Dick
Aug 18th, 2007, 11:11 am
For all you folks in the lower Tejas Hill Country, who have met and know George, this is to bring you up-to-date on his 'adventure'!
Gotta call from George yestiday, chewin' on my ass for missing CCR third year in a row. We settled that by my promising to be there next year, wherever it be (and nope, I didn't have my fingers crossed!!). He and Sue are going to MO and taking a leisurely ride from home (Chambersburg, PA) to Lake of the Ozarks, to arrive on either Monday or Tuesday. Knowing George, he'll prolly volunteer for some aspect of CCR (always has in the past) and put on his usual 'happy face' wherever he can help out.
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Quick history - George and Sue keep a second home here in the Tejas Hill Country for use during PA's winter months. They travel all over the world: keep a K100 in Heidelburg, Germany; use a huge pick-up camper for trips with a national RV club; and pilot a '99 LT with a Hannigan sidecar (which last year took George well up into Alaska on a leetle jaunt!). This year, after staying in the Hill Country during the early months, they headed back to PA to stay for the spring and summer. Out on a two lane country road, on a smaller bike that he recently picked up for just shorthaul trips around Chambersburg, George wuz downed by a DUI pickup driver coming from the opposite direction. No route of escape, as there wuz no road shoulder, George tried avoidance manuevering - butt to no avail; the scoot seemed to be a magnet to the pickup truck!! SMACK - into the left side of the scoot -and mangled George's left leg somethang awful, below the knee (key point, 'below the knee').
Well, after a trip through one hospital that recommended he be moved to another, more capable of handling severe trauma, George ended up with having to make a life changing decision. Based on Dr's diagnosis and prognosis, and facing many, many future surgeries to try leg reconstruction, with an obvious bout of pain during and after each one, it wuz decided to amputate the left leg below the knee. That wuz done; George went thru some physical therapy and intensive care pain; and wuz released to go home with a promising prognosis of future mobility with a fitted prosthesis and more therapy.
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Well - to close this post, lemme tell ya what the phone call yestiday wuz about (beside my ass chewin'!!). George is back on the LT!!! :thumb: Yeppir, just as most of us thought he would be! Found a friend who worked magic on his shift lever arrangement by adapting some small tube extensions onto the lever, a semi-captive 'foot' stirrup, and since George has articulating motion due to still having his knee joint (remember the 'key point'!!); he can shift both up and down gears. All this, combined with the hack for stoppage stability, and George is back!!!
And I gotta tell ya, I've NEVER seen someone with a more positive attitude about the future, after an event like this, than George Young. He has the special fortune of a very giving family; his wife Sue; the kids (son Doug, btw, lives here near Boerne) and the support of a great number of folks in the BMW RA and MOA communities, where George wuz a board member for RA for several years, as well as the BMWBMW club in D.C., where he wuz a member for many years.
I can't wait for his winter visit to the Tejas Hill Country this year, where we'll plan a trip to the Alamo Motorcycle Museum up near Vanderpool, and some RTE runs around the 'hood. And I hope all y'all get an opportunity to meet up with George (he does like to join our World Kkaafffeee Hqtrs meeting in Leon Springs *$$ early on Friday mornings!).
GO GETT'EM GEORGE!!!
Gotta call from George yestiday, chewin' on my ass for missing CCR third year in a row. We settled that by my promising to be there next year, wherever it be (and nope, I didn't have my fingers crossed!!). He and Sue are going to MO and taking a leisurely ride from home (Chambersburg, PA) to Lake of the Ozarks, to arrive on either Monday or Tuesday. Knowing George, he'll prolly volunteer for some aspect of CCR (always has in the past) and put on his usual 'happy face' wherever he can help out.
--------------------
Quick history - George and Sue keep a second home here in the Tejas Hill Country for use during PA's winter months. They travel all over the world: keep a K100 in Heidelburg, Germany; use a huge pick-up camper for trips with a national RV club; and pilot a '99 LT with a Hannigan sidecar (which last year took George well up into Alaska on a leetle jaunt!). This year, after staying in the Hill Country during the early months, they headed back to PA to stay for the spring and summer. Out on a two lane country road, on a smaller bike that he recently picked up for just shorthaul trips around Chambersburg, George wuz downed by a DUI pickup driver coming from the opposite direction. No route of escape, as there wuz no road shoulder, George tried avoidance manuevering - butt to no avail; the scoot seemed to be a magnet to the pickup truck!! SMACK - into the left side of the scoot -and mangled George's left leg somethang awful, below the knee (key point, 'below the knee').
Well, after a trip through one hospital that recommended he be moved to another, more capable of handling severe trauma, George ended up with having to make a life changing decision. Based on Dr's diagnosis and prognosis, and facing many, many future surgeries to try leg reconstruction, with an obvious bout of pain during and after each one, it wuz decided to amputate the left leg below the knee. That wuz done; George went thru some physical therapy and intensive care pain; and wuz released to go home with a promising prognosis of future mobility with a fitted prosthesis and more therapy.
--------------------
Well - to close this post, lemme tell ya what the phone call yestiday wuz about (beside my ass chewin'!!). George is back on the LT!!! :thumb: Yeppir, just as most of us thought he would be! Found a friend who worked magic on his shift lever arrangement by adapting some small tube extensions onto the lever, a semi-captive 'foot' stirrup, and since George has articulating motion due to still having his knee joint (remember the 'key point'!!); he can shift both up and down gears. All this, combined with the hack for stoppage stability, and George is back!!!
And I gotta tell ya, I've NEVER seen someone with a more positive attitude about the future, after an event like this, than George Young. He has the special fortune of a very giving family; his wife Sue; the kids (son Doug, btw, lives here near Boerne) and the support of a great number of folks in the BMW RA and MOA communities, where George wuz a board member for RA for several years, as well as the BMWBMW club in D.C., where he wuz a member for many years.
I can't wait for his winter visit to the Tejas Hill Country this year, where we'll plan a trip to the Alamo Motorcycle Museum up near Vanderpool, and some RTE runs around the 'hood. And I hope all y'all get an opportunity to meet up with George (he does like to join our World Kkaafffeee Hqtrs meeting in Leon Springs *$$ early on Friday mornings!).
GO GETT'EM GEORGE!!!