High Speed Blogging

Faster than a speeding . . . say, anyone else notice it looks like the rifle just sneezed?

Lack of blogs lately, partly due to my aforementioned thumblessness, partly because I've been on the road, and partly because I'm so swamped getting ready for conferences and video shoots and other stuff. This whole job thing can really put a crimp on social networking.

The Winemaker Magazine Conference in Washington state was a success and a huge amount of fun. I got to meet a bunch of supercool winemakers, give lectures, listen to lectures, drink some great wine and generally hang out in the company of my peers. I'll post some pictures in the future, but rest assured, what happens at Winemaker may not stay at Winemaker!

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That's Going to Leave a Mark

I won't be drinking with that hand any time soon

Operation Opposable Thumb is on schedule. I had tendon re-attachment surgery last Friday, and it went as well as such things go. I was a little surprised at how goofy the surgery left me, and for how long. I was warned not to drive or make important decisions for 24 hours, but they might as well have said a week, because I still feel like a sack of doorknobs. I'd make a lousy narcotics addict, I think, but it seems to finally be wearing off.

Goin' my way?

Just before I woke up they shot my hand completely full of long-lasting freezing: the tips of my index finger and thumb are still tingly, but hoo-hah, the incisions and repair are all talking at full volume. Darndest part, from my point of view is how I can't really use my fingers without compromising my sore thumb and pulling the stitches: my wife has to help me dress, wash my hair, and cut up my tater-tots (well, to be fair it's just an extension of her supervision of my normally childlike ways) and bless her for being a wonderful partner. I've got an appointment to get the splints changed and the stitches and such out on the 27th, so I'll be sporting this silly mummy arm both at the Winemaker magazine conference and at the FITA conference. Sheesh!

But, it beats the alternative. 100 years ago I'd have been living without the use of my thumb for the rest of my life--I had just better count my blessings.

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Safety First: On Being All Thumbs

Behold, the most dangerous thing in my house:

Note the infinitely sharp point front-left. That's the one.

Folks who follow me on Facebook (Tim Vandergrift) and Twitter (@WinexpertTim) will have seen some posts about emergency rooms and doctors over the last couple of days. I'm here to tell you that when it comes to cellaring, safety first.

Last week a shelf came loose in my wine cooler. It's an upright model that sits in my pantry and keeps my reds cool and my whites chilled. It's kind of small (less than 200 bottles) but it's useful in a condo. As the shelf came loose and cascaded down I tried to grab a Champagne bottle before it hit the floor. I missed, it hit and it popped back up. As it did, it stabbed me right in the thumb, palm side, between the second and third knuckle.

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Posted by Timothy Tendons AT 6:01PM 1 Comment Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email

Rotting Fish, Poop and Tea

One lump? One lump of what?

Vectored from the BBC: Assam tea estate goes organic. Sounds good, right? I'm an organic gardener (well, I have an organic garden, and I'm mostly organic) and appreciate the efforts folks make to eschew chemical fertilisers and pesticides--that stuff doesn't go away after it's finished fertilising plants and killing bugs--there is no 'away' for it to go, because everything lives here. Organic makes sense. But there is a less savoury side to organics that we have to confront on the way to earth-loving purity. According to the article,

Visitors making their way along the muddy track leading to the Gossainbarie tea estate in India's north-eastern Assam state will be greeted by huge mounds of cow dung, rotting water hyacinth, as well as and fish and meat waste.

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Posted by Mildly Nauseous Tim AT 9:53AM 1 Comment Comments Post A Comment Post A Comment Email Email
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