Separation Anxiety

             During our almost 10 years living in the Deep South, Winter was a foreign concept to us. It would get a little chilly in Alabama and Georgia this time of year, perhaps we’d get a little snow. I remember wearing shorts and going outside on Christmas day during our time in Athens, Georgia. I also recall how Alabama would go into full-on snowpocalypse mode for what would become a light dusting.

             Toto, we’re not in Georgia anymore.

In the last month or so we midwesterners have been inundated with ice and snow, and it certainly adds to life’s challenges. My hat’s off to the street crews who work long hours to make sure our roads are passable.

One day a few weeks ago I came home from work during lunch to walk our dog. Our clients don’t come out in weather like this, so it was slow enough to be doable. Heading out to the trash can to make a deposit, I slipped on the ice that accumulated on the stepping stones that lead around the side of the house. One moment I’m upright, the next I’m flat on my belly. Turns out that landing on one’s shoulder is not a recommended course of action.

The pain was significant but not astronomical. 7-8 on the 10 scale they use. More of a constant, dull ache and not a sharp pain. Make no mistake, however, it was still very painful.

Looks like I'll miss the start of spring training. 

So with a left arm hanging at my side, the First Lady and I head off to the doc in a box. The DO takes a quick look at me and realizes that my left shoulder was dislocated. Then it was off to the ER, where it turns out I wasn’t the only one with a weather-related injury. Lots of waiting is understandable in this situation, and it was impossible to find a sitting position that was comfortable. When you’ve got a bum shoulder you really know where all the manhole covers are on the road. Plus with wintry weather comes pothole season. My dear wife did very well to minimize even the smallest of bumps in the road. Felt like a bit of a slalom event there for a bit.

A very reassuring thing was when the ER doctor took a four-second look at my x-ray and nodded her head. She didn’t point to anything. It turned out this was a garden-variety separation with no broken bones. They gave me some of the good stuff to knock me out as they reset my shoulder. I don’t remember going out. One second I’m talking to the doctor about how lovely it is in Arizona this time of year, the next I’m lying there in bed with everything back in place. It seemed like five minutes though I’m told it was more like 45.

I managed to get around for a week with my arm in a sling, though I weaned myself off it after about four days. You really notice the things you use your body for when one part of it is injured. Simple things like getting out of bed, taking a shower and even putting on a shirt are much more complicated when soreness is involved.

By now it’s still a little sore but I feel a lot better. I’m able to do more as I go forward. Physical therapy begins tomorrow.

Back in Town

I always loved broadcasting ball games on the radio. It’s all I ever wanted to do.

In 2002 one part of the ride was ending and I found a new radio opportunity in Clay Center, Kansas. I spent 7 ½ years there until marriage and relocation took my wife and me in a different direction. I learned so much and made so many friends there. The station is staffed by good people who live in the community and are all committed to doing good work and I was blessed to be a part of it for as long as I was.

One of the things that drew me in all those years ago was a week-long basketball tournament where 13 teams all get together and play from one Saturday to the next. There are seedings, consolation and championship brackets and what not. Us radio types were particularly drawn to the hospitality room, where you could always find some hot chili or a cookie or two. One school (sometimes two) hosts and they run games in two gyms so having two people there is a big help. The adrenaline kicks in and it becomes more about the fun of covering hoops and less about covering five games in an afternoon followed by a snowy drive home.

Anyhow we live in the Kansas City metro now and not the Deep South, so it has become easier to head back to Clay Center every now and then. I drove back out there a couple of Fridays ago with the intent of helping with this tournament. I pitched in on the Clay Center’s basketball coverage Friday night and it reminded me of sitting in the same gym in the same spot 16 years ago, not knowing where I was or what I was doing there. At the end of 2001 I’d worked at three jobs in three different states in the span of six months, so it was a bit of a whirlwind. But there I was last Friday night feeling like the new guy all over again.

I vividly remember sitting in this very spot all those years ago,
literally not knowing where I was or what I was doing there.

During our coverage Friday night the snow started to fall, resulting in the cancellation of the first Saturday of league tournament play, so truly I drove out there for nothing. However it did give me the chance to drive around a bit and see what was new. I got together with some friends and watched the Chiefs beat Indianapolis. The game was awesome, but for those four hours I felt like I belonged there, in my old stomping grounds, with my people.

It felt good to be home.

Lawnmower Man

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Have you ever had your automobile start sounding like a lawnmower instead?

             I have.

This was the make/model of my first set of wheels. It was
charcoal grey and had royal blue trim. Treated me well.

The first car I ever owned was a charcoal grey 1991 Chevy Cavalier. I paid seven grand for it while I was still in the Navy. Wasn’t too bad of a thing, since I paid off the loan while I was on deployment in 92-93 and usually didn’t have a place to spend money anyway. I had it shipped off the islands and drove it around while I was in college and for my first few years afterward.

            This was the car that got me through college at Texas Tech in the mid-late 90s and it was the car that I drove to O’Banion Field one spring day in 1997 or so. I was there to cover a high school playoff baseball game, I think between Amarillo Tascosa and maybe Midland High School. There used to be a railroad track between the highway and the parking lot and you had to gun the engine a bit to get up the embankment and over it.

O'Banion Field, where Coronado High School plays its
 home baseball games. 

            I managed to give it too much gas and I went up and over too quickly, and the undercarriage of my car slammed down against the railroad track and made it sound like a something you’d push across your front lawn instead of a four-door sedan. My tailpipe made a grating noise as it started dragging along the ground.

            This isn’t something you want to have happen as you get ready to broadcast a game. Concentrating is difficult enough, and here I am about to lay out $800 to get my tailpipe reattached. Swell.

            They later made that area idiot proof and leveled that embankment. There’s a frontage road there nowadays as you come off the Brownfield Highway. Even the railroad tracks are gone. Thanks guys.