Just Life | Steve Tilford

Yesterday, Bill, Trudi and I packed up and made the 10 hour drive from Cable back to Topeka. Bill had spent over a month up there and it was just time to get moving. I texted my guy Burt, at Rebound Physical Therapy and he got me in at 7:45 for an appointment this morning, he’s taking off for a physical therapy conference in Las Vegas this afternoon. It was a little harsh considering how late we got back last night.

Burt took a few measurements, etc. and then showed me some exercises to do. He said that he could get rid of my limp in probably 6 weeks. Huh? I figured it would be 6 days. Sometimes I hardly limp at all. Anyway, I’m going to try to stick to the regiment and do exactly as he says.

I know that I’m just 16 weeks out from surgery for a broken hip and that I shouldn’t be so much in a rush, but it seems like this thing is just dragging on and on. I guess I could just be like Andy Schleck and quit racing. Not likely.

I don’t have the exact numbers, but as of yesterday morning, something like 140 people had already filled out the survey for a broken hip from cycling. That is out of 4500 people who went to my website on Tuesday. That is an unbelievable number, something like 3% of the people who visited. Doesn’t that seem insane? I knew that breaking hips in cycling was prevalent, because of the number of emails I received after I broke mine, but nothing as high as 3% of people coming here. Add collarbones to that and it seems like a pretty dangerous sport.

It is supposed to rain for the next three days here in Topeka, so I’m going to try to catch up with all the stuff I haven’t done the past month or two. I have no idea whether I’m going to be able to even participate in cyclocross this season, so I can’t really plan that far ahead.

The leaves are still green here and it seems so much more like summer here than up in Northern Wisconsin. A little reprieve. I never really experienced a true summer, so having a real fall will be nice. Anyone see the total eclipse of the moon yesterday morning? Pretty cool.

The lunar eclipse.

Back to Rebound Therapy.

I love the place, but the paper work involved in all medical care is just plain stupid.

I rode alone to Lawrence yesterday on gravel. Trudi had taken a few things down to the swap meet held before the Octoginta Tour, which is today. I haven’t ridden much in Northeastern Kansas the last couple months. When I got back early this week, it seemed like summer. Now it seems like fall.

One thing that sets off fall here is the hedge apple trees. We have a ton around here and the hedge balls are laying everywhere. I love it.

Another thing is the congregating of black birds. This time of the year, all the birds get together to go somewhere. I’m not sure where they end up, but know they do like to get together to migrate.

I’ve been out of sorts recently, physically. Lots of small problems, and a few big. I’m just going to take it as it comes and not worry about it. Well, I’m a little worried about it, but that is normal I think.

Fall is the end of the baseball season too. The KC Royals are doing amazingly well. They have won 6 playoff games straight. I have to admit, I am a fair-weather baseball fan. I’ve only been watching the games recently. 4 of the games have gone into extra innings. But even the couple that didn’t, have been over 4 hours. I thought a normal baseball game was supposed to be 3 hours. These are too long. My butt gets sore sitting there that long.

I’m going to ride my bike over to Stull right now, a small town about an hour’s ride from Topeka, to look at a minivan. My diesel van is really hurt. I think there are two problems. The biggest is that the EGR cooler is dead. Lots of water seeping out the exhaust. Plus, I think it might have warped heads, but that isn’t a fact. Whatever the problems, it is going to take a while for me to fix it or super expensive to pay someone else. Either way, it’s not getting done anytime soon, so I’m looking for another car. Have a nice Sunday.