Pride Cometh Before the Fall

Well, I wrote the "Fonthill Airborne Regiment" post a few weeks back before posting it recently, and the old saw about pride and fall came back to bite me in the butt, literally. Feb 3, the boys and I had a fabulous day of boarding, and spent the day really focusing on our carving technique during our lesson with Curtis. So the final run of the day, the final half down Mardi Gras and in sight of the chalet, I decided to do this jump by the lift tower that I pretty much always land...

I landed all right, but then caught an edge and just walloped down hard on my right butt, sliding on my back and headfirst for a good while downhill. When I got up I instantly knew something was wrong, with the feeling like my gluteus had contracted and refused to release. I managed to make my way down but could not bend down and the boys needed to unclip me. I was in so much agony afterwards that, after 2h, I had to catch a lift home. Luckily, my guardian angels Jayne and Dominic were on their way home to Brantford and drove us home. I went to Emergency and luckily nothing was broken, but I was in agony and had so much swelling and bruising that I gained 4.7 kg (not a typo) after a week!

The picture above of my right leg was taken 12 days afterwards, so you can imagine what my entire leg was like! Oh well, I've now regained most of my mobility and lost most of the inflammation weight, but the muscle/bone contusion remains and I'm using the bike to gradually rebuild my fitness.

Brock Research Celebration

This past Tuesday (Feb 25), Brock had its annual Research Celebration event. There were research posters from about 80 faculty and students, and also a ceremony honouring recent award winners. It took 18 months or more after the fact, but I got the official recognition of the renewal of my Canada Research Chair position. Of course, I'm already busy plotting what comes when this magic carpet rides ends in fall 2017.

As a bit of a lark, I decided to dress up for the event, breaking out the full Pablo Nero Omega Pharma - QuickStep fancy tie, hankie, and even cuff links. It was good camouflage, as nobody really recognized me. Or at least until I blew my cover by hanging around the food table too much!

As you see above, the scary thing is seeing my Both Sides face much larger than real life at the event. Couldn't resist taking a gag picture with myself.