Departures (was) @!#$^&*()_#$%^@#$^&!!!
 

Howdy, Peter, and group, again...

"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
m...
So, if I have a later surgery (current schedule is June 15th), it would
allow a longer rehab and also more time to get our act together about
getting houses dealt with, for a November 05 departure. As it is, we
may be
delayed, unless we just "throw them away" by cutting the prices to fire
sale
level (thus killing our cruising kitty - a catch 22), so perhaps it
wouldn't
matter, anyway, to have a later surgery. However, Lydia's just beside
herself wanting to get aboard, so we've not yet made that decision.

Nothing's changed in that department, but we've made great strides in
getting my house (encumbered by about 40 years of accumulation) ready for
sale. Put a sign on the dock this weekend, and had two calls and a showing
from it, along with two showings to prior contacts. A group letter to
others I'd cultivated in the past should generate some more activity. I
believe we'll have them sold before we'd otherwise be ready to go, as I've
determined to have the surgery, regardless of when and outcomes.

My preference is to wait until, say, September, and get a good long
rehab
before making the boat as perfect as we can, and heading out November
05.
That would also get us past the requirement to come back from wherever
we
were to see her son graduate in December :{))

I recently broke my elbow in multiple places, along with assted other
injuries, in a fall. My physiotherapist says to forget about even

OWW!!!

paddling a kayak for months and not to go to sea on my annual work
cruise to the Antarctic. You go to sea with a bad shoulder, half
healed, and cop a heavy roll at the wrong moment, it's not going to be
pretty. How are you going to hang onto anything? I know that I can't,
right now.

My thoughts exactly. My expected time line (based on prior experience and
confirmation recently from the surgeon) is 2 weeks of absolutely no activity
other than pendulum circular swinging to keep the joint mobile, up to 6
weeks of that or, assuming all is well, another 4 weeks (total 6) of minimal
exercise in a pendulum mode, followed by about 6 months of rehab/PT. That
will restore me to function, but not necessarily strength or pain-free
condition. My gauge will be not only the ability to raise my arm over my
head comfortably, the comfortable ability to hang (I'm over 200#) in any
position with it, and the ability to take a strong punch (equivalent,
roughly, to bouncing off a bulkhead in an unexpected attitude adjustment).

That may well take us to November in any case, though I really don't think
so. I'm sure it will work out in the end.

Get well, then go. Otherwise the first might be the last when it all
gets ugly & painful instead of enjoyable. Even crew won't help if the
weather gets bad and you need the strength of a bad hand.

:{)) No kidding. We made a great deal of progress on my house (we don't
yet live together, as she lives and works 80 miles away) this holiday
weekend, sending a van-full off to the charities and some to the landfill,
which was preceded by my son's wedding a couple of weeks earlier, during
which a great deal left with relatives. Lydia's committed to doing all the
things I won't be able to do physically in order to get things going ASAP,
so I'm confirmed for Cutting about 334 hours from now (two weeks less a
couple of hours).

On the procedure, I have no qualms. The outcome won't be any worse, other
than a small potential for residual pain, of which there's none, now, and
there's every possibility (though only a rate of 50% success factor in the
procedure) that I'll regain full use of my arm. The surgeon is the best
there is in this field.

A side benefit (when life hands me lemons, I try to make lemonade) is that
the work I'd expected I'd do on the boat now will be most likely in the
winter, rather than the FL summer, which is brutal in a boat on the hard and
un-airconditioned. I expect I could be able to do the kind of work I'd want
to do (tracing some wiring, redoing some plumbing, taking a windlass off for
reconditioning, supervising some new fabrication) without being fully
rehabbed, or being rehabbed, but not yet strong enough or pain-free enough
to want to splash it, so perhaps it will all work out for the best. I'm
just enough of a perfectionist to not want to have to 'sit around' in a
period when I'd expected to be making measurable progress. But if I have to
sit around, better it should be in a time when I'd not really want to work
in the bowels of Hades, anyway! :{))

L8R

Skip and Lydia

--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a
clear night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize
that you are quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to
you that in the general scheme of things you are merely an
insignificant speck on the surface of the ocean; and are not nearly
so important or as self-sufficient as you thought you were. Which is
an exceedingly wholesome thought, and one that may effect a
permanent change in your deportment that will be greatly appreciated
by your friends." - James S. Pitkin

Prudence (was) @!#$^&*()_#$%^@#$^&!!!
 

Hi, again, Rosalie and group,

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
Cool. Good to have competent help. I believe I did *not* get that the
first time around - I was part of a public hospital system with mostly

Sounds like it to me too. I won't speak to public hospital systems -
most of my medical care while Bob was in the Navy (20 years) was
through the Navy clinics for which we paid nothing. Some folks did
not believe that this was as good as private care, but I never had any
complaints that I could point to the system about.

I think - though, having washed out of the flight program I'd targeted my
entire life prior to that point for due to marginally red-green colorblind
vision, I don't have any direct experience - that military health care has
orders of magnitude more quality and accessibility than "public" health
care. I made a career out of sitting and waiting, despite taking great
pains to make appointments (rather than the typical cattle call clinic
experience), along with a second career keeping up with paperwork (which,
despite my best efforts, proved unsuccessful, as I'm still being billed 3
years later). I'd have *loved* to have been in a military hospital...

charity patients, and wasn't happy at the time with any of the
experience.
I believe I had competent care and surgery - but I also believe the
followup
should have caught this, and for that, I was very poorly served. In any
event, I've (now) got the best shoulder surgeon available, from all I can
discern, so I'm confident we're giving it our best shot at this time.
Unfortunately, that best shot is only a crapshoot, with a 50-50
likelihood
of success. Fortunately, it can't be made worse...

I think Lydia ought to chill and consider your health first.

Well, the health (with the possible exception of the mental part) will be
well taken care of. However, she's not the least bit interested in
(well,
let me rephrase that: adamantly opposed to) any delay whatsoever. And,

Think about whether this is going to be a problem down the road - i.e.
is she going to be wanting you to do things that are unwise (enter a
harbor at night, stay at a place that is unsafe etc)? Are you going
to let her sway your decisions unwisely?

Heh. I don't think there's any wisdom involved here - just my preference to
have more of the summer to enjoy, as long as we're going to be delayed,
anyway. On reflection, that's probably (well, certainly, particularly
since Lydia's lost all interest in her job at the moment, and any delay just
makes it worse) pretty selfish, and she's committed to doing the physically
demanding stuff I'll not be able to do this summer WRT the getting ready of
the house. It will mean that I'll be able to work on the boat this winter,
rather than in the oven it would be this summer, so it's a tradeoff, I
guess. If it were a health or safety issue, to answer your question, I'd not
let go - and, for that matter, I expect, if I were able to make an argument
which had some tangible other benefit beyond my enjoyment of the summer, she
might be more enthusiastic about putting it off. As it is, we'll still be
around during her son's graduation in December, and I'll be around for the
birth of my third grandchild sometime about the same time, as well, without
having to have bought an airplane ride for the two of us and having to
figure out how to deal with both transportation and lodging. :{))

(story clipped)


I consider it is my 'job' to be the spoiler (so to speak) to make sure
that we don't get into situations like that. But in this case, I
allowed him to persuade me when I should have insisted that we stay.

Ah, but were you 'pressured' - or did you agree with the assessment, and
find, only later, when you were in it, that it was incorrect? In any case,
I'm pretty conservative. Until we've been shown to be mistaken (by being
caught out, as is unavoidable) about our advisability to do something, we're
going to keep it safe. That's why, even though I was quite certain the boat
could do more, we started on staysail and double reef in our
25-30knot/8-10feet first couple of days :{))

L8R

Skip and Lydia

--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a
clear night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize
that you are quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to
you that in the general scheme of things you are merely an
insignificant speck on the surface of the ocean; and are not nearly
so important or as self-sufficient as you thought you were. Which is
an exceedingly wholesome thought, and one that may effect a
permanent change in your deportment that will be greatly appreciated
by your friends." - James S. Pitkin

@!#$^&*()_#$%^@#$^&!!!
 

"TheNIGHTCRAWLER" wrote in message
m...
Skip... Lydia, I'm NC, BTW :-)

You've been introduced, privately - and you've most likely missed your
chance to see me play, as I doubt I'll be in anothe concert, things being
what they are...

Skip! Get yer arm taken care of! *Damn fool old man*

Yup, gonna do that in something less than 334 hours (two weeks less a couple
of hours). No fool here - a very cautious and think-things-through kinda
risk-taker...

Enjoy the pleasures of being taken care of by your woman for a bit, so
you can return the favor in full force to the woman who will stand
beside.... well, YOU!

:{)) Indeed. Not only that, but her mother's coming over (from England)
again about the time I'd be starting serious progress toward therapy. She
makes a career out of helping out, spending a good half of the year around
the world tending others' gardens, or sitting their pets or houses, or, in
my case, spoiling me rotten for about 3 monhs a year between her jaunts to
visit the friends she grew up with in New Jersey.

Not that I'm suggesting anything:
http://www.uniformsandscrubs.com/Ski...d_Dresses.html

I doubt very seriously I'll have any of those nearby unless I'm unconscious.
I'm going to be in an inpatient-outpatient mode, staying overnight, but
dismissed before 24 hours, so perhaps I'll see one of those, but only
briefly :{))

Other than enjoying life.

You were looking to take a break, right? Consider this a break. A
later winter cruise is gonna take a certain amount of body heat, eh?

Shared?

Not in the Caribbean - and, contrary to most folks' expectations, it's
actually reasonably cool in the tropics. We've slept under blankets every
night we've gone in the past. But, on the point of cooler, working on the
boat in the winter is certainly a more palatable thought than the FL summer
I'd anticipated. It will all work out. As to the other insinuation, yes,
I'm her portable heater :{))

TheNIGHTCRAWLER
(There are only options)

Better than puts and calls, in this case :{))

L8R

Skip and Lydia

--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a
clear night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize
that you are quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to
you that in the general scheme of things you are merely an
insignificant speck on the surface of the ocean; and are not nearly
so important or as self-sufficient as you thought you were. Which is
an exceedingly wholesome thought, and one that may effect a
permanent change in your deportment that will be greatly appreciated
by your friends." - James S. Pitkin

Prudence (was) @!#$^&*()_#$%^@#$^&!!!
 

"Skip Gundlach"
skipgundlach.sez.remove.this.and.the.dots.to.mail
wrote:

Hi, again, Rosalie and group,

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .

(story clipped)


I consider it is my 'job' to be the spoiler (so to speak) to make sure
that we don't get into situations like that. But in this case, I
allowed him to persuade me when I should have insisted that we stay.

Ah, but were you 'pressured' - or did you agree with the assessment, and
find, only later, when you were in it, that it was incorrect? In any case,
I'm pretty conservative. Until we've been shown to be mistaken (by being
caught out, as is unavoidable) about our advisability to do something, we're
going to keep it safe. That's why, even though I was quite certain the boat
could do more, we started on staysail and double reef in our
25-30knot/8-10feet first couple of days :{))


I didn't agree with him. I don't know if you could say I was
pressured or not - he didn't actually give me an ultimatum or
anything. He just kept saying stuff like "It doesn't look too bad out
there" and I knew he wanted to leave and I didn't want to upset him.
But I didn't agree - I just didn't have enough information to make
non-agreement stick.

Part of it was that I was a bit anxious about getting back on the boat
anyway, and was quite a bit more fearful than usual, so I tended to
discount my own assessment because of that. I wanted to go to Great
Harbour and he wasn't so interested in doing that, and I had not
realized that the direction of the wind would make going there almost
impossible.

Now, he really has to convince me if I have any doubts at all. This
has led to his complaining that I never want to sail.


grandma Rosalie

a Post in Rec.sport.waterski... (was) @!#$^&*()_#$%^@#$^&!!!
 

Sent blind copied to protect the innocent. If you didn't see the original,
it's below...

L8R

Love, affection, gratitude and all that from Skip, much blessed by my
community of friends and family

From: "Skip Gundlach"
skipgundlach.sez.remove.this.and.the.dots.to.mail
Subject: 8 days a week...
Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 9:34 AM

Watta way to go...

This morning was absolutely perfect. Totally flat water and flat light.
Lydia filmed my final runs from the dock at water level, and from a
neighbor's double-decker. If it hadn't been for no traffic, the water
wouldn't have been perfect, but nobody was out except us. The flat light
assured that the lighting was even, rather than backlit on some of it, with
no definition in the front. And the icing on the cake was that it felt
great. Mental and muscle memory will be of those last runs...

It will be the only film I have of me from other than a Trakker, and on
review, it was marvelous. Nice memento of my skiing days, now presumed
over. Better yet, for my grandchildren, I can show off my aged body doing
this kind of stuff as compared to whatever's in vogue in the next 20 years
:{))

I'm off to a nap, and then off to surgery. People keep asking me if I'm
scared or worried, and I'm not - at all, whatsoever. It will be what it
will be. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my athletic
activities, either!

L8R

Skip

--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a
clear night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize
that you are quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to
you that in the general scheme of things you are merely an
insignificant speck on the surface of the ocean; and are not nearly
so important or as self-sufficient as you thought you were. Which is
an exceedingly wholesome thought, and one that may effect a
permanent change in your deportment that will be greatly appreciated
by your friends." - James S. Pitkin

"Skip Gundlach"
skipgundlach.sez.remove.this.and.the.dots.to.mail wrote in
message ...
I lo ooo ooo ooove you (to paraphrase the Beatles)...

Not really 8 days in the week, but 8 skiing days. On the afternoon of the
15th, I go in for surgery on my shoulder. That, combined with my
anticipated lifestyle change, is quite likely the last ski run I'll have
in
my life.

It won't go on the boat, and I'm not coming back, once we shove off. I
don't anticipate having the opportunity to ski where we'll be sailing, so
even if I was willing to give up the precious space aboard for it, my
Sasquatch (72" Extreme HO XXL front/rears) wouldn't get used. My son will
get it...

Lest this sound like sour grapes, or anything else negative, I want to
emphasize that I'm thrilled to have skied each morning for the last 12
days.
Today's runs were really sweet, as I got back into the swing and tried to
put my shoulder in the water as I did my turns. Not quite, but pretty
close
(to actually do it would be to do a Mike Kjellander, something I've never
mastered)!

I have a posse of accomplices here who are enabling me to get every day in
before I go under the knife. A couple of them that I've worn out (they
have
to take turns recuperating!) have been alternating the last few days, and
another one has had to go back to work, his vacation having ended.
However,
two of them have volunteered to pull me, even if they're injured/worn out,
to make my target of skiing every day until I can't. Today, I taught the
SO
of one of the regulars how to drive on my sets (her first time driving a
boat), so she could drive for *him* when I'm unable.

I expect I'll still drive for others, as my shoulder's in rehab, once the
pain is manageable and the doc sez it's ok to take the occasional jarring
that driving would do. But my skiing days are definitely numbered.. As
quickly as I can take a punch in the arm (the equivalent of bouncing off
the
bulkhead or some other boat part in an unexpected movement) after rehab,
estimated to run not earlier than the end of January, we're outta here.
Ennyone wanta buy an inexpensive Supreme? :{))

L8R

Skip

--

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"And then again, when you sit at the helm of your little ship on a
clear night, and gaze at the countless stars overhead, and realize
that you are quite alone on a great, wide sea, it is apt to occur to
you that in the general scheme of things you are merely an
insignificant speck on the surface of the ocean; and are not nearly
so important or as self-sufficient as you thought you were. Which is
an exceedingly wholesome thought, and one that may effect a
permanent change in your deportment that will be greatly appreciated
by your friends." - James S. Pitkin