Fresh snow, fresh adventure, fresh injuries!

So we got some snow in California a few weeks ago. No, not in San Jose, here it was just raining. Up on the mountains near Tahoe there was kind of a lot of snow and Ricky, being an avid snowboarder and Ben being a budding skier with a week off from school, Gaelle rented a cabin for a couple of nights for a few days of hittin' the slopes.

They had a spare board and boots for me, and we picked up some gear secondhand on the cheap cheap, scheduled a lesson for Ben and I, and off we went!

If Ricky hasn't snowboarded in every country where it's possible to do so, I'm sure he's hit most of them. He's been all over the world and snowboarding since the late 70's.

Here he is with his custom "Sweet Tooth" board:




He took this picture at the top of the mountain so we all can enjoy the great view (I sure wasn't getting up there):



And here I am looking like I have a clue:



I had the most beginner of beginner lessons and was making my way down the learner slope more or less sideways (very slowly) because it's pretty important to get stopping down before moving fast.

After getting up the rope tow without falling down, and making my way down the learner slope more or less under control, I decided on the second and final day to try taking the lift up the beginner slope. I made my way down a few times, had a few spills, and still never really felt like I got steering down to any reasonable degree. My last attempt as I started going down I really felt like had it under control. I mean I was in the ZONE! I was thinking in my head "I'm doing it! I'm doing it! But I'm going kind of fast...how do I slow this down?" So I tried slowing it down. I failed. I mean I succeeded, but not in the way I had hoped. I'm not sure what I tried, but I ended up falling backwards and hit my head hard. I mean really hard. The impact knocked my goggles off. A kind skier stopped to see if I was ok. I said maybe but all I could do was just lay on the ground holding my head and hoping I didn't have a concussion. After a couple of minutes, I was relatively sure I didn't have a concussion, and I was becoming more and more aware of a major pain in my side. I told the skier I was ok and thanks for stopping and I started walking down the slope.

Now that fall had happened in about 5 seconds so I was still right near the top and my side was killing me, so I got about 10 steps before I thought "There has to be a better way of getting down..." So I pointed my board downhill, sat on it, and rode it 2/3 of the way down the slope like a sled, before walking the last third. My side was in some serious pain, so I was done. I went out to the parking lot to try and scalp my lift ticket, but it was too late in the day.

The knock on the head was enough to scare some sense into me. The next time I go snowboarding, I'm wearing a helmet, even if I'm not going that fast. Luckily, I was able to learn the lesson without a trip to the hospital.

Turns out my bottom rib on my right side has a partial fracture near the front. Which put me out of commission to do anything at all for a about a week. After I could move without being in too much pain, I went out and put new break pads on my Valkyrie. It may have been a simple job, but I'm proud to say I did it myself and didn't spend $70 paying someone else to do it.

And while I was putting on those new brake pads, I noticed a new leak in the fuel system on the left side as gasoline was once again pooling on top of the engine. It's a different problem than it was before, just with similar symptoms. I have a part coming in the mail that should fix it, but man is this getting tedious.