Yesterday me and M went to The Target, a shooting range in Stockholm and tried a bunch of handguns.
Jolly fun!
I’m not sure about the model for one of the Magnums, but I think it’s a Smith & Wesson – let me know if you have more info!
I have now finally signed up for motorcycle driving lessons at Slussens Trafikskola, and paid for 10x80min lessons in advance. I get money back for unused lessons, but a better price if I pay bulk. First driving lesson is in 4 weeks, and it might be earlier if the weather allows it. In three weeks I will also attend a 3½ hour safety lesson that is mandatory for the license.
I’m also considering buying som gear from C.A.F.D Motorcycle Armor, who has very good prices for clothes that apparently is made in the same factory and by the same people as Arlen Ness, just without the brand. I am however a bit skeptic to buying gear for several thousand without testing them first. But when on a tight budget (I still need a bike!), there is only so much you can afford. If anyone have any other suggestions for cheap but good motorcycle gear (preferably in the Stockholm region), please leave a comment.
Regarding bikes, I have decided to wait with buying one until after getting my license. I have nobody to really practice driving with nearby, and it would mostly stand outside waiting for me without being used. Plus I can’t really afford one now unless I get one really cheap.
Anyway, I have narrowed down my list of potential bikes to the following (in order of probability due to availability and price):
I have three requirements: It shouldn’t be to old (aiming for 1998-2001), it shouldn’t be to pricey (30’000 SEK is MAX what I will be able to afford, if even that), and it should have or be able to have a sissy bar since I will take M on vacations with it. Also, the lower the better as I’m not too tall.
Greetings, humans!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that. Hope the holidays have treated you well.
Personally, I’ve been spending to much time in front of the computer and the screen and have decided to take a break.
Starting to day, I will not sit in front of the computer, watch any movies or playing any video games (including RISK on my cell phone) while at home. Right now I’m at work where I have to use the computer, so I justify some minor blogging and facebooking from there with that.
I will try to catch up on my reading and possibly some project that has been laying around (Got a brand new wireless Dremel for Christmas!), but the main reason is to simply disconnect for a while.
Let’s see how long it takes before I forget myself – I hope I can last a week anyway. 😉
Update:
I lasted the whole week and finished reading two books. Although on Sunday evening I watched a movie because I was utterly bored. 😉
This monday I got to remove my cast and stiches. It felt really odd but it’s sooo good to be able to scratch (and wash) again.
Unfortunately, I can now hardly move my finger. There was a 20-25° angle missing when trying to bend the finger backward/straight out, so it got a little crocked (sidewise as well). But the worst part is that I can’t close the finger either. The tendon that was mostly damaged leads to the top joint in the finger and when I try to move it it feels like there is something in the way. Same thing with the middle joint, but I have slightly better movement there. I now have to wear a special plastic rail around the clock to prevent the finger from stiffening in a crocked position, and it also protects the finger from impact. The rail will be adjusted regularly to adjust the angle and shape of the rail.
This also means that I will have to do a lot of physiotherapy and special hand exercises every third hour for at least a couple of months, probably more.
Sensitivity-wise, it’s very odd. Below the scar it feels pretty much normal, but above it is no fun. If sliding a finger nail or something from the base of the finger upwards, I get a tiny jolt every time it crosses the scar, kind of when you hit the nerve in your elbow. In the area above that, half the finger feels like it’s sleeping. In that kind of way that when you’re trying to walk when your foot is asleep, and it almost burns when you touch the floor with it.
I have no idea if this is going to disappear or if it will always stay like this. I tried typing on the keyboard with the rail off, but its too unpleasant for that. I assume the same thing will happen if playing the piano or guitar, and that is a little disconcerting.
The ring finger is at least better for this kind of damage that the thumb, index finger or little finger.
This morning I went to a hospital in Nacka to have surgery on my sliced finger. I only had to wait for about 10 minutes before I was called in to the dressing room to change to hospital clothes. Then waiting on a bed for about 1.5 hours before going into the actual operating room. I brought my mp3/media player so that I could watch an episode of Burn Notice while waiting, which was a good thing. After 30 minutes they gave me a couple of pills (2 Alvedon and 1 Voltaren) to ease any coming pain.
Once in the operating room they shot a strong sedative in my arm and I started to get a little groggy. They then took a bigger shot filled with some white goo and injected it a little at a time. I remember lying there for about 20 minutes, not really that drowsy, but then I woke up so apparently I crashed as scheduled.
I remember glimpes; They were to move me from the operating table back to my bed, and I asked if I should stand up (they said “No, no, no, we’ll take care of this”). I apparently asked the doctor or nurse the same question three times in a row, each time forgetting the answer (Now I don’t remember the question). I was then in the wake up room.
If you are ever in a wake up room and want to “sober up” quickly, play some Converge in your favorite headphones. That’ll work. After one song I decided to let it take it’s time and switched to Kings of Convenience instead.
The doctor came and talked to me after I was a little less groggy and told me that it was actually a bit worse than they thought. Aside from the severed nerve bundle, one of the tendons was cut halfway through. It is therefore important that i do not lift anything heavy or overextend the finger for a few months.
After another hour or so they needed the bed so I had to get up, and shortly thereafter my brother came and picked me up (thanks again).
The middle and ring finger are still all numb from the anesthesia, and it feels like they are sleeping, that almost burning sensation. I also have a cast covering all but my thumb and index finger, almost all the way to the elbow. Since the cast extends further than the fingers, it makes it extremely hard to type using my right hand, and all text in this post is written by my left hand only (so far taking 50 minutes).
To give you an example, I will now type “hello, my name is frank johansson”, using the index finger on my right hand only in a normal angle and position:
ih5e6ålål+ó, my8 nawepml5e i0sr fyr6eanklpk oj+oihawknrsesre+ónk
See what I mean?
I will have the cast for about two weeks, and will then get a removable brace as the stitches are removed.
Most of the missing tactility will hopefully be restored within a year but it will never go back fully to what it was, according to the doctor. As long as it is good enough to type on a keyboard, play the piano or the guitar and actually feel that I am pressing a key or plucking a string, I will be satisfied.
As suspected, my finger needs surgery. Tomorrow morning I will go to a hospital in Nacka where they will open up the finger again and try to stitch together the severed nerve bundles. The doctor I talked to yesterday thought that I would have to have a plaster with braces for about three weeks, which would suck. But I’ll know more about that after the surgery tomorrow.
On another note, the tetanus shot has made my left arm and shoulder all sore, even now four days later. Is that normal?
Yesterday my brother and his fiancee were over at our place for dinner with wine. Afterwards we were going out and thought that we should take the empty bottles with us since we were passing the recycling cabin anyway. While there my brother threw a bottle hard into the glass bin to make it crash. Unfortunately, part of the bottle ricocheted back up and came straight for me. Instinctive I put up my hand to protect my body from the whirring glass, and it hit my right ring finger.
And there were blood – lots of it. In fact, I even had an arch of blood across my face, going all the way into my right ear. The floor in the recycling cabin had blood splattered on an area about two meters wide.
We rushed back into the apartment, pressing the finger together, putting three compresses and a makeshift tourniquet made of tape while M called for a taxi.
After arriving at the emergency room at the hospital, I only had to wait for about 5 minutes before getting my hand looked at. After removing the bloody compresses and cleaning the wound with salt water they cut off the blood flow with a rubber tube and a peang. Prodding the finger with what looked like toothpicks, the conclusion was that I had lost feeling in about half my finger. After two anesthesia shots in the finger (that really hurt), I soon didn’t feel anything at all.
Despite the nerve damage they had to close the finger to stop the bleeding, so they started to sew. It was a really odd sensation to see them doing it and not feel any pain. After 10 stitches they released the peang to let the blood through the finger, but immediately had to put another two stitches due to leakage.
The people who closed up my finger were really nice, and we even had a few laughs together.
After getting my stitches it was time to x-ray the finger to look for skeletal damage (since the cut was so deep). For some reason this was considered a really high prio case, I got to go before people who had been waiting for several hours. Anyway, the x-ray turned out fine and the glass hadn’t damaged the bone.
A quick bandage and a tetanus shot later and I was on my way home again. Total time in the hospital was just above three hours, which was probably a new record for me.
Today the finger hurts quite a bit, and I will soon go the pharmacy to get the pain killers and antibiotics that I got prescriptions for.
Tomorrow I will have to go to another hospital, where a specialist in hand surgery will assess the damage and possibly open the finger up again to try to repair the damaged nerve(s).
Now, time for some (quite gory) pictures:
Today me and M are having a pre-halloween evening, pumpkin carving and stuff. Tomorrow we will have a horror movie marathon, eating sandwich layer cake and other goodies, some of which needs preparing.
In a couple of hours we will go out with Fredde, Ester and possibly Moa to a Japanese-Korean-Monglian restaurant, so I have time to post a few pics from the evening so far:
TODAY IS THE INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY, SO IN HONOR OF THIS I WILL OF COURSE WRITE THIS POST AS ONE SHOULD.
I AM ILL AGAIN – WHY OH WHY DID IT HAD TO BE ON SUCH A FESTIVE DAY LIKE THIS? 😉
IT STARTED YESTERDAY WITH COUGHING AND FEELING WORN. IN THE AFTERNOON I HAD A SLIGHT FEVER AND BY EVENING THE FEVER HAD RISEN ABOUT 2.5°C. I FEEL SLIGHTLY BETTER TODAY BUT NOW I HAVE A STIFF NECK AND SORE MUSCLES IN MY STOMACH AND BACK (FROM THE COUGHING). HOPING IT’S NOT THE BACON FLUE THIS TIME.
GOOD THING I HAVE MY NETBOOK, SPENDING TIME IN BED WOULD BE FAR WORSE WITHOUT IT. SLIGHT SURFING AND WATCHING NEW AND OLD MOVIES THAT HAS BEEN LYING THERE FOR FAR TOO LONG. I THINK I’LL WATCH UP SOME TIME TONIGHT, JUST GOT A HD VERSION OF IT (THANKS, CBGB).
…
OH, IF YOU HATE THE CAPS LOCK KEY AS MUCH AS I NORMALLY DO, I CAN RECOMMEND A NIFTY LITTLE TOOL TO DISABLE IT THAT CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE.
Today when I got out of the shower and was walking across the living room to get my clothes I saw a strange man standing on my balcony.
He was dressed in a blue plastic body suit, wearing a gas mask and some kind of container on his back. He was using what looked like a small circle saw to cut into the wall.
Three quick questions appeared in my head during the second I first saw him:
Then I remembered. They apparently used some toxic material in the joints when building our house. Something that the housing company now has been ordered to sanitate. So the answers to my questions were:
