I have never liked not being in control of things, and anytime I am in a motor vehicle of any kind, I want to be behind the wheel. But I gladly gave up control, suppressed any urges to give directions, and just let it go. I swear they took the longest route to Marin General. I think it took close to an hour or more. They certainly didn't miss any of the potholes though. I was aware of each one.

Fortunately I was one of the first arrivals of the day and things seemed to be happening at a fairly good pace.

I got morphined, xrayed, undressed, re-dressed in a hospital gown and actually got to take a well earned piss.

The Disinfectors

We arrived at Marin General hospital around 10:00 A.M. It was already two hours past my estimated arrival time at the Bovine Bakery. My Saturday morning friends would not have the pleasure of my company, nor would they have a clue as to whether I should've been there anyway.

My wife arrived at nearly the same time Dr. Barry did. The staff was OK with her being around the ER, and I was happy to see her.

Dr. Barry was the orthopaedic on call, and he arrived from, of all places , "The traumaology conference" in San Francisco.I certainly qualified for that! He is a tan 45-ish guy with a wise-cracking style, and made some funny remarks as he exxamined my battered feet and wrist.

Tony the EMT assigned to keep me awake and alert entertained me with various EMT stories as we bounced along the backroads to civilization.

I appreciated his non-judgemental attitude toward riding and his ability to keep my mind off the growing pain. The guys up front occasioanally chimed in and they admitted that I'd interrupted a morning coffee and baked goods run they were on. That made four of us that would have to wait for our morning java.

In my case it would be way past midnight before I got so much as a drop of water to drink, let alone a cuppa joe with a jalpeno and cheddar cheese scone.

He warned me that when I got to Kaiser, after I was splinted up at the ER, I shouldn't settle for any cheap-ass repair job on my wrist. he made it clear that I had a seriously messed up arm that deserved the expensive stuff. "Titanium.."