Category: News

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Sitting cross-legged on the floor

Last weekend Thomas and Graham competed in the district pinewood derby races. Graham didn’t place, but Thomas came in 3rd in his division. He was actually disappointed at not doing better. There were also a number of other activities that we did in between races, including CO2 rockets. What fun those are!

Graham continues to get seriously into listening to music. Mostly he listens to They Might Be Giants and The Bobs, but he still asks me for a Song of the Day every few days. He’s proud that he has learned the words to many TMBG songs.

Thomas is still very interesting in learning how to program computers. He found a bug in one of the examples in the Logo book I got for him and has decided that fixing the bug will be his first test. He spends a lot of time in his room playing Runescape, an online role-playing game, with his friends. Occasionally, he’ll move over and play his bass for awhile. I love that he does it for enjoyment.

Tina and I have gone back to Phase I of the South Beach diet and have started losing weight again. Last week I lost 4 lbs. and feel confident that I’ll be up to 60 lbs. lost soon. Tina’s already there. We’ve decided we’re not celebrating until we get to 75 lbs.

This weekend Thomas and I were supposed to go camping with his Boy Scout troop, but somebody messed up on the reservations. Instead, they are having three consecutive day camps at a nearby park. The next weekend, Thomas and I are biking out to adjustable dumbbells Oxbow Park with the troop for another weekend of camping. It’s about a 14 mile ride, so it will be interesting to see how all the boys handle it. They’re young so they should be fine.

In a few weeks, Critical Path is moving offices. The new office is just across the street from us.

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Should I try to do some more?

The calf is healing surprisingly well in both the muscle pull and the frostbite. The lumpiness of the frostbite made me paranoid enough to call the advice nurse Friday afternoon. She said she suspected “frostnip” since the skin is red and not white. She said to watch for continued numbness and blistering. Both have occurred to a minor degree but it is clear to me today that it is healing. The red is subsiding and the blistering seems to be lessening. The muscle feels well enough that I can walk normally and spent much of last night stretching it out.

Today I celebrated Easter by turning my compost pile and harvesting an especially rich vein of crumbly soil. At this time of year, you’re always on the clock to get things done before it starts raining. I spent my newly acquired compost on planting new grass in a weedy area in the front. I had to dig out all the weeds and crab grass first, so it occupied most of my afternoon. I’m glad I got it done though and the sprinkles kept threatening the whole time I sat out there digging up weeds.

Graham came out and asked if I would play a board game with him so he’s setting up “The Simpsons Clue”. Who killed Mr. Burns? Homer in the garage with the donut!

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Once bitten, twice shy

Yesterday morning it was so nice outside that I decided to skip the Max and bike the entire way to work. I felt great and it was an awesome ride until I dismounted at the curb 30 feet from our front door. At some point after my right foot touched the pavement, I felt a little “pop” in my right calf and thought to myself, “Uh oh, that’s probably going to hurt.” Here’s the normal sequence of events for a dismount:

  1. Stand up on left pedal
  2. Swing right leg behind the seat
  3. Touch down right foot
  4. Touch down left foot

What’s weird is that I didn’t feel any pain until after I tested that initial thought. That means it probably happened as I was putting my left foot down. Once I put a little weight on my right foot, yow! I nearly fell over from the pain. Luckily, I had my bike there to brace me and hold me up. I hopped a few steps towards the door before trying it again, thinking it might just be a cramp that will fade away. No such luck. Still incredibly painful.

Eventually, I made it to my office where my friend, Erik, recommended icing it immediately. Luckily, we had a large ice pack in the freezer already and I wrapped it around my calf with an Ace bandage. It was very cold at first but after awhile I became absorbed with work and didn’t think about it. Over an hour later, the ice pack was mostly warm so I took it off so I could refreeze it for later re-icing of my calf. Strangely, the skin that had been beneath part of the ice pack was red, very hard to the touch and felt like it was a coupld of millimeters thick. It softened up in a couple of minutes, though, and I went on about the day.

My evening commute is nearly all downhill so I had no problem with my bike except stopping and dismounting, which I had to execute differently to avoid stretching the calf. After we got home from Thomas’ spring concert, I rested on the couch with my foot in the air. At that point there was still redness where the ice pack had been and there was pain similar to sunburn on the skin. I began to suspect that I had frostbite.

This morning Erik, who claims to have seen cases of frostbite, confirmed. This article says to never ice for more than 20 minutes at a time. The area is still red and feels lumpy in a few areas. I called the advice nurse at my doctor’s office and left a message. I suspect I’ll need to go see my doctor for the frostbite. The calf feels better already and I think I’ll be back on my bike on Monday.

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Go ahead, let your hair down

Tina’s mom, Jan, is in town this week to help Uncle Buddy with some landscaping at his (relatively) new house. Last night the six of us went to Delta Cafe for an early dinner and then I took Tina and the boys to the Rhododendron Garden. The rhodies are blooming yet, but there were around 10 different varieties of wood fowl in evidence. Both boys really enjoyed trying to get close to the ducks. We walked around for over an hour before the sun started to set and we went home.

A loyal reader recently reported that she had problems leaving a comment. I think I fixed the problem so if you’ve had problems in the past, please don’t hesitate to comment again. I crave feedback!

Last night I finally got around to putting some flag football pictures up at the Rynosoft Gallery. Check ’em out.

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Woke up this morning with a pain in my head

For the second morning in a row I awoke around 3:00 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Yesterday I attributed it to the fact that I wasn’t using the CPAP (because I couldn’t breathe through my nose), but that was not the case this morning. This is usually the time that I start deep sleep which can lead to apnea episodes, especially when I’m not using the machine. I’m not sure what the explanation is this morning.

Since I’ve been awake, I’ve had the words “woke up this morning with a pain in my head” floating around in my head and couldn’t figure out to which song they belonged. Turns out those words belong to many songs.

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Just mindin’ my business, eatin’ food and finger lickin’

My sore throat is gone but now I have full sinuses and a persistent cough. That’s bad news for someone with a CPAP machine and a nose mask. If I can’t breathe through my nose, then the machine is useless. If I don’t use the machine, I don’t get good sleep. If I don’t get good sleep, I don’t get better faster.

Not a good turn of fortune so I’m home from work again today. I might try to do some programming here later this afternoon if I feel better.