Back and tooth connection
December 6th, 2007
First a couple of photos of the local wildlife. The deer in the driveway is so common that you can pretty much take one of those anytime you want, but it took me awhile to get an Elk to stand still when I had a camera in my hand. These were seen about a mile south of our property. When I see the bulls out in the “wild” they always run and hide, but I guess they feel safe in town. The deer are much thicker in town than anywhere else… makes me think an in-town hunting season is in order.
Turkeys on the other hand I never see in town, but I’ve seen them several times outside. Five big healthy ones ran across the road in front of me while I was riding today. Shiva and I did a little hike a few weeks ago to check out the land north and west of our property. Someone has made dirt roads out there and they’ve staked boundaries, but it all looks very old… not a new development. Anyway, the roads were covered with large bird tracks (like as big as my hand) and I was trying to figure out what could be leaving tracks like that. Shiva figured it out…
It’s been 2-1/2 weeks since I threw my back out… and I’m finally pretty much recovered. That was a bad one… worst ever. Like usual I wasn’t really doing anything… just straightening up after being bent over. I’ve gotten something like this every year or two for a long time. Usually it is a very sharp spasm, then sore for a few days… with an occasional aftershock. This time the sharp spasm seemed to last forever. Shiva helped me to the bed, where I fell with one arm and leg hanging off. It was a couple of hours before I could move from that position. I couldn’t believe how much of an invalid I was!
The weirdest part was that when I went to bed that night a tooth started throbbing… the left fang that got paved over at the dentist in Oct. No warning… just all of a sudden. While I was marveling at this, a sharp jolt of pain went through the tooth and my back at the same time! The tooth was so sensitive the next day that I was sure I’d need to get it “fixed”, but it has slowly improved just like the back. Can’t imagine what connects those two, but who knows…
So work backed up for awhile and I couldn’t get any exercise… which is just as well since we were visited with a little winter… snowy with highs in the 20s for a couple of days. This was after having only two days all fall when it didn’t get above 60. Then it was over 70 a few days ago, but might snow again this weekend. We are prepared now though. Shiva got her snow tires put on today and there is a big stack of wood on the porch.
We got some new confusers from Dell with 22inch displays… what a difference from those 6 year old laptops! Seemed pretty cheap too with the $350 off $999 or more deal. They’ve got all the stuff and even some we didn’t need, but hey… had to get the price up to $999 somehow. I didn’t realize how much better XP is compared 98SE… lots fewer crashes anyway.
I finally managed to get my new plastic (carbon) frame (Pedal Force ZX3) put together, and I must say that it is a fine piece to attach the rest of the parts to. It is a lot stiffer than my Zep, but I’m not so sure that buys me much. I like the look and durability of titanium, but this frame is a lot lighter and more stable, so I’ll see what happens. I’m planning to turn the Zep into a TT bike if this one works out. The wheels aren’t mine… I built them for a customer… but I plan to put some like them together for myself by spring.
