Inktober 2009 was such a great experience for me that in 2010 I was excited to jump into doing the challenge all over again, even though we were moving across the country from Connecticut to Utah. However, life has a way of throwing curveballs at you, and Inktober 2010 didn’t happen due to an injury I sustained on the second day of the month.

Below is the blog post pulled from my single entry for the month.

Day 19

Can I say that the last few weeks have been…hmmm…eventful?  So my family and I made it out to Utah safe and sound. (Beautiful state btw. I can see why all the Utahians I’ve met over the years love their state so much.) My wife’s brother got married a few days after unloading the truck. I got into an accident (see below for details).  Kids are starting at a new school. Relatives from both sides of the family have been staying with us and helping us with the house. The house was a foreclosure, which means we got a smokin’ deal, but it also means we inherited its quirks. So we’ve been dealing with small repairs and fixes. All of this has been a lot of fun, but tiring.

Needless to say, I haven’t drawn much.

I’ve got a 200+ square foot room all to my own devoted drawing and I’ve lost my mojo. Just haven’t been feeling inspired. That is until this morning. I got up and just put ink to paper and did something…anything. Fought through it. What I got was a dude marching:

It’s a start.

This is an Inktober drawing I did on day 1 of Inktober, but haven’t had the means to post it until now:

We had a friend who let us stay in their summer home in Midway Utah until our truck got here. They also let us use their car until ours got here as well.  It was super generous and unexpected. Their home has a cowboy/frontier motif throughout so I did this drawing as a thank you:

And lastly the accident. My bro-in-law had a bachelor party where they rented out a volleyball court and we played a few games. I dove for the ball and my team mate, while going for it as well, lost balance and landed on the back of my head. All 180 pounds of him smashing my face into the ground. I broke my front tooth and later the dentist discovered I killed the other front tooth. I broke several bones deep in my skull. Mostly around the sinuses and soft pallet. There’s a bone that’s broken above the row of teeth on the left side, making my bite a little off. Got a concussion, and some internal bleeding.

This all happened two weeks ago today. The pain has subsided mostly. The oral surgeon thinks I won’t need my mouth wired shut, that the bones look to be growing back together on their own. I just need to lay off the chewing for 6 weeks. So, it’s a lot of protein shakes and mashed potatoes for me. The dentist root canaled me and gave me some temp teeth. The crowns will be done next week sometime. So I’m doing good now.

I’m just happy I didn’t break a wrist.  I can handle no food, but no drawing…bad.