Winter is in full stride here at NSS HQ. Well, it's kinda been in full stride around here since the October 4th blizzard Atlas made me an Urban Lumberjack™, but since the around the first weekend of December, we've had real winter. And for me, with real winter comes a chance to do some other things that interest me, like the chance to strap the board onto my feet and slide down a hill, otherwise known as snowboarding.
I had big plans for last weekend. Saturday was going to be my first day on the slopes, Sunday would bring the last cyclocross race of the year and a journey into the woods to get a Christmas tree. Yeah, yeah I know, it's a bit late, but like I said, those cold temperatures weren't worth it.
Saturday morning came and I geared up and headed for Terry. Getting there right around first chair, I was up the hill and sliding down in the first half of the 9:00 hour. Somewhere in there I ran into Cleaver and we rode together the rest of the morning. The snow was fabulous, riding with a friend was fun and the day was just about perfect. As the noon hour approached, I knew I needed to call it a day soon so I could high-tail it back to RC to pick up the Boy from a birthday party. Well, I needed to be there no later than 3:00, but that coupled with the fact my leg, you know the one injured from the famous Christmas tree incident of '11, was getting pretty fatigued. Cleaver and I slid down the hill one last time to the bottom of Kussy and our waiting vehicles.
On the run, I maneuvered to avoid another skier and crashed, falling backwards and hitting the back of my helmeted head on the ground fairly substantially. It rang my bell a bit, Cleaver came over to ask if I was OK. Everything seemed in-check, so off we went. I loaded up and headed home, or so I thought.
I got back to RC and headed over to the apartment complex where the birthday party was and to my luck, the mother of the birthday boy was taking out some garbage, so I followed her into the building, chatted with her at the door for a few minutes and the Boy and I headed for home.
Once at home, the Boy and I went down to the "family room" where I dozed off on the couch while he watched a little TV. Hey Not-So-Seriuos Cyclist, this is a real damn boring account of your day you might be saying to yourself. Well, that was all backstory to get you to this interesting part.
When I woke up about 20 minutes later, I was a bit disoriented. Suddenly I remembered I had to get to the store to send an order but I was confused about what time or day it was. As I started to really wake up, I realized I didn't remember much of my drive home. Then I thought about picking the Boy up and found that I remembered seeing the mom outside, following her into the apartment and I remember standing there talking to her but I couldn't remember anything about what we discussed! WTF? From the point where I crashed and hit my head to the point where I woke up, there were big gaps in my memory. And the biggest gap of all was yet to be discovered.
Sunday I got up and felt a tiny bit blurry but not horribly so, so we got our stuff together and headed to Spearfish for the last CX race, help JT get his blog going for the Black Hills Expedition, and to get a tree on the way home. My Lovely asked if it was a good idea to do a CX race after hitting my head on Saturday to which I replied, "As long as I don't crash and hit my head again everything should be OK." In retrospect, that was fairly stupid and I can't really afford to lose anymore grey matter.
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| At least it wasn't the most expensive tree we've ever had. |
The CX race went off without a hitch, JT's blog was up and running and the tree was harvested and is up and decorated behind me now as I speak (type). It wasn't until Monday morning when my Lovely said something to me that I realized I really hit my head hard. She mentioned I had a beer with Cleaver afterwards, which I didn't remember. A quick text to Cleaver about what the hell happened on Saturday was in order.
At this point Cleaver could have told me just about anything and I would have had to believe it. But what he did tell me FREAKED me out. He said after the wreck he asked if I was OK (which I vaguely remember) and I said yes. We left the mountain and I went with him to Lewie's to have a beer, where I had two IPA's and while I was a bit quiet, I chimed in appropriately on the conversation he was having with another person, NONE OF WHICH I FUCKING REMEMBER! Seriously, I have ZERO recollection of even pulling into Lewie's, much less having a beer, a conversation or leaving there. I vaguely remember getting my gear off in the parking lot at Terry Peak and bits and pieces of the drive home, but none of Lewie's at all, which really pisses me off 'cause I love going to
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| Next time I SWEAR I'll remember. |
Thankfully, I'm OK today (although I have a cold which is obviously unrelated but could have contributed to my fuzzy feeling on Sunday morning). I'm realizing the common denominator here. A CX race, snowboarding and a Christmas tree in the same weekend is a recipe for disaster for me. Two years ago I did a CX race on Saturday and went snowboarding and tree hunting on Sunday and that netted me a torn quad. This time it was snowboarding on Saturday and CX racing and tree hunting on Sunday that netted me a concussion. You can bet that I've learned a lesson here. Doing all 3 of those things in a weekend going to end in tragedy. Now that I know that, I can prepare for it. Will it stop me from doing all 3 in one weekend in the future? Probably not. The next time you see me, if I'm standing there with a vapid look, drooling, just politely wipe that drool away for me. At least I'm not limping.
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