What happened to the bike? Sure seems like the carbon forks should be stronger.

Pads

So now that my new involuntary profession is nursing, I'm becoming well versed at what type of bandages work and what don't. Not that I'm good at bandaging, but I've come to realize what works and what doesn't. Jarred is pretty much one big scab right now and much of his arms and back need to be covered so he doesn't stick to everything he touches. While he needs to be covered, what he is covered with MUST come off easily or else my time with him in the shower is more painful than necessary.

I've come to realize there is a purpose to those extra large, extra long maxi pads- they soak up puss and don't stick to the human. Today, on my second trip to Wal-Mart in two days (painful), I started pricing out absorbent materials. Johnson and Johnson makes great bandages, but they're about $.80 per bandage. When you're using 8 a day, that adds up. So I wandered over to the maxi pad section....24 extra long maxi pads for $3.97 (the roll-back price). I'm sold.

I'm also sold on telfa pads and co-flex. My horse friends will nod in agreement, telfa pads don't stick to anything and co-flex sticks only to itself.

Biking Adventures

It seems that most of our friends start blogs because they have kids or take sick photos of guys hucking themselves off of waterfalls. While we're not on the kid track and, until recently, didn't have a camera to take sick photos of guys hucking themselves off waterfalls, we do lead fairly interesting lives and don't always get time to share those adventures with all of our friends, we figured this would be an easy way to do so.

So, let me (Sarah) start out with our most recent adventure...road biking. Last fall I bought my first road bike. Jarred was the lucky recipient of an awesome hand-me-down from our friend Nate, a few months later. We've been on our bikes a lot since then, even taking a spring break multi-day trip.

This adventure sure didn't start out as one, as most don't. Jarred and I have been house sitting out by Hood River at my friend Lisa's. Jarred was raft guiding a mere 14 miles away, so we were utilizing the close location and good roads and biking to work. Lisa lives at the top of a four mile hill, a great downhill ride to the Columbia. Saturday morning, Jarred and I took off down the hill for his ride to work. Those of you who know Jarred, know he does nothing slow, so off he went down the hill at break-neck speed. I followed behind at a slower speed. About two miles down the hill I turned a corner only to look up to see a mess of bike, man and bike parts. My first thought was, "Is that a limb?" What I was really seeing was Jarred's spilt water bottle in the middle of the road. As I rode down to Jarred I happily found him conscious but naturally, in a lot of pain and swearing loudly that we needed help. Many neighbors and passer's by, helped and I ended up driving Jarred to the emergency room. Once there, the real damage was assessed. Jarred ended up with a broken collarbone and a chipped scapula (shoulder bone). Oh, and an ass load of road rash and seven stitches in his eyebrow (the same one he split open with a paddle after going off a waterfall a couple of yrs. ago in Canada). The nurses in the emergency room were lucky enough to wash the road rash while Jarred was on a morphine drip. I, however, have not been so lucky.

Now, how did this all happen, you may be wondering? Good question. As far as Jarred can tell, he was pedaling as fast has he could, as he was trying to hit 45 mph (which he did hit around the time of the crash) and his foot slipped out of the clip and possibly into the front tire. Things happen fast at 45 mph, so he can't remember his foot going into the tire. The odd thing is that the forks in the bike broke. We've yet to determine why this happened.

So our adventures are now limited to picking scabs in the shower and visits to orthepedic doctors, oh and eating.