ChezLark

This conservative political blogger has interesting pictures from the GOP convention protests in NYC this past weekend…

Here is an anecdote about how I am not always a pedantic, argumentative twit:

A new Trader Joes opened just around the corner from our house, so naturally, Laura and I are pretty excited. We went there this evening to check things out and buy cheap wine, imported beer, etc. When I was checking out, the following sequence of events happened:

• I noticed a sign taped to their card-swipe machines that said “we are temporarily unable to accept debit cards”
• I swiped my bank card, which can function as a credit card or a debit card
• The little display asked whether it should process the card as a credit card or a debit card
• I jokingly observed to the cashier: “I guess I shouldn’t choose debit, huh?”

At this point, the cashier recited an unrelated piece of advice: “If your card has a PIN number, then you want to choose ‘Debit’. Otherwise, you should choose ‘Credit’”.

Simple miscommunication, right? Of course. However, the remarkable part of this story is that I did not take the time to explain what I had meant originally, and I did not stick around, explaning everything repeatedly until I was sure I had been understood. Instead, I just smiled pleasantly and moved on.

To people who do not know me too well, this will mean nothing. But to people who spend a lot of time around me, this will be surprising and notable.

It’s all part of the more relaxed, mellow maiken.

Ran again briefly today on a treadmill at a running-shoes store; they videotape your feet striking the treadmill to figure out what type of support your shoes need to provide. I managed another 15 seconds or so at a light jog. It’s encouraging when you mention to people that you broke your leg and they ask which one it was because they can’t tell from how you’re walking around…

The Globe and Mail, arguably Canada’s best newspaper, has a bemused reflection on John Kerry’s appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with John Stewart. Excerpt:

The “most bizarre part of this entire thing” is [Kerry's] need to appear on a spoof of the news to answer serious charges against him and get his message out. That tells you something about the insanity that has gripped the American media.

[...]

Kerry needed to appear on The Daily Show because the American media itself has become ridiculous and he needs the endorsement of the jokers, not political pundits. The cable news shows that Jon Stewart mocks have become absurdly partisan. The print press is going through a period of self-flagellation as newspaper after newspaper apologizes and backtracks on its initial coverage of the need to go to war with Iraq.

There is no longer a mainstream media in the United States. Every outlet postures and preens. Comedy is now as important as political commentary. Only the jokers have integrity.

The last thing Kerry said, as he left The Daily Show, was a remark to Stewart. He said, “You do a great job.” In that, Kerry was correct. It’s sad, but true.

I ran for the first time on my broken leg today; my physical therapist had me try running, on a treadmill, for just 20 seconds or so to see how my gait looked. I noticibly favor the broken leg, and I can’t sustain a running pace for very long just due to the effort involved, but it was encouraging nonetheless.

Walked up Capitol Hill again, in the rain this time. It’s becoming routine.

Another first: I was feeling energetic this evening after work, so I powered up Capitol Hill to make it home, on foot, in about 40 minutes! I walked continuously, stopping only for traffic lights. It felt fantastic, although very tiring.

For over a week after the operation, the furthest distance I could cover, using a walker and tremendous effort, was about 5 or 6 feet. When I got home this evening, it occured to me that I had walked approximately 1,000 times that distance completely unassisted.

Some crazy guy has built a standard-issue PC inside an Osh Kosh makeup case, creating a stylish portable. Apparently he’s a DJ and wanted to ad-hoc a portable computer for parties.

Walked to work again today. It was much less difficult than the last time — I made the walk (about a mile) in almost exactly 30 minutes, which means I was maintaining a pretty normal walking pace.

I now have periods where my leg feels almost normal, which is terrific. However, I seem to have developed a sort of pop in my hip, and being the obsessive worrier that I am, I’ve been a little concerned about this. I’ve read of people complaining about the feeling of muscles or ligaments sliding unevenly across the screw heads (which protrude a little from the femur), and I’m kind of worried that that’s what this sensation is. We’ll see what happens.

This opinion piece in Salon higlights a funny, and disturbing, aspect of the Bush re-election campaign: in order to be admitted to an “Ask Bush” event, which is presented as a populist gathering of sorts, one must sign a declaration that one is, in fact, a Bush supporter.

Since these events are organized and staged by the Bush campaign, it stands to reason that they would not want to admit detractors, but it’s deceptive to present them as though they were some kind of spontaneous town-hall-style gathering of regular folks.

All this reminded me of the “Free Speech Zones” that are often established to pen in protestors when the President holds an event. In the past, protestors have compained that these “Free Speech Zones” are not even within sight of the President’s motorcade or event location, making them invisible, for example, to TV cameras. I was disappointed to read that a similar “pen” was set up in Boston for the Democratic National Convention. Apparently, though, at least one group of protestors just ignored it.

Went for physical therapy again this morning; my therapist is ramping things up aggressively now; I’m scheduled to go twice a week for at least the next two weeks.

I’m down to a slight limp now, and since I can walk and stand on my broken leg, my therapist has started adding balance and agility exercises; she has me balancing on rocker boards, walking along narrow foam spines, standing on one foot, etc. All to try to build my legs back up so I can snowboard by winter. It’s helpful to have that specific goal as a target; it gives me an excuse to push harder to get in shape.

In a way, it’s more frustrating to be at a fairly-normal level of functioning than it is to be badly incapacitated: I can now keep up with people walking, but I can’t run. I can walk up and down stairs normally, but I can only squat down with great effort. Every morning, when I’m getting dressed, I’m reminded that I have trouble balancing on the broken leg with my leg even slightly flexed. After sitting at work for more than an hour or so, my leg gets stiffed and has to be stretched out a little before I can walk properly.

In short, many little things constantly remind me that I got clocked by a car. I’ve made enormous progress, but the last 20% or so may take a while to get ironed out…

This scary Salon article describes the plight of Evan Brown, who is (slowly) losing a court case against his former employer, who is claiming rights to an idea Brown has for an invention (not actually a finished product).

Microsoft made its employees sign intellectual property-right contracts that sound very much like the ones described in this article. Apparently, their force is such that the employer can claim rights to unfinished design ideas!

Scary.

Today was my first day completely unassisted — I left the cane at home, ran errands, went to work, took the bus, got coffee, etc, walking entirely on my own!

I still have a bit of a limp, and the broken leg doesn’t feel quite normal; it’s shaky, and what with all the exercises I put it through every morning and evening, I can feel sore muscles in it every time I walk. However, it’s great to be walking pretty much normally again!

Next stops: power building in my quads and knees so I can squat, then agility, twisting, and running (!).

On track for full power by first snowfall!

According to this article, based on Forbes data, Seattle is the absolutely most overpriced city in the US. Wheee….

Went to physical therapy this morning. Counterintuitively, the therapist has me coming in more frequently as my leg gets stronger, since they can do more and more extensive exercises to build it up.

Good progress since two weeks ago: my limp was very pronounced then, and I couldn’t balance on the broken leg without shifting my hips considerably to compensate for the fact that my hip muscles are weakened. Now, at least when I’m well rested, my limp is very slight, and I can balance on the broken leg almost perfectly.

My physical therapy now includes stints on the elliptical rider, stationary bike, and a weight machine for hip extensions. I’m also using ankle weights for my hip-building exercises. This is a far cry from when I had to use a hook to move the broken leg around because I couldn’t so much as slide it across the bed!

After physical therapy, I took a walk to work and reflected on how far I’ve come so far. Only 3 1/2 more months till snowboarding season!

This Sunday Morning Photographer column by Mike Jonhston has some hilarious but obscure photography humor. It’s titled “Uses and Applications of 35mm Lenses”.

I set a new land-distance record for myself since the accident today by walking from my house to work. The distance involved is a little over a mile; I took the better part of an hour to walk it. I tried to not use my cane the entire time — I ended up using it to rest at streetcorners and to cross streets, where speed was important. Other than that, I limped along unassisted the entire way.

Needless to say, by the time I got to work, my leg was pretty sore.

I went for my 12-week follow-up with the orthopedic team at Harborview this morning, and they took another series of X-Rays:

The doctor said that the X-Rays show the fracture starting to fill in, although the images look very similar to the 6-week images (below) to me. I guess the doctors know what they’re talking about, though.

The doctor we spoke to said it may not be necessary to come in for any further follow-ups at all, but in the end the attending doctor had us schedule a follow-up for the 6-month mark just to be sure. So in another 3 months I’ll have a final set of X-Rays that should show strong bone regrowth.

The doctor today reiterated that I should be able to snowboard this season, and indeed that I should be able to do any strenuous physical activity that I care to attempt. By the time my next follow-up rolls around, I should be back to 100% function, or close to it.

In walking news, I’ve been getting around the house and doing things like taking out the trash more and more without carrying a cane. I still have a limp when walking without the cane, but it’s been getting steadily better.

On Monday morning I flew down to Redwood City for work. Not only did I manage to navigate SEA and SFO airports on my own, but I am happy to report that I was able to get through the Seattle security metal detectors without too much trouble. It seemed as though the detector was picking up some of my titanium implant, as I had to take off my watch and ditch loose change to make it through, which is more than I normally have to do.

Since I managed to not set off the detector in the end, I didn’t have to explain to a squad of burly men in a small room why my right leg persistently sets off alarms…

The web has been surprisingly useless for figuring out why airport metal detectors may or may not go off for titanium implants: various people claim that titanium won’t be detected because it is non-ferrous, and others claim that ferrousness doesn’t matter for the detector design used in airports. ((shrug)).

More Doonesbury hilarity