Wow, it doesn’t seem like it has been 10 months since I last blogged. What a journey this year has been. I went from leaving a job I once called family and home, to starting my own business, to landing a full-time position with a new company. What a year!
I officially dissolved RiuSoft a couple of days ago. That was a somber day for me, but it was for the best. I’m keeping the domain though! Owning my own company was a roller coaster. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be and I just wasn’t ready for it. I went in not realizing that 60% of everything I do would not be billable, and that not every project would be an awesome project. Not that I’m complaining, I did get to do a lot of really cool stuff and that time gave me the opportunity to bust into the mobile industry with Android. My work on Android led me to my current job, which I love, with a company that I am very very happy to be a part of. It feels really good to be a part of a team again.
So while I was sad to see RiuSoft go, I loved to watch it leave…lol! I guess now I can start blogging on some really interesting stuff, like Android 🙂 I have so much material on that subject! I love and hate Android, all at the same time. I’m crazy passionate about it, but it can be really frustrating at times to be an Android Developer. Not because of the Android SDK specifically, just the wide-array of device and OEM considerations that come into play along the way. It’s getting better as the platform matures so there is still a lot of hope.
Oh, another big thing happened this year that I forgot to mention! I got my motorcycle license finally (yay!). I did a two-day motorcycle training class (MSF) and 2 weeks later I bought a 2006 Kawasaki Vulcan 500. Cherry red, beautiful cruiser bike. It was in mint condition for the most part and only had 2500 miles on it. No that wasn’t a mistake, I did say “was”. My brother-in-law offered to let me park it at his house in Boulder with the logic that getting comfortable with a new motorcycle and getting in some practice riding in general in downtown Denver would be a bad idea. Yup and he was so right about that! I did 3 rides while it was parked in Boulder. Each ride making me ever more comfortable with my bike. Finally, the fourth ride was to take it home.
I was so nervous that day. I had a general sense of foreboding and a part of me wanted to just say fuck it, leave it in Boulder. The only thing that was really pressing me to move it was that I didn’t want it parked outside on the curb. Geoff and Carissa had been kind enough to keep it in the garage, but their garage barely fits both their cars, so they were parking one of the cars on the street while the bike was there. They wanted to start using their garage again so I really wanted to get the bike out of the way.
I did a little warmup run that day. Rode around Boulder and Niwot, just to calm my nerves a bit. Then I took off to Denver. The ride wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed all of it until I hit Colfax. Colfax made me a nervous wreck. I couldn’t wait to get off that road. I had almost been run into by people just not paying attention a couple times. So when I hit Colfax and Grant, I decided to get off of Colfax, turn onto Grant and then take 14th Street for the remaining 6 blocks home. Sounds good right? Yeah I thought so too, only something went terribly wrong. I was sitting at the light getting ready to make a left-hand turn on a (thankfully) one-way street. I say thankfully because due to the fact that it was a one way meant there were no cars on it when I turned – they were all sitting on the other side of the red-light. I went to make the turn and suddenly lost control of the bike. I felt it fishtail and buck under me. I panicked and over corrected and going extremely slow I ended up dumping the bike. This 400 lb machine came down on my right knee and pinned me. In my rush of adrenaline I yanked myself out from under the bike before anyone could help me, and immediately tried to stand. Bad idea. My knee wobbled in a completely sickeningly wrong way and I toppled over. I was taken by Ambulance to Denver General and my bike was towed.
My first ride in Denver I had managed to put a nice dent in the gas tank of my cruiser…so now it’s no longer looking so mint, but hey, it still runs nicely. Sounds better actually…kind of odd. I also managed to completely explode my ACL and tear both Meniscus as well. I had to have knee surgery. I went with donor tissue and had a new ACL bolted on, and 15% of the outer meniscus cut away, and 25% of the inner Meniscus was cut away. Now I’m in recovery. I’m actually doing very well I’m happy to say. I’m in my 7th week post surgery and walking around without any issues. Still stiff and often painful, but getting better every day. I was very shocked to find out how fast atrophy sets in. My right thigh was half of its former glory in less than a week! That’s the biggest part of rehab right now, I’m just trying to build my leg muscles back up. You lose them so fast, but they take forever to get back!