OUCH! and weekend ride report

*sigh* Being unco is a pain...

My big weekend ride started magnificently on Anzac morning. I left home at
7am and found myself enveloped in thick fog from Canberra to Cooma. Heated
grips are a wonderful invention!

The Adaminaby - Kiandra - Cabramurra - Corryong leg of the ride was an
absolute dream. Clear skies, bugger all traffic in either direction. I felt
as if I had the world to myself (and I note that I appear to be "over" my
fear of those high twisty roads without safety barriers). Just took things
at my own pace, singing away to myself, and felt on top of the world.

From Corryong I headed along the Murray Valley Highway for a while, then up
the road to Granya - another lovely twisty road. The SV handles beautifully,
although the seat isn't as comfy as the one on the GS500 was (the narrower
seat turns out to be a boon, as I am about to discover).

I crossed the Murray at Bellbridge and headed to Albury, my Friday night
destination. Clearly, by the time I crossed the river, the twisties had
taken their toll on my concentration and coordination. I was starting to
mis-time my braking and foot-planting by the time I got into Albury city,
and was well and truly ready to get off the bike by the time I pulled up at
the motel.
And that's where my troubles began.

See, I had a date! (wheeeeeeee!) My dear friend from Deni met me in Albury
and we were to have dinner/see a movie, overnight there and travel to
Tintaldra to spend Saturday with some friends of his before heading back to
our respective home towns.

So - stupid Betty, with her reduced coordination skills, after surviving the
twisty ride through the high country, trips over her own two bloody feet,
grabs D to stop herself falling, and ends up pulling him AND his wheelchair
on top of herself...What a dumbarse - a Queen Dumbarse of all dumbarses, in
fact.

There was a sickening sound/sensation of tearing as the chair
twisted/flattened my left leg. Thank God I didn't damage D, who was able to
get himself back into his chair while I struggled to stand.

Do you know how hard it is to ride a motorcycle in that state? Fortunately,
the narrower seat on the SV means that the site of the tear wasn't pressed
against the seat, so it was (just) bearable. As I tossed and turned and
tried to sleep on Friday, the thought running through my head was "what if I
can't ride home? What the heck am I going to do?"

Thanks to Stay Upright, adopting "the ready position" (clutch in, bike in
first, rear brake engaged, left foot down) at lights is a habit so well
entrenched, that I almost killed myself at several red lights when we left
Albury. The leg kept trying to give way if I put weight on it at the wrong
angle. Some very hairy moments before we got onto the open road.

Some nice Guzzi riders rendered assistance at the fuel pump in Walwa, and I
even managed the rocky gravel drive at Tintaldra before falling in a
screaming heap and gobbling handsful of painkillers (and some nice
anaesthetising red).

From Tintaldra to Canberra, via Tumbarumba - Batlow - Tumut - Gundagai
yesterday was 'interesting'. I was hailed on just outside Tooma, and I'm
almost certain there was sleet (as well as slick wet roadworks)between Tumba
and Batlow. All I wanted to do was get home with as few stops as possible.
Trying to get off the bike at the servo in Gundagai was a sight worthy of
Australia's Funniest Home Videos, I'm sure <shudder>.

Made it home to Canberra and a hot shower before the bad weather caught up
with me again, and even managed to get the bike unloaded and parked neatly
in the shed.

This morning I can barely move. If I could kick myself I would. It's moments
like this I notice the lack of a car (the 3 minute walk to the bus-stop will
take me at least 10 agonising minutes), and I'm in too much pain to ride
myself to the doctor (need a certificate for a Monday off after a long
weekend!) It's pissing down outside and I think I am going to be soft and
call a cab later.

Bugger, and I didn't manage the movie on Friday night, either!

betty

 

Och, ya poor wee soul....

<sympathy, sympathy, sympathy>

regards,
CrazyCam

 

*wince!*

If you need to hitch a ride to the Unaugural, I can swing by your
place on my way to Funkytown on Saturday.

I'm afraid I have to ask the question: Why didn't you just come home
via the Hume?


BTH

 

It makes my Anzac day adventure involving a chainsaw and an extension
ladder seem quite tame!


BTH

 

Ooooh, do tell!!!!!!

betty

 

I may need to take you up on that offer of a lift, BT. I'm so cross with
myself!

Um, why didn't I come home via the Hume? Well, I partly did <grin> - from
Gundagai.... I don't know the way to the Hume from Tintaldra though -
besides, last time I rode on the Hume, the roadworks meant I had to keep
stopping - remember, stopping is what I'm having problems with at the moment
<grin>

betty

 

I warn you, it's a bit of an epic...

I was clearing the rest of the saplings and scrub away from the front
fence (I wanted a clear path about a metre wide on either side of
it). One of the bigger trees had several dead "widow maker" limbs,
where the 20-30cm diameter limb was still alive up to about a metre
from the trunk but dead for the rest of its length. I extended my
extension ladder, propped it up against the first one at a nice safe
45 degree angle, started the chainsaw, and headed on up...

I cut the limb off without any problems, and stopped the chainsaw.
Then just as I was about to descend, the extended part of the ladder
retracted about 12 inches, leaving me with my left hand (grasping the
uppermost rung) trapped between the ladder and the "stub limb" of the
tree. 12 feet up in the air, with a (thankfully non-running) chainsaw
in my right hand.

So I couldn't free my hand from under the ladder, due to my weight
holding it so firmly against the tree at that 45 degree angle. I
didn't want to drop my expensive chainsaw, and since the latching
mechanism on the ladder clearly wasn't secure, I couldn't "bounce" the
ladder off the limb without it retracting all the way and dumping me
on the ground.

The solution was to twist the upper bit of the ladder so that one side
of it stayed pressed up against the tree limb, so that the ladder
wouldn't collapse. I very carefully climbed down, put the chainsaw on
the ground, and made damned sure that the latch was secure before I
dropped the other 3 limbs. ;-)


BTH

 

Fark me; that's a bit close!
(You could've really scuffed-up at $50 chainsaw!!)

 

$400 chainsaw.


BTH

 

Dude!

Ah we can sort out a lift for ye.

 

Second-hand, was it?

Theo
Listen, I've got a couple of limbs need pruning about 6 metres up, and I
hate going up a ladder with a chain-saw, so...... as you've got
experience....

 

And therein lies the value of proper OHS procedures! Next time, lash
the ladder properly and securely in place before doing anything else,
orright?

Good to hear everything ended well though.

 

pour moi???? (go on someone, do a French speeling flame, I dare you!
<snigger>) Any assistance getting to the social event of the year would be
truly wonderful and eternally appreciated!

Saw the doc this morning. She reckons I've busted my ass (how
embarrassment!) I had this horrible sinking feeling: "What if I have to pike
the Unaugural? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

betty brokenbutt

 

I'm sure I've seen a video of something along those lines somewhere ..

I won't check your French, but your English *speeling* was different ..
Google could not find it

http://www.google.com.au/search?cli...rench+speeling+flame&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

 

Damien is of the opinion:

Would that be the OH&S procedure that requires one to securely lash the top
of the ladder to the structure using some other means of getting up there,
such as a cherry picker, before climbing the ladder?

- Matt

 

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

 

No, that would be the one where you have someone else foot the ladder
for you, and you then climb up with only the rope, then lash the ladder
and go back down for the chainsaw.

Sure, it might take you all of 2 minutes extra, but at least you'll
return to the ground reasonably certain of having all your limbs intact
- that's got to be worth something, surely?

 

Well that certainly /sounds/ like an OH&S guideline..

 

Were they English elderberries or African elderberries?

 

African maybe, but not English.