little bit of straining to get the boots on, but once there, I was doing just fine. After our session, which ended only because it was getting dark, all the swelling in my ankle was gone. The ski boot had pushed all the fluid out. It was weird looking. I'll have to get a picture of the screw heads poking up. It's really weird if you don't know what they are.
These first two pictures are of Josh and his 12m Naish Element. I found a 10m Flysurfer Pulse1 online yesterday and told Josh about it because he's been thinking about getting a different kite. It was a good deal and he somehow managed to talk Hilary into letting him get it. It ships on the 29th of January. He's super stoked about it and I am too. Maybe he'll let me try it out.This last picture is of our buddy Nick. We have basically the same kite, just different sizes. He has a 15m Peter Lynn Synergy and I have a 10m. They are even the same color. I had mine first though so you shouldn't accuse me of copying. I'll try to post some more pictures from our next sessions. Unfortunately they probably won't be of me because I don't often take pictures of myself. Just a side note that has nothing to do with kiting...we renamed our fish Bromigo. Like, "what's up bro?" and amigo, or BM for short.

A tiny addition to our family

I'm not really an animal person. I love animals, but not enough to take care of one. For Christmas, however, Michelle's brother Spencer got us a Betta. As a surprise to me, I was pretty stoked about it. Like I said, not really into taking care of animals. The first couple of days he got a double helping of food because Michelle and I hadn't quite decided who was going to feed him. Side not...I'm not sure if he is a he...if you know that sort of thing, I'd be glad to know. Anyway, I decided to take the responsibility to feed him. It's actually been kind of fun. When someone comes into the room he goes to the top of his jar and waits. If you tap lightly where you're going to put the food in, he goes to that spot. I'm pretty sure he swims other places, but for the most part he chills at the surface when there's anyone in the room.


Since it's been a week since we got him, we figured we should probably give him a name. Michelle is all about the nick-names, so she didn't really mind what the name was as long as there was something shorter she could call him. I decided on Alpha. You know since he's a Betta? I know it's lame, but what else would you expect. Michelle decided to call him Alphie for "short." Anyway, it's been a piece of cake taking care of him so far, but we still have yet to change his water...we'll see how that turns out. These are pictures of Alpha's home. He's a handsome fish if I do say so.

Last post for a while...or is it?

Well, this awesome blogger upload process is backwards for some reason, and I don't really have the patience right now to relocate the images in the proper order so, I'll leave it up to you to figure out what order they go in. Hint: I went in to have my stitches removed. Got it? Sweet. Now that we're on the same page I figure I should tell the latest story having to do with my bum ankle. Michelle took me in to the doctor to have my stitches and splint removed. The nurse removed the ace bandages and the splint and then cut off all the gauze wrapped around my foot. What was revealed is in the photos. That didn't bother me too much. Stitches aren't so bad. Of course this is like the fifth time I've had stitches and the last time I did, I took them out on my own. Not happening this time. When the nurse started snipping and plucking I started to get a little flushed and light headed. The same thing happens when I have eye exams and they dilate my pupils. Anyway, the nurse got all of them out and put those bandages over the cut to
keep things together till the skin can secure itself a little more. They took some x-rays to make sure that everything was still lined up. It still is thank goodness. After the x-rays Dr. Webb came in to talk to us about some therapy and how to treat my ankle. She said that because the bottom of my tibia was impacted it will be three months before I can start to walk on it. She did say that she wanted me to start doing some stretching and mobility therapy. They gave me a removable boot that is adjustable pretty much every direction. It even has a little pump on the tongue kind of like the Reebok pumps from back in the early nineties. It's actually pretty nice. I can take some of the pressure off or pump it up to make it more supportive. Sorry about that tangent, I just think the pump is cool. Anyway, because the boot is removable I am able to take it off to stretch the muscles out mostly on the back of my leg and also start moving my ankle around. In a few days I should be able to sleep without the boot. If you'll notice in one of the pictures, the bottom of the inside of my foot is pretty curved and the skin is all wrinkly. That's because the splint held my foot in that position. The muscles are pretty tight now.
As it turns out, the nurse that took out my stitches went to school with one of my sister-in-laws sisters. That's you Alison. I don't remember her first name but she went to school with Carolyn and her maiden name is Irish. She was really nice.





Now that hopefully most of the tough pain has subsided, I've weaned myself off the heavy meds. I was taking a drug called Norco. Unfortunately one of the side affects is constipation. Not the funnest thing I've had to deal with. For now I'm taking Tylenol and it seems to be doing the trick. Hopefully it keeps doing the trick. Michelle is doing a lot better now that I'm more myself. I just hope that I can stay myself. It's quite the drag going from being totally active and able to struggling to get up and go to the bathroom. Yesterday I got myself some cold cereal and by the time I finally sat down and was able to eat I was winded. I'm planning on going back to work soon to do office stuff. Hopefully that works out, because the inside of my house is pretty darn boring, and t.v. during the day sucks worse than watching nothing. Wow that was kinda depressing. Sorry. Hope all of you are doing well. We're getting there. Until I have something else to write...

An update in the interim

Not that I think tons of people read this blog, but it seems some sort of mini update is in order. Besides that, I have nothing else to do. Since the last installment,much to Michelle's delightment, I have weaned myself off of the oxycodone. I don't know if it will make what I write any more or less dis-jointed, but whether that was the case in the first place is debatable. I made the mistake of trying to stop cold turkey and ended up having some nasty withdrawals. Talk about a long night. I've fortunately been able to manage the mostly weakened pain that accompanies my injury. I had to re-wrap the splint five or six times before it finally didn't cause more pain. I even slept in my own bed last night.
Michelle picked up a new wheelchair and knee walker off craigslist earlier last week. I've been using the knee walker quite a bit lately and it's way better than the crutches. I just kneel my right leg on it and push with my other foot. It's kind of like a tall skateboard. I haven't had a chance to use the wheelchair yet, but I'd imagine sometime next week it will get a little use at least. Tonight A friend of mine is picking me up to go watch the BSU vs Oregon football game at his house. It should be nice getting out of the house for a night. I haven't been outside in over a week. I hear it's been pretty hot outside, so I'm not too awful torn up about not being out in it.
See, that whole last bit seemed pretty disjointed. Sorry, I'm not much of a storyteller.
I want to take this chance to thank all of you that have kept Michelle and me in your prayers and thoughts. Also a special thank you to those that have been able to come visit us. It's made this time much more bearable. Until the stitches come out in a week, I think I'll hold off making anymore posts. I don't want you all to think that I have to break an ankle before I update this thing. Till then, adios!

After all is said and done...?

Well, hello to all you blog followers out there. I want to preemptively say that while typing this blog today I am under the influence of some pretty powerful pain medication so, if nothing makes sense, there you go. I feel obligated to fill you all in on the latest on my ankle. I had surgery wednesday afternoon. It was scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m. We showed up around 12:45 so they could get me all checked in and the pre-op stuff taken care of as well. They took care of all of that despite it taking three different shots to get into a vein. I guess I might have been dehydrated because they told me not to eat or drink anything after 6:00 a.m. hmmm. No big deal. At 3:00 they took me from the surgery waiting area to another room to finish by hooking me up to a heart monitor and putting a nerve block from my knee down. The nurse then put in the first doses of anesthesia. The next thing I remember is halfway waking up in a room with Michelle and a slightly loony nurse. It was around 8:30 p.m. The surgery was supposed to take around an hour... No, you're not the only one that sees the difference. The next part of the story is what Michelle told me, and come to find out, what the doctor had told me before I went into the Operating Room. After receiving the results from my CT scan, it was determined that things were much worse than they had anticipated. Fortunately they were able to know this because of the CT scan. Thank goodness!
It turns out that I had not only broken the two bones, but that I had done a lot of damage to the cartilage in my joints. This complicates things immensely because cartilage doesn't heal like bone does. The surgery ended up taking a couple hours rather than one, and it also got started later than was scheduled. I think they had to run to Home Depot to grab some more screws. j/k I ended up with nine screws and a plate. They also had to take a small piece of bone from further up my shin to use for some patch work on my ankle.

Since the surgery had to be done differently, this also affected the amount and type of recovery I would need. I go in to have the stitches removed and a permanent cast put on two weeks from the day of the surgery. Three months after that is when I will be able to put any load bearing weight on my ankle and have a walking cast. Three more months will pass before I will lose the walking cast. So, for those of you who missed the discrepancy with the surgery time, that is six and a half months. The Dr also told us that because of the damage to the cartilage, I will have arthritis.

Hopefully I didn't forget anything important. If I did, it might be that Michelle hasn't told me yet, or it's because of the oxycodone and hydrocodone they have me taking. WooHoo!!

I'm pretty sure I'll look back on this post and say to myself "what the heck was wrong with me." If you feel that way about what I write, just know you're not alone in thinking it.

Michelle has handled things pretty well. She seems to be acting a little strange lately, but I don't know if it's me or not. If anyone has some insight let me know. She's basically waited on me hand and foot since last saturday. I can't even bring a glass of water to the living room. I have to drink it from the counter I poured it at. I am so grateful for her and what she is doing for me.

Epic update.

Well, for those few of you out there that are curious if we've found anything else out about my accident, we do have some more news. We went to the Boise Orthopedic Clinic this morning to see about scheduling surgery on my ankle. We met with Dr. Lawler and he told me that I had three broken bones. He turned us over to Dr. Webb as she is the trauma surgeon. She said I broke my fibula (thinner of the two lower leg bones) clean through. I broke my tibia where it comes down and kind of covers the ankle bones. There was also a small piece of bone that broke off from the bone that comes in contact with the tibia. I had to have a CT scan in order to determine what they will do with the small piece of bone that broke off. So far they say that I'll need two screws in my tibia, a plate on my fibula and possibly a screw on the small piece of bone. It will take two incisions. My appointment is for wednesday (tomorrow) afternoon. I'm nervous of course but I think Michelle is more nervous than I am. When were talking to Dr. Webb she was close to crying. She didn't tell me she was but I can tell sometimes when she gets upset. I'm not sure I'll have much to write tomorrow since I'll probably be out for the rest of the day after they cut me up. Until thursday I guess.... wish me luck.