Art O’Connor

Bloody hell I am going insane here. If I don’t get on my bike soon I am going to end up in a padded cell. My thoughts are like a room full of people all trying to get out the door at the same time. I use my time on the bike to sort through things and without that outlet they just pile up and I get more grumpy and antisocial. I made a few attempts this weekend to go out and be social but they were short lived or ended badly. Yesterday in an attempt to do something productive I hauled some bundles of shingles up the ladder (not super easy with one good arm) and threw some of my former tenants crap in the dumpster. I thought about going to DV to see some racing but decided I did not want to drive all that way to just watch. I spend the rest of the afternoon turning the hose on kids that stepped in my yard. Still I can’t complain too much. My arm will heal and I will be back to my normal level of crazy.

Sundays at the cube farm are super slow so I bring my laptop in and write stuff like this in my blog and work on shirt ideas. I may have some new designs up later today so buy some, or at least click some of my ads so I can make a few cents. I have no drawing skills so I am limited to just making shirts with stupid sayings on them. I do have some ideas for stuff with illustration and I have recruited the skills of Wendy Chao to help with that should be pretty cool. Hopefully the monetizing of this page is not too obnoxious. I will be adding a separate page for my PayPerPost reviews and I will also post stuff about making money online there. Not that I think my (mostly) daily writing is some work of art (no pun intended) but I think it is best to keep the two areas separate.

I am amazed at how quick my arm has atrophied. It is a little over a week since I broke my wrist but my arm is well on it’s way to looking like the arm of a T-Rex. I didnt think I had that much muscle to lose. The gun show is down to one barrel for a while.

What if you had a National Mountain Bike race and nobody cared? Well you can go to Deer Valley this weekend and see for yourself. Even if my paw was not broken I don’t know if I would have ponied up $60 to ride on the worst trails in Park City. I was hoping to be among the dozen or so people watching tomorrow but it is not looking good. I have an electrician and a cleaning service coming tomorrow to work on my vacant rental so I can get it ready for The Wolfe to move in sometime before snow flies.

For anyone who has driven in the 801 this will come as no suprise.

My visit to the doc yesterday went better than expected. No cast! He put me in one of those braces like the pro bowlers wear. That is super cool ‘cuz I can take it off and shower. The downside is I get no sympathy from cute girls now. When I had the sling I had a story, now I am just a guy with carpet tunnel. Oh well. I am convinced that other than Evel Kneivel most people don’t have very good broken bone stories anyway.

So far these are the biggest hassles about having a broken wrist.

- Tying shoe laces. On the bright side this gives me a hall pass to wear flip flops to work.
- Putting toothpaste on toothbrush.
- Eating fish taco’s. Once the tortilla’s structural integrity starts to fail it’s all over.
- Cutting fingernails. I managed to cut them all but my right (my good arm) thumb nail.
- Drying hand after washing.
- Doing dishes. That means eating out. Bad for the budget.
- Driving. The soob is a stick. Could be worse, if it was my right I wouldn’t be able to drive at all. Still probably not drive much. Maybe look into taking the bus to work.
- Can’t order/eat anything that requires the use of a knife and fork.

It is not all bad though. The other night I went to eat and the cute server thought it was cool that I broke my wrist longboarding and comped my beer. Same thing at my favorite watering hole. Almost every girl in the place came over to ask me what happened. If I had any conversation skills/personality said conversation might continue past “I fell”. My kick ass friends keep bringing me beer, baked goods, books, DVD’s etc. So don’t cry for me Argentina.

OK enough sitting around whacked on pain killers. I am back at the cube farm. Yesterday I went to watch the Sugarhouse Crit. I am just gonna say it right now. Any race that happens while I am injured, I would have won. So that is 2 races just this weekend (Deer Valley and Sugarhouse) that I would have won. By the time I get my cast off I will be the winningest rider in the state. Yaa! Louder showed you can work in the break and win, hopefully someone relayed that to those who missed it. Congrats to Sarge for representin’ FFKR and 40 somethings in the break.

Last night some scum bags in a stolen car did a hit and run in a crosswalk and ditched the car on my street. I think every cop on duty in the downtown area was on my street. Funny how when I call about the drug deals at the playground they don’t even send a car to drive by, but when there is a chance to stand around looking at a parked car for 2 hours talking to their buddies, that requires 7 cars. Nice.

Time to rethink my summer plans. My home projects will be set back a bit. The roofing crew is there right now making lots of noise and a huge mess. The dumpster people droped the ball and wont be delivering until Monday so my old roof (all 6 layers!) is sitting in a huge pile. I have a feeling I will be finding nails for a while after it is cleaned up, but really this project is not affected by my injury. My rental is a total mess, my old loser tenant took her clothes and from what I can see not much else. Now I have to hire someone to haul away all her useless shit. What a total bitch. You know you try to be nice and cut someone a break and they screw you every time. Losers are losers for a reason they cant be helped and will always drag you down. That is why welfare is such a bad idea. No insurance, can’t feed your kids, no job? Fuck you do the world a favor kill yourself. Fucking mouth breathing losers. I guess I will have to live with no furniture and bare floors for a while since I wont be paying to have those done and it will be a while before I can run a drum sander.

Wow that was quite a bitch session. Actually I am in a pretty good mood. This will give me a chance to do some other things. My back has been giving me trouble so now I can get that fixed. Lots of core work, work on flexibility, get my head together. It will be good. Staying fit will be a challenge. I get a short cast on Monday which will make me more mobile. Lots of hiking in the near future. With any luck I will be able able to fish. I can spend more time monetizing my blog. This has been a really fun project and is actually starting to pay off. I like the idea of creating something out of nothing. So yeah it’s not all bad, I can choose to be happy or choose to be miserable. I like the first one.

The thing about getting hurt or sick is it gives you a new appreciation for your friends. My friend Julie really stepped up on this one. Ride to and from surgery, a place to crash, and kick ass home cooking. What a champ. We have been through a lot, not all of it good but we have managed to stay friends. That is what defines friendship I guess. Friends dont give up on each other. Thanks to everyone who sent good energy my way. I am ok, now send it all to T-Mac.

I looked at my phone this morning and realized A.) I missed a lot of calls yesterday and B.) I don’t remember the calls I got. Narcotic pain killers will do that to you I guess. Still have not mastered the 1 hand typing so, Train out.

Anyone want to buy a longboard? Cheap. For the last two days I have been hearing a non-stop chorus of “I told you so”. So to apparently no ones suprise I broke my wrist falling off my longboard on Monday night. I was enjoying a ripping session with Norm and Spencer when I went down. I wish I had some death defying story of 60mph runs but the truth is I was going slow and just landed wrong. Norm and Spencer were total super stars getting me to the ER and keeping me entertained during the nearly 5 hours we waited. Thanks guys you rule. Tomorrow morning I am getting the whole thing put back together, getting a few more Ti screws to add to the collection. After surgery I will be recovering in the famed Celine Dion Suite at Julie’s house. That may be more frightening than the surgery…

Typing with one hand sucks. Train out.

The Summer of Art is now the Summer of the Cast. Fuck. Details to follow after the Lortab fog is lifted.

As you can see I jacked up my site design yesterday. Hopefully The Wolfe can bail me out. Suddenly I have tons of work to do on the house. In addition to my floors I have a roofing crew starting this week and I have to paint and carpet my rental so I can get that occupied ASAP. The Summer of Art is off to a busy start. Not much time for the bike this week. Oh well gotta act like an adult from time to time I guess. Tonight is my Firday so maybe I will go to The Jackalope and unwind after spending a few hours scraping and cleaning. Maybe I use the firepit and watch some cowboy TV, got some Chimay that I have been saving. So many options…