Dual Sport Life

The Little Things

2012-01-27T00:51:00.003-06:00

After 2 weeks off at Christmas/New Years, I went back to work on the 3rd of January. Since then, I have had 2 days off, I have worked 22 of the last 24 days. This has my RA grumbling a bit more than normal but I will survive. As I typed that I immediately felt a strange alliance with Gloria Gaynor and her song from the late 70's. Odd how a simple word or two can pull up something that you have not thought about in decades. Now I can't get that crazy song out of my head.

Sunday was a beautiful warm day but I was so tired from work that I wasn't up to a full day of riding. I just decided to do a short urban ride instead. I didn't even put my boots, riding pants and knee pads on, just opted for jeans and my work boots. I did grab my heavy, black Fieldsheer jacket with pads built into it (weighs 11 pounds) and my Shoei DS helmet. I am really starting to like this helmet the more I wear it now. It looks like a dirt helmet but has a face shield that raises and lowers. It is unbelievably quieter than a regular dirt helmet with goggles. Anyway, while out exploring some dirt roads on the back side of the small town I live in, I turned down a road I have been by many times but never knew where it went. As I was riding down the road, I was soon greeted by a winding hill. I rode by a house where there was the cutest little girl, not more than 3 or 4 years old with long blond hair, riding a brand new electric ATV by herself in the front yard. She grinned big and did a dainty little girl wave at me. I waved back as I rode past her house and proceeded toward the hill. Turns out there was nothing much up that way so, after several miles, I turned around and headed back out the way I came in. As I was dropping off of the hill I could see she was still riding in the front yard. I got closer and she stopped and again did her dainty little wave at me. This time however after getting closer, I could see that she had put on a tiny black jacket and her bicycle helmet. I couldn't help but grin big underneath my helmet while waving back at her again. I don't know if I inspired her to put them on or if her parents, no one was outside with her (which really bothered me), made her put them on. She reminded me so much of my daughter at that age ... somedays it's just the little things in to make you smile.

All In All, A Good Week

2012-01-22T18:03:00.003-06:00

I have some good news since my last post. My rheumatologist worked me in an emergency visit this past Wednesday due to my insurance running out. This way I would be good for 3 to 4 months before getting in to see a new one. I had found a new rheumatologist, a good one too rated 5 stars (just like my current one), located 100 miles north of where we live. When I arrived for my office visit Wednesday morning, it turns out that my insurance company and the doctors network came to an agreement just the day before. I will not have to go through changing doctors and driving 200 miles every time I need to see a doc after all. I was greatly relieved to hear that news.

I have been doing ok lately despite noticing a decrease in flexibility over the past few months. It hurts to realize you are slipping backwards but all I can do is enjoy everyday the best way I can. Some days this is a day of hard riding, some days it is on the couch watching a movie. We have had an incredibly mild winter so far. This afternoon at 6 pm, we are sitting at 67 with the threat of severe storms, large hail and tornadoes into the evening. I just got back from a short ride on the 650 and it feels like a spring day outside.

Anyone who has been around off road racing knows the name Husqvarna. In the 70's and 80's they owned the off road racing world. Back in the 2 stroke days, Husky's were known for being loud, I think some of them actually made my ears bleed! I have owned three of them in the past and just two days ago, Husquvarna introduced a retro concept bike. It's got to be the coolest thing I have seen in years! Cosmetically, they hit a home run bringing back the 70's white plastic and red/chrome gas tank while utilizing a 650cc 4 stroke single with fuel injection, LED dashboard, a tailight tucked in above the fender but under the seat and a headlight hidden by a number plate. I would sell my KTM, KLR and my Silverado to get one of these. I just hope that this bike becomes a reality while I am still able to ride.

Images from CycleWorld.com

"Thrilled To Have RA"

2012-01-16T00:26:00.001-06:00

Isn’t it amazing how the media only picks up the atypical cases of RA to promote. The average person doesn’t know the difference between OA and RA, then sees one of the media's stories or one of the drug commercials for RA and thinks “how lucky those people are to have a treatable disease”. Kelly at rawarrior.com recently wrote about a lady who was thrilled to have RA instead of lupus. I don't want to get into a "my disease is worse than your disease" war, but anyone who is "thrilled to have RA" seriously needs to have their head examined. Of course we are all different and perhaps she has a very mild onset of the disease, if so I'm happy for her but she needs to understand the full effects of RA before opening her mouth to the media.  I have been very fortunate so far to maintain a somewhat active lifestyle, but I can feel myself slipping over the past two years. I also hurt every damn day, I just push myself to go on and enjoy life. It’s not something that comes natural or easy any more.

I am looking for a new rheumatologist for the time being. I have a good rheumatologist, have good insurance so what could possibly be wrong you ask? In this day of "never take anything for granted", my insurance company tried to push a new contract through while adding a clause that would relieve them from paying the full charges from any specialist. The network that my rheumatologist is in refused to sign it so therefore, I am without a rheumatologist at the end of this month. I have talked to both parties and both are pointing the finger at the other. All I know is, I am the one who is losing out in spite of paying in my healthcare premiums every month.

I have been working on my 650 and have made progress in the 6 weeks that I have owned it. I went for a short 65 mile ride this afternoon in search of an abandoned railroad bridge. I found the old railroad bed and a cool arched drainage tunnel underneath the abandoned railroad bed, but it was too muddy and rutted to take the KLR through to get to the bridge. If I would have got stuck, at 440 pounds, I would still be there trying to pull the big bike out.

To New Adventures in 2012

2011-12-29T09:42:00.000-06:00

I have never been one to just sit back and let something run over me. That being said, living with RA over the past 8 years has provided its ups and downs. I raise my glass to all who live in rebellion against RA ... to new adventures in 2012!

I took the KLR out Wednesday and put in 160 miles. It was a chilly day and I paid for it toward the end of the ride but the next day felt fine. I also discovered, for me, the most amazing cold weather riding accessory there is. We rode 45 miles and stopped at Blue Mountain Lake. Randall asked how I was doing and I said good but my hands are cold and hurting. He said here ... try these gloves. At first I wasn't going to but my hands tricked my brain into saying okay. They were MSR Cold Pro gloves, and my hands warmed up and stayed toasty the rest of the day. We split up at the end of the day, traded gloves back and by the time I had rode the 3 miles back to the truck, my hands were hurting again. Of course it was sundown and back down in the mid 40's by that time also. A pair of these gloves are next up on my wish list for riding. I am starting to like the KLR more after yesterdays ride, it has incredible acceleration even though it is still restricted from the factory. With a quick twist of the wrist you go from 45 to 70 mph in nothing. I am taking the KLR again tomorrow for a short ride and the KTM out Saturday for another all day ride. 60 degree days in December rock!

Just What The Doctor Ordered

2011-12-17T09:07:00.004-06:00

I am completely over my flare now, the stye is 95% gone as well. I'm just patiently waiting on the next medical problem to come along now. I received an email from a lady in Wisconsin last month asking me about riding with RA. Here are parts of her letter, "First, I am female & a bit down right now after another flare. I have 2 bikes in the garage that i've only been tinkering with since md-simmer. I have been told by MDs to SELL these & that NO ONE with RA can safely ride a 2-wheeled contraption." This infuriated me, how can a doctor (most of whom have only been trained to treat us, they do not know how it feels to live with a chronic disease) tell us to quit living just because we have RA. I would like to talk to this doctor, I have logged over 7000 miles over the past two years, mostly off road miles which are a bit more tricky than riding asphalt. Does he think that I cannot ride safely? I replied to her and told her how I have adjusted my riding style, how I feel riding and my limitations. I have not heard back from her, I hope she will take my email to her doctor!

With a break in the cold weather, I had my eye (not the one with the stye in it) on getting out to ride Wednesday morning, provided I felt up to it and the storms didn't roll in when they were predicted early that morning. My luck held out on both counts and I loaded the KTM and headed for the mountains. I had to go to work that afternoon so it would be a short 50 or 60 mile ride, but I was not going to waste a 65 degree day in December. I met Randall at the bottom of Poteau Mountain and we lit the beasts up and headed up the twisty, rocky mountain. Once over the mountain we hit the woods and I was surprised at how good the bike felt today, somedays you feel like pushing it but it doesn't feel right so you back off a bit. This was NOT one of those days. In the woods I was slamming through the corners, wheelieing across creeks and, in general, having the time of my life. Quick note: my new boots are not 100% waterproof and although the outside temperature was 65, my left foot was now closer to a damp 45 degrees.

We were on our way to Haws Creek to get a cheeseburger when we found that they are destroying one of our favorite trails to get there. They have brought in heavy equipment, cut down trees and are building a wide road to log out the woods on Walker Mountain. The government fights to ban dirt bikes from riding on National Forrest land, but it is perfectly acceptable to bring in heavy equipment, leave it sitting in the woods leaking diesel and oil directly on the ground, those evil dirt bike riders must be stopped at all costs!

This is about where it started raining on us, not a nice easy slow rain ... oh no. We rode the next 30 minutes in various intensities of the liquid menace then as we were approaching Haws Creek the road turned back north and there it was. A bright, full on side to side rainbow against a deep gray (almost black) sky behind it. It was a perfect picture moment but as some of you may remember, my camera committed suicide on our 2 day ride about 6 weeks ago. I had my phone with me, even though it has an 8MP camera on it, the quality just isn't there.

After eating I had to get back home quick, I had rode way past when I needed to and was nearly late for work. We were pushing 65-75 mph on single lane forest roads coming back, like Randall says, "when it goes bad ... it's going to be real bad". Logged 85 off road miles before going to work. The thrill and satisfaction of being on a bike, the disconnection from society, no cell phones or internet distractions, does me so much good. By the way, my rheumatologist rides ... I'm glad he gets it.

Finally!!

2011-12-12T09:10:00.000-06:00

After a frigid blast moved through, actually it just stopped and hung out for a few days with us, I am feeling better. As my luck would have it, now that my flare is about 70% gone, I have a stye in my left eye. It doesn't hurt, itches a little and looks like I was on the wrong end of a bar room altercation. Other than that, I am actually felling pretty good now.

So good in fact, I got out to the garage and mounted a new front tire on my KLR yesterday. I used my handy dandy new ATV jack that I had to buy just for the new scooter. It is too low to the ground to use a normal dirt bike lift. It was a struggle and my hands paid for it dearly but I finally got the stiff walled DOT approved knobby tire on the rim. After I checked the spokes, wheel bearings and brake pads, I put the wheel back on and was amazed at how much better the bike looks. Once I get the rear knobby on, it will look a little more like a true off road bike. I have 2 weeks off at Christmas into New Years and I am hopeful we will have at least 2 or 3 days warm enough to ride. Did you hear that Mike? You'd better get your happy butt down this way and ride with us ... weather permitting.

Fully Flared

2011-12-08T02:02:00.001-06:00

I got in from work tonight at midnight on what should be an ordinary night. However, living with a chronic disease means that there is no such thing as normal anymore. What I wouldn't give to be able to wake up and jump out of bed attacking the morning any way I choose to or simply stand up and take off walking after sitting down for more than 15 minutes. I would love to be able to play basketball again (we still have the goal up and two basketballs in the garage, when I do feel like shooting a few I usually don't feel like chasing the ball down), go for a run around the neighborhood or play golf again.

Instead I sit here tonight with a full body flare up. I really have no room to complain, it has been a while since I have experienced one. I am used to living with the pain but I don't think I will ever adjust to dealing with the fatigue part. Tonight at work as soon as a roll would splice off, it would take everything I had just to make myself stand up and start walking to the press. My hips, knees, shoulders, hands and feet are all equally dividing up the abuse while my right ankle does not want to bend and my neck has been cracking and popping. I assume this is my RA multi-tasking.

I think perhaps the hardest part of living with RA for me has been the fact that I have shut down my emotions in order to survive. I just bought a new motorcycle 3 weeks ago and I've just not been that excited about it. For that, I truly hate you RA.

Spring will soon be here bringing warm weather, longer days and some good rides. I am ready for spring but for now I will just live out my winter hibernation ritual ... work, sleep, work, sleep.

Ramblings Of A Madman

2011-11-27T19:22:00.001-06:00

I hate winter.

What is wrong with people today, it just seems like there is way too much intolerance and hatred. There is no such thing as agreeing to disagree in todays world. If you don't agree with someone, they hate you.

By my own definition, I guess the statement above makes me intolerant of myself. After further review, my official stance is that I hate RA which in turn makes me severely dislike winter. This statement very nearly propels me to politician status. I just need to develop a drug/alcohol addiction, have an affair and embezzle some money.

Perhaps not as deep as the creation of Stonehenge yet still I wonder, how can Nickelback be one of the top rated rock bands while being the most disliked band at the same time?

Why do I live with chronic pain every day yet insist on continuing to work a blue collar job and try to pass myself off as being a normal guy? The answer is complex and has several answers. Among them are, I want to be able to support my family, I'm not willing to resort to disability (although there are days it would be nice), I would have an internal conflict if I continued to ride but would not work and I'm sure not giving up riding any time soon and perhaps the most humorous one to some people ... I enjoy working.

While it is painfully obvious that I am not a deep thinker, I have been analyzing what changes/modifications I need to do to my new motorcycle before going to Colorado early next summer. I have already started by relocating the license plate and removing the rear fender extension, added a rear master cylinder guard, did the air box mod to make it breathe better, replaced the stock handguards with a set of bark busters and some hand protectors. Started removing the stock graphics. I have a set of Dunlop 606 tires coming this week, that should help the lack of control issue some.

Changes

2011-11-21T02:23:00.003-06:00

Anyone living with a chronic disease is forced to make changes in their life. My life has been full of them over the last 8 years. Some changes were out of necessity while some changes came from a personal desire to continue doing something I love to do. While my RA has been semi behaved for the last couple of months, it has reminded me of our impending winter this past week. We have had a couple of cold fronts move through and I would notice more stiffness and pain as much as six hours ahead of the fronts moving in. I can hardly wait til the real winter starts ... I was getting bored with feeling reasonably good.

My latest change involves purchasing a new motorcycle to make it easier to ride with RA. Saturday I bought a 2009 Kawasaki KLR 650 in pristine condition. It was painfully stock and obvious that the bike had never left the asphalt, it had street tires on it. I couldn't help myself, I had to take it out for a ride today. Obviously it was not going to handle very well riding it on dirt with street tires, but I was amazed at how smooth the ride was on it. The bigger, heavier bike was absorbing so much of the vibration and shock while riding ... my plan for this bike appears that it may work out. I have my work cut out for me though, phase 1 will involve stiffening up the suspension while mounting some Dunlop 606 tires front and back and moving the license plate location. Phase 2 will see the addition of handguurds, handguard protectors, GPS mount, triple density grips and possibly grip heaters. Phase 3 will consist of a slip on FMF Powercore 4 exhaust, opening the air box up, possibly rejetting the carb if needed and a rear master cylinder guard. There are other mods I am wanting to do to it, but that will get me started anyway.

I would like to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving. I can't believe it's already time for Thanksgiving, where has this year gone to? May you be able to enjoy it with family and friends.

Abby Normal

2011-11-06T21:17:00.001-06:00

I borrowed the title from an old favorite movie of mine, Young Frankenstein.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I DID put in?

Igor: Then you won't be angry?

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.

Igor: Abby someone.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby someone. Abby who?

Igor: Abby... Normal.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [short pause] Abby Normal?

Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.

Since adjusting the bar for my life, thanks RA, I have to admit ... I've been doing pretty darn good lately. I have been working a lot of OT to stick some money back for Donna and a new bike. Even working the long/extra hours haven't hurt me much. I wish I could feel this good all of the time but I know with winter closing in on us, this won't last too much longer. What I do find annoying, despite feeling good, is after sitting longer than 20-30 minutes it hurts to stand and start walking. I also hate that my hands just ache for no good reason. My feet hurt all of the time whether I'm standing, walking or have them propped up. Then there's the fatigue, many times after waking up from 8 hours of sleep, I feel tired and have to push myself to just walk across a level floor. Isn't it amazing that despite all of this, I consider myself to be having good days?

This is one thing I wished outsiders could understand. While we do go on and do many normal things, enjoying life the best we can now, we don't do this easily or pain free. We make many sacrifices and adjustments in life, just to appear normal, that are invisible to most outsiders.

Speaking of normal, life in Oklahoma has been anything but normal this year. Above average tornadoes (ok, we're used to those), flooding then drought conditions, we had 51 days over 100, 35 consecutive days over 100 and then BOOM ... Saturday afternoon we had a 4.7 earthquake followed by a 5.6 a few hours later. There have been several aftershocks, none serious. There is damage to several homes and a section of a US Highway is buckled. We live 140 miles away, so we have no damage but did feel the larger one last night. By the rest of the years activities, I guess I should be preparing for 10 feet of snow (yearly average is 5.1 inches) this winter.

Tile, KLR's And A Miserable Disease

2011-10-27T01:12:00.000-05:00

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about."

- Charles Kingsley

I think most of you know what I am enthusiastic about, motorcycles have helped me stay happy while living with a chronic disease over the last eight years. Since my 400 mile ride, I have been burning up the internet researching the Kawasaki KLR650, Honda XR650L and the BMW F650GS. While the newer KLR's are just dog ugly up front, I am convinced that this is what my next bike will be. I am looking for a clean, low milage pre 08 model for the looks department. The downfall is that full of gas, oil and water, it weighs in at 432 lbs! Are you kidding me? I hope it comes with a folding saw in the tool kit so if it falls on you, you can cut your leg off to get out from under it! After hopping up and down on a 07 model this week, the weight doesn't seem like it will be an issue until the bike is laying on top of you. The photo below is similar to how I eventually want my KLR set up for adventure rides.

I have been very busy over the last two weeks. Between working quite a bit of OT and the floors, I haven't had much time. Sunday we moved furniture and pulled up the carpet, pad and tack strip for the workers to start Monday morning. We now have tile in the living room and think we will be much happier with it. I'm not sure how my feet and cold tile will get along this winter, my feet hurt so much anyway and cold makes them ache. I hate wearing house shoes inside, but I guess that is what I will have to get used to doing.

My RA has been semi behaved considering all I have put it through over the last 4 weeks. From a 400 mile motorcycle adventure, to moving furniture and pulling up carpet, all while working at least 12 hours a week OT and getting inadequate sleep. One night last week my feet were hurting badly after finishing a 16 hour shift. I came home showered and crawled into bed. Just the weight of the sheet laying on them hurt. I try not to complain, but I truly hate living with this miserable disease.

My New Normal

2011-10-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

RA has changed my life, but it has not changed who I am inside. One of the negatives is the physical limitations that RA has bestowed upon me. While I occasionally look back on some of my "good times" that I have experienced, I am firmly grounded where I am today. I don't hold any anger at, or have any depression over living with RA. It took a while to get here, but I am enjoying life the best way I can now. Some days this means taking my bike out and hammering out a few miles of rough, nasty single track trail while other days it may just be settling back and catching up on some movies. I no longer look at it as living an abnormal life, this is the new normal for me.

My RA has been dog ugly after taking it for a 400 mile ride. See if I try to take my RA on vacation again ... if it were my child I would give it a good spanking. I have been limping, groaning and eating Tylenol Arthritis daily to get through my shift at work. I have also been spending some time in the hot tub. It has finally started easing it's grip and is releasing me from this latest self induced flare episode.

I am once again considering taking another step for my new normal lifestyle. After our two day ride, I have been researching true dual sport bikes as a possible solution to alleviate some of the pain while riding. As normal, I am most likely over analyzing the project but, much like my RA, I would rather have too much information than not enough.

I believe that, for me, continuing to do what I love has allowed me to keep my sanity through the first eight years of my journey with RA. I have been on a motorcycle since I was ten years old. My parents thought that they would buy me a motorcycle, I would ride it for one summer, be done with it and sell it. That was 42 years and 28 motorcycles ago. Make no mistake, it still hurts every time I throw a leg over a bike, but the personal satisfaction that I get from both riding and knowing that I am kicking RA's butt one day at a time is worth every ounce of pain.

This is a clip from our adventure ride two weeks ago. The audio didn't come through so don't try to turn your speaker up to get sound.

2 Days And 400 Miles With RA

2011-09-29T10:35:00.010-05:00

Tuesday morning Randall and I drove the bikes out to Highway 23 to unload, just can't get excited about riding on Interstate for 60 miles. It was 50 degrees and the first hour of the ride, at 65 mph, your face isn't numb from the cold, you just wished it was. That would soon change and before long we were pulling clothes off faster than a $2 hooker. About 5 hours into the ride we were officially lost (it's not a real ride until you're lost) but soon we found our way out to where we needed to be. Okay, it was more like blind luck, but we accidently stumbled onto the forest road we were looking for.

We rode up to Bull Shoals and took the ferry across the lake. Once on the other side of the lake we rode up into Missouri. On the way back Wednesday morning, I ran out of gas topping a hill and pulled to the side of the road. I laid my bike all of the way down to let what little gas on the right side of the tank over to the left side where the petcock is. Randall did the same even though he was not out yet. I had enough gas to make it, at most, 2 miles. I got my bike started and we took off and ... we were one tenth of a mile from a gas station. On the way back we tracked down an old fire tower the US Forest Service no longer uses. It was a brutal climb up the mountain since they no longer keep the road up after closing the tower. The steep, rocky, rutted out climb to the tower was also one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Most of us with RA tend to overdo it when we feel good. I usually always pay for overdoing it, as I am now, but I am also smiling. While my RA was not a problem child on the trip, by the time we got to the hotel room at the end of the first day, I could barely walk. We had left at 8:30 am, stopped to eat breakfast, again to fill up with gas and a third time to check the maps while we were lost, and arrived at the hotel at 7:15 pm. That means a solid 9 to 10 hours on the bikes. My hands, hips, knees and right shoulder were all hurting pretty bad along with my feet. But I am not one to just sit back and let this disease tell me what I can and can't do.

It is hard for me to give up things, RA has forced me to give up so much already, but I am coming to the conclusion that I may have to sell my KTM soon. It is absolutely awesome, light weight, great handling, superior suspension and just tons of raw horsepower but it also has a lot of vibration and a seat height that prevents me from being able to get on or off without finding an elevated step or someplace to lean the handlebar against while I get on and off of it. I hate to admit it but I am thinking of a KLR650 or maybe a XR650 with lowering links. I'm bummed even thinking about it but I will keep on riding something.

Hope you enjoy some of the photos from the ride.

At 65 mph, the camera doesn't focus very well

Old school house in a small community we rode through

You know me, I love iron truss bridges

Riding next to bluffs on Big Piney Creek

More bluffs on Big Piney Creek

And yet, more bluffs on Big Piney Creek

Abandoned rock building in Deer, Arkansas

Bluffs along the Buffalo National River

Our bikes riding the ferry across Bull Shoals Lake

One lake, one ferry and 4 moron's shadows

Just outside the restaurant where we ate breakfast Wednesday

Train trestle just outside of Yellville

Possibly the worlds smallest post office

Forest road somewhere between point A and B

An endangered species ... the wooden barn

10 miles into the ride, still had happy butts (not hurting yet)

100 miles south of us everything was so green and lush

Made a pit stop to pull some clothes off after it warmed up

Not often you see a bear warning sign in Arkansas.
Okay, this is the first one I've ever seen. I've seen
several bear, just not a bear warning sign before.

Good Times

2011-09-15T02:34:00.006-05:00

I picked up a new battery Monday morning, after Sundays ride. After addling the electrolyte in the battery and installing and hooking all of the cables and wires up ... it was time to go to work. Monday at work drug by, but finally my 8 hour sentence was paid in full and I was allowed to go free, only temporarily though.
I awoke Tuesday morning and after a quick shower, dashed out the door and pointed my truck toward the woods. Yep, I was riding for the second day out of three. I met Randall at the edge of the forest and we lit the big beasts up and aimed them south. We rode some new fire road that was grown over with knee deep grass, just barely leaving 2 tire tracks visible at times. We were running this stuff fairly fast, 3rd and 4th gear, when we come to a large tree down across the makeshift road. It was too large to jump the bikes over so we made our way around it out through the woods. While I am not overly scared of snakes, I kept my eyes focused squarely in front of my bike and tractored through the lush under growth with precession and balance. I was extremely relieved to make it back out to the fire road. If there was ever a place considered to be a snake magnet, we just rode through the middle of it!
After another hour or so of riding, we stopped in at the Haws Creek store. We had a burger and parted ways. While visiting with the lady running the store, she informed us that the mountain lions now have cubs and to be extremely careful around where she lives. She said that while both the Arkansas and Oklahoma Wildlife Departments told her there are absolutely no mountain lions in this area, they will not even come out to investigate it. In the meantime she said that neighbors have lost pets (a large older Tom Cat found dead and a dog missing) and there have been farm animals mutilated (2 goats and a calf). Their explanation is that its a bear and she has most likely been seeing a bob cat. Come on, a bob cat and a mountain lion are not any where close to resembling each other. One thing's for sure ... it sure kept my mind off of arthritis during my solo ride back through the woods.

Once back, I had to go pay up another 8 hour sentence. Boy, work sure does get in the way of having a good time! Randall and I are going to do a 2 or 3 day ride the last week of this month. Hopefully I will have some good pictures soon for you to check out. It's been great having my RA behave for the last 6 days ... I hope it continues.

A Day In Pictures

2011-09-11T20:34:00.002-05:00

I have my latest flare behind me so after getting off work this morning, I got up at the crack of noon and stopped by my son-in-laws house. David had marginally more sleep than I did but we were dragging our happy butts out to play today ... we had earned it! We had a good ride today that was cut short because of my bike and a battery issue. At one point, we pushed my bike up a steep little hill for a rolling start. Mary, my hats off to you and all the other cyclist's out there. I had not hurt this bad since Mike and I rode bicycles for cardio training. While pushing my bike uphill, I'm pretty sure my lungs came out through my mouth trying to get air!

Oark is a cool little town, I always enjoy stopping in and visiting with the people there. Check out that burger, the melted cheese doesn't even get to the edge of the patty. Their home made pies are the best but neither of us had room for a piece today. My dad actually worked at the canning factory at Oark keeping the boilers going after he came back from the Korean War. It was located just down the street from the cafe.

Not much else to tell, my RA is somewhat behaving and I had a good day today in spite of my battery grief. Here is part of my day in pictures.

FMLA - Know Your Rights

2011-09-05T11:19:00.015-05:00

I have FMLA papers filled out every year by my rheumatologist for my employer. So far, in the 5 years I have been covered by FMLA, I have not used it a single day but it is there should I need to use it. If you do not have it, I would suggest checking on it, especially if your employer has a stringent attendance policy. Once your FMLA papers are filled out and approved, you do not need to give any advanced notice. To use it you call into work, but instead of calling in sick, just let them know that you are calling in FMLA. In our case, living with a chronic disease, this is an excellent tool to protect your job.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for specified family and medical reasons. The U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division, administers and enforces the FMLA for all private, state and local government employees, and some federal employees. You can take as little as half a day or all 12 weeks at once, depending on your needs.
FMLA applies to all public agencies, including state, local and federal employers, local education agencies (schools), and private-sector employers who employed 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year, including joint employers and successors of covered employers.

EMPLOYEE ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible for FMLA benefits, an employee must:

• work for a covered employer;

• have worked for the employer for a total of 12 months;

• have worked at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months; and

• work at a location in the United States or in any territory or possession of the United States where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles.

Under the LEAVE ENTITLEMENT section there is this paragraph that pertains to us taking a day or two off during a bad flare up :

Under some circumstances, employees may take FMLA leave intermittently – taking leave in separate blocks of time for a single qualifying reason – or on a reduced leave schedule – reducing the employee’s usual weekly or daily work schedule. When leave is needed for planned medical treatment, the employee must make a reasonable effort to schedule treatment so as not to unduly disrupt the employer’s operation. If FMLA leave is for birth and care, or placement for adoption or foster care, use of intermittent leave is subject to the employer's approval.

The down side of this is that you do not get paid for the time missed while out on FMLA and there is abuse of this program by employees who just don't feel like going to work on any given day.

If interested, you can read up on FMLA at:

http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-fmla.htm

I'll Take Mine Well Done

2011-08-30T01:18:00.001-05:00

It all started one normal Saturday afternoon in 1987. Mike and I were headed to the woods to camp out and ride all weekend. We found a good spot to camp on Mill Creek right at the entrance to one of our favorite trails. We unloaded the bikes, gathered some fire wood, set the tent up and had something to eat quickly so we could go for a night ride.

Night rides are crazy. Yes our race bikes do have lights on them, but they are not to see with, you could see better if you taped a $2 WalMart flashlight to your handlebars. We weren't going out for a leisurely ride at night, we would ride as hard as we could and push each others riding ability through the woods without little to no light. The bad thing about night riding is when you crash, most times the engine stops running so you have no light to see. At night, miles from the city lights, in dense wooded areas, you cannot see your hand in front of your face. There is something deeply disturbing about a grown man crawling around on his hands and knees trying to locate the motorcycle that has just hammered him into the ground like a tent peg.

We survived this night ride without any incidents and arrived safely back at camp. You can't have a camping trip without a camp fire so we were getting the wood prepared in the fire ring. It had rained earlier in the week so the wood was damp. What better way to start a fire with damp wood than to use premix (gas and 2 stroke racing oil), right? As I am dousing the damp firewood with the mixture, Mike strikes a match and drops on the wood ... the same wood I am still pouring premix on. After a big whoosh, I realize my arm is on fire! My best friend has turned me into a human fireball! Ok, maybe that was a slight bit overly dramatic, but you get the picture. After a couple of damns, some running, hoping and possibly a couple of skips ... my smoking, singed haired limb is safely extinguished. We did what any semi-normal buddies would do at a time like this, laughed our ass off about it.

We rode the next day til noon, then headed out to another area where our off road club was hosting a race at the next weekend. They were setting the start up funneling the racers through several turns back and forth to stagger the riders out some so they wouldn't all hit the woods at the same time. They asked Mike and I to test it out to see if everything was going to work and to get an idea of how long it would take to get to the woods. No problem, we pull our bikes out of the truck, put our gear on and line up next to each other on the start line. They started us and we hit the first turn side by side. We rode into the next turn wide open neither of us shutting down or giving an inch. Man, this is BIG TIME FUN now, we make it through the next two turns handlebar to handlebar and I just slightly inch out in front going into the next turn. Mike comes up on the outside of me in the turn and our tires made contact. Mikes bike slams him to the ground, and I, still unaware, have the throttle pinned running through the rest of the banners to the woods. I stop and look around for Mike. No Mike, hey, why is everyone going over to the middle of the grass track area?

I ride backwards on the course and I see Mike who is by now sitting up, a bit groggy. We started laughing once he got to his feet and I told him it was payback for setting me on fire the night before. After about 20 minutes Mike and I were lined back up on the start line for another run. We tried to get some others to run the start section with us again ... not a single person would line up with us.

Human Pain Magnet

2011-08-24T11:39:00.005-05:00

I began my training as a human pain magnet early in life. It seems that I have always been a "learn by fail" kind of guy. When I was about 3 my dad was changing oil in the lawn mower and had just shut it off to drain the oil when I walked up. He warned me not to touch the muffler ... so began my life long journey with pain. Between being a rowdy boy as a youngster, playing football, baseball and racing motorcycles, I have experienced my share of pain. Broke my front tooth off playing football, stuck a knife in the side of my hand and the tip came out in the palm of my hand, have endured 3 concussions, 14 broken bones along with a ton of stitches. I admit I have done my share (and probably 3 or 4 others) of stupid stuff while gaining my vast expertise in the world of pain, but none of us asked to live with RA, diabetes, fibro or any other chronic condition.

While this seems like it would have prepared me somewhat for living with a chronic disease later in life, it pales in comparison. These did inflict great pain temporarily, but living with a chronic condition is a full on 24/7 event. While my pain level is certainly lower than most broken bones, I get little to no relief ... EVER. There are times now that I feel the same as when my shoulder was separated, or suddenly I get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when you move with a healing broken bone and you can feel it separating apart a little bit. It is like comparing living through a tornado (broken bone) to a hurricane (chronic disease). We live on the edge of tornado alley and are used to them coming and going quickly. We were in a cat 1 hurricane while on vacation in Florida in 2000. We thought living with tornadoes, a hurricane wouldn't be that big of a deal, but the winds and rain are constant for hours and hours, it eventually starts wearing you down. After so long you just want it to stop ... sound familiar?

I was going through my closet this spring, throwing stuff out, and ran across a folder with xrays of some of my broken bones. Why I still had them I don't know, but I immediately thought of the movie Road House. lol

Can't Live With 'Em, Can't Live Without 'Em

2011-08-17T12:09:00.002-05:00

In spite of hurting Monday night after I got home from work, I got up early Tuesday morning and went for a quick little 75 mile ride. I met Randall at the Haws Creek store and we had breakfast. When getting ready to leave, the lady working at the store/diner told us to be careful and watch for bear. I was halfway out the door and backed up to inquire a bit more. She said that there had been a lot more bear sightings this summer, I assume from the drought. She said one of her regular customers, an elderly gentleman, just last week had a mother and two cubs eating what was left of his garden. I assured her that we would watch out for them, Randall and I have both rode up on several bear before in our years of riding, but they never fail to provide excitement!

Then she added, "which way are you going?" I told her and she said she lived back a mile past the iron bridge (I love that old bridge) and there have been four people who have seen a large mountain lion in the area. Now that would be some excitement I have not experienced. So Randall and I did what any other dumbasses would do after hearing this. We split up and rode back solo. haha

On my way back I did run across a friendly little chap, a diamondback rattlesnake. He was very polite, stopping to pose for a couple of pictures before proceeding to vanish into the plush carpet of the forest.

I'm still not completely over my surgery, it still hurts a little bit to ride. The MTX has slowed the healing down so much, I should have been completely healed a month ago. I feel no pain from with the exception of riding, and my doctor said it will continue to get better, just slowly. Sigh ... life with RA medication. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

It's Just Arthritis

2011-08-11T10:15:00.001-05:00

I’m reluctant to complain because I know that I am one of the fortunate ones who, so far, has a mild version of RA and I can maintain a somewhat reasonably active lifestyle. On an average day, I don’t hurt badly but I am certainly no where close to being pain free. Living with a chronic disease means that we have to work harder at everything than normal healthy people do. It takes more from us to simply get out of bed in the morning, to exercise, to working at our jobs, but this also includes having fun.

Many of you know that I still ride motorcycles, but my riding is often hampered by pain. I always ride with my backpack that includes a 50 oz CamelBak bladder of water, 2 tubes, tire irons, a MSR tire inflation kit, first aid kit, maps, flashlight and ... Tylenol Arthritis. We ride from anywhere between 100 to 260 miles on most trips. On most of the rides we do, we may not see a house, much less a small town for most of the day so we always ride prepared and adjust what we carry for each ride. There have been many rides that even after taking Tylenol Arthritis I am in quite a bit of pain by the time I finish a ride.

My rheumatologist seemed truly shocked when on my last visit I told him that I hurt everyday. I’m not sure which one of us had the more confused look, him that I said I hurt everyday or me being shocked that he had not understood this before. My personal opinion on this is the MTX/Humira combination is working pretty good so far. I do not want to be required to take a pain pill just to make it through the day (other than an occasional Tylenol Arthritis). As the disease progresses, my view on this statement may change. But is this just me accepting what the medical machine has pushed off on us? I often say that I am not going to let this disease dominate me ... truth is it does so more days than I would like to admit. I still work a full time physical job but many days I can barely walk out to my truck at the end of the shift. Would this be acceptable if I had another disease instead of RA? In my opinion, the medical field is content to just push us off in the corner, under the stairway, with the latest, new improved RA drug so they can go back to working on something important. After all ... we just have "arthritis".

My Life With RA ... Day 2951

2011-08-08T00:27:00.002-05:00

Woohooo! We had a bit of a cool down today. It was heavily overcast most of the day with a slight breeze ... the temp only made it to 101. While that is hot, we have been in the 110-117 range the last two weeks ... it honestly felt nice outside. Sooo, after a quick text to David, we decided we need to work in a short little ride this afternoon. He rode over to my house and we left from there riding up Highway 253 to Bonanza, then rode the back roads over to lock and dam 14 on the Arkansas River. The river is getting pretty low in the midst of the summer drought for 2011. It was a pleasant ride in spite of the heat, hitting sprinkles (we could see the rain a few miles away but it never got to us) a couple of times. I am still not completely healed up from my surgery but it felt so good to be out riding today, I wasn't going to let a little pain stop me. We stopped to take a couple of photos of one of my favorite iron truss bridges. It was built in 1911 and is just absolutely massive for being built before cars were in use. The deck of the old bridge is a good 20 feet lower than the new concrete bridge next to it. While the deck has quite a bit of decay on it now, it is still a beauty. After a 55 mile ride, we arrived back home and did not realize we were so hot until we walked in to the air conditioned house. David opted for wearing jeans and a t-shirt today while I stuck with riding pants and a jersey ... we were equally hot by the end of the ride.

I have some good news on the MTX from my last post. I did up the dosage last week from 2 to 3 and I felt much better this past week. This is good news because I know that my body will not respond that quickly to a change in dosage so I think that I may be ok in the future with just 2 MTX per week. With all of the side effects from the MTX, cutting back any is good.

In my previous post, I touched on the fact that I do not ride pain free but the thrill I get from riding far outweighs any pain I experience. I would like to add that my riding gives me something to live for and look forward to. A distraction, if you will, from the constant agony of living with RA day in and day out. We all need a hobby or pass time to focus on and help keep our minds off of the pain. When not riding, I enjoy working on my bike and getting the maps in front of the computer to lay out rides that have specific points of interests to see. I have been hunting down old iron truss bridges for sometime and am just starting my research of old fire towers still in use around us. I plan on climbing some of these if I feel good enough when I track them down. I'll keep you updated on that progress.

Chronically Awesome

2011-07-31T13:52:00.001-05:00

Living with a chronic disease means we have to work harder at everything than normal healthy people. It takes more from us to simply get out of bed in the morning, exercise, do our job but this also includes having fun. My riding is no exception. I do not ride pain free, however the thrill I get every time I ride far outweighs any pain I experience. Once it cools down to where I can enjoy riding, Donna may not see me til it starts snowing. My daughter informed me yesterday that we have been over 100 for 27 consecutive days now. The forecast for the next 7 days ... over 100 everyday.

I saw my rheumatologist two weeks ago and told him about being off of the MTX after surgery (for quicker healing) and I noticed that I felt better, had less fatigue and more energy. He was excited and immediately suggested I try just the Humira and stop the MTX altogether. I was a little leery of this so we agreed to cut the MTX back from 5 pills a week to 2. I have to admit that over the past 2 weeks I have had more energy however it seems that I have had more problems with stiffness and pain than I normally experience. I am hoping it is just a coincidence, but I am afraid I am going to have to start bumping the MTX up a little to find where I need to be to balance pain and stiffness vs having less fatigue and more energy.

I spent most of Saturday with my daughter. She took some photos, she is in the early stages of starting her own photography business, of me for a magazine interview I did with Health Monitor about staying active while living with RA. I am very lucky that, so far, I live with a mild version of the disease and that I CAN stay active. Living with the disease varies greatly from one to another. I think this is something that most outsiders do not understand. Just because I can exercise and do some things that help me doesn't mean it's right for everyone.

I am nearing the completion of my dual sport conversion, check out my 525 Bike Build link for all of the details. Still have just a couple of things left to do to it.

My Nightshade Experiment

2011-07-23T01:12:00.001-05:00

This is a post that I have been planning on writing for some time. Around February of this year, I started experimenting with a nightshade plan. Vegetables are part of a healthy diet, however "nightshade vegetables" contain alkaloids which can impact nerve-muscle and digestive functions. In addition, they can also compromise joint function. Nightshade vegetables are in the Solanaceae family of plants. Among the most common, there are some 2800 nightshades, are tomato, potato, eggplant, and peppers of all kinds, except black pepper. Tomatillos, tamarios, pepinos, pimentos, paprika, cayenne, Tabasco sauce and tobacco are also classified as nightshade foods.

I do not adhere to a strict nightshade plan, having cut some out altogether while cutting back on others from the list. I have to say that I did notice a difference soon after starting my altered nightshade experiment.

What I am avoiding is: eggplant, and peppers, tomatillos, tamarios, pepinos, pimentos, paprika, cayenne, blueberries (not a nightshade, but contain solanine) and tobacco (not hard for me since I don't smoke, dip or chew). I find it hard to give up tomatoes entirely and while I eat a lot of sweet potatoes (ok - not on the list), I just can't eat an occasional steak without a baked potato.

While potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplant are frequently blamed for causing arthritic flares, according to Ronenn Roubenoff, MD, a nutritionist at the Tufts University School of Medicine, studies have shown this occurs in only 1-2% of patients.

I have to say that I am feeling better after 5 months of this plan. I plan on continuing on my altered plan, maybe going further with it in the future. Five months ago I could not eat a sandwich without potato chips, now, I don't even think about wanting potato chips any more. Is it right or would it work for you? Hard to say, but there is only one way to find out.

A Quick Update

2011-07-10T07:41:00.004-05:00

It has been a while since my last post and I apologize (sorry Deb). I work a different shift now 6 days a week and while the 8 hour days are easier on me, I have no free time anymore. I am doing better now and just saw my surgeon this past Friday morning. He has cleared me to do anything I want so I am finally ready to start riding this year!

So, as my pain is leaving me from the pre and post op procedure, my RA is once again starting to show it's ugly side. Not too bad yet but it just wants me to realize it is lurking over my shoulder again. I go to my rheumatologist Monday morning and am going to ask about cutting back on my MTX. While off of them after surgery to help with the healing, I had more energy and felt better (except for the pain of surgery) than I have in a very long time.

I have new goodies on my bike that include a soft seat kit, which I have been planning on getting since I bought the bike. Anyone that rides a KTM knows that the seat is basically like sitting on a 2 X 6! I also put a keyed ignition switch on my bike for peace of mind on overnight rides. This way the bike is not sitting at a campground or in a motel parking lot hot, just waiting for someone to hit the electric start button and ride it off. When we were racing and one of us could not get our bike started, Mike and I would ask "is the key on?" ... now Mike can ask me that seriously.

We had a very rough night last night, we had to put little Maggie, our Australian Terrier down. She had not been herself for 4 or 5 days and had very labored breathing when I got home last night at 7pm. We took her to the emergency vet in town and after running blood work and doing x-rays, discovered her kidneys had shut down.

Good News

2011-06-09T20:18:00.000-05:00

Good news at my doctor visit this morning. I had my post op doctor visit this morning. I have been hurting quite a bit since the surgery and was thinking that either the surgery didn't work or that I had pulled something loose. Doc said that I am healing slower than he would like to see but everything looks good. Donna thinks that it is my RA drugs slowing the healing down. I am optimistic that I will feel like climbing on my bike in another two weeks now.

Also, there is no cancer, so I left his office tired (worked all night last night), sleepy and relieved. I went home and celebrated by crawling in bed and sleeping 8 hours.

Changes

2011-06-07T19:51:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since my last post and a lot of things have gone on during that time. I had my surgery and I'm not sure it is going to fix my problem. I go back to the doctor this Thursday so I am reluctant to be too happy about it yet. On a good note, since I have been hurting else where again ... my RA is basically non existent. It's really weird, but I think it is either that my body only recognizes one main source of pain at a time or my new job (see below).

I have switched to an 8 hour/5 day a week job in the pressroom (same company) and you would not believe how much of a difference it has made. I have more energy, have not been hurting and mentally I feel a thousand times better. I miss my days off and it will certainly impact my riding once I am able to ride again.

Donna and I went to Wakarusa this past Saturday. It has been a while since I have been to a large music festival, there were over 20,000 in attendance, and it was crazy. We saw Ozomatli, Mumford and Sons and Ben Harper & Relentless. I was tired (got off work at 7am that morning), sunburned and all of the walking hurt me but we both had a great day. We left at 10:30 that night and there was still one more band to take the stage, but we were both pooped.

Some Days You Can't Win

2011-05-17T17:07:00.001-05:00

I've had an up and down couple of weeks since my last post. As Mike says, "my jackass friend RA" has been dogging me big time over the last 10 days. We continue to be hit by storms every 3-4 days and we have severe storms in the forecast starting tomorrow night running everyday through next Wednesday ... every day. I know this has a great impact on my RA so I'm not overly concerned about that yet. I had a ride planned for yesterday morning but when I got up yesterday, noticed I was in quite a bit of pain from my other problem. I called my doctor and he told me to come in to his office. To make a long story short, I'm having some out patient surgery done next week. No big deal, it just seems like some days you just can't win. I was so happy last month by avoiding this surgery, if I would have had it done, I would be going strong now.

I have worked in a couple of rides the last 2 weeks even though they did hurt me, it felt great to be riding. I hope the surgery repairs this problem, I've missed too much riding already this year. And at my age, I can't waste too many fun days!

I am nearing the completion of my bike build that I started a year ago. I have had my turn signals and flasher for a while and was waiting for enough extra money to take them to a shop to have them put on. I had no idea how to wire the turn signals, but thought I would hang them on the bike. No problem drilling the holes and putting them on. I them cut 4 pieces of 18 gauge wire, spliced the back lights and ran the wire through shrink tube to the front of the bike. I was kind of proud of myself and thought I was finished, I would leave the rest of the job to someone who knew what they were doing. Well ... about 30 minutes later I started thinking and headed back to my shop. The LED flasher I bought was to plug into a Honda cruiser, so there were no instructions ... zip, zilch, nada. It's only 3 wires, how hard can it be? After 1 1/2 hours I officially gave up, at one point I had my headlight flashing. I went and jumped in the hot tub to relax before going to bed and then it hit me ... instead of using the hot and ground on the bike, run those wires direct to the battery. I hopped out of the hot tub and ran back to the shop, cut some wire long enough to reach the battery and it worked! The moral of the story is, never underestimate the power of a hot tub.

Love/Hate Relationship

2011-05-01T17:10:00.002-05:00

I have a love/hate relationship with methotrexate. I hate having to take it. I hate the blood tests every other month that I have to get because of it, the dry cough that it has given me and the potential long list of side effects that come with the use of the drug. Fortunately for me, nausea has not been a problem and while my hair has thinned after 8 years of use, I still have some. While some people might question my use of such a drug, I have had to stop using it while on antibiotics several times over the last 8+ years and every time I realized, unfortunately, how much it does help.

Like most of you I get blood tests every two months to ensure no new problems are occurring. The worst potential problem could be liver damage. Once your liver is damaged it is irreversible. I did not know until recently though that most serious damage to the liver is not revealed in blood tests.

I got my latest blood test results back from my rheumatologist (by the way, why does my computer insist that I am misspelling rheumatologist) last month. I get a nice clean printout mailed to me after every blood test and usually everything is ok. This most recent one however indicated that I was low on vitamin D. It also included a prescription for ergocalciferol and a note to start 1000 iu per day after completion of the prescription. My wife, who is a RN, filled me in on the blank spaces, believe me I have a lot of them. When you are deficient in vitamin D, your body is going to get it from somewhere... it will rob the vitamin D out of your bones which could lead to osteoporosis. So to make a long story short, I'm now taking extra vitamin D ... something I might not have realized I needed if it weren't for taking MTX and having regular blood testing done. So continues my love/hate thing with MTX.

Storms, Storms, Storms

2011-04-27T01:05:00.000-05:00

Me and my big mouth! My "other" problem dropped back by for a visit today. Now I don't know what to do, I don't want the surgery but I don't want to fight this inconvenient pain for another 3 months either. I think for now, I am going to ride this out for the next week. If not better, I will get back in to see my doctor then and look at my options then. I am scheduled to take my Humira injection tonight. I would be doing alright but we have just been hammered by storms for the last 6 days. In the past 6 days, we have had 11 severe thunderstorms, 3 tornadoes within 25 miles of our home, hail, 70 mph straight line wind and just over 10 inches of rain. We are fine, but a lot of our area is not so lucky. Here are a couple of photos I shot from my yard of todays storm. My hands and ankles have hurt a lot over the last 4 days from the up and down barometric pressures and moisture.

I had thought about going for a short ride this morning but there were so many areas flooded, I just stayed home and worked on David's bike. We are making it more dirt friendly and you wouldn't believe how much it has already changed. I pulled off the plastic handguards that come on the bike and replaced them with a set of new Bark Busters that I had stuck back in my tool box. I also had an old aluminum skid plate that I worked with and redrilled holes and have it modified to fit on his KLX. Next up, the top mounted chain guard had to go.Then we mounted a set of new Dunlop 606 (DOT Approved) knobbies. I showed him some general maintenance issues and he is picking up on everything quickly. Next up ... suspension adjustments. The front end dives on you bad so I will see if I can help this before someone gets seriously hurt! It has been fun watching someone coming into the sport and enjoying it as much as he does.

I hope everyone had a good Easter and is living large ... pain free!

All In The Family

2011-04-20T02:58:00.003-05:00

I have been experiencing severe pain due to another medical condition since January this year. For the next 11 weeks, while dealing with this new pain, my RA was almost non-existent. Just over the last 3 weeks, my other problem has finally started responding to the prescriptions, after 3 doctor visits, so it looks like I will not have to have any surgery. I am thankful for this but now that my pain is subsiding from that, my RA has started going crazy on me once again.

I received a text from my daughter this past Saturday afternoon with a photo of a dual sport bike. My son in laws used dual sport bike which he had just bought. Ok, you already know we're going riding the next day don't you? I got off at 7am and went home and slept til 1pm. David came over and we loaded both bikes and headed for the woods. It was a warm but heavily overcast afternoon. I wasn't going to take him any where he didn't need to be, so we had a nice leisurely 60 mile ride. He did great not riding over his head to stay up with me when I would momentarily forget and light my 525 up. A good first outing for us. I have his bike at my house waiting for some new tires to arrive. Oh yeah ... this is gonna be great!

David making one of the many turns on Poteau Mountain.

David's KLX250 in my garage.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

2011-04-10T15:14:00.001-05:00

I have had an up and down week this past week. I go back to the doctor for my "other" problem tomorrow. My RA has been showing it's ugly side again this week. As by now, most of you know that I can be a little stubborn ... I have picked this up from living with my wife so long. lol I decided I was going riding no matter how good or bad I felt. I got up this morning and worked out quickly, mixed up a protein shake and headed out the door. It was so exciting to hit the boundary of the forest this morning. The smell of fresh air and feeling the wind rush around me as I unloaded my bike on top of the mountain was something I have missed. I had planned a short ride, it grew even shorter once I got started. I turned off of Highway 71 onto a fast, open forest road that I had planned to ride to Blue Mountain Lake. As soon as you leave the asphalt, you start a 50 foot climb into a lazy left hand turn. I was already running 61 mph by the time I got into the turn. As the bike is sliding sideways through the turn and I am reminded why I love to ride so much. It didn't take long to start hurting and I knew it was best to turn around and call it a day before it got bad. The good side is I haven't felt good enough to want to ride since January, the bad side is I still can't ride much before I start hurting. Anyway, here is my ride in pictures today.

Oh yeah ... it's gonna to be a good day!

My new GPS on my bike.

I hope this was a planned burn, rode by miles of this today.

Bad boys, bad boys ... watcha gonna do?

No, I didn't break the law and ride around this, even though this is incredibly fast, smooth and a shortcut to where I was going. I knew a back way to get to the trail.

You can't tell from the picture, but if you hit these at 50+ mph it launches you off of the other side. Gotta love those forest people, making our rides more fun.

Beautiful old place that only has a fireplace left. Lots of tracks around this place, I assume someone is getting ready to build here. You can't even imagine how far out this is. Most people living out in the country would look at this place and go, damn, you live a long way out.

Vehicles 1 Snakes 0

This was unbelievably rocky and rutted out, the photo doesn't show it. When I got down to the bottom of the hill I turned around and rode it back out. It was more fun climbing it.

This is what I'm talking about. When your GPS says, "where are we", you know you're on a good ride!

Love And Family

2011-04-04T21:18:00.001-05:00

The day was fast approaching and there was nothing I could do to slow it down. My daughter was getting married in 2 days. It was a day I had dreaded when I was younger. I didn't want to think about not being the one she asked for help or to just call and talk about anything from music to NASCAR, or get a goofy text from her in the middle of the night. The bottom line is that I didn't want to think about her not being my "little" girl any more, even though she was 21.

Donna and I arrived Friday evening just in time for the rehearsal, which may have been a good thing. I didn't have time to think about it while stuck in rush hour traffic as we went through Dallas/Fort Worth. We had a quick rehearsal, then went out for dinner and had a great evening with all of the wedding party. This is where Ray, David's best man, decided to impress the single chicks by riding the mechanical bull ... well, it's sort of a mechanical bull (to Ray's credit though, it didn't throw him). By now, fatigue was setting in and my feet hurt so bad I could barely walk. I went back to the room at the hotel while Donna and some of the girls decorated the room for the reception. It was strange, all the fears I thought that I would have at this time were simply not there. I realized that I was actually quite happy for her and David. And why shouldn't I be, all you want is to see is your kids grow up happy and to find someone that loves them and will treat them right. If you could see them together, you would know like I do, that they are right for each other.

The morning of her wedding day comes and although I have only slight joint pain, the fatigue is killing me. I ran into Fort Worth to pick up a few things needed for the wedding and as soon as I got back, I needed to lay down. I just felt like I couldn't take another step, my hips, legs and feet were hurting badly now. This is such a frustrating disease, why pick this weekend to flare up on me? I had planned on taking an hour long nap ... that turned into 3 hours. I just barely got up in time to shower and get dressed for the wedding. I saw Kala in her dress for the first time as I was about to walk her down the aisle. I couldn't do anything but smile, she was beautiful. On top of that she was so calm and cool, very un-Kala like.

The wedding was to start at 6 pm on the boardwalk that wrapped around the lake running on the edge of town. It was a perfect evening, with the exception of the 25 mph wind, and the lake made a beautiful backdrop for the ceremony. As we exited outside, the wind began lifting up (quiet a bit) the dresses that the bridesmaids were wearing. Kara, one of the bridesmaids, turned and said "I hope every ones wearing under wear tonight". lol After the bridesmaids walked down, it was suddenly my daughters time. How did this moment get here so quickly? I had planned to walk in slowly and to tell her I loved her, that I was proud of her and how I thought that she had made a wise choice with David. As we started walking, she was suddenly yanking on my arm! Hold on, I don't think David is going anywhere ... we just have 60 feet to go. I was immediately reminded of trying to walk Frankie, our Great Pyrenees before he had obedience training. My talk was quickly discarded as I picked the pace up and tried to keep from stepping on her dress at the same time, which was now swishing from side to side due to her rapid pace. As we got closer I looked up and saw David with this huge smile on his face. It made me smile inside, how could I not be excited for them.

The rest of the evening I spent in the background, visiting with friends and family. I don't know why I ever thought I would dread this day, it was a wonderful evening seeing the two of them happy and united. And on top of that, momma didn't cry.

Exhausted But Good

2011-03-27T11:12:00.000-05:00

It has been a crazy two weeks since my last post. I have been working, mowing, disassembled my motorcycle, traveling, dodging storms and I'm sure a couple of other things that I forgot. We went to Texas last week for our daughters wedding. It was a beautiful place and we had a great time. I have a post about the wedding but I wanted to let my daughter read it first before I post it.

I continue to do good with my RA, even though it followed me to Texas. I didn't have much joint pain but the fatigue was a killer while in Texas. I laid down to take a nap and slept 3 hours, just barely getting up in time to get dressed for the wedding. The ride back was long and hard on me. I hate traveling when RA is showing it's ugly side. Since getting back home and settling back into work mode, it has calmed back down now.

As I go farther along, I am finding it easier to get along without my nightshades. The killer for me is potatoes and strawberries. I love both of these and I doubt I will ever give either of them up completely, but I have been cutting back on them. I am also starting a post about my nightshade experiment.

I am going to put my bike back together this afternoon and ... if I still feel as good tomorrow as I do today, I'm going to slip out for a short ride down to Rich Mountain and back. I am excited over the possibility of sneaking in a ride.

Acceptance

2011-03-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

I received a call from one of my best friends two nights ago. His wife is just starting her journey with Humira. This got me started thinking back to when I was diagnosed eight years ago. There are a wide range of emotions when dealt the blow that you will live your life out with a chronic disease. Acceptance is perhaps the most difficult but the most important to overcome. With acceptance, you not only live better "with" your disease, but you also lose the hopelessness, feeling of unfairness and denial of the disease. You actually put yourself back in control.

Once that is accomplished, that isn't to say that you still won't have moments of anger or frustration, those are to be expected, but you will be much better off once you can.

Acceptance didn't come quickly or easy for me. I don't imagine that I'll ever be pain free again, I just don't think much about that anymore. I simply take life one day at a time now and be thankful for what I can still do.

My visit with my rheumatologist went well this week. It took me a little longer than most patients to feel the full effects of Humira. I am back to working out with weights consistently and walking everyday again. That in its self will make you feel better. I am also continuing on my nightshade experiment. Overall, I feel about as good as I have felt since being diagnosed.

Pretty Stormy

2011-02-27T23:47:00.001-06:00

It's that time of year again. We have a line of storms headed right for us, a ton of lightning, 60 mph wind and pea sized hail. Ahh, spring time in Oklahoma. I just strapped down the hot tub cover, brought in the cushions from the patio sectional and the wind chimes, all while listening to the low pitched rumbling thunder. Both of our dogs get nervous when storms move in so they are stuck to our heels tonight. I don't believe it will be a bad one once it arrives, but it is getting us in practice for spring time.

My RA is still doing great. Still have pain from it but it is very low and quite tolerable pain. I know there is no cure for RA, and controlled is the best I can wish for, but I could get use to this. I have been working on an adjusted nightshade plan and think that this may play some part in it. I will share more with you later on what I am doing, especially if I continue to do well.

I am headed in for an outpatient procedure tomorrow morning, hopefully this will help me enjoy life again and get me back on my bike as well. My KTM is starting to think I have forgot about riding.

Long Time Coming

2011-02-21T18:55:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since my last post and I have to admit that my RA is doing great. I really mean it, I wished it was this controlled all of the time. But no one said life was easy and so while my RA is almost non-existant at the moment, I now have another medical problem, no ... it's not cancer, but still quite painful. I am not comfortable talking about it right now, maybe later. Most likely, by the time this new condition is taken care of ... my RA will rear it's ugly head again.

The worst part is we are now past the 2011 Oklahoma Slip-A-Thon (so much for global warming), all of the ice and snow is gone and the past 10 days have been in the 60's and 70's. Normally that would be good, but I can not ride right now, even though I did sneak a short ride in last night. Not in the woods, not even in the forrest, but I still got a short burst of adrenaline to help me for a while. My KTM was happy last night.

I hope everyone is doing well, I know Lana has been without power, hopefully it is back on now.

Slave To Gravity

2011-01-29T11:56:00.002-06:00

Against my better judgement, I went out for a quick solo ride 2 weeks ago. The temperature was not what I wanted, a high of 49 degrees forecast, but I needed to ride. I headed out and after crossing Poteau Mountain, arrived at one of my top 5 favorite single track trails. I attacked the trail as if I were racing again. Caught air off several jumps, sliding through the corners, even overcooked one corner and as I was sliding off of the trail while braking, aimed the outside corner of my handlebars at the tree and gassed it. Bank shot off of the tree that put me back out on the trail quickly. This is not for the faint of heart, Mike and I crashed A LOT while learning this technique. Once through this trail, I headed for the 4 way trail and rode all 4 trails out. I was staying pretty warm back in the woods, but had to get back out on the road now. I ate 7 miles of road up in a hurry, it was cold out on the open road with no trees around. I ducked back into the woods and this is where my story should have ended. I should have gone on back to my truck, but I was having a good day riding single track. Soon I was riding hard again as I rode around the north side of the mountain. I was sliding through a corner sideways when I realized I was on frozen tundra. It was hard to tell which was more slick, the ice or the mud. What seemed like a slow motion crash that took 30 seconds to play out, in reality took about a second and a half. At first I was sliding one way, then I cranked on the bars and shifted my weight to the other side and gassed it. This leads to severe overcorrection, so I do my best Mary Lou Retton impersonation of ... well okay, it probably looked closer to a wounded duck that had been shot while trying to fly off the motorcycle. Just when it looked like I might actually save it, the bike pitched me hard, and as I am being slammed to ground, realize that ... I am still a slave to gravity. As I am bouncing/sliding on the frozen turf and thinking that wasn't so bad, the bike is about half a second from hammering me into the ground like tent peg. Okay, it's officially a good single track ride now ... I'm tired, cold, wet, late and hurting. Did I mention I have a 300 pound motorcycle pinning me down on the ground. It took a while but I crawled out from under it, made sure nothing was broke (me - not the bike), started my trusty steed and limped back to the truck. Remember kids, don't try this at home, I'm a trained professional.

RA vs Minor Burns

2011-01-23T21:33:00.012-06:00

My flare up has continued to dog me for yet another week. Most days I wish that I could ride my motorcycle on some nasty, tight single track trail again, lately I have just been wishing to walk without too much pain. Funny how RA continues to change your outlook on life.

I was working on my bike today and had it running for a couple of minutes to heat the oil in the engine for an oil/filter change. I went to tighten a bolt and bumped a fingertip against the header just out of the cylinder. At that precise moment, the header was the same exact temperature as it is 7 feet off of the surface of the sun.

You sometimes forget just how many nerve endings are in a fingertip until you stick your finger in a blender ... or against an incredibly hot exhaust header. For a few moments, I forgot that a flare up had hijacked my semi-normal life for the past 3 weeks. While I don't recommend this therapy for everyone, I am a professional when it comes to pain, it has certainly taken the edge off of my flare for now. Don't worry about my finger, the burnt dead skin will soon be replaced by fresh healthy skin. Too bad our joints can't replenish themselves in the same fashion.

I hope everyone has a good week, I can't wait for some nice, warm weather. I'm officially through with winter and ready for another year of riding.

Recycled

2011-01-16T12:03:00.004-06:00

I have been in the grips of a major flare for the last 2 weeks. With the exception of an occasional mild flare up, I had almost forgotten what one felt like. I have experienced severe shoulder pain that I haven't felt since separating my right shoulder some 25 years ago, swelling, fatigue and my feet have hurt so badly that I could barely stand to walk. I am feeling better now, I believe the worst is behind me for this time.

I have not hardly been on my computer over the last 2 weeks, I will catch up with everyone's blog soon. I am reposting (I should feel like doing a new post next week) a humorous ride I did a couple of years ago.

Randall and I had both worked Saturday night and got off at 7am Sunday morning. We did not have to work Sunday night for President's Day so we decided a ride was in order after 3-4 hours of sleep. I arrived at Randall's about 1 pm and we loaded up and headed off to the woods.

We had an excellent day riding, found some new single track trail that was incredibly fast (40-55 mph) without a rock in it. We also missed a turn and rode some of the new trail twice which was fine because our 525's were built just for this type of trail. We got caught on one of our favorite trails late in the afternoon. An ice storm had came through 3 weeks earlier and had left a ton of downed trees and we were riding 200 yards, getting off of the bikes and moving tree branches, limbs, and brush. In most places the woods were so dense that you could not ride around the fallen debris. It was getting late and we were running out of daylight quick. When we finally made it out of the woods, we lit our bikes up and hammered them back to the truck, arriving just at dark.

We thought our excitement was over. Boy were we wrong! Randall has a heavy duty lock on the back of his HiPoint trailer and the numbers are not highlighted with paint, they are stamped out of the metal. Randall and I both have excellent vision ... far off ... one foot in front of our face, we're both blind as a bat. We have no problem with the numbers in daylight, but it is now night time in the forest. We started my bike and aimed the light at the lock, Randall tried, I took a turn at it, we took Randall's cell phone and tried to use the light off of it to see better. All to no avail and by now it is dark, foggy and cold. We both had our reading glasses locked safely inside the trailer ... the one with the lock on it that we can't read. A bit of irony here but a lesson learned the hard way. Even on short rides when we're not taking maps, pack your glasses in your fanny pack! After 20 minutes of this I broke out into laughter while trying to read the numbers and yanking on the lock to no avail, Randall walked around the side of the trailer. I hear a muffled "I'll be damned" and I feel the trailer move. My first thought is "Great, the trailer has a flat tire also".

But instead of more bad news, it was some much welcomed good news. Randall had not locked the side door (something I still can't believe for Randall) which worked out great for us on this particular day. Once inside he found his glasses and opened the lock. It was well after dark by the time we loaded up and once again we have another story to laugh about.

Hydrotherapy and RA

2011-01-03T14:04:00.004-06:00

Hot tubs provide some great temporary relief. Heat helps by bringing natural pain relief to a sore joint by increasing circulation, so the fluid from a swollen joint can be removed by the blood stream and filtered out by the kidneys. Hot water can also improve flexibility, balance and range of motion. The jets can promote healing of damaged muscle tissue too. Some doctors prescribe certain exercises that can be performed in a hot tub to relax muscles and ease tension. This is similar to the hydrotherapy that patients involved in physical therapy perform. Motion in the hot water and near jets can help where regular exercises produce no results. This type of therapy is not new, ancient cultures such as Greece, Rome, Japan and China have practiced hot water therapy for centuries.

If you have access to a hot tub then you know first hand how exposing painful joints to warm soothing water for 20 minutes at night and/or in the morning can make a big difference in how you sleep and with your joint mobility during the day. I have both RA and OA, for me, after a 20 minute soak at 103 degrees, I am more relaxed at night. Not only do I feel a reduced pain level, I sleep better allowing my body to rejuvenate sore and painful joints better. In the morning, a 20 minute soak helps get relief needed to get my joints moving for the day. I have used one for six years now and while it is not a long lasting relief, it is relief.

Pro's

• Relieves arthritis pain and stiffness

• Buoyancy in the water relieves stress on joints

• Easy to take care of if you stay on top of chemicals

• Increased Home Value

Con's

• Bacteria in hot tub if you don't take care of it

• Cover can sometimes be hard to handle by yourself, especially if it is windy

• Cost

A Day In Pictures

2010-12-31T19:44:00.011-06:00

I took this photo this morning in my front yard at 8 AM.

I awoke this morning to the unmistakable rumble of thunder. Not just a quick small rumble, it was a long, very deep pitched rumble that rattled the house. It was still dark in the bedroom, but when I looked at the clock it was 7:45. I got up, the alarm was set for 8 anyway, and was in shock as I stepped outside. It was nearly pitch black at 8:00 in the morning with some low level rotation just to our northwest. I turned the tv on when I got to my shop (I was going to meet some guys this morning to ride), they confirmed a tornado had hit the town of Cincinnati, Arkansas, a small town about 40 miles northeast of where we live. At that time there were 3 confirmed dead, people still trapped in their homes and still other people missing. I continued loading my gear in the truck and was taking my bike down off of the workbench when the storm arrived at our place. Luckily we just had a few bursts of hard straight line wind, and some pea size hail. What a horrible way to bring the new year in for this small town.

My KTM sits eagerly waiting to be loaded in the truck ... it was happy today! An hour later I'm loaded up and headed to the woods. My RA is behaving for now, so I'm going to play it by ear on how far I ride. Everyone bailed, so I'm riding solo today anyway. If I do start hurting, I will just head back to the truck.

After riding asphalt forever, well maybe not forever but 6 miles of asphalt on a dirt bike feels like forever, I find what I am looking for. Forest Road 247 will take me out to the back side of Lake Hinkle.

This is amazing, these people have manicured this field. It goes way beyond the frame of the photo, must be at least 15 acres that they have looking like this. Beautiful site to see as you round the corner on FR247.

FR247 crosses a creek that was slightly swollen after all of the rains we have had over the last 2 weeks. The creek is normally about 30 feet wide, it must be 130 feet wide this morning. I have rode through 20 feet of water up to this point. The actual creek bed is about 70 feet in front of me. Against my better judgement, I turned around. Still think I could have made it ... waters probably not over 4 feet deep out in the actual creek bed. lol

Headed back another way, stopped to take this photo because the sun on the trees was amazing. By the time I got stopped and got my camera out, the sun was gone. So much work to get stopped and get the camera out, I took the picture anyway. There ... take that sun!

HA! 20 minutes later I got the sun this time. Them durned dirt bikers messing up a perfectly rain washed road with their tire tracks.

Your tax dollars at work. I know most people don't have a very high opinion of us dirt bikers, but come on ... even I know what a dirt road is. At least they could have put the pole in the ground straight!

Gorgeous view with Rich Mountain in the background. I wish I could make a living just riding my dirt bike around and taking pictures. Too bad, most people that live around here have never seen the beauty that our back roads and forests have to offer.

Just before stopping to eat, I rode a new (new to me) short trail out and took a really hokey self portrait.

After eating I am on my way back to the truck and run by this creek. It is about twice as wide as normal, it is nice to see some water back in the creeks after a very hot and dry summer.

I love iron truss bridges, have to stop and photograph every one I see. Just ask Randall and Darel!

Ok, another photo op. A fiberglass ski boat sitting on a creek bank in such thick underbrush, there's no getting it out. It is sitting on the ground, not a trailer under it. Don't ask me, I didn't put it there, I just took the picture.

Ran across this water tower. I'm showing my age here but I can remember when every town and community had at least one water tower in them. It's sad, I miss seeing them. It seems to me that we are losing way too much of our past. The iron truss bridges ... ugly old concrete ones now, wooden barns ... been replaced by steel ones, no water towers, no mom and pop hardware stores. I miss what once made towns individualistic. Now you go into any town and there is a Fridays, Applebees, Home Depot, Best Buy, it's the same from town to town anymore.

Zombie Dual Sport

2010-12-27T16:59:00.002-06:00

It has been discussed that we should build a training ground on some unnamed property outside of Fort Smith to help build the skills to become a more complete dual sport rider. In addition to developing hooligan motorcycle skills, we will develop skills like shooting a paint ball gun from a bike at speed, learn camouflage basics as well as shooting pistols and shotguns. Some of these skills will come in handy as the new Health Care Reform sweeps the country and the zombie outbreak occurs. Of course everyone knows that the best way to kill a zombie is a crowbar to the head or, my favorite, run them through a wood chipper, but hey ... it's just good clean fun shootin' guns. At night fall, we will have our usual beverages as we sit around the campfire.

Haha, can you imagine the turnout, if nothing else just out of morbid curiosity, if we actually did this and hung a couple of fliers in local motorcycle shops? We might just have to try this once it warms up!

Screen shot is from the game Dead Rising 2. Pure zombie-motorcycle mayhem.

RA and OA have flat out kicked my butt over the last week. We have had frigid temps, relentless winds and rain, all combined rendering me almost unable to walk over Christmas eve and Christmas day. I'm doing better now, my ankles are actually bending again, so maybe I won't be confused for a zombie while walking.

Ready for 2011 (I Think)

2010-12-22T10:05:00.001-06:00

Living with a chronic disease, we have to reach daily to our inner strength for a simple task that a healthy person takes for granted. When I do accomplish a milestone, it means far more to me than to a normal person. It's similar to having your first job as a teenager, when you bought something with money that you had earned, it meant so much more to you because you did it on your own.

The weather has been dreary and cold here, I haven't been riding much lately. I have been researching old bridges and other points of interest that I would like to ride to in 2011, and have some interesting prospects. Just need some constant warm weather to roll back in. I'm getting the helmet cam set back up so I can shoot some video of our rides in the future. Hopefully, I'll have enough good footage to put a few clips together and post here next year.

As the holiday season is upon us, we usually find ourselves reflecting on the past year and on those who have shared our joys and sorrows. Thank you for your friendship. I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas (yes, I still say Christmas ... not Happy Holidays) and I hope that 2011 will be better for all of us.

A Few Things I have Learned In Life So Far

2010-12-19T12:27:00.001-06:00

RA has taught me that I am resilient. I work 12 hour days and most days I am hurting moderately to badly by the end of a shift. Many nights I can barely walk, my feet hurt so bad. After a good nights sleep (8 hours minimum), I wake up ready to go again.

I used to try to make sense out of RA. After some 7+ years, I have realized ... you can't rationalize RA. If my right hip is bothering me today, there's a good chance it will be ok tomorrow. Tomorrow, it will be my left shoulder that is hurting.

I am not alone in my fight against RA. I have made some great friends and through talking with you and following your blogs, I realize we have most of the same struggles, obstacles and we often do the same stupid stuff. Thank you for your friendship.

Laugh daily. Learn to laugh at yourself, yes I still get frustrated with myself when I am dropping everything I touch, but it makes your day go better when your laughing rather than mad at the world.

RIDING

Off Road riding boots are NOT made for walking.

You can ride farther in 30 minutes than you can walk in 4 hours. (see above lesson)

You never need to go to the bathroom until after you have your leathers, jacket, fanny pack, back pack, helmet, googles and gloves on.

Terry's theorem: How badly you need to go to the bathroom is directly proportional to how much gear you have on at the moment. ie a rider with a jacket, fanny pack, backpack and helmet needs to go 4 times as bad as a rider who only has a fanny pack on.

Terry's corollary: you never realize that you forgot to replace the toilet paper in your backpack until you look for it.

DOGS

If you stare at someone long enough, eventually, you will get what you want.

They are always excited to see you come in the house, even if you have just walked to the mail box and back. Too bad humans can't show that emotion for each other. Then again, it's good that humans don't pee on the floor when another human walks in!

If you could find a picture next to the word loyal, it would be our first dog Bear. He was Wolf/German Shepherd and loved our daughter so much, we often joked that he thought she belonged to him. He would sleep in her room when she was young and if she would whimper or cry, come get us. She grew up loving him and even though he outweighed her, we were never worried with her being around him. He went blind shortly before he died and even blind, when she and her friends would play in the yard, he would place himself between them and the neighbors kids who were older and more rowdy.

Changes

2010-12-13T00:19:00.002-06:00

If you were to meet me on the street, you wouldn't know anything was wrong with me. I like that for personal reasons, I'm not someone who likes attention drawn to them, but it makes our acceptance suspect. Other diseases have obvious trophies, rewarding the patient for their participation. When you see me, you do not know how I struggle to take my first few steps of the day, or how after taking those first few steps of the day, I can tell how good or bad my day will be. You don't see me grimacing while putting my socks and shoes on everyday. You don't notice my hands, fingers now starting to hook and curve, or how it hurts somedays just to grip and hold things. I drop things now, as an accepted part of my life, and usually joke about it or scold myself for being so clumsy and dumb. If you were to meet me face to face, I would most likely be smiling. I don't always smile outwardly, due to the pain, but I'm still smiling on the inside.

You wouldn't know that I have had to give up golf, riding bicycles (I still have a mountain bike but days are few and far between when I feel like riding it now), I play bass guitar but my fingers limit my days that I can do that, I gave up woodworking and sold most of my saws, routers and planner because clumsy fingers don't belong around saw blades.

If you read my blog much, you know that I ride motorcycles. What I really love is to ride single track, but my RA doesn't allow me take that much abuse anymore. I have started riding dual sport rides instead. Don't think that this pain free either. It hurts getting on and off of my bike, once on, however, all is good for the first 70 miles. By this time, my right hip and hands are starting to voice their opinion about the ride. After that, somewhere around 110 miles, my right shoulder starts aching and, well ... my feet hurt all of the time. Although it hurts, I refuse to give in on my riding. RA has taken too much from me in the first 7 years.

This might seem like a lot of change, but in reality, I'm no different from anyone else with this disease. You just don't know that when you meet us on the street.

Winter Sucks

2010-12-07T15:35:00.006-06:00

I am doing better now, fully recovered from a upper respiratory infection I came down with just before Thanksgiving, with the exception of a lingering dry cough. My RA is hurting now due to the fact I could not take my meds while on antibiotocs. I am looking forward to being able to take my Humira shot Wednesday and get back on my MTX. Sometimes it takes something like this to drive home how much good the meds we take are helping us.

It is too cold to ride, so I have been cleaning my shop, throwing some junk away and working on my bike. My last ride, even though the temp was in the upper 50's, hurt my hands, partly due to the unexpected rain that moved in on us early that day. I may have found a solution for the winter months, even though it looks strange. They are manufactured by Tusk Racing, I believe more geared toward snowmobile use, called Hand Mitts. Simple design, they fit over your handlebars and controls, lock down with a nylon strap and you put your hands, wearing regular off road gloves, inside of them (they have a light fur lining inside) and you still have complete freedom of movement. I am anxious to try them out on a 50 degree day and see if they will help my hands.

I have also been going through a huge box of my old riding clothes. Neon orange AXO leathers (I know Mike remembers them), my old Can Am - Go the Rat jersey, must be shirts from 25 enduros, Nationals, Team USA shirts. I threw some old workout stuff away, but my cycling and motorcycle race stuff is far too valuable to trash. lol By the way, Mary, I ran across some old century ride t-shirts, an old MSR mountain bike jersey and a Cannondale road bike jacket. Some good times remembered going through that box today.

I have said it many times before, but here goes again ... I hate winter!

Oark Adventure Ride

2010-11-26T14:49:00.002-06:00

I have been down over the Thanksgiving holiday with an upper respiratory infection. After some antibiotics and sleeping 70% of the last 2 days, I'm feeling better today. The down side is, by being on antibiotics, I missed my Humira shot Wednesday and cannot take my MTX or another shot until 10 days after my last antibiotoc has been taken. I hope my RA will be kind to me over these next few days.

This past Monday morning, Randall and I headed out early to beat the storms that were coming in. They were supposed to be moving into our area around 1pm. We met up at Oark and headed through the Ozark National Forrest to photograph the Big Piney Creek bridge, most of you know my passion for old bridges by now. We had no more left Oark, at 9:00am when I felt sprinkles. I couldn't resist walking across, and photographing, the old swinging bridge just outside of Oark. Just down the road, the sprinkles turned to rain, then shortly later, hard rain. After getting lost in the woods, the fog was so heavy on top of the mountains, you couldn't see over 50 feet in front of you at some places, I found the bridge. The rain had let up and I shot a mere 3 pictures before my camera started acting up.

After riding across the bridge and turning back north, I found the real treat of the ride, and this time it was not the bridge. Beautiful, over hanging bluffs on one side of the trail, while the other side was a 20 foot drop off to some of the clearest water I have seen in Arkansas. This rivals Colorado beauty, is just over an hour away from my home and, at 52, this is the first time I have seen it. My camera did me the honor of taking 3 more pictures before officially committing suicide. By the way, the pictures do not do the place justice.

After leaving the overhanging bluffs, we climbed back up into the fog and rain, into the city of Deer, Arkansas. We met an elderly couple and must have talked to them for 15 minutes. As we were leaving the store at Deer, the cashier said, "watch out for elk". Randall and I looked at each other and grinned which brought on a stern reply. "There have been several run over this summer and fall ... be careful". We assured her we would. Then as I'm getting on my bike look at Randall and say, "you couldn't make something like this up. Man runs over elk on a motorcycle in Deer, Arkansas". We laughed, then proceeded cautiously until we were out of the fog.

We stopped to check the map at an intersection and heard an unfamiliar sound coming toward us. As it emerged out of the trees, topping the hill, he saw us and got on his brakes hard. He pulled in next to us and was riding an Aprillia twin cylinder super moto bike. Of all the luck, I have only seen these in motorcycle books, and here I am face to face with one and my stupid camera won't work. Turns out, he was from Canada and came down this way to get some riding in. We talked for 25-30 minutes to him before parting ways.

We have already planned to return and ride this exact same loop, with a camera that works on a sunny day.

Life is not having all you want, Life is wanting all you have

2010-11-24T14:33:00.006-06:00

I wish all of my followers and casual readers a Happy Thanksgiving. With our disease overshadowing our day to day life, it's nice to shift our attention to what we have rather than what we don't have. Thanksgiving means different things to different people. To some, it's merely the day before the largest shopping days of the year, to some it kicks off the Christmas season, many go to Thanksgiving Day parades, it means something to all of us.

For me, Thanksgiving is not about having the biggest, best meal of the year. It's about sharing what you do have with friends and family alike. It's about enjoying a good meal, afterward maybe undoing the top button on your jeans and catching up with what everyone has been doing, because we don't have time to keep up with everyone through the year. Whatever Thanksgiving means to you, I hope you have a happy, safe one.

Here are a few of the things I'm thankful for, in no certain order:

• My family.

• In our current economy, my job is holding up very well.

• I am doing better than I was this time last year.

• I'm thankful for our troops defending out freedom. God bless them and their families.

• Hot tubs!!

• That we have better drug choices to fight RA than 20 years ago.

• That my KTM is repaired and I got in 2 good rides this week.

• For letting me be a part of the RA blog community, a lot of inspiration and support here.

I was going to write about my second ride this week, an adventure ride starting at Oark. I will post that later over the weekend with some great photos. Instead, I ran across this story and I wanted to share it with you. It seems we are losing more and more of our rights every year. This link is about a young boy who was told by school officials that he should not ride his bike to school with an American flag on it, some students were offended ... in America!! Follow the link below, watch the video clip, it's awesome!

What happened to OUR rights?

The Voices In My Head

2010-11-21T21:35:00.008-06:00

I picked my bike up, from the shop, the day before I had to go back to work 2 weeks ago. Since then, I have worked 10 out of the last 11 days. My RA has not been kind to me over this stretch of 11 days. Today was a much needed day off, I was hurting moderately when I got out of bed this morning. I jumped in the hot tub for some temporary relief and knew that I should just kick back and recoup today. Besides, it's modern gun deer season right now and drunks with guns (sounds like a punk rock band doesn't it? Appearing tonight will be Drunks With Guns) are not someone I want to be aggravating.

Then the voices in my head started saying ..."but we'll just ride forrest roads and asphalt, it'll be ok". No, I will just work on it and ride a little bit around the house today. The voices came back as I was changing oil and filters and said, "come on ... are you a man or a wimp?" I'm a wimp, leave me alone! After changing oil, I was cleaning and re-oiling the air filter when the voices popped back out and said, "the old T would go ride today". Thats it, I have to defend my RA challenged honor now!

Soon I am headed to Poteau Mountain with my KTM in the truck. I was surprised to see almost no hunters as I set out in search of a good time today. I was breaking in the new top end on my bike, so it was a different pace today. After riding some 80 miles, on the way back the voices told me to hit one of our favorite single track trails ... in the middle of the woods.

About 4 miles into a 6 mile long trail, I came face to face with 2 hunters. I chop the throttle, kill the motor and apologize to them. I told them I hadn't seen a vehicle and was just running this trail as a shortcut to get back to my truck. I asked which way they were hunting, that I would head back the opposite way. They were very friendly, said they lived just up the road a little ways and it was no problem, hadn't seen anything in 3 days of hunting anyway ... they were just killing time. We talked for the next 25 minutes about everything from motorcycles and ATV's to the economy to iron truss bridges. Very nice guys and as we parted, I told them I would back track the way I came in. They said, "hell no, ride it on out, you aren't bothering us".

I was going to hurt today no matter what I did, at least I got out and enjoyed the beautiful weather, broke the new top end in on my bike and made 2 new friends. Yep, the voices in my head were right about today.

Still Smiling

2010-11-15T21:47:00.003-06:00

It's been a long, tiresome week. I picked my KTM up at 6 pm, the day before I went back to work last week. I finished up my work week Sunday, having worked 52 hours over the past four days. I signed up for two days over time if they needed help in the pressroom. I woke up at 7 am this morning and checked my phone. Whew ... no calls. That means they don't need me and I can go ride today. I need to break the new top end in and then I will be ready to hammer the thing as hard as I want to. Just as I was heading out to the shop to service my bike before taking it out, I get a call ... from work. So, I spent my first day off working. I will also spend my last day off this week working. I hope my daughter appreciates all the over time that my wife and I are putting in to put money in her wedding fund.

We had some serious weather changes blow through over the weekend, and I am still aching over them. It didn't throw me into a flare, just a lot of extra aches and pain. We have had high winds and rain along with a 25 degree drop in temperature. My RA has been very grouchy this past weekend. Everything short of my left shoulder has ached or hurt over the last 4 days, but I'm still smiling. I am starting to crawl out from under the extra aches today, even after working 10 hours on my first day off.

I get to enjoy one of my three days off this week tomorrow. I am taking my KTM out for a 50 mile partial break in ride, can't wait. Then I'm going to spend the other half of the day with my daughter. She wants me to come up and just hang out for a while. If that doesn't make you smile, as a parent, nothing will.

RA Update

2010-11-08T10:26:00.002-06:00

It is approaching 8 years since my healthy life was hijacked by RA. I am now 3 months into my detour with Humira. I have to admit that while I am 75% pleased with the results that I have seen, I have also not seen how it will do through the upcoming winter months. Winter is the hardest on me and I have just been shown a sample of what I am afraid is in store for me. Over the weekend, we had overnight temperatures drop down to just below freezing for the first time this fall, and by noon Saturday, my hips were hurting enough that it was very painful to walk. Can't wait for the low 20's and throw in some snow or freezing rain!
For me personally, this is how my life with Humira breaks down so far:
Pro's
• Most days about 70% pain free
• Slightly increased flexibility
• Most days little to no fatigue
• Feel up to working out and walking again
Con's
• Feet and ankles have felt no relief at all
• Ring finger on left hand is now giving me incredible pain (I'm sure this is just the progression of the disease, nothing to do with Humira)
• When fatigue does drop by to visit, it seems more severe now
• Shots hurt BIGTIME

I have been working out using the My RA Fit Kit program and while it is ok, I must confess that I am not able to bend to do some of the flexibility exercises, the weight routine is good, but I do not have the time to do as much cardio as they require in a week. I am still doing what I can with it hoping my flexibility will improve.

I got my flu shot 3 weeks ago. Funny how in my preRA days, I used to dread getting a flu shot. After giving myself injections for 7+ years, I didn't even feel it. I have heard several people talk about feeling bad afterward or even coming down with the flu after getting the shot. I have never had any reactions or complications from taking a flu shot.

Now, the most painful update, it has now been 5 weeks that my KTM has been in the shop. They called me last Wednesday and told me it was almost back together, that it would be ready by 5pm. I was so excited, I rushed around and drove 85 miles north to the shop to find ... it was together, but running lean. When they pulled the carb off to check the main and pilot jets, the pilot jet broke off in the carb body. Needless to say, I'm way passed depressed, I'm pissed now. It has been 5 weeks for a top end job (piston and rings) and who knows how long it will be before they have it running. When we had our house built, it only took 7 weeks!

Day 6 Cancelled

2010-11-07T20:32:00.003-06:00

A motorcycle racer in the USA is viewed, by most, as being about the equivalent to a registered sex offender. We have had numerous regional and national AMA races in our area and have received absolutely zero sports coverage from any of the 3 tv stations in our town. I am used to it, but sometimes it still bothers me that our sport is written off.

What happened yesterday I thought would surely get some major news coverage. The ISDE (International Six Days Enduro) was awarded this year to Morelia, Mexico by the FIM, the organization that governs all world motorcycle races. The ISDE is a 6 day off road motorcycle race that is often referred to as the Olympics of motorcycle racing. There were still 32 world teams represented at this years event. I thought it was a bad move by the FIM at this point in time, and even applauded the British and Australian teams when they refused to send riders to Mexico.

The first 5 days went very smooth. Then Friday night, violence broke out between 2 drug cartels. After the capture of 2 members of one of the cartels, they unleashed a wave of violence in Morelia, setting fire to cars and buildings, and blocking highways and major thoroughfares around the city. Local media reported that gang members also fired at police around the city and set fire to gas stations by throwing molotov cocktails.

After the attacks, US Team members reported seeing fires burning in the distance from the team hotel on Friday evening.

The 6th and final day of the world event was cancelled for the safety of every one involved, and awards will be given out based on the results at the end of the 5th day. This sucks for Team USA, because day 6 is always the motocross competition and we usually have an advantage on the MX tracks. As it stands, Team USA wound up 4th in the World Trophy, 3rd in the Junior Trophy and 2nd in the Women's Cup. I am proud of every one who represented Team USA this year, and pray that every rider, crew member and family member, from all of the world teams, get out safely.

Sadly, there was no mention of the violence, or the violence that led to canceling a world event on ANY of the news networks.

A Day On A Borrowed Ride

2010-10-27T11:23:00.016-05:00

I got out Tuesday morning for a 120 mile solo ride on a borrowed XR650. Man, did it feel good to get out of the house. Hopefully I will have my KTM back next week. I really didn't think that I would enjoy riding the big heavy XR, but it beat sitting around the house on another day off. I picked the beast up Monday afternoon and Darel didn't help my confidence any by saying, "you'll hate it at at first. It doesn't turn, stop or have the crisp acceleration of our KTM's."

This was perhaps an understatement as I started on my journey Tuesday morning. It was heavy, awkward, didn't slide through the corners and didn't stop well. Other than that ... I guess it was ok. By the time I got to the bottom of Poteau Mountain I was just about ready to turn around and load it up and go back to the house. I pushed on though and somewhere along the ride I started adapting to its style and before long was pushing the big beast down fire roads and trail alike. There is a learning curve, but I was liking it now. In fact, the additional 80 pounds reduced vibration and smoothed the rough jolts that are relayed to my body on the KTM. I rode the XR 120 miles and my body felt equivalent to a 40 mile ride on my KTM. Maybe this is what I need to be riding, now that I nearly have my KTM set up for dual sport rides. My RA hasn't been grouchy after returning home some 16 hours ago.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos of part of my ride.

The XR, an old school air cooled, single cylinder 650cc dinosaur. It doesn't turn, stop or accelerate like my KTM, but by mid-day I was liking it.

I rode out to Cedar Lake, a beautiful small lake with tons of camping and hiking facilities. We used to camp here a lot, just seems like we can't find the time to go the last 2 years.

Somewhere between here and there, I ran across this old house. I wanted to take a look inside, but will wait until snakes are safely in their holes this winter. Loved the rock work.

RR tracks built up ... don't even ask. Third gear, big air on the dinosaur.

This guy followed me all day. He sped up and slowed down when I did, stopped to eat where I did ... he had to pee a lot. I got tired of waiting on him.

This is on a 3 mile stretch of 65 mph single lane fire road. Awesome, just as long as a deer doesn't decide to commit suicide in front of me.

These last 2 photos are just some of the great trails that I rode on today. I really hope our government doesn't continue to shut down public forest land and shut us out all together.

Can't Trust Everything You Read

2010-10-24T23:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I got the bad news this past Wednesday. My bike sucked a lot of dirt into the cylinder and needs a new top end. When quizzed about how I service my air filter, I told Travis (mechanic) that I clean my air filter every 3 rides. I've cleaned air filters in my bikes for 41 years without any problems but I recently switched to a new product, at least new to me, after reading a great review about it in a certain dirt bike magazine. To make a long story short, the spray filter oil was not trapping all of the dirt and allowed dirt to pass through into my engine costing me a new top end.

The fact that companies spend a lot of money advertising with a magazine, regardless of what product or magazine, should not influence the review of a product ... but lets face it, this is just big business. Can I really expect a magazine review to be any more fair than life is? I should be able to, but thats not the way the real world operates anymore.

That is why I try to read reviews of products posted by normal, everyday, real life people on the internet. Even this can be misleading though, if someone has had a run in with a company before, can you be sure they are being fair with their review of a product?

I hope that when it comes to health magazines that can affect peoples life, not just their wallet, that these types of magazines are more responsible and unbiassed in reviewing products and medicines.

Tomorrow, however, I am going by my buddy Darel's house to pick up his Honda XR 650 to ride this week. He has called three times telling me to come pick it up, but I have been reluctant to so far. That's a real best friend when he calls you up wanting to loan you one of his motorcycles! I'm into my 4th week without a bike and I'm like a crackhead detoxing. I can't stand it any longer, I've gotta get out and twist the throttle, feel the raw horsepower as the bike picks the front end up in 4th gear while you're already going faster than any sane, normal person would ride. Then again, I may be feeling the detox effect from not having a killer cheeseburger from Rich mountain in over a month. Whatever the reason ... I will be feeling better soon... I promise.

Oh, by the way, my RA is still holding up well except for my left hand. My ring finger has been hurting and popping badly when you bend it. It occasionally hurts all the way up into the palm of my hand. If it keeps this up, I would rather have them amputate the finger than have to put up with this pain for the rest of my life.

My RA Fit Kit

2010-10-19T20:07:00.003-05:00

I had started a blog for this week this afternoon. After running into town for a couple of hours this afternoon, I came back home and cooked dinner. When Donna came in from work, we sat down in front of the tv with a plate while catching up on the news. The first ad was for something that is new to me. It was advertising My RA Fit Kit.

Since I am just feeling up to working out again, I checked the website out. It has a simple questions page to enroll in the program, don't worry ... it's free, then you answer some questions (takes about 2 minutes) about how much exercise you currently do as well as what types of exercise you are interested in. Then it takes you to, supposedly, a tailor made program for RA patients. My fitness program seemed pretty generic to me, but I am going to try it.

I did not print my program out, you have this option once you go to your exercise program. I am going to check each individual exercise out and keep what I can do and not worry about what would hurt me to do. There is also a activity log that you can download and print out to track your exercise each week. One thing I noticed right off, the minimum recommendation for cardiovascular is 150 minutes per week. I don't come close to that right now. We'll see how I progress as I try out their program.

Just wondering if anyone has seen this or enrolled in it? I will post a follow up on the program and let you know how I am doing with it in a 2 to 3 weeks. Hope everyone has a pain free week.

By the way, I still haven't heard anything on my bike. I'm taking this as no news is bad news! I'm going nuts, I am feeling good, the weather is beautiful ... my bike is broke!

Work, Sleep, Work

2010-10-13T09:50:00.001-05:00

`Working with RA can at best be trying while other days are just brutal. I work a full time job that is pretty physical. I start to get stiff and hurt if I sit for any period longer than 20 minutes. My co-workers, even though they know I have RA, give me a hard time when I get up and go work around a little bit to finish my breaks. We all know that if you keep moving you don't hurt as much, but outsiders don't understand this. My bad days include climbing up and down stairs on the printing press that I work on (3 stories tall), getting down on my knees and crawling around working with the two bottom print decks. Also, if we have had problems, being on my feet for a full 12 hour shift hurts my feet, ankles, knees and right hip. When a job is running good, we can usually sit down for about 3-4 minutes every roll.

The flexo press that I work on has a turrent unwind and rewind on it, which means that the press never shuts down unless there is a problem. We run 62 inch rolls of paper that average 13,000 linear feet. Run speed on the press is 1500 feet per minute so on average, we are changing rolls every 8.6 minutes. Add in checking print quality, inks with the XRite (computer color analyzation system), velvetol, monitoring and adjusting moisture applied to the paper, coatings, ink ph and viscosity. Because of the run speed, we have 8 ovens on the press to dry inks and coatings. To cool the paper after coming out of an oven, there are chill rollers which circulate ice cold water through them to help bring the web temperature back down as the paper exits an oven. Printing is no longer an art, it's becoming a science. I didn't mean to get carried away talking about the press.

If I have had a rough day and am hurting more than normal, I will not sleep well. This comes in part from hurting in my sleep while, I believe, subconsciously worrying about work tomorrow. I can not hold up to a 12 hour shift with 5 or 6 hours of sleep now, so on my bad work days I will take 1 acetaminophen pm as soon as I get home from work to help me sleep all night. I always make sure that I have 8 hours to sleep before taking one but have not experienced any of the grogginess or confusion listed as a possible side effect with the product. Also, it has not become addictive, on my days off, I have no problem with sleeping.

Bummed ... Really Bummed

2010-10-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

I took last week off from blogging in preparation for our 2-3 day ride. After a long and grueling 4 days at work, 12 hour shifts where we are on our feet about 90% of that time, I was ready for some days off. I took my bike out for a 105 mile test run with all of the bags and equipment that we would be carrying on our ride. We worked in some really rough washed out trails, fast fire roads, dirt roads and a little bit of asphalt. Everything was going good at first. My duffel bag stayed strapped down to the rear fender rack, the Wolfman tank bag performed exceptionally well, panniers fit and rode well ... but my bike was blubbering. No big deal, just trash in the carb, as soon as I get home I will pull the carb off and clean the float bowl and main jet. As the day progressed, my bike's performance deteriorated. When I got back home, I washed my bike and did my normal maintenance routine, then turned my attention to the carburetor. After cleaning the carb and putting it back on the bike, I hit the starter. Nothing. After an adjustment and a new spark plug (I knew deep down the new plug wouldn't change anything), I hit the starter again. Nothing part 2. I pull the carb back off to double check that I didn't screw something up and cannot find anything wrong. Once again, put it on the bike, hit the starter, Nothing part 3. After Nothing part 4, 5 and 6, I call my KTM shop and run the bike up to them to check out quickly. I raced with several of the guys that work there so they worked my bike in for me that afternoon. After confirming that everything I had done was ok, they did a compression and leakdown test. My bike is losing compression, which means a top end tear down to find the problem.

After planning this trip for 2 months, just waiting for cooler weather, I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be typing this tonight instead of being 140 miles north spending the night on Bull Shoals Lake. If it could have just waited another week before it puked the top end, I would have been fine with it.

As far as my RA goes, I am feeling better still. Sore and stiff ankles, heels and feet along with my knees and right shoulder still being grouchy, other than that I have no complaints. I have been using the Voltaren Gel on my hands quite a bit over the last 2 weeks and it does help. The middle joint of my ring finger on my left hand is very notchy when I bend it now. It doesn't hurt too bad but you can watch the knuckle pop as you bend it. I hope this passes quickly. I am back to working out consistently and am starting to feel my muscles fill back out in my arms. I love the feeling after a workout where you have pushed yourself a little bit. My arms hated me the first couple of weeks, but are now starting to like working out again.

Good Days

2010-09-28T20:57:00.002-05:00

Shot day tomorrow, I dread these days as they come around now. Enbrel didn't hurt like Humira does, I never gave shot day a second thought. Life was simpler before Enbrel quit working for me. My current pain is a solid 4 maybe a 5 right now thanks to two days of mowing, trimming, weed eating, raking and cleaning out two large flower beds for winter. I have been trying to keep up with Wren and I am ready to admit defeat. My hands, hips, knees, ankles and right shoulder are all equally cranky tonight. But the place sure does look better.

I finally received my score from my Minneapolis training program. I passed with an 86, so I now have my Level 1 Flexo certification. I would like to pursue the Level 2 and 3 certifications if Georgia Pacific will allow us to. Wish I could say that having the certification will make it easier on me or that I would get a raise but thats not the case.

I have my bike ready to take out for a 100 mile shake down ride tomorrow. I believe I found what was causing my flats, so I have a new tube and a new Dunlop 606 mounted up to see how far I can make it before I have a flat tomorrow. Just kidding, I'd better not have one. I also have a small tank bag mounted and am anxious to see how riding with it will affect the handling of the bike. If everything goes alright, I will be ready for our 2-3 day ride coming up.

I hope everyone can get out this weekend and enjoy some great early fall weather ... pain free. I will be working all weekend, but have some fun for me.

Back Home

2010-09-26T09:55:00.004-05:00

I was approached a few weeks ago at work about going to a training class for flexo printing. For those not familiar with flexo, it is a form of printing that transfers ink via a laser etched ceramic anilox roller to a photopolymer plate. There's much more to it, but I won't bore you with my work life. I originally told them no, that due to my RA, I could not ride in a vehicle that far. I had just barely got those words out of my mouth when they said, "we're flying". Oh, ... well then I'm in.

We flew out early Tuesday morning and had a good flight to Dallas, then a good flight from Dallas to Minneapolis, if you don't count the last 15 minutes. There was a ton of turbulence approaching Minneapolis and the 737 was dropping, then rising, pitching from one side to the other, then BAM ... we slam down on the runway hard and they reverse the engines harder than I've ever experienced throwing people forward testing their seat belts out. Later in the car to the hotel I asked one of the supervisors, "did we land or were we shot down?" He nearly hit the car in front of because he was laughing so hard, he didn't see it slowing down.

The class was good, the print lab was cool, the first 2 days the weather was amazing but the last 2 days were cold and raining. I hurt a lot the last 2 days and it reminded me of the upcoming winter weather benefits that our RA and OA give us.

We went to a Twins post season game (the new stadium was awesome), the Mall of America (not a shopper but had to see the amusement park and walk through aquarium), ate seafood at Stella's and they had 2 guys from Deadliest Catch there signing autographs (no, I didn't get one), went by First Avenue (club used in Purple Rain - amazing all of the bands that have preformed here, a ton of music history). I love live music and the shows they have coming up made me want to stay there. I didn't really know what to expect from Minneapolis, but came away impressed with how nice and friendly everyone was and how exceptionally clean the town was. We walked a lot (to add to my RA and OA pain) and I can't recall a single piece of trash on the sidewalk or street at any time. It was well worth going and hurting over.

I'm back home and resting now, trying to let my RA ease back up on me. OK, actually I'm just waiting for the grass to dry so I can start mowing and trimming today. Hope everyone has a good and pain free week.

Old Enduro Riders Never Die

2010-09-20T09:09:00.002-05:00

I have all of your normal RA pains (sitting, standing, walking) everyday, but overall I have been feeling good for the last two weeks with one exception. My wrists and hands have been hurting. There are a couple of factors that could possibly be aggravating them. We have had a lot of rain lately and the humidity has been consistently around 80% over the last 10 days. The other factor is work. I have had a rough, but rewarding two weeks at work. Two out of the last seven work days, I have worked by myself on the front end of the press, doing the work of two operators. I can do it, but I pay a price for it. After all of the crawling around to get to the bottom print decks, lifting and carrying metal ink pots and climbing up and down stairs and ladders, I anticipated more areas hurting me today, so I guess thats a good thing. Temporarily, my fatigue is almost down to nothing. Now this feeling... I could learn to like.

I think the switch to Humira will turn out to be a good one. I may not be feeling as good as I did right after an Orencia infusion, but I feel more leveled out now. With Orencia, I felt great after the infusion, but the last two weeks of the month, before another infusion, I was hurting. The thing I don't like about Humira, is the injections hurt like a big dawg!

I'm packing my bags to fly to Minneapolis tomorrow. It's not a vacation, it is a company training trip. I will be gone four days and have to test at the end of the training. If I pass, I will have my Level 1 Flexo printing certification. Not a big deal, I don't plan on leaving the company, but these days you don't know what big companies will do. It could come in useful later, if I have to look for another job.

Not much going on this week around the shop. I have a couple of items ordered for my bike. By the summer of 2011, I may finally have my bike set up for hardcore dual sport rides. When I first bought my KTM, I didn't expect to get wrapped up in dual sport riding like I have. But I didn't anticipate not being able to ride single track trail either. It has been a bitter sweet adventure for me. I miss riding the woods and every time we pass a good looking trail I want to point my bike down it to see where it goes. I sometimes weigh the options and if it looks good enough to hurt over later, I will ride it. I saw a bumper sticker last month that read "Old Enduro Riders Never Die ... They Just Start Riding Dual Sport". Obviously I'm not alone since I used to race enduros. I need one of those bumper stickers.

The Saga Continues

2010-09-14T19:56:00.002-05:00

I woke to the annoying beep, beep , beep of the alarm clock early this morning. It's cool though ... today I'm getting up early to go ride. This is the first time back out since the horrific 3 flats in one ride day 2 weeks ago. I spent a lot of time checking and patching the tire after that ride and even put in a 10 mile ride around the house to make sure the tire was alright. Everything was fine.

I picked Randall up on the way to the Ouachita National Forrest this morning. We were both yawning but anticipated a good day. We quickly loaded his bike in my truck and headed on our way. It was 63 and heavily overcast this morning, nothing on radar, all of the rain and storms were north of us moving straight east. Once there, we unloaded, got our gear on and took off like a couple of cats at the dog pound.

After a short run up highway 71, we turn into the forrest and light the big beasts up. There is an uphill off camber turn that just dares you to slide your bike sideways as you hit the forrest boundary, so Randall and I did not disappoint it this morning. Sliding sideways through the turn at 35 mph we pop over the top of the rise and down the back side of the hill at 60 mph. It was chilly once we got started. I almost wished I would have worn my sweatshirt instead of a thin riding jersey this morning. The bikes love cool, crisp mornings like today and they were responding to the slightest throttle movements. At one point, I was running around 45 mph, I cracked the throttle and the front end popped up while it literally slung me backwards and yanked my arms at the shoulder sockets. Man ... this is why I ride. For that feeling right there, the sheer horsepower and acceleration makes you feel so alive. I slowed down as we descend into a valley, go around a tight little turn and hit a low water bridge. I light the throttle back up and run down to forrest road 178 and wait on Randall. Randall pulls up and is checking his GPS, looks over and begins chuckling. What is it? He informs me that I have another flat tire. I was so mad, I didn't change the tube, just turned around and rode back out on the flat tire. I have had enough flats with this tire, there has to be something inside it that I'm missing, I am peeling the tire off and throwing it away. After arriving back at the truck, a quick glance at the odometer shows I racked up an paltry 14.9 miles!

On the way home it continued to get darker and a fierce cross wind hit all at once blowing my truck all over the road. Before we got back to Randalls house, the sky had opened up and it was raining hard. By the time I arrived at my house, the rain was coming down even harder. I sit here with thunder rumbling in the background and the rain hitting the roof so hard it's deafening. In fact, it's currently raining so hard, the animals are starting to pair up.

Very disappointing, but perhaps for the best. I don't mind riding in a little shower or even a brief thunderstorm, but I don't like riding in hard rain all day long. And neither of us would admit to the other that we wanted to turn around and go back to the truck.

Working With RA

2010-09-12T13:12:00.003-05:00

A recent post from Lana, Weakness vs. Strength, brought up an important question for all RAers that work. "Often times, I wonder whether asking (for an accommodation) makes me better than those hundreds of people who have other chronic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Do I deserve an accommodation and they don’t?" In my opinion, this is a touchy subject with employers. I think how they respond to asking for accommodations would depend a great deal on your overall work record and production. I don't agree with this, it's just my opinion that how they would look at it. But then again Lana brings up a valid point in, is it fair to the other employees. My view is that, while it is not fair to the other employees, it is also not fair that we live everyday in pain and have to conform, the best we can, to healthy workers standards. We are far from weak, yet we are judged everyday at work against standards that healthy employees often struggle to maintain.

I am in a unique situation in that my printing supervisor is very aware of rheumatoid arthritis. His wife has it and we talk from time to time about how each of us are responding to treatments, fatigue and mental attitudes. He is not much of a people person, even though he is a supervisor, yet you can see the pain in his facial expressions when talking about his wife's struggles with RA. But, as soon as we finish one of these conversations, I am expected to perform 100% of the required production even though I am enduring the same disease his wife has. At GP, if you have continued sub par production days, you will get a written warning that goes on your permanent record and in some instances, can get laid off for 3 days. Fair ... no, but I keep on doing the best that I can. Currently, my press crew is second out of 6 crews for production for the month of August.

I try not to let my job worry me, the last thing I need is stress from a place that I don't care for. I like my job, just not who I work for. Management walks around smiling and will stop to talk to you, but in reality they are not nice people to work for. That's all I'm going to say about that.

I have had FMLA for the last 4 years but have never used it. The bottom line for me is that if I don't work, I don't get paid. I have to work, my wife, daughter and the dogs are depending on me. But in the back of my mind (probably most of our minds) I wonder if there will come a day when I just can't do my job anymore ... that thought scares me.

Mortality and RA

2010-09-05T15:16:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of articles written about shorter life spans for people with RA. We have all read them, having rheumatoid arthritis is considered a risk factor for heart disease. Could it be that cardiac problems associated with RA are due, in part, to a lack of physical activity due to disability or chronic fatigue? Many RA patients are diabled within 15 years after diagnosis. It is common knowledge that muscles that aren’t used will atrophy. The same would be true for the heart, since after all, it is a muscle.
This is why I try to push myself to workout, at least a little bit, even on days when I don't feel like it. It doesn't have to be a grueling 90 minute workout that pummels you into a sweat induced, dehydrated coma. A simple 20 minute workout of walking or some light dumbbell exercises each day will help. The main thing is just getting started. Believe me, I know it's hard, but once you feel it working, you will want to do more. Also, weight bearing exercise can help prevent osteoporosis, another secondary effect of RA.
It is important that we, as RAer's, manage our risk for heart disease by monitoring blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight. Easier said than done, I need to lose weight, but I do work out, monitor my blood pressure twice weekly and have yearly physicals with bloodwork done. It's our responsibility to make healthy lifestyle choices for ourselves, our doctors can not do that for us.

Flats Update

2010-09-05T14:43:00.013-05:00

I've always taken pride in taking care of my tires, especially when I raced. I run a little extra air even though it detracts from the handling of the bike, and try to avoid protruding rocks and roots that can pinch a tube. After thinking back, I realized that I had not had a flat while riding since 1995 or early 96. A pretty good run, but having three flats on one ride bruises your ego.
I brought my bike back home and unloaded it. I pulled the rear wheel off and yanked the tire off of the rim for an inspection. I was sure that I would find something causing the flats. After careful inspection of the inside of the tire, the rim and all of the spoke nipples, I came up with nadda, zip, zilch. The only thing I can think of is that, where the spike went into the tire (first flat), it left a pretty fair sized hole in the tire, and occasionally, a small rock will catch the hole in the tire just right and protrudes through and punctures the tube.

I cleaned the rim and tire up, put a new rim band on the rim, double patched the hole in the tire and mounted it back on the rim. I'm not sure how the patches will hold on the inside of the tire, I've never tried this before, but the tire only had 100 miles on it. Being a new Dunlop 606, I couldn't just peel it off and trash it without trying this. I am taking it out Tuesday for a test run ... hopefully with no flats on this ride.

Flat Phantom

2010-08-30T20:07:00.006-05:00

I am still doing well as far as my RA goes. I have continued to push myself beyond what I should be doing with little repercussion. I have been experiencing extra pain in my hands over the last 10 days or so, but I have been doing quite a bit of digging and shoveling working on our extended patio project. I have been using the Voltaren Gel at nights only to get up and abuse my hands the next day again. Also, today, after putting in a horrid 120 mile ride, my ankles do not want to bend. I have the hot tub on and am going to soak my whole body in a few moments. Other than that, I can't complain. Even though I am doing much better for the time being, I am stiff when waking up, have fatigue like a big dawg and if I sit for more than 20 minutes, my entire body protests about trying to stand up and move. In other words, normal RA effects.

I met Randall for an early morning ride to eat breakfast at Rich Mountain. Steve and Susane own a small country store/cafe and on top of having really good food, they're the kind of people that you just enjoy sitting down with and talking to. On the way, the clouds were sitting down on the top of Poteau Mountain this morning. At exactly 6.1 miles into our ride, I had my first flat tire since I have owned my KTM. Well, I'm not going to complain about one flat tire in two years.

After changing tubes and airing the tire back up, we continue on to Rich Mountain. It was awesome, we rode across a closed iron truss bridge, then shot through the tree tunnel this morning in the cool morning air.

After eating breakfast, we climbed up on top of Rich Mountain to Talimena Drive for a cool ride in a light rain. The rain didn't last long and soon I was testing the new gearing I put on my bike. It still has that "yank your arms out of their sockets" power in the first three gears, but fourth through sixth are stretched way out now for more top end speed. Now, at 70 mph, the engine is running nice, comfortable rpm's, not winding out like with stock gearing.

We take an insane fast forrest road back coming off of Talimena Drive. We were running 65 mph on this little single lane dirt road. It was big fun, just as long as one of us doesn't crash at that speed. I hit a fire break on this road at 55-60 mph standing on the pegs and slammed my knees when the bike came back down. My OA in my knees is extremely grouchy tonight. Soon we were on another fast fire road and BAM ... I have my second flat tire at 85 miles into the ride. Not overly excited about this one, once again install a new tube, (note my happy fat butt with helmet hair trying to make my fingers bend around the rim and tire) new air and away we go. Pretty uneventful ride back in until at 105.3 miles ... I have a third flat tire. Randall and I were both out of tubes by now, so I had to ride the remaining 12 miles back to the truck on a flat rear tire. Hopefully I haven't ruined my brand new rear tire.

I've not had three flats in the last six years of riding. I am going to pull my tire off of the rim tomorrow and check for something in the tire, a bur on the rim or possibly a protruding spoke. Frankly, I don't find changing tires out on the trail that mondo jovial.

Feeling Better With A Bobcat

2010-08-23T18:08:00.003-05:00

As most of you know by now, I love to push myself when I am feeling good. It has been so hot over the last 4-5 weeks here, and at work, the air conditioner is not working properly in the pressroom where I work. The temperature, in the pressroom, has been in the mid to upper 80's all week. Yesterday, on my 4th twelve hour shift in a row, a mild case of heat exhaustion set in on me around 3 pm. By 5 pm, I had a serious headache, could barely move (flu like feeling) and slightly nauseous. I got off work at 7 pm, went straight home, took a cool shower and crashed on the couch with a fan blowing directly on me. By 9 pm, I felt a little hungry, ate a smoked turkey sandwich and went to bed.

Now today, one might think that little episode would be fresh in my brain and I wouldn't do anything stupid 2 days in a row. One would be wrong. My father in law came down to frame up a patio for us. We have a nice patio with the hot tub sitting on it already. But we don't want a nice sized patio ... we want a big ass patio that we are going to have covered later. Anyway, I got up this morning and took Donna's car and filled it up with gas, washed and vacuumed it out, cleaned the interior, and washed the windows by hand (car washes never get the windows clean enough), ordered 6 yards of sand for the patio and started playing in the dirt with David's Bobcat. Man, that is almost as much fun as riding a dirt bike! After moving the dirt from the pad (where the patio will be poured), framing and leveling the patio, spreading the sand and spot mowing my yard, I once again have a headache and nauseous feeling. The temperature, currently at 4 pm is 101 with a heat index of 107. Still, getting to play with the Bobcat was worth it.

I'm taking care of myself tonight, have a ride planned for tomorrow, then we are pouring the patio Wednesday. Then back to work Thursday. Man... I love feeling better.

Awards

2010-08-23T17:59:00.005-05:00

I wish to thank the readers and followers of my blog. Anne from the Medical Assistant Schools informed me that Dual Sport Life was chosen as one of the Top 40 Arthritis Blogs. Although excited about receiving the award, I honestly feel a little out of place, after all, I don't post very often on actual resources for RA, but more from a personal viewpoint of living with RA.

In addition to that, Dual Sport Life has been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award. Thanks to Lana from Living It, Loving It, Laurie form Frozen Woman, Squirrel from Feelin' Swell and Andrew from Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis for the nomination. As part of the award, I am to award other bloggers that have inspired/impacted me. Here are my favorite blogs in no certain order. Most have already been been chosen, but I still wanted them to know that they were special to me.

Kelly at RA Warrior

Lana at Living It, Loving It

Andrew at Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis

RA Guy

Wren at RheumaBlog

Laurie at Frozen Woman: Life With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Mike at My Life ANd New Fight With RA

Cathy at The Life And Adventures Of Cateepoo

Squirrel at Feelin' Swell: My Life With RA

Kelli at Rheum For God

Amanda at All Flared Up

In Lieu Of Flowers

2010-08-18T11:42:00.001-05:00

I would like to start off by saying thank you to everyone who leaves comments and words of encouragement for me. This is not an easy disease to live with, the day to day ups and downs, the pain, fatigue and sometimes depression that comes along with it. I just want you to know that it means a lot to me having the support of fellow bloggers and followers.

I feel considerably more like the old me (not the pre RA me though) this week and have even started working out with weights and walking again daily. I'm starting off slowly, careful not to hurt what little bit of muscle that I have left. I know that exercise is important for us, but between my RA and OA pain and fatigue, I just couldn't make myself. I hate feeling that badly, I really enjoy working out. I will take my Humira shot shortly, in fact I have it laid out warming up now. I cleaned my shop up yesterday, it seems so strange, after selling my KDX, just having one bike in the garage again. I even felt good enough to crawl around on the shop floor yesterday greasing the spindles and drag link on my mower after changing oil in it. No repercussions today from crawling around on my knees and back, that is a good sign.

I sit here this morning with my maps and computer putting a ride together for this fall. I know you can tell that I am feeling better now, the last three weeks I haven't felt like or cared about riding. This will be a 2 day, possibly a 3 day ride that I am looking at. I have thought of some of it and borrowed parts of it from fellow adventure riders. A rough estimate, as of now, is 350 - 400 miles. My RA gets pretty grouchy at anything over 130 miles a day, but if we have to do it in 2 days ... count me in. The ride will include 3 old bridges for my other blog, one of them is a swinging bridge for vehicles that is still in operation, at least 3 swinging bridges to walk across, a ghost town on the Buffalo River and a 25 minute ferry ride that will depart on the Arkansas side of the lake and drop us off on the Missouri side.

For another ride after the weather breaks, I have learned of a Bowstring truss bridge that was built in 1874. It would be a one day ride ... a long one day ride. It is abandoned with about 30 % of the deck missing, but it will be a find, that is if I can find it. Bowstring truss bridges are extremely rare now plus it was built in the 1800's.

I saw an obituary last week where the family said "in lieu of flowers, please contribute to the campaign of anyone running against Obama in 2012". LOL Now that's funny, I don't care who you are!

Off-Road Race Crash

2010-08-17T10:43:00.007-05:00

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will review Saturday's off-road race crash that killed eight spectators in Southern California's Mojave Desert, a spokeswoman with the bureau's California office said.

My condolences and prayers go out to those who lost loved ones or were hurt themselves by this terrible mishap. Also I couldn't imagine what the driver is going through right now.

As an ex-off road racer, as well as a spectator at numerous events, I know that:
1) Spectators want to be as close to the racers as possible when they pass by them.
2) Spectators don't want to see you go by on a smooth flat piece of land. They usually will congregate at the gnarliest, roughest sections to see the best action.
3) Off road courses are 50 to 100 miles in length. There is absolutely NO WAY a race promoter can set up barriers for the whole race.

Depending on how close spectators crowd up against the race course, this can become very dangerous. The racer has to either:
1) slow down for the spectators safety and risk someone passing him (off road racers can work for 10-20 miles trying to get around someone and you sure don't want to give up a position as a freebie to another racer who doesn't care about the spectators safety)
2) focus on the race and not worry about the spectators
3) try to do both

"You could touch it if you wanted to. It's part of the excitement," said 19-year-old Niky Carmikle, who stood sobbing over a makeshift memorial on the spot of the crash Sunday. Her boyfriend, 24-year-old Zachary Freeman of Ventura, was killed in the crash. "There's always that risk factor, but you just don't expect that it will happen to you."
Just as Niky stated above, spectators know the risks. At some off road events I have been to (as a spectator), you have to sign a form acknowledging that they (promoter/racetrack) are not responsible for any personal injury. They (spectators) should be responsible for their own safety. A race promoter cannot police 50 to 100 miles of course to make sure that someone is not where they shouldn't be. Racers put their lives on the line, likewise, spectators take their lives in their own hands as well. Most of them (spectators) are there to see a good crash, but it's tragic when something like this happens. I just hate to see the lawyers, BLM and our politicians come in and try to make sense out of something they don't understand. Look at what they have done for the rest of the country.

Brown Moments

2010-08-16T19:43:00.002-05:00

I'm finally starting to feel better. It has taken much longer than I anticipated, getting back to this point, after finishing the antibiotics nearly a month ago. The weird thing was, I went to work last Friday hurting and fatigued already just after crawling out of bed. I struggled to make it through another 12 hour work day, then went home and crawled back into bed. When I woke to the shrill beeping of the alarm clock, at 5:15 Saturday morning, I did not want to face another work day. I shut the alarm clock off, rolled over and tried to stand up, and to my surprise, everything worked reasonably well. I shaved, showered, made my lunch and was out the door. I actually felt like going to work. There was no gradual improvement into feeling better, just like someone flipped a light switch and BAM ... I'm better. For me, that's one thing that is extremely frustrating about RA, just when I think I am starting to understand this disease a little bit, the rules change again!

I geared my bike up so I should be able to get another 10-12 mph out of it. This should allow it to cruise comfortably at 70-75 mph without over revving the engine. Funny thing, after I quit racing, I thought my brown moments were behind me. Brown moments now occur when you realize you're running 20 mph faster than you thought you were and you don't have enough room to get the bike slowed down before the turn. So far, Randall and I have escaped bodily damage, but you're heart is pumping about a million beats per minute and you have that nauseous feeling in your stomach that you get with a broken bone. Then we laugh about it and go on.

I changed the rear sprocket, cleaned and greased the rear wheel bearings and cut 2 links out of my chain to accommodate the smaller sprocket today. It hurt my hands breaking the bolts loose, but they will feel ok for my test ride with the new gearing in the morning.

I sold my woods race bike Sunday afternoon. Bittersweet, the thing was built for the tight, nasty woods and it would literally carve through the nastiest, tightest sections imaginable ... as fast as you felt comfortable. Of course, I was no longer able to ride the rough, tight stuff, so it sadly sat in my garage, content to make a trip up and down the road once a month or so.