Last night I finished my final marg for several days. Hmmm, come to think of it, maybe that’s why I endured such horrible post-op pain last time? Maybe it wasn’t the nerve block wearing off, but rather the lack of margs. The Dilaudid drip didn’t do shit. But a Patron drip? Think I’ll suggest it during surgery prep.

Anyway, since I’m light on the pain meds right now, only taking them only before bed to help me sleep, a marg seemed in order. Call it a “Here’s to Dr. Desai and his fine fingers having a great day” marg. Figured that, in the spirit of things, and since I’ll have to refrain in the druggie days immediately following surgery, I should make it a great one. Dr. Desai does complex surgeries, I do margs. We all have our gifts.

Groping for the best limes. Priorities, baby.

Wednesday afternoon is my third, and hopefully final, surgery. I’ll probably need another a ways down the road, to remove the freakin’ hardware store in my leg, but this operation – if all goes well – represents the end of my surgical repair and the official beginning of my recovery. Fuck yeah. Plus, I’ll get the medieval torture device off my leg – ever heard of someone so excited to get into a cast?

So it seemed fitting to sip just a little bit of a top-shelf marg. You don’t waste great tequila by mixing it with junk, if you mix it at all, so I took a small lime, rolled it carefully to soften it up, squeezed it, heated the simple syrup, then cooled it, added a splash of OJ, and I had the best, purest marg mix around. (Scroll down on this post for the exact recipe.) Skipped the triple sec – great tequila doesn’t need the softening, because it’s already so smooth. The tequila? Tried a new one: Corzo Silver, out of Jalisco, Mexico. Normally I only sip stuff this good – actually, a guy like me doesn’t normally own stuff this good – but, damnit, I wanted a marg. What fine tequila, Corzo Silver, a terrific blanco with a refined flavor and finish (as I discovered while sipping it on occasion in the past week or so) – thanks tons to Graham, Doug, and everyone at the Alpine Training Center’s recent community night for the unnecessary but tremendously appreciated “Kelly’s tequila fund.” It’s going to great use.

In fact, this marg tasted so damned good I made some extra to share with Dr. Desai this afternoon. Wait, come to think of it, maybe that’s not such a good idea. The whole steady fingers and concentration thing… So maybe I’ll save it for when we celebrate my return to days where I watch the sun first crest the horizon from the trail, the orange rays spilling across the mountains, when again I can breathe air that tastes even finer than fine tequila, when my heart pounds, my lungs burn, my mind eager and anxious and ready while racking up, those days where time disappears into nothingness and I feel like I’m soaring into a world so wild I could never, in a million years, have dreamed of something so captivating. Yeah, maybe I’ll save it for that.

Colin Haley just above the Col of Hope, midway up our new link-up on Cerro Torre, 2007.