Rib Cage Diagnostics
Walgreens Was the Warmup
Yesterday had a couple of small wins tucked into it, the kind you only notice when your body’s been in negotiations with gravity lately. I walked to Walgreens for a wrist brace, and somewhere around the halfway point I got my answer about the rib situation: still sore, right where my elbow likes to land, like carrying a side stitch that never asked to come along. Home, nap, some stretching in the early morning quiet, then the real test: a bike ride to the grocery store, just to see what my body had to say about it.
The wrist brace had opinions of its own, mostly about getting in the way, though it did its job when it mattered. No sharp pain, just the low hum of discomfort and a hand that tired out faster than expected. My thumb, meanwhile, had its own subplot going. Skin scraped clean by a tire or rotor, and by last night it looked like it was flirting with infection, a little white pus showing up uninvited. We cleaned it, left it bare with some ointment, and I went to bed wondering if I’d wake up to good news or a bigger problem.
Turns out, good news. Thumb looked fine by morning. Sleep itself was the rougher part, since it was the first night I skipped the Excedrin and painkillers, wanting to see where I actually stood. Uncomfortable, but manageable, and that’s the kind of data I was after.
What about these images? So this weekend, Mo and I are testing a new adventure tool, and I’m genuinely looking forward to it. Fewer trips down the World Cup downhill track that seems personally invested in my demise, more mornings like the one where I climbed a mountain on my bike just because it was there. Healing slowly teaches you to notice things you used to take for granted, like a thumb that isn’t infected, or a rib that only aches a little.
July 17, Two Decades of Dirt
A look back at every July 17th entry across more than two decades, from a Sikorsky business trip to Montana mountain bike races to a sparkling Salish Sea sunset. The throughline is clear: work fades, but the pull toward trails, water, and adventure never does. A reminder that some obsessions just keep circling back on the calendar.
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