I want to guilt trip all of you into making your very own "2022 Year In Review" thread for the rest of us here to enjoy. Especially now that we can just attach photos, there's no excuse not to.
Do it or ELSE. If you don't, you'll be banned forever.
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My 2022 only had 7 blog posts, the lowest ever (not counting the "zero" posts in 2018) and quite a bit down from my 2014 high of 27 posts.
In my defense, I broke my collarbone in early June and wasn't back in action until November. AND (I just need to remind viewers because none of my family at cristmas gatherings even asked about it. Sad face.) I did some REALLY STUPID shit a mere 1.5 weeks after fairly extensive surgery while still healing and in pain and completely unable to use my arm. But I digress.
We started the year off with a bang. This place was fucking awesome. Multiple guards out front. Went back a second time to finish it off properly.
Up next we hit up the asbestos filled death trap known as the Pillsbury Mill. Good times.
And then there was this place which was cool. But the crazy assholes with guns we had to deal with on the same trip was actually one of my worst experiences ever. So that sucked.
The old foundry is among my favorite all time industrial sites. I believe this was constructed in the 1930s-1940s. Very nice. And if you want some "Industrial ASMR" the video I did here features the soothing sounds of decaying industry in full stereo sound! It's kinda nifty actually.
...And then I broke the fuck out of my collarbone ...But still decided to go on the vacation to Colorado 1.5 weeks later which we had already booked and paid for. Despite the risks, not the least of which was a blood clot following surgery which apparently doesn't mix well with planes/altitudes.
What I was told was that a lot of times you don't even need surgery on your collarbone. You just let it heal and it might be a little wonky but you're good to do. Well, that wasn't the case for me. I broke it real good. What I learned afterwards is that they had to cut through the muscle, attempt to reconstruct the collarbone and then wrap the muscle back around the new bionic bone. I was wondering why my neck muscle felt like it was stretched so tight it might snap (and why I did feel some of the individual muscle fibers snapping off occationally which was NOT pleasant..)
I would love to tell the story about my return home from surgery to find the air conditioner not working and my cat on the roof at 2am during an almost tornado but that would be like another 5 paragraphs. Suffice it to say that I didn't sleep at all the night I got home from surgery mostly due to not having air conditioning and having to sleep in only one position sitting up, so no I didn't sleep until afternoon the next day. We successfully rescued the cat though.
This was like 2 months after surgery. I could smell the smell of meat. Slightly rancid but definitely meat. My own meat smell. A meaty aroma coming from my own meaty body. It was uh. Strange.
Even found a mine (that I couldn't do anything about being along and one-armed).
So anyway, I decided to try my luck at an easy spot and see how things went. This was a quicklime and crushed limestone plant. As I was walking out, about 6 police cars quickly drove past me down the road which I thought was a dead end here. I don't think they were coming after me but I didn't stay to find out.
Having not re-injured myself at Calco, I decided to try out my luck in Leadville. This was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done because not only was I roaming the hills in an abandoned mine wasteland, I also piled up some debris and climbed in a window to see this hoist house. One slip, one little trip up and I would have been fucked, in a lot of pain, unable to extract myself, etc. Very stupid. Somehow I made it back unscathed.
I went from being couch-ridden and on powerful pain killers for several weeks (it was almost 2 weeks from injury to surgery) to being 10,000 feet in elevation exploring abandoned mines. It was fucking rough.
After completely exhausting myself in Colorado, I then proceeded to immediately come down with a bad case of the 'Rona which left me feeling REALLY fucking shitty for about a solid week. Having a thorough case of Covid and a broken collarbone was the most miserable fucking time I think I've had as an adult.
So I didn't really do shit for a while. I sat on the couch and watched old episodes of the A-Team, Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes, etc.
Finally after being released from weight restrictions and completing physical therapy, I immediately jumped back into it and hit up a few different spots with some good comrades, one of which being the ol' Motel.
And that's about it. 2022 was awesome and it fucking sucked ass and I really enjoyed it and was really fucking miserable. I can definitely say that I lived really hard in 2022. So hard. Much living. But almost dying.
