August not-so-fun

Sometime early last week, Karl's shin was pierced by something... perhaps cactus or sliver, not sure because he doesn't remember it happening. By last Thursday he was in a great deal of pain and was running a low grade temp.  So off we go to the nearest urgent care (we don't have a primary care provider here) in Montrose (20 miles).
After a little minor surgery which resulted in finding no foreign body, but a rather nasty pocket of purulent/necrotic tissue, the resulting hole was drained, packed, bandaged, and antibiotics prescribed.  We headed home with him still limping, but feeling a little better....well, good enough to hit our local Chinese favorite so I wouldn't have to cook supper on my birthday.  We got home and he crashed for 5 hours.  Fever broke, and he was feeling much better.  Two days later the dressing and bandage came off.  The surrounding area looked worse than when he went in to have it treated, but he was feeling better.  Packing removed and further drainage over the next few days and he can forget it ever happened (except to change dressings).  Now, a week later, he still has a little edema, but the surrounding area is cleared up, hole filled in (granulating, for you medical types) and drainage scant and clear.  Sure is a good thing he heals quickly.
If you aren't grossed out enough from the above description... here are some pix!

with packing still in

packing removed

August fun

A couple little falls/dams on Coal Creek (Grand Mesa). Had to use as stepping stones to get to a cache back in the woods

Wild raspberries up on Grand Mesa near a geocache we found 2 weeks ago

Can't believe I have allowed nearly a whole month to pass without posting any news.  August has been pretty focused on geocaching.  All active geocachers have been working on getting their "7Suvouneirs of August" which we earn by finding 5 different types of caches and attending an event.  So many of the long time cachers in the area have already logged the unique caches with in 25 mile radius... so, Karl and I have spent the month hiding new ones of the needed types- traditional, multi-cache, mystery, letterbox hybrid, earth cache, and helped host a geocaching event (plus finding all those other types that were in area for our own "7 Souvenirs").  To non-cachers, this sound ridiculous, but we have had a great time meeting area cachers and checking our email to find who has located our hidden caches each day,  We set a power-run two weeks ago, which consists of 25 small caches set approximately 0.1 mile apart along a BLM road west of town.  Each cache was named after one of the local geocachers who has made a contribution to geocaching in the area.  Oh, have they had fun with that run.  We notified each cacher of where "their" cache was located before publishing it online, giving them the opportunity to be the first to find and sign the log.  Then they got all excited and went back to do the whole run when they all were published. Lots of work, but lots of fun.

After our geocaching event last Sunday, 7 of us hung out and visited for another couple hours, these are the last ones to leave.