Canadian Andrew,
My buddies above offered excellent advice and the sames sympathies as I do. Many others won't post, since we've said it all already, but they're all with you and support you. I'll say it again anyway. I'm sorry to learn of your victimization, and hope you have a smooth and speedy recovery. It always amazed me when I ended up in the hospital from motocross motorcyle accident hauling a.. thru the desert when I got the same comments from medical personnel, family and friends. They always said, "You were very lucky. It could have been worse." At the time, I didn't feel so damn lucky, but maybe they were right.
Negotiate the best deal you can for the totalled Pantera, since the insurance adjusters are too lazy to learn about our Pantera society and infrastructure, then decide what to do with it. Lot's of options you have on that note. Lots of us, George, Coz and myself, at the very least, are a bunch of bored old farts, and would be happy to come over to your garage and start taking parts off the salvaged Pantera nad putting them on a project Pantera, just for the chance to hang out together, share a few manly jokes, laugh together, and just for something to do. So, please advise everybody what you're planning to do, and you may be surprised at the help you'll get. For lots of us, it's partly the social aspect of the Pantera community that is the main factor keeping us from selling our Panteras when we go thru the occasional emotional swing of "losing interest" in our Pantera. After 30+ years, that's what Jerry Panteleri told me kept him from selling his Pantera. He's selling, and I hope he doesn't decide to adandon his Pantera buddies 'cause he's tired of us, and I'm sure he won't. There's Good People who own Panteras and enjoy the social aspect, and it's got nothing to do with money, it's friendship. And friends help friends, so I'll bet your Canadian Pantera Brothers will rally to support your decision Amigo! Just to hang together for awhile and do something worthwhile.
I'm a bored old fart, and I'd be there to help but I still have to work and it's too far to go ... but some of the things us old farts do quite well are helping each other out, wrenching, and telling jokes. Another quality we have is story telling abilities. This lost art is absent with the inexperienced youth, since they haven't lived the stories to tell, just yet. SO, on that note, I have a story which will surely make you laugh and feel just a little better.
When I was 16 I was "getting air" on my Yamaha 100, way out in the desert. Not thinking ahead, I didn't scope out the landing zone ahead of time, and you guessed it ... I ended up in an accident, which was quite painful, and with a twisted up motorcycle at the bottom of the jump. Broken collar bone! A long, bumpy ride back to the truck on the back of an amigo's
bike, a trip to the doctor's office and then a few months with that broken collar bone harness which reminded me of a woman's bra, and I was ready to go, with nothing more than a lump in my collar bone, which still exists today. Like a snake that ate a mouse, a lump. No problemo....
10 years later, I was on a Honda CR 500 high power motocross bike, cruising sand dunes with my brother-in-law, who had a Yamaha YZ 500 motocross bike. Thrilling activity, I assure you. So he blasts up this sand dune, with me off to the side and trailing slightly behind, leaving him room to turn in front of me, if that's what we were going to do. I had no idea, he was leading, it was his turf in an area I was unfamiliar with, so I was following "my tour guide."
As fast as we could go, with huge rooster tails of dust behind us going up this sand dune, I see him disappear over this hill and drop from view. I was hesitant to do this again, without knowing the landing zone. I slammed my brakes, digging ruts in the sand, front and rear, just to make sure of the landing zone first. Let him have all the "style points" I decided, and let my instincts make the decision to "play it safe."
You guessed it again! Way down at the bottom of the sand dune,on the other side, was hard, smooth' flat, almost level dirt pack surface. Also down at the bottom was my amigo, he was obviously in pain, his bike crumpled and the throttle stuck wide open, him sprawled and trying to curl up in pain. Not funny. So we get back into town, over to the "satellite" hospital" and I make my way home, leaving him there with his wife, my sister. I had 250 miles to go home and be back to work. A follow up telephone the next night and a few more calls over the next few days and weeks and he's still in pain....
I decided I have to go visit again and maybe help out around the house and his work. He's a mechanic and was still working, He owned his own mechanic garage, was self employed, and was lifting, pulling, pushing, stretching, just as a routine part of the job. Self employed people have to work, there's no sick pay otherwise. He was doing his work with a broken collar bone. He was complaining of pain two weeks later. It was time to help, I decided.
So another trek 250 miles to assist at the garage. I arrived late afternoon on a Friday, and he was still at the shop, where I knew he would be. Doggone determined dude was lifting a truck tire back onto the axle and trying to center it on the lugnuts when I walked up and said hello, let me help you.
Tire back on, I walked into the office with him and was looking at him when I noticed something peculiar. He had the damned broken collar bone medical device, the bra strap, ON BACKWARDS!!! The strap is designed like a cloth webbing, and looks like a "figure-8" or the symbol for infinity. You put it on and it's designed to pull your arms backwards, to pull your collar bone outwards, and relieve pressure on it. He had it on with the cross over in front, pulling his shoulders together!!!!! He kept tellling me on the phone previously that he was just taking it off, since it hurt to wear it. He said the tighter he adjusted it, the more it hurt!!!! Now I knew why!!!! He said the "satellite hospital" doctor took X-rays, and wrote him a prescription for the medical harness device, but they were out of them temporarily, so he could get one at a drug store, which he did.
He's still angry as hell to this day, and hates when I tell this story. While everybody laughs, he says how he should have sued, how they should at least have instructions on the broken collar bone bra device, to tell a guy how to put it on, and generally tries to make it look like he wasn't stupid for wearing it backward for two weeks, in major pain, and not going to see the doctor again....
Kenny, I love ya' dude, and I wish you didn't go thru that amigo, but I couldn't resist. Kenny's my brother in law, and I hope he doesn't see this post on the internet.
Cheer up, Canadian Andrew, everything will be OK, you're alive and that's what's most important. And now that I KNOW you've had a good laugh, I also believe a little humorous
story will make it "just a little better" since laughter seems to release some cool biochemicals in the brain, and makes you feel better for a little bit. And that's why I took the time and typed out the story, so you'd feel a little better, Amigo
Your Pantera buddy, many miles away,
Ron
p.s. Get well soon
