Another catch-up post...

Wow, another dry spell on the blog. My apologies.

Quite a few things to report. The most notable was pointed out in my last post- Minot, ND, where my parents live, has just experienced it’s worst ever recorded flooding event. The Souris River crested at 1561.7 ft about sea level. It wiped out my parents neighborhood, and although we still don’t know the exact condition of their house, all the talk that’s been heard suggests that most homes will be condemned as a loss. This one hurt a lot of families. Ours was at least fortunate to have a family farm north of town near Glenburn that my parents are now occupying. We are in a waiting game now to find out what’s next. The river is still very very high, and will take some time to recede to a point where officials can get in and make a call on what do to with everyone’s homes.

Sadly, this is my parents neighborhood; their house is obscured by trees in this shot...we still haven't seen the house. This is from a military helicopter shown on the news...

Next up is my upcoming second surgery for my case of pectus excavatum. The metal bar from my first surgery has been in my chest for a year as of the 14th of this month. It’s loose in my chest, and moves- very gross feeling. I’m excited to get it removed, which will happen on the 22nd if all goes as scheduled. That may be the extent of the surgery, or, my surgeon has indicated I may need more work to secure loose ribs that have not healed to my sternum, as I’ve blogged about before. I’d actually prefer to undergo this extra procedure right away to make sure things bond, as I don’t want to go any longer with loose parts, plus have another surgery later this year. We’ll see what happens. As far as how I’m feeling about it all, I still am unclear as to whether the surgery was worth it. Externally, anyone would diagnose me as having a significant chest wall deformity. Internally though, there are signs of hope. My latest chest x-ray shows that my heart has moved 1cm to the center of my chest cavity (more toward where it should be, and this suggests that it is not as squished as before surgery last year). Hopefully my second (and possibly third) procedure(s) go well. I’d love to be done with all this.
Moving on to my continued attempt to bring myself back to where I was physically before this major surgery- I’m doing a bit better. I can't claim any real disability as I'm doing things that a lot of folks wouldn't even without chest problems. I actually met another goal last month that I’d set earlier on this blog- I ran my first trail half marathon. I’ve been pleased that my chest seems ok with running, as some things, such as climbing, have not gone very well with the bar installed and bothering nerves. There was no event run, I just went out to Afton State Park and ended up extending a run that was planned for about 6 miles to 14. The course was not exactly easy either- lots of hills, some pretty steep (yeah, they exist in the Midwest). I’m getting more and more convinced that trail running is easier in a way than road. Road is so repetitive, using the same muscles over and over and over, whereas trail mixes things up a lot- going up, down, around obstacles and differing terrain. Doing the run in FiveFingers was also a highlight. Been seeing more and more people out in them on good trail.

First half-marathon face...

Speaking of good trail, I also had my first backpacking trip following last years surgery. (At some point I’ll have all the “first-since-surgery” stuff done- it seems to take forever, still haven’t done any real mountain biking or outdoor climbing, but I’m getting there.) Alison and I headed up to the Superior Hiking Trail last weekend and had a overnight trip that was somewhat lazy mileage wise, which was on purpose to see how my chest did. It wasn’t comfortable by any means, but perfectly tolerable and doctor-ok’d. We hiked around 6 miles from Lutsen to Lake Agnes, had a great lazy Saturday there, and hiked out the next day. For small miles, this section had some great varied scenery. It started with the Lutsen area, which is probably the most “mountainous” MN gets. It then descends into the Poplar River Valley, which is thick, wet, scrubby, moose country. Then it passes through some great maple forest before dropping back into Lake Agnes, which is an inland lake gem, perfect for hanging out on a lazy Saturday. It was great to get out with a pack again.

Chest is handling a full pack again...good.

Alison smiling through the overgrown Poplar River Valley...lookin' for moose.

Lake Agnes, where we spent the night...get there early, it's a popular backcountry site...

Heading back out with Moose Mountain in the background...

Moving on to riding, this weekend was a bit exciting. Alison, myself, and our friend Jonathan were out for a longer road ride, as I’ve got a century coming up this month (gonna try to get the full Shrapnel Benjamin after coming up short on the MN Ironman in the awful weather at the start of May.) We were out in the Afton area descending a winding hill. I was in front, Jon next, followed by Alison. We were pretty spread out. The bottom of the descent ended up being a hard left corner, and this day was covered in a ton of dark gravel, which was hard to see on the black top in the shade of some nearby trees. Bad mix. I happened to see it, chose to stay straight and avoid the washout as I was going to fast to corner on the gravel. I managed to stop just prior to leaving the roads edge, and as I turned to warn Jon and Alison, all I heard was skidding. Bummer. Jonathan had just gone down very hard, striking his head (he was luckily wearing a helmet) and picking up a lot of road rash. Alison avoided the gravel and stayed out of trouble. Jonathan seemed alert, and nothing seemed broken. However, he didn’t remember how he had gotten there, or any part of the day. His short term memory was gone, and he kept looping, asking us to tell him what happened in the previous two hours. We had an ambulance on the scene within 15 minutes, and they took him to Regions in St Paul. Alison and I didn’t have a ride bake (everyone’s gone for the 4th weekend), so we had to ride the 23 miles back home, and by then visiting hours where over. We did get in touch with his family and he had them with him in the hospital. We got to see him yesterday. There was no bleeding in his head; he suffered a concussion, hence the memory issues, but is getting better quickly and looping less and less. Doc’s say he’ll be fine. So, I’m gonna plug helmet use again as always. Somehow I’ve never laid down my road bike, but I’ve been with many riders when they’ve spilled, and seen a ton of helmets do their jobs. Don’t forget it- care more for your brain and life than your hair. (My latest drivers license photo will display this balance- I biked to the DVS on a hot day to renew and I had some mean helmet-hawk and pad marks on my forehead. Hot.)
Lastly for now- I finally pulled the trigger on a project I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. I’m getting an S and S coupler retrofit on my touring bike. I don’t know how I haven’t done it yet considering I work for an airline and should be traveling more with my bike. Bob Brown in STP will be doing the job, and he’s hoping to be able to get it done sometime this month amidst many other custom jobs (he’s in pretty high demand and I’m excited that he’s able to do the work for me). So, if I can get some time off in the fall it would be great to get the bike out somewhere for some distant touring. The project should result in some good times.