Thursday, June 4, 2009

Ririe Reservoir

Yesterday we took a drive up to Ririe Reservoir which is about 30 minutes drive from town. It was a nice day and we ate lunch sitting on the rocks overlooking a nice cove in the upper part of the lake. Since I know this lake has bass in it I was checking it out with that idea in mind. They charge $3 for parking at the recreation area at the dam so we drove back up the lake till we could get to a view point which was where we ate lunch.


Along the way we saw this moose and her young one so being the typical tourist I had to take a picture. Moose around here are like deer in California, quite common. Since we didn't have any maps of the area and I had to get back and get the lawns mowed, we didn't explore around as much as I usually like to do but that can happen some other time.

The one thing I did notice was the bass boat working the shoreline down in the cove near where we ate lunch. Of course I had to take a picture of that as you can see.

Everything was green and lush and the wildflowers were blooming and the smells and sounds from all the birds singing really made this a special day for me. Being out there with Karen made it all the more special and being in a wild place recharged my batteries some. This place has some really nice bike riding potential too so maybe that will be in the cards sometime.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Bikes and broken legs

Well..... So Karen and I decide to go bike riding around the neighborhood yesterday and check out some garage sales. My old friend Danny would have been proud of me for going to yard and garage sales but that is not what this is about.

So we get to the first garage sale and I get off my bike and Karen stops in the street and starts to get off her bike. She catches her leg on the basket on the back of her bike that we got to carry the dogs in and loses her balance and falls over. Wow! She is tied up good in the bike and when she fell she twisted her leg under the pedal. I try to help her up but it's not that easy. The people at the garage sale come rushing over to help and we finally get her up but her ankle is hurting pretty bad. They bring her a chair so there she sits in the street in a chair and about that time an ambulance comes down the street with siren going and we can't believe how fast they responded when we didn't even call them. We watch the ambulance drive by on their way to whatever emergency they had been called for and had a little chuckle about that. Well at least Karen can laugh about it even though she says her ankle is really hurting.

So we end up getting her home and then we sit around for a while contemplating whether we should go to emergency and get an x-ray. We finally decide we need to eliminate a broken leg from the list of possible reasons for all the pain and head for the hospital. I have to say that the hospital emergency room is pretty smooth. We are in seeing a triage person very quickly after arriving and soon after they are taking pictures of her leg for the doctor. When the doctor comes in the news is not good. Karen has a broken leg with a fracture just above the ankle. He tells her she might have to wear a cast for 6-8 weeks which is a big chunk of summer and neither one of us wanted to hear that. So they put a temporary cast on and send us packing with instructions to follow up with an Orthopedic specialist the next day.

Well, today is the next day and after our visit with the Orthopedic surgeon we went to see, we are quite relieved that even though her leg is indeed broken, it's not too bad and she only has to wear this special boot for around 3 weeks before they can fit her with something a little less confining and no cast. The boot can come off for showering and she can even walk on it which is good since she really sucks at using crutches. Since she is going to Alaska next week she is really relieved that her life will not revolve around learning how to walk with crutches and hopefully by then she will be able to get around a little better. So the moral to the story is that if you buy a new bike and decide to go to garage sales, don't fall off of it and break your leg.

I've felt really bad about all this since it was I who started all this bike riding stuff in the first place and even though I make light of it a little here, I'm very sorry it happened and I'm going to make sure she is taken care of until she's able to get around again. Of course, what else would I do for the lady I love even if I wasn't partially responsible. Ya gotta love it, don't you? Well maybe Karen would disagree with that right now, I can't say I blame her.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Bike again!

Well, I ended up buying a Specialized bike. My old bike is also a Specialized (That's the name of the company that makes them) and it's full suspension which is what I was wanting. Karen and I took them on our maiden voyage around town and I really like it. She also bought a Specialized and they look alike except for the frame size.

So now when I go to Logan in a week or so I'll be working this thing and getting it nice and dirty. I can't wait to see how the alpine gearing works for me since my old bike had such high gears. Ya gotta love it!