Forced Remodel

Well it seems I am being mandated by the apartment management to have my kitchen and baths remodeled. Which means by Monday morning, May 14th 2012, I have to remove everything from all the cabinets, shelves, counter tops, and move the contents of the fridge to one they placed in my dining room yesterday. Even the hallway linen and misc closets.

A daunting task normally, let alone when a bad hip starts cramping up after just 15/20 minutes of moving and rearranging. Then the question of where to put everything comes to mind. What a PITA! I tried to put a large dent in the task yesterday evening, and then needed 2 Vicodins and 2 TylenolPMs to get to sleep.

I've been trying to get a little done here and there, but it seems I haven't even put a dent in it. Even now I'm still debating with myself on whether or not I should go out and purchase boxes or storage bins. Yes, the boxes or bins will make it easier to store things for the week, but if items are not in boxes they will be easier to access if I find the need for something stowed away.

Living in a semi-displaced mode for the next week should be another joy. No oven, stove, kitchen sink, etc. I really should have planned to be away for the week. So, what do you think the apartment management is offering as a compensation for the week of being displaced, plus the time spent needing to pack and rearrange things? If you guessed absolutely f'ing nothing, you guessed right. Oh, they did offer to have my carpets cleaned afterwards, but then shouldn't that be expected after a week of workers being in and out of the apartment for a week?!

This is not going to be a good week...

Tithe and Retirement

Biblical scholars, believers, and theologians; tax time has made me think of something related to tithes and offerings. I would be interested in other points of view and thoughts about the subject at hand.

From the time I began to faithfully tithe on a regular basis, I decided that I would base my tithe on gross salary and not net. This relieves me of having to worry about additional tithes if I receive a tax refund, or perhaps reducing my tithe if I had to pay additional taxes. Since I pay my tithes according to my gross salary, I have already tithed against any amount of a tax refund. I may choose to offer more with a tax refund, but my conscience is clear if I do not.

That is all fine for now, but I have started thinking about retirement. If most of my retirement is self-funded, is it the same as my tax refunds? I realize I will have to account for interest, dividends, and amounts matched by employers. But will I have clear conscience in not offering a full tithe in my retirement years? Something to ponder as retirement starts getting closer.

I'm not a hipster

Twenty-eight years ago this coming July 22, I had a serious motorcycle accident. The last vehicle in a chain of three or four that collided while avoiding a car that had entered the Northern State Parkway in an unsafe manner. The bike went into a high-slide when I tried to lay it down, and I slammed into the back bumper of a Buick 225. I will admit, I am partially to blame.

I ended up with a compound fracture of my left femur, and some nerve damage that caused 'foot drop' of my left foot. I was hospitalized for just under six weeks. During that time, things got dicey when a fat embolism made its way to one of my lungs. The surgery to repair my leg, inserting a titanium rod (sometimes called a Kushner Rod) in the femur had to wait until the embolism was cleared up. Combined with an external prosthetic brace, the rod allows one to begin putting weight on the leg immediately after being discharged from the hospital. This reduces or eliminates the muscle atrophy that one would get if the leg was in a cast for a few months. I forget how long I ended up wearing the brace as I progressed from using two crutches, to one crutch, and then to a cane. I used cane regularly for quite a few years, perhaps six or seven, maybe a little more.

A couple years later I returned to the hospital to have the titanium rod removed. I was only in the hospital for a day. I had asked to keep the rod, but I never did get it. Around that same time, the 'foot drop' went away quite suddenly. I had been going for testing, and surgery was suggested to correct the nerve damage. But one day while hanging out with a friend at her job, I noticed that I was tapping my foot to music. With the rod removed and the nerve damage gone, it seemed that the ordeal was completely behind me. Or so I thought...

Not too long after I began to suffer from back pain after walking, running, etc. When it got bad enough to visit the doctor, a leg length discrepancy was discovered. My left leg was now about a half inch or so shorter than my right. X-Rays showed that my left hip was starting to develop arthritis. The doctor theorized that it could have been an unnoticed hairline fracture at the time of the accident. I was measured for a prosthesis (a lift that fits inside my left sneaker) and the back pain did go away. But at that time, the orthopedic doctor told me the progression I should expect. He said I'd be fine for a while, perhaps needing an aspirin or two now and then. After that, I will likely switch to the stronger OTC meds for more frequent and severe bouts of pain (at the time Ibuprofen was the drug that you no longer required a prescription for). He said the next phase would be that I would end up taking perhaps twice the listed dosage on a frequent, if not regular, basis to deal with the hip and leg pain as the hip deteriorates further. After that, prescription pain killers. This is the phase I have been at for the last three years. My regular doctor had tried to prescribe anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs like Celebrex, but they barely took the edge off the pain, let alone make it go away. So the last three years, I have been taking Vicodin aka Hydrocodone. Not every day mind you, just when the pain gets past a certain threshold. It gets tricky now and then, deciding whether or not to take the opioid. Some days, I wait too long and end up 'chasing the pain'. When that happens, even taking the max dose of Vicodin does little more than soften the edge of the pain. The last phase as you can guess is that I finally opt for the hip replacement surgery. Why not just get it done years ago you ask? The replacements wear out, and if I were to have had it replaced when first discovered I probably would have had it redone once or twice since then. The doctor years ago suggested I wait until I can't deal with the pain any longer.

And that's almost where I am now. I saw a specialist at Stanford University Hospital a couple times the last two years. The bad news he gave me last time was that my hip is getting near a point where the damage will make the surgery and recovery more difficult. But I am still thinking of the logistics of being out of work for a couple months, getting around immediately following the surgery, and other related issues. Then again, the increased pain has had other effects. I'm less mobile these days, and that's causing a bit of a weight gain issue. Of course the gain in weight makes it more painful to be mobile, which goes back to the beginning of the cycle. When will I get my hip replaced? I'm not sure, but at this point I know that I need to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.

The Holidays

Welcome back readers. As I type this, the last work week before Christmas has started. I'm not exactly sure what I want to write about, but figured that since the holiday season is here that I should post something.

Having spent the week of Thanksgiving visiting my father in Florida, the important part of my holiday season is complete. I didn't visit with my daughter this time around, but I hope to get down there in March around my birthday to spend some time with Reagan. Christmas to me the last few years has been more laid back. And that's even before my mom passed away three years ago. For the second (or is it third) year in a row, I didn't bother putting up a tree. But I did manage to get all my shopping done early enough to have time to personally wrap gifts and ship them out myself. In the past I usually ended up having some shipped directly from where I made online purchases from. In addition to gifts, cards went out a week ago.

This year the holidays arrived with some sad news. Before Thanksgiving I learned that my former employer and boss from my time at National Steel Rule was diagnosed with cancer. This past weekend brought more bad news, as his condition is getting worse. Joe was a great boss, and there are times I regret leaving National Steel Rule when I moved to California with a new job in 2000. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying my life here in California. But working at NSR was like working with family.

So what are my plans for the rest of the holiday season? To tell you the truth, not much. I'll spend a nice quiet evening at home Christmas Eve and Christmas. Perhaps enjoying a real wood fire in my fireplace on Christmas Eve. On the day off from work, Monday the 26th, again no real plans. But I am having a buddy over for dinner that evening. The plans for New Years is not much different.

As for you reading this, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May your holiday season bring joy and happiness.

Isiah 9:6,
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

The Profound Prophecy of Arlo Guthrie

Like many people, I've been a long time fan of Arlo Guthrie. Of course that means I have heard "Alice's Restaurant" many times in my life. On records, the radio, CDs, tapes, and of course at live shows. If you've listened to the song that many times, you will know that he has changed it up a bit from time to time, changing a bit of the story line to fit current events. This is about one of those times, and how the story told is eerily prophetic some 20+ years later.

It was sometime in the mid to late 1980s, Ronald Reagan was President, and a small venue in Roslyn, Long Island, NY was a popular place to see live music. If you were on LI back then, My Father's Place is a name that would be very familiar to you. I had the pleasure to see Arlo live at My Father's Place a few times back then. On one night, around Christmas time, he changed part of the "Alice's Restaurant" story and added a bit related to what was being called the "Star Wars Program" being pushed by the current administration. I don't remember the exact words, but the audience was entertained when he spoke of how the US Military was secretly training the youth of the day through video games (mostly played in mall game rooms or video arcades back then). Although back then he joked that the youth were being trained to fight aliens from another world one quarter at a time, he still gave the picture of all the machines feeding scores to computers hidden in the basement of the Pentagon. Of course, when you got a high score, you happily punched in your name, initials, or whatever into the game. This helped the government keep track of the best players.

So how is this prophetic? Well last night I was watching a show on the National Geographic Channel. It was about the use of the unmanned aircraft (Predator and Reaper drones) in the war against terror in the middle east. Okay, not invaders from a distant planet, but in a command center not too far from the nation's capitol, members of the military fly these unmanned aircraft and attack targets thousands of miles away. It's as if they are playing a video game. As I watched the show, my mind flashed back to that one particular rendition of "Alice's Restaurant" that I heard years ago. And I thought to myself, "My God, Arlo predicted this!".

Iran... Really

Views from Iran!?

I may have some posts going back a year or two, but I am still a relative newbie. While poking around the Blogger site I came across the stats information. I was somewhat surprised to see that after the United States, the next country with viewers listed is Iran. Here is the table as of October 5, 2011.

United States	803
Iran	16
Russia	13
Brazil	12
China	6
Germany	4
Canada	3
Malaysia	3
Israel	2
India	2

I would have guessed that more viewers would have been from Canada or Western European countries than Iran. Then again, this could just be because determining location from IP Address isn't a perfect method. In any case, I thought this particular statistic was interesting and wanted to share it. What I need to figure out next is how to tell if those 16 views are from one or many different addresses.

Random Ramblings

Well, once again a long time has lapsed since my last post. I had good intentions if that counts. Some time ago I started on six drafts. But that was about it. As I've said in a few of my previous posts, I just can't seem to get into the habit of writing more regularly. Odd, I used to enjoy the daily journal that was kept as part of Mr. Cooney's 8th grade English class. Or was that Social Studies?

Now the tricky part is that I don't want to dive into any of the topics that I started on drafts about. At least not too deeply if at all. So I think I'll just give a quick look at what's happening lately.

At work, we had to let one of the Unix/Linux Systems Administrators go a few weeks back. I am somewhat surprised at the lack of qualified applicants applying for the open position. You figure that with 10 or 12 percent unemployment that I'd have people beating down the door. But no. Some applicants are the same that applied for an open position last year, so obviously I'm not the only one who thinks they're not qualified. A couple that had real interesting resumes were quickly unavailable as I was scheduling interviews. They accepted positions somewhere else. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I don' think I am (think the people still looking). But at this point, I may have to revisit some of the resumes that my team and I passed on.

I'm am still digging the Challenger SRT8 and no regrets about purchasing it. Scheduled its 12 month/12K mile service for next week. But the beast has only 4600 miles on it! By the way, I've given her a name. Her name is Arion (or Areion). A horse from Greek Mythology. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areion for more information about the mythical horse. Lately I've been thinking of a somewhat major upgrade to her. A little voice in my head is telling me to buy an Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger. I have to check with the local speed shops and see how much installation would cost me.

I did purchase season tickets for both the SF 49ers and the NY Jets again this year. Haven't made plans to head to NY for a Jet game, and so far I've only been to the 49er home opener. I sold the tickets for the Niners/Cowboys game on Craigslist a couple weeks back. I have a bunch of tickets for both teams listed on both Stubhub and TicketExchange, but no bites so far.

Back in August my good friend JJ Connelly was out this way. We headed up to Arcata for some outdoor type stuff. I had a blast, even though there was a few issues. But I think I'll cover that in more details in a separate post.

As we enter October I am definitely looking forward to my annual trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I'm going to spend time with my daughter Reagan, but I'll probably go down again in March around my birthday and spend a few days with her before visiting with dad again.

As I'm sitting here watching the season premier of "Fringe", I am running out of things to ramble about. So dear readers I think I'll call this post done at this time. For now, a goodbye and goodnight.