Let me tell you the tale of the pain in my ass
Two weekends ago (the beginning of June) I was down in Cincinnati and surrounding areas for some good ol' Cincinnatian Arch learning. We went to the classic Kentucky spots on Friday, taking in the older formations in the arch. I learned lots of neat things and collected some pink bryozoan things.
Friday night was the keynote talk given by Tony Martin. He's an ichnologist who works in Georgia and a super nice guy. Not going to lie, I was more than just a little bit excited to get to meet him. I've followed him on Twitter for quite a while and he seemed like such a nice guy. He is! And he has good stories and can make ichnology seem super fascinating even if you go in kinda "eh" on the subject. I was excited to get his book Dinosaurs Without Bones and even to get him to sign it. It's all about the tracks and trails and burrows and things that dinosaurs left behind. All those lovely behavioral stuff you don't get with the bones. He's currently working on a book about nests and burrows and the like.
After the talk was over, we got to go see the Ordovician hall in the Cinci museum (where the talk was). It was a nice place. They had this GORGEOUS slab of crinoids that must have been something like 5ft by 3ft and so much detail was parsed out of the the rock so you can see all the individual plates and pinnules of hundreds of crinoids. GORGEOUS! Of course, we were basically the last people to get to see it. The museum is shutting down for a few years to renovate the building and pull it up to code. It's in an old train terminal building, so, things aren't quite up to today's standard.
Saturday there were talks about various aspects of the Cincinnatian. I'm super glad that Alicia Stigal was there to talk about the Richmondian Invasion. I really need to learn more about those critters. During lunch, we split into groups to go check out the collections. I was in the middle group, so I got to eat lunch and check out posters before going in. It's a lot different being there as a tourist (which normally doesn't happen) than as a worker. Don't get me wrong, chilling with the crinoids those two times I was there previous was great, but I got to see some of their vertebrate stuff too. I think the coolest was the pterosaur skull that had finger bones on it. That, and this new type of mosasaur that was found when the paleontologist was looking for crinoids. Poor Dave, just want crinoids and got a silly new marine reptile instead!
After lunch/collection tours we broke into groups to check out one of three areas. K-12 teaching, emuseums, and taphonomy. Of course I went Taphonomy. Not only did it interest me more, but it was being led by two of the craziest guys I've met. Carl Brett and Ben Datillo. It was fun listening to them talk and point things out. Carl kept asking questions and got annoyed when I managed to answer most of them. Haha. Felt like high school all over again "you aren't allowed to answer anymore!"
Sunday we got up bright and early to see the western side of the arch. This was what I really wanted to see. This was MY territory. The first place we went was meh (though I did find a nice crinoid arm with pinnules) but the second and third stops were two places I've been told time and time again to go and just hadn't.
First was Madison. This beautifully large outcrop that runs from the bottom of the Waynesville Fm. all the way into the Silurian. This is a LOT of rock. And it was a gorgeous place. I stayed with Ben who had grown up in Madison and had done a lot of work on the outcrop. Because of that, I managed to get to the Ordovician-Silurian contact, which was pretty neat. I didn't do much collecting, these are the rocks that I have here, but it was neat to be able to not only see them all together, but to be able to walk up section. The last place I take my students in earth history you can see all three formations of the area, but it's on a cliff face and not walkable.
This is, sadly, when my eagerness for the day ended. After rejoining the group, I noticed that the vans had pulled up the outcrop, but my car (which I was thankful to get to drive myself, it seemed stupid to go all the way back to Cinci to go home when I would be about an hour from home at the last outcrop) was still at the start of the outcrop. I was heading that way, to get the car and to get some drugs for my shoulder which was beginning to say no, and when I got to the first group of cars in our group that wasn't the vans, I stepped in towards the outcrop (not the street) and completely neglected the fact that the brown algae was present.
Brown algae is slick. Like, no catching yourself while still on your feet, slick. When we first got out of the cars, at least three people fell. The brown algae got me too and I landed HARD on a rock. I honestly don't remember hitting the rock, but I remember standing and one of the guys who helped me up kicked a rock out of the way. Let me tell you, that hurt. That hurt a lot. It's all a blur, but I remember feeling super weak and maybe a wee bit nauseous afterward. Promising I was ok, I continued to my car, trying to convince myself I was alright, but the backpack kept hitting that spot and walking was a little strained. I thought to myself "I may need to call it here" though I really didn't want to.
I hopped in my car and headed towards the lunch area (a nice park area along the Ohio River) and immediately hit up a bathroom to be sure I wasn't bleeding externally. I wasn't. But my left butt cheek was so swollen, it felt like it was twice the size of the right. I went and had lunch, decided that stairs were the enemy and sitting wasn't going to be an option, and thus, came to the sad decision to skip Route 1 and head on home. Thankfully I had an empty sandwich bag and grabbed some ice to sit on all the way home.
I watched it grow that evening. From a relatively good size bruise to a FREAKING huge one. It was the color of a black plum and took up nearly the whole of my left ass cheek. I measured it a couple of days later and it was 8"x5.5" oval. The first few days were crappy. Well, not so much Monday, as I stayed home to tend it, but Tuesday and Wednesday when I went in to the office, I couldn't deal with the stairs. Driving on Tuesday in particular was awful. I could suddenly feel every bump and hole in the road and it was awful. My left arm had also finally started to hurt from the impact, but that was only for a couple of days. All seems well now.
Pain is getting better. Color or the bruise is changing, particularly in the center. The outer edges are still a fairly dark purple, but not black plum dark. There is also a darker purple spot in the middle. I have the Eye of Sauron on my butt. I have also noticed that bruises are are popping up a bit farther from the main one. Well, not popping up, but becoming more distinct. The one that is just barely at my lower back in particular. It hurts and kind of burns when I sit down and lean it against something. That started today, which is weird as it's been well over a week now. Oh! I can also feel the knot now, which is...something? I guess?
And that's pretty much it. My life has revolved around the pain in my ass the last week. Before was nothing much but being a bum and playing video games. Now I'm heading into the office to get some work done each day. My goal is to have my crinoid descriptions off to Bill before I head to PopCon this weekend. Fingers crossed!
Friday night was the keynote talk given by Tony Martin. He's an ichnologist who works in Georgia and a super nice guy. Not going to lie, I was more than just a little bit excited to get to meet him. I've followed him on Twitter for quite a while and he seemed like such a nice guy. He is! And he has good stories and can make ichnology seem super fascinating even if you go in kinda "eh" on the subject. I was excited to get his book Dinosaurs Without Bones and even to get him to sign it. It's all about the tracks and trails and burrows and things that dinosaurs left behind. All those lovely behavioral stuff you don't get with the bones. He's currently working on a book about nests and burrows and the like.
After the talk was over, we got to go see the Ordovician hall in the Cinci museum (where the talk was). It was a nice place. They had this GORGEOUS slab of crinoids that must have been something like 5ft by 3ft and so much detail was parsed out of the the rock so you can see all the individual plates and pinnules of hundreds of crinoids. GORGEOUS! Of course, we were basically the last people to get to see it. The museum is shutting down for a few years to renovate the building and pull it up to code. It's in an old train terminal building, so, things aren't quite up to today's standard.
Saturday there were talks about various aspects of the Cincinnatian. I'm super glad that Alicia Stigal was there to talk about the Richmondian Invasion. I really need to learn more about those critters. During lunch, we split into groups to go check out the collections. I was in the middle group, so I got to eat lunch and check out posters before going in. It's a lot different being there as a tourist (which normally doesn't happen) than as a worker. Don't get me wrong, chilling with the crinoids those two times I was there previous was great, but I got to see some of their vertebrate stuff too. I think the coolest was the pterosaur skull that had finger bones on it. That, and this new type of mosasaur that was found when the paleontologist was looking for crinoids. Poor Dave, just want crinoids and got a silly new marine reptile instead!
After lunch/collection tours we broke into groups to check out one of three areas. K-12 teaching, emuseums, and taphonomy. Of course I went Taphonomy. Not only did it interest me more, but it was being led by two of the craziest guys I've met. Carl Brett and Ben Datillo. It was fun listening to them talk and point things out. Carl kept asking questions and got annoyed when I managed to answer most of them. Haha. Felt like high school all over again "you aren't allowed to answer anymore!"
Sunday we got up bright and early to see the western side of the arch. This was what I really wanted to see. This was MY territory. The first place we went was meh (though I did find a nice crinoid arm with pinnules) but the second and third stops were two places I've been told time and time again to go and just hadn't.
First was Madison. This beautifully large outcrop that runs from the bottom of the Waynesville Fm. all the way into the Silurian. This is a LOT of rock. And it was a gorgeous place. I stayed with Ben who had grown up in Madison and had done a lot of work on the outcrop. Because of that, I managed to get to the Ordovician-Silurian contact, which was pretty neat. I didn't do much collecting, these are the rocks that I have here, but it was neat to be able to not only see them all together, but to be able to walk up section. The last place I take my students in earth history you can see all three formations of the area, but it's on a cliff face and not walkable.
This is, sadly, when my eagerness for the day ended. After rejoining the group, I noticed that the vans had pulled up the outcrop, but my car (which I was thankful to get to drive myself, it seemed stupid to go all the way back to Cinci to go home when I would be about an hour from home at the last outcrop) was still at the start of the outcrop. I was heading that way, to get the car and to get some drugs for my shoulder which was beginning to say no, and when I got to the first group of cars in our group that wasn't the vans, I stepped in towards the outcrop (not the street) and completely neglected the fact that the brown algae was present.
Brown algae is slick. Like, no catching yourself while still on your feet, slick. When we first got out of the cars, at least three people fell. The brown algae got me too and I landed HARD on a rock. I honestly don't remember hitting the rock, but I remember standing and one of the guys who helped me up kicked a rock out of the way. Let me tell you, that hurt. That hurt a lot. It's all a blur, but I remember feeling super weak and maybe a wee bit nauseous afterward. Promising I was ok, I continued to my car, trying to convince myself I was alright, but the backpack kept hitting that spot and walking was a little strained. I thought to myself "I may need to call it here" though I really didn't want to.
I hopped in my car and headed towards the lunch area (a nice park area along the Ohio River) and immediately hit up a bathroom to be sure I wasn't bleeding externally. I wasn't. But my left butt cheek was so swollen, it felt like it was twice the size of the right. I went and had lunch, decided that stairs were the enemy and sitting wasn't going to be an option, and thus, came to the sad decision to skip Route 1 and head on home. Thankfully I had an empty sandwich bag and grabbed some ice to sit on all the way home.
I watched it grow that evening. From a relatively good size bruise to a FREAKING huge one. It was the color of a black plum and took up nearly the whole of my left ass cheek. I measured it a couple of days later and it was 8"x5.5" oval. The first few days were crappy. Well, not so much Monday, as I stayed home to tend it, but Tuesday and Wednesday when I went in to the office, I couldn't deal with the stairs. Driving on Tuesday in particular was awful. I could suddenly feel every bump and hole in the road and it was awful. My left arm had also finally started to hurt from the impact, but that was only for a couple of days. All seems well now.
Pain is getting better. Color or the bruise is changing, particularly in the center. The outer edges are still a fairly dark purple, but not black plum dark. There is also a darker purple spot in the middle. I have the Eye of Sauron on my butt. I have also noticed that bruises are are popping up a bit farther from the main one. Well, not popping up, but becoming more distinct. The one that is just barely at my lower back in particular. It hurts and kind of burns when I sit down and lean it against something. That started today, which is weird as it's been well over a week now. Oh! I can also feel the knot now, which is...something? I guess?
And that's pretty much it. My life has revolved around the pain in my ass the last week. Before was nothing much but being a bum and playing video games. Now I'm heading into the office to get some work done each day. My goal is to have my crinoid descriptions off to Bill before I head to PopCon this weekend. Fingers crossed!