Good morning/afternoon ladies, haven't been around for awhile. I hope everyone's summer is going a lot better than mine.
I remember last year calling June "Junuary" because of the unseasonably cold and wet weather...I daresay this one has topped it, not in a good way.
I guess I'll have to call this my "lost" summer. Pretty bummed that I can hardly ride. I just can't deal with the cold, it is exacerbating the somewhat mild Arthritis I have developed in one hand, so it's borderline unsafe for me to ride if it's < about 70F. On my throttle hand, it's become so bad that I cannot ride more than a few dozen miles at best, and sometimes not even that. The severity has caused me to "postpone" pretty much riding all summer, and opt to have surgery --in two places-- on my R thumb to get (hopefully) full use of my hand back, in the height of what is supposed to be summer: July 15th. By the time I recover, most any chance of decent riding weather will be over.
I could've opted for another cortisone shot, which left me pain free from late October through about mid May, but when it wore off abruptly, I could tell just how much more damage and the severity of the condition had deteriorated. You can't tell that when you temporarily don't feel the pain anymore. So it's under the knife I'll go. Damn it sucks....7 well running bikes, and I can hardly, or after the 15th, can't ride them at all. I just finished rebuilding the top & bottom end, swingarm internals, and put a new seat and some rearsets on this bike, and won't be able to thrash it like I want. It's about to drive me crazy. Here is a pic I took last week:
As to the (literally) shtty part, well, my drain field just failed and I have a large amount of gray water (sewage) seepage underneath the crawl space of my house right now. The city does not allow fixing or reconstruction of the drain field, so I have to hook up to the sewer line. I can cover the cost of that, and the clean up (about $10,000) but I'm worried about any compromise to the structural integrity of the foundation where this nasty water has been up against it. There would be intermittent times where I "thought" I smelled something foul, and now I know why. I'm taking bids now and hope to have everything done & resolved within a week or so.
All in all, though, I suppose I shouldn't be complaining too loud. My health insurance will pay for the surgery in full, I think I'll have only a $15 (yep you heard that right) copayment, and I have enough $$$ in the bank to pay for the sewer problem...that is, unless I have to do some structural repair to the house...THAT'S what is really scaring me, because that could wipe out the rest of my savings. I still have a decent job, good benefits, so I'm still in a lot better position than many out there, so I guess I should count my blessings!
I hope all of you do some extra riding this summer since I can't!
The (literally) shitty, lost summer.
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