Tag: Old Man Hip

Knee Surgery

/ Matt Talley / 1 Comment

I swear to God, I am falling apart!  Being over 40 is NOT for Pussies.  I tweaked my knee on the last day of snowboard season this year – a season where I took it REALLY easy because of my hip reconstruction surgery last year.  Well, the knee kept bugging me and I finally went in early this summer to the same orthopedic surgeon who did my hip for a check out.  After a few x-rays and an MRI, it looked like I had a small meniscus tear that he could fix in a few minutes and 2 arthroscopic poke holes.  I waited until after The Ruminator’s summer visit last month and went in for a quick “procedure.”  That is where reality deviated from my plan…  After getting into my knee, the doctor found a second tear: 90+% full thickness and a ligament issue.  Two hours later I am out of surgery with a full meniscus repair, lots of stitches, a knee brace for like 6+ weeks, two weeks of bed rest, and months of physical therapy in my future.

Stamps With Foot is not happy.  I have been banned from snowboarding, skateboarding, parachuting, jumping on or off anything at all, no powered paragliding, or “any other stupid boy shit you decide to do” unless I have express Doctor’s permission and clearance.

I HATE the post-op pain killers.  They make me loopy and make it so I cannot poop.  You don’t know how important that is until you cant do it for like 5 days.  Seriously!  Have decided to take it easy, follow my recovery plan exactly, and I may heed my wife in all of her wishes this time as I am tired of bed rest and hydrocodone and could do with out either for a few more decades!


Video Update:

Catching up and writing more

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I have not been writing as much in the last few months as I should.  I have lots of excuses:

  1. House Remodel
  2. Hectic Work Schedule
  3. Jeep Rebuild
  4. A focus on film making and growing my YouTube presence
  5. Lawn and Garden care – seriously, this takes up a lot of my time.
  6. Too much TV and interwebs…
  7. Blah, Blah, Blah…

When you get to the base of it all though, the answer is that I have made time for all the other things that keep me sane/make me crazy except for writing.  I am renewing my focus and will be posting more words to go along with all of the pictures and video.

Let’s start with an update of current stuff:

The Attic

We are so close to being done with the attic conversion.  I have to put a couple of coats on the closet door and one on the stair railing and paint the 4 walls with a couple coats of the almond eggshell that my wife picked out.  The new hardwood flooring is being delivered today and it will be installed on Friday.  I will spend the weekend installing the stair treads and kickers/risers.  The receptacles, switches and lights are the last serious items that will go in before I touch-up a little paint here & there and I will be done and can focus on the basement.

Basement

We are 75% there.  All tiled laid, grout done and a functioning toilet!!  I need to finish the trim install, hang two doors and then paint EVERYTHING!  I am having a custom shower rod TIG welded together and will be building the double sink vanity.  I have to tack together & paint the medicine cabinet door and mirror frames as well.  After all is in, we will have a plumber come out for the sink install and shower hook up.  I don’t plumb.  I am afraid of flooding my house with water or sewage.  I leave that job to the professionals.

Main Level Bath

The tube tile surround is being replaced in two weeks with 6” subway and small hex tile.  The new bathroom mirror will be going in this week, and I have to have the exhaust fan switch rewired.

Jeep

I had a solid weekend working on the Jeep.  The taillights are installed, the winch is re-wired, mirrors installed, windshield back on with new gasket and PLENTY on extra silicone.  The upper KC spotlights are re-installed, and an issue with the front speakers if fixed.  I still need to paint and install the spare tire rack, as well as the CB, megaphone speaker, 2nd battery, air compressor, lower KC spot lights, passenger headlight, rub rails, whip antenna, headlight trim rings, and polish the rear tube bumper.

The current plan is to leave the top COMPLETELY off until fall when I re-install the soft top.  I need to finish the Hi-Lift Jack rebuild project, have the speedometer serviced, and replace my tube pads as well before the cold winter wind blows.

Garage

The shop of me dreams is packed full of everyone else’s crap right now.  It is all leaving by the last weekend in July if I have to put it all out on the road.  I need to finish wiring in my 40K lumens of LED lighting, a 50AMP plug, a couple of 220/30amp plugs and have an electrician connect all into my service panel.

House Exterior

  1. Downspout in back needs attention
  2. A section of soffit need looking at and possibly repaired
  3. I need to weld together the Juliet Balcony outside the dining room
  4. Weld railing for rear steps
  5. The new front windows need a little trim and paint
  6. Dining room window needs trim and paint
  7. The rear steps need to be painted
  8. The chimney needs to be repointed before fall/winter
  9. Basement railing needs to be installed
  10. Both front railings need to be sanded and repainted.
  11. External security alarm siren need to be installed
  12. A tiny bit of concrete need to be pouted
  13. Two security cameras need to be swapped out for the lower profile ones

The yard

Man, the front yard is good, a little weeding and bush trimming maybe.  The back yard though…  It is still a disaster, or at least ½ a disaster.  I want to fill 3-4 gabion baskets with all the rocks left over from a previous owner’s attempt at pond-scaping and make benches around out fire pit.  We will be adding a steel arbor from the garage to the patio this fall that I am welding up on-site.  The patio table and chairs will get a proper sanding and oiling this weekend and we need/want an umbrella of it this year.  I want to add a tool shed and additional firewood racks to the side yard.   And finally, the small yard next to the garage is my makeshift apiary and I would like to make that both permanent and presentable with some additional hives, gravel and flower plants in narrow garden boxes.

Health

Stamps-With-Foot, my mom, and the kids are good.  I am feeling all of my 40+ years lately though.  My hip is still painful a full year after reconstruction.  I may have torn the meniscus in my left knee, AND I have Fucking Tennis elbow from chopping firewood!!  Not being able to run and bike, coupled with my love of cookies, has left me with a classic “Dad-bod” and even my fat pants are tight right now.  Eating better now.  Trying to get between 7 and 10K steps in a day, having the knee looked at, and working on the elbow.  We are going to Hawaii in February and I need at least a 2-pac as there will be MANY shirtless days in and under the water, for my arm to feel better, and my knee and hip to be like 70%.

Other

Work is work, but I have really traveled at all this year and that is awesome!  Still wish I was building cabinets for a living, covered in man-glitter, smiling but that will have to wait.  I will be traveling to Arkansas this fall to see my daughter and her family.  My son will be here in Seattle for a couple of weeks this summer.  I hope to tour a couple of colleges with him.  My wife and I have a couple of road trips planned and I want to get out on my bike, kayak, and skate board a little (don’t tell my wife or knee Dr. about the board…) I have started recording for a monthly Podcast.  A friend conned me into it after a few years of asking.  I am going to just sit and tell stories without naming names or implicating myself in any illegal activities that are not past the statute of limitations.  As a reward for losing weight I will go ahead and finish out both of my tattooed arm sleeves and my wife and I are planning matching bee tattoos for our anniversary.  I still have not bought a boat or a motorcycle, so she will keep me for a while longer

Da Grind 2017 Outrigger Canoe Race

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Years ago, while living in Newport Beach, CA, I paddled some with the IMUA Outrigger Canoe Club. I LOVED it and learned so much about stroke technique, timing, Hawaiian paddling culture, and open ocean canoeing. SUPER respect for ancient Polynesian mariners! I made a crossing from Newport Beach Back Bay to Catalina Island (26 miles of open water) and it was crazy scary, really tough, beautiful, smelly, exhausting, and I will love the memory of that day for the rest of mine. I have wanted to join an OCC club in Seattle, but it is only just this year where my work schedule has allowed that and then hip surgery happened. So, this summer I am refinishing my 51″ wooden outrigger paddle (new varnish and adding a little Koa insert) and applying a “F-Bomb” logo to my carbon paddle in preparation for when I am back in fighting shape. I am also living vicariously through the local club and doing a little event filming and one of their big races this year, Da Grind 2017, happened in almost my back yard.

I drug my father-in-law over to Alki Beach early this past Saturday morning to watch the race with me and help out a little if I needed a hand with moving on the beach or hauling my pack – I am still not even 80% with the hip. I did fine though and he was into the race and event as he lived in Hawaiian for a number of years.

I got the drone in the air early and caught the start of the first leg and then the finish. The weather, wind, sky and sea was perfect for the race and for shooting video. I wish I would have brought another battery and that I would have had my big Cannon DSLR instead of my iPhone for still and zoom shots. Lesson learned.

My Week in Review

/ Matt Talley / 3 Comments

This past week has been a week of mish-mash happenings:

90-day Post-surgery hip appointment: Could have gone better.
Fruit tree pruning
I built a lid for the compost boxes
A rat didn’t like my lid and chewed through the side to get at the worms in the compost bin
I said dirty words
Mounted 7 up-cycled cabinets in the garage
Finished painting 80 liner feet of 1/4 round trim.
Sweep and cleaned GROP
Organized some stuff into new shelves and cabinets.
Finished painting the corner shelf doors – 5 total coats of fresh paint
Installed the hinges and hung the doors on wrong cabinets
Said dirty words
Re-hung doors on the correct cabinet.
Scratched paint
More dirty words
Touched up paint
Finished corner cabinet install
Did some Physical Therapy for my Old Man hip
Mowed and edged the yard
Read a book
Made a few Instagram and Twitter posts
Amazon sent me a new tool!
Flew drone one afternoon after J-O-B
Planted the boxwood shrubs
Bought garden starts at Nursery: tomatoes, corn, squash, zucchini, peppers,herbs, lettuce, etc…
50+ hours at my J-O-B, hustlin’ to keep us fed and the lights on
Watched about 2 hours of NetFlix
Gave away a bed in our home office
Had to delver it to new owner
Drank some French wine
Worked on cedar log garden table
Bought couch/guest bed for the office/TV room
Braved the gauntlet at IKEA – three hours to pick up a pre-ordered couch 🙁
IKEA gave me a $50 discount for the trouble
Had to source clear glass Victorian-style pull knobs for the corner cabinet doors
Spoke to both of my children for Father’s Day
Heart Happy
Planted summer garden
There was some coffee drinking and puppy snuggling
Took top off of Jeep for the first time in 1.5 years
Started Raining the second I took it out of the Garage
Made grumpy noises
Had coffee and listened to a bluegrass jam session at favorite coffee shop
Watched a movie
Was prolific on Twitter and Instagram
Murdered some dandelions
Rode around neighborhood on errands in topless Jeep when it stopped raining
Made happy noises
Sent some J-O-B e-mails from home
Started reading American Gods out loud with my awesome wife
Went to bed to start it all over again on Monday morning

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Hip Rehab Milestone

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Today was a big day for me:  I got rid of the crutches and started using a cane.  My grandfather’s cane to be exact.  Also, I drove to work.  The first time in 6 weeks that I have been behind the wheel.  It tasted like freedom.  I was temped to play hooky from work, call in sick, and drive to Montana or Alaska or Mexico…

What I Want Thursday – April 13th, 2017

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Below are the things that I really want and that are present for me today:

To unclutter my life: less superfluous stuff
For my hip to be 100% and to never have to use crutches again
A wish for Brodie to be well and 100% cancer free
More time with my children and family.
Sunshine!!
Summer BBQs and cold rosé in the back yard.
For the basement (mostly the bathroom) to be done.
Hand-written letters – on actual paper – from my kids, friends and family.
A warm, sunny beach vacation
For the US Political system not to be dysfunctional and a little/lot less crazy

Diagnosis: Getting Old is Better Than The Alternative.

/ Matt Talley / 1 Comment

There are milestones in this life that makes each and every one of us feel the passage of time, the gravity of the age we have reached, and the cool creeping hand of the debt that we all must pay:  Waking up to stiffness, uttering the phrase: “back in my day…”, the day your children grow taller than you, CHOOSING to eat your vegetables, your kids making adult decisions (or not), when your babies have babies, realizing that you own a t-shirt that this older than the lady who cuts what is left of your hair, etc. and so on…

I have been really feeling all of my 43 years lately, for various reasons, but mostly due to hip surgery.  I have, to this point lived an X-Games sort of life: lots of road & trail running, cycling, skiing, snowboarding, rock-climbing, mountaineering, diving, kayaking, canoeing, parachuting, lifting, sailing, skateboarding, tumbling, boxing, surfing, and various other activities that have led to many broken bones, strains, ligament/tendon tears, and the like – I didn’t brag about being awesome at any of it , hence the myriad of injuries…

That abuse has caught up to me and I have had to have major hip surgery to repair both bone and soft tissue after trying intently to ignore mounting pain for a couple of years.  The immediate prognosis after a mostly, but not completely successful surgery is three weeks down in bed, five weeks on crunches, six weeks in a RoboCop-esq hip brace/isolator, and six months before I will be allowed to return to “normal” activity.

My road running days are over – No more long slow distance days on the blacktop.  I will be allowed the occasional trail run after 9 months or so.  No more heavy packs hoisted on my back and carried into the wilderness (30# is OK), and no multi-day/multi-summit peak-bagging.  I can cycle again, but downhill mountain biking and cyclocross are not suggested.  I have had and will continue to have arthritis in that hip and I am guaranteed another 10-20 years of use, depending on how well I behave and listen to my Dr., before I will need a full hip replacement.  Unawesome.

I start physical therapy in earnest next week and I will do exactly what I am told.  I will have spent the remainder of this year slimming down some, working in and on my shop, taking lots of walks when I am cleared to do so, and then figure out when to spend my time activity wise.  Right now, I am leaning toward kayaking, crag climbing, a little skate boarding (longboard – no vert), canoeing, easy snowboarding, camping, light hiking, and some road biking.  Today though, I and just hobbling along inside the house (can’t drive yet) actually looking forward to going back to work next week.