It’s hard to find inspiration in painkillers.

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It’s sad times over here as I’ve been on injured reserve recently. I’m not entirely sure what happened, or even if it was specifically one thing, but for the better part of a couple weeks, I’ve been plagued with a blown out shoulder, making the use of my right hand a painful and laborious task.
Considering the fact that I’m a righty, my daily allowance of high fives has been decreased dramatically. There’s no way I can hide my general state of funk.
I have a suspicion the root of it came from catching a downed tree across the top of the head during my recent adventure ride, though I can’t be entirely sure. One thing that the various Osteopaths and physical therapists I’ve spoken with can agree upon is that I’m jacked up, so at least I’ve got a consistent general diagnosis.
Luckily when I’m in the dumps as I am, I can live vicariously through those who are not. Case in point, Andy from Fyxomacallit came through with some information regarding the most recent running of their Melbourne-Roobaix event;
“(Regarding the Michael Smith/ESPN affront) it’s more or less the same view here. Football is the major code, and jock culture follows it.
You forge on.
Here’s some pics/vids/blah blah from this years Roobaix.
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1000 people made it to the velodrome by days end and the bike candy was out of this world. The winner (drawn out of a garbage bag) won an airfare to Paris to see RDV / PR. I reckon that has to be just about the most fuck off prize you could win as a lover of the classics. At least it’s the prize I would have wanted to win.
best wishes
andy”

It can’t be said that the crew in Melbourne half steps anything. It would appear as though their commitment and dedication to all things bicycle related has little to no equal. One day perhaps I can make the journey and see for myself.
Until that time I just have to wait until Australia comes to me, which in this case is next month. It turns out that the winner of this year’s Wizard Staffs Around The World, and all around sort of nice guy Shifter Dan and his associate will be making a visit to both my home as well as my liver.
In preparation for this, I’ve already upped my intake of Milk Thistle.
Speaking of Shifter Dan, he did me a double solid and sent on a little care package (presumably as a pre-emptive apology for destroying my house) consisting of a flask, a Skin Grows Back tool bag (or what in Australia they call a ‘bludger dinger‘, and a random other assortment of randomness;
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I appreciate Dan’s thoughtfulness, and I imagine if you wanted to procure such an item for yourself, you would find it on his site under the ‘merch’ tab, if it were actually a live link.
I also got an email this weekend from the enigma/family man/possessor of the flame known as The Bike Snob after he concluded an off road bicycle athletic pursuit of which he assured me he ruined for at least himself;
“Satan comes in straight-gauge or swaged (butted) styles. Straight-gauge Satan has the same thickness all along it’s length. (For example, “666.”)
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Double-butted Satan is thicker at the ends than in the middle. (“828″ is a common diameter.)
(Adapted from Sheldon Brown.)”

Not only is he able to find the previously accepted number of The Beast wherever he looks, but he can do second grade math on the fly.
While he may have been clogging up the back of the pack, he did have the good sense to at least look the part;
“This is how you dress for mediocrity. Freshly laundered, but the failure is indelible.”
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Indeed.. There is nothing to bring bad luck and even worse fitness upon you than a pair of custom Blackweiser socks.
Another email exchange I had recently was with Aaron from Red Fang. We were discussing a local Bay Area Artist named Ben Venom (who I’d like to note works in the same studio complex as Kachusha from Chuey Caps). At a recent trip to the Yerba Buena Center for The Arts and their ‘Bay Area Now’ show, I finally saw one of Ben’s pieces, and noted that in the mosaic of heavy metal shirt scraps, that there was a Red Fang shirt included as well;
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As you can imagine, Aaron was quite thrilled by this, and may have mentioned something about ‘wanting to snuggle the shit out of that thing’.
Finding inspiration in pills may be a bit of a stretch, but finding it in Ben’s efforts proves to be no trouble at all.
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5 Responses to “It’s hard to find inspiration in painkillers.”

  1. Ken July 20, 2011 at 8:35 am #

    “making the use of my right hand a painful and laborious task.”
    Too, many, jokes / replies; must re-boot….

  2. Troy B. July 20, 2011 at 8:50 am #

    Hang in there bruddah, hope your better soon!

  3. TB July 20, 2011 at 11:07 am #

    Well, aspirin reduces the risk of colon cancer and possibly several other cancer types. That’s inspiring…

  4. scooper July 22, 2011 at 7:11 am #

    Cadel Evens rode the tour with a broken elbow….

  5. chad July 23, 2011 at 9:12 am #

    Weird…I’m jacked on the left side. It’s all I can do to not drink myself back to sleep when I wake up. Pinched nerve or something. Probably from riding too much according to the doc. Rest and no riding…????WTF? thats torture for me…
    so yeah, I feel ya!