I’m on a real bad run. Last week was the flu, this week it’s an unexplained arthritis flare up that the doctors can’t explain yet. This week has been pure hell. It started Sunday afternoon with aches and pains which continued into monday. Monday night my pinky toe on my left foot turned bright red and hurt so bad I could not sleep. Tuesday I went to urgent care and they said it was an infection. They pumped me full of antibiotics. Went back Wednesday and it was a tiny bit better, but they still pumped me full of antibiotics. They drew lines on me where the infection was and said if it goes beyond these lines to go to the emergency room immediately. I went to work. Got home and checked and what do you know the red was way beyond the lines and now in my left wrist and right ankle. Ugh. Went to ER where they put me on IV antibiotics as seen above. They still thought it was an infection and they made an appointment for me the next day to see an infection specialist.

That night my wrist starting hurting in ways I cannot describe. It might be the most intense pain I have ever felt. I was taking three different antibiotic prescriptions between urgent care and ER. I went to my appointment at the infection specialist. Within a few minutes of looking at me he says it’s not an infection and setup an appointment for me with and arthritis expert. He said to throw away the antibiotics I was taking. WTF! Ugh! I go to the arthritis guy and my hand hurts so bad it felt like somebody was constantly hitting it with a hammer. Or maybe even a sledgehammer. This guy says I’m finally in the right spot and says it is arthritis related. He doesn’t know what though. They take more blood, take fluid from my knee and collect a urine sample to try and figure it out. He prescribes me some anti-inflammatory steroids and Vicoden (yes!!!) and says he’ll get back to me with the lab results. I leave and while I’m waiting for the prescription the pain was so insane in my left hand I couldn’t believe it could get worse.

So here I am four days after going to urgent care and I still don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m waiting to here from the arthritis guy. The pain in my hand has gone down a little bit, but it’s still unbearable. My left foot, right ankle, left knee feel better. Thank god for vicoden.

Lots of great photos from last weekend. Go there now!

I met Bernie and Sam at the little manny pad by Mike’s Camera. I was a bit late so all I did was a manny then we headed out to a new school kind of near Jack’s house. I was skating like poo, but managed a line of ollie up on, up one, up one, kickflip on flat then ollie a kind of long 3 stair. Bernie did some cool manny up to manny up to manny stuff. For being almost as old as me Sam was able to quick up the stairs way to easy. Then we went to Stonehenge where Carleigh and Jack met us. Jack is supposed to be healing a heel bruise, but he still managed to dolphin flip his little cruiser board. I did a few of the fun basics on the bank to curb before filming Bernie rip it. Carleigh took the worst slam that Stonehenge has seen as she tried a rock ‘n roll and dipped her board under the fence causing a gnarly slam when the board didn’t know. It’s possible that Sam and Bernie’s fence re-adjustments had something to do with it. After this I started to feel really crappy again. We went to a couple more spots, but I mostly just sat or filmed. Turns out a crazy infection in my foot was taking hold. Ugh. Another Sunday ending in lots of pain and being unable to sleep. Gotta stop that.

I was still feeling the effects of the flu. My body didn’t feel right at all. Some early morning football with Ollie followed by stretching didn’t seem to get things going which normally puts me in good shape for the day. Ugh. Carleigh and I rolled to Denver to meet Chad at his place then drive 20 miles down Colfax to a cool manny pad spot he know about. It was a ledge on top of a ledge mostly fitting for manuals. The place had a good contingent of homeless people lurking which made it a bit odd. We skated for awhile before getting a negative vibe and leaving. While we were there Chad killed the place. Nollie front heel fakie nose manual. That would be enough said, but there was so much more it was awesome. Heelflip manual. He was trying kickflip manual front 180 out then switch back 3 down the second ledge. Bernie got manual drop to manual. Oh yeah, Sam and Bernie had met up. Sam, Carleigh and I basically just ollied up/down the ledges. I tried to manual the top one, Sam tried to nose manny it. I was feeling pretty achy and mentally unable to skate.

On our way to a new spot we saw this spot and it occupied the rest of the day. This spot is epic. Bernie did some good stuff that I should have filmed. Quick up to nose manny shove to manny. Quick up to manny kickflip back to manny. Chad slayed all. Easily the best I’ve ever seen him skate. Tricks included hardflip back tail, nosebonk bigspin, back nosegrind back 180 out, nose manny the tall ledge, it was insane. Sam was pretty chill. Carleigh was working on a 20 trick line ending with kickflip and noseslide. I had told myself I wanted to do 3 tricks before filming (Even though I never ended up filming because Bernie filmed Chad). The first was to manny the ledge on top of the curb above. That was easy. The second was to lipslide it. Third was to ollie the flower pot on the far left of the photo (the ledge drops one curb level before the flower pot so it’s about the same height as the bench). I never landed the lipslide. I landed on it, I got close, I bailed, but I never rode away from it. Ugh. At the end of the session Sam and I tried to ollie up the tall part of the ledge that Chad was nose manny’ing so easy. Sam tried once, barely got the nose up and fell onto the ledge. It was funny. My initial tries were worse, but eventually I got myself up on the ledge with minor scrapage of the back wheels on the way up. The first two times I pansied out on ollie’ing over the flower pot once I got up there. Ugh. It took awhile to get up a third time and I eeked out the worst ollie ever over the flower pot. It wasn’t tall or far or anything, but after spending so much effort getting onto the ledge and recovering from the flu it was hard for me. I was pretty hyped though, that is easily the highest thing I have ever ollied onto. This was the end of the session. Pretty fun. Chad slayed it.

Oh yeah, thanks Carleigh for the photo! I know it’s not a make, but it’s the only photo from the session and I might as well document the trick I tried for two hours straight.

Somewhat recovered from the flu I went out front telling myself I’d do 10 kickflips and head back inside. The first attempt was like I never knew how to do them. But after that I rattled of 10 kickflips in 11 tries. Then it took about 11 tries to get a front shove before I went it.

Another long day. Hung out with the kids for awhile and started to feel kind of weird. Took a nap and woke up feeling pretty good. I figured I was just tired from a kind of late and fun night of Cornhole at Fuzz’s. Ollie was down to come skate with Neil and I so after a couple Louisville spots didn’t work out we ended up at the school near Cherryvale and Baseline. The last time I went to this school I rolled my ankle on a nollie down the little three stair in the back. Ugh, that was years ago though. In the front now there are some ok ledges, good flatground and a curb. I was set! There is a four stair with no runway too and Ollie spent most of his time jumping from the top onto his board at the bottom then doing front 180s off the curb cut. I got boardslides right away and lots of ollies/180s up/off the curb. Having a curb around to do stuff up/down is so fun. Neil was having a really off day. It took him at least 15 tries to get a boardslide. Wow. He did manage a really good wallie though. I was having fun lining stuff out. I got back 180 up the curb, halfcab noseslide, kickflip off the curb. Also got a b/s flip up the curb, a really bad frontside noseslide, and some crooks that felt like noseslides. Neil and Ollie were bored, I could have probably skated there forever, but we went around to the back. The same stuff was there, but there is a new parking block plastic structure that is fun for boardslides. Neil couldn’t get the pop out part which surprised me, he was really bumming on his skating. It sucks when you get in the funk. I ollied up the 3 stair on the first pass and did a little line of boardslide then front 180 the three stair. Ollie firecrackered and ollie’d the 3 stair. I had the jockish goal to get five tricks down it, but didn’t think I was actually pass that. I got front 180, early grab, front shove took a bit, switch front 180 (harder then I thought it would be), kickflip then started hucking b/s flip. I’ve never done b/s flip off three before, two was the previous record on my 37th birthday. Wow I suck! Anyways, I committed pretty quick and after about 20 tries I rolled away from one all straight legged and stoked. The stoke wouldn’t last long though as I was broadsided with the flu bigtime after that. Ugh.

It was India’s birthday party. So we had to prepare for lots of middle school girls coming over and then total chaos for a few hours. It ended up not being quite as dramatic as I would have thought, but that allowed us adults so sip a few beers in the backyard and eat cake. I had taken a quick nap, but was still feeling pretty bad from the beer, birthday cake when I went to the manual pad as the sun had started to set. It took Carleigh awhile to show up, but I was having fun just doing the basics. I didn’t do much. I failed at kickflip manual and nose manual front shove out as well as fakie bigspin manul. I kind of tried nose manual nollie tre out, but that will never happen. I don’t think I really landed anything. See Fuzz, I just try tricks, I don’t land them. I tried a few 360 flips up the curb, but failed at that too. Carleigh had some good kickflips and got a manny. We didn’t have long, it was fun though.

It sure gets dark early now. After work Ollie and I went across the street to the school. It was totally vacant so we finally started skating the new yellow curb. It’s sick, and even gets tall at some points that it can be called a ledge (at least in my book). Even though I was super tired I managed to skate pretty good. Maybe it’s because I had some new shoes I was breaking in:

Lakai Manchesters. I have had a couple pairs of these shoes before, they are awesome. We rode down the handicap ramp and ollied off the tall part of the curb onto the slick parking lot. They just re-tarred it so it’s insanely slippery. Both Ollie and I slid out on some back 180s. His are so good. Riding down the handicap ramp switch and doing a fakie ollie off the ledge was fun. Then I started trying the 5 stair I’ve been staring at since it was built. A few tries in and I landed it. This would be because Ollie set his board at the bottom and jumped down onto it which got me really hyped. It’s not a long 5, but it is 5. I should ollie it often to get comfortable with stairs again. It’s probably bigger then the 6 at Broomfield. Anyways, we had a blast. I also got kickflip and front shove off the ledge after rolling down the handicap ramp. Then we went over to the long two stair area. Ollie did his drop to quick back 180 the second stair. So sick. I got front 180, but I had to go slow. Then I ollied the gap from the short two onto the asphalt. Fun. Then we ate pizza and watched Ghostbusters. That movie rules.

Met up with Josh, Max and Dean at Meta to do some filming on campus. The goal was to just roll into campus without any real plans and just film lines of Josh and Max. They didn’t disappoint. I rode my cruiser from spot to spot, did some manuals while they were warming up, fire crackered some stairs, etc. At the end of the night Josh slammed super hard on a gap to manny that went bad. Ouch. All was good though and after we went to Carleigh’s and had a celebratory beer. Neat.