You know what would suck?

On Tuesday, the night ride started of well. Spun over with TG, then headed out with the group.
About 20 minutes in, the contact in my right eye decided it had better places to be, and jumped out of my eye.
Super.
Let's one-eye this rest of this ride.
No issues heading out. Just plowing along.
We decided NOT to come home on The PowerStation, and chose to do the Clement Cut-Through...
Here's where the ride went all pear-shaped...
As we entered the woods, I commented, "Man, it would SUCK to flip up a stick and tear off a R/D back in this crap..."
Approx. two minutes passed until there was a sickening crunch, and all forward momentum came to an abrupt halt.

As it was PITCH dark, the damage was largely unknown. All that I/we knew was that the R/D had suffered some soft of fatal damage. Fortunately, on rides like this, there is a lot of expertise & ability.
We popped the chain, shortened it, and re-installed. I was SS the whole way home. 46/19. Good gear on the flats. Not so much when the road tipped up.
Couldn't put a lot of pressure on the pedals. Couldn't stand. Just pedal round strokes, dummy!
It got me home, which is good, b/c there's NO way The Boss would have found me.
Thanks to those involved.
The next morning, damage was assessed.

Lower pivot/body broken away from the main body. Carbon pulley cage torn OFF. And yes, that aluminum pulley is torn apart.

 Bottom half of the cage.
If you're gonna break shit, break it...
Fortunately, I keep things. There was a 6700 R/D on the townie. Slapped it on the Salsa, repaired the shortened chain, and voila...back in bidness.

Normally, I frown on riding repaired chains, but this will do the job until the new KMC unit hits the door.
Also scouring Ebay for a 9v XT or XTR short cage R/D. Why 9 speed? 10v Shimano R/Ds have different parallelogram geometry, and the cable pull is different. The just will not operate properly with a 7900 shifter.
9v MTB derailleurs share geometry with the 7900 R/D. Ergo, it'll work fine.
MTB R/Ds are tougher too. No more 7900 R/Ds in the woods. Too fragile.

Thankfully, nothing else got eaten when the derailleur got fragged. Frame is straight, and all spokes are still in the rear wheel.

Back on the bike this weekend. Time to get back on schedule...