An Eye for an I (part II)

In the previous post I wrote about my stinkin' eye and how they are going to slice it up to fix it.  Sounds a bit like Bush and how he had to kill capitalism to save capitalism to me.

When I was at my Oct appointment, the doctor wrote out some prescriptions and gave me a brochure for medical equipment rental.

First the prescriptions.

As the operation was scheduled for early December, I didn't fill the prescription right away.  No need to have those hanging around home where I could lose them was my thinking.  So about a week before the surgery, I waltz in to the pharmacy I've gone to for the last 35 years.  Gave them those four slips of paper and left.

The next day I came back to pick up the prescription.  Hmmmm.  Only three of the four are there.  Of course I ask where the other prescription is.  Well it turns out that what is missing is the pain reliever.  It is oxycodone, a narcotic.  Unknown to me (and probably you) prescriptions for narcotics have to be filled within 30 days.  The war on drugs I guess.  I dropped the scripts off on day 31.

So I talk to the pharmacist (the managing pharmacist also the owner's son in law).  He has called the doctor's office and is waiting for a call back.  Ok.  No big deal.  I've had them call a doctor before and it's always ready the next day.  But I wait two days and come back.  Still no pain reliever.  Talk to another pharmacist who has also been there as far back as I can remember (he was also a leader in the 4-H cow club).  He calls the doctor's office while I'm there.  Of course he doesn't get an answer and will wait for a call back.  OK.  I leave again.

As a side note, I think about how any drug dealer can get this stuff.  I remember this is the very stuff Rush Limbaugh was hooked on, but I can't get it.  What a country.

A couple days later I called the pharmacy and they say that the doctor has mailed the prescription to them.  WHAT?  So I call the doctor's office.  They tell me the same thing.  Apparently narcotics can not be faxed in.

Consider this.  We're talking about the doctor's end faxing to the local pharmacy that has been there at least 50 years.  And that is risky so it has to be mailed?  I'm not a real critic of the mail system, but which method seems more secure to you?

I am getting a little worried as the operation is at the other end of the weekend and I gots no drugs here.  I figure the doctor doesn't write a prescription unless I am likely to need this.  Call me a wimp, but I'd like to have this stuff on hand after they have been chopping away at my eyeball even if I end up not needing it.  Hopefully this gets resolved in the next couple days.

But let's move on to the medical equipment.

After reviewing the brochure, I realize that basically I am renting toilet seats that I put my head in to force me to keep my eyes facing down. 

That way the gas they injected stays pressing against the back of my eye (now the topmost area as I face down).  Doesn't look too bad and I had a bit of practice at this sort of thing during my college days although even at my worst I didn't need to pray to the porcelain god for a straight week.

They have a pad you put on the bed.  You lie on the pad so now you're elevated a few inches.  The toilet seat sits in front so as you lie there with your head in the toilet seat a few inches above the bed.

There is an entire chair with the toilet seat attached to the top as well as a table top model that I have to use while eating.

I decide to rent the Vitrectomy Max Comfort Package or as I call it the Deluxe Toilet Seat Package.  I get the sleeping pad, the chair, the table top and a mirror gizmo that I can use with the table top to watch TV.  I even end up with the porta potty.  When I'm going back to the doctor for my followup the day after the surgery, I have to remove one of the toilet seats and insert the vertical support rods in to this cube.  I hold the cube to my chest so I can continue to keep my head in a toilet seat while being driven insane to the doctor's office.

The price is pretty reasonable.  $235 for the whole shebang for a week.  And that includes shipping both ways.

All the stuff came in two large boxes and was pretty easy to set up.  So far I've tried the table top for about 20 minutes and it seems to work pretty well watching TV with the mirror gizmo.  Of course 20 minutes isn't 24x7 so we shall see.  I also spent a couple minutes on the bed pad and it seems like it might work.

Next.  Pre-Admission at the hospital.

An Eye for an I

Post Alert.

Readers are cautioned that reading this post may result in digust and nausea.  Be forewarned!

For a couple years I've been seeing an eye surgeon.  Seems my left eye wasn't built nearly as well as my right eye.  I had the doctor write out what it was but I can't read it completely.  What can say is that it is well over 40 characters long.  The doctor says it is similar to macular degeneration but not the same thing.  The doctor also says it is a rare condition so it doesn't have any FDA approved treatment.  So every three months I have to go to the doctor's office and get avastin shot in to my right eye with a needle.

yes it is

1) disgusting

2) the same stuff they use for breast cancer treatment.

It appears that it is the same effect.  Shrinks up the blood vessels.

But wait K-Mart shoppers.  That's not all.  This stupid eye also has a hole in the macula.  It's been there awhile.  The doctor said that as long as there was some tissue (not sure what maybe retina?) across the hole he wanted to leave it alone.  But back in October, he changed his opinion and suggested it was time to fix this thing if I was going to.

So I went back for a consultation in Oct and we put plans in motion for fixing this.

- - - CAUTION - - -

If you thought some of the above was disgusting, be warned that was the milder half.

I didn't quite understand what he said but he likened it to a balloon with a hole it.  If you stretch the balloon, the hole get larger and if you shrink the balloon, the hole gets smaller.  Apparently they somehow do this to my eye.  What I do remember is that they will remove a portion of the liquid and inject some gas in to the interior of the eye.  The gas presses on the area and it is supposed to allow the tissue to grow / reattach correctly.  As you might guess, partially filling the eye with gas to keep pressure at the macula hole means the gas has to be in the right place.  And that is the trick.  I have to spend a minimum of the next week face down.  Literally 24x7 face down.

The doctor provide a brochure for renting equipment to assist in face down week.

Next, getting ready for the hospital.

Red Line

I spent most of the week in Washington. The D.C. version.

We stayed at the Bethesda Hyatt.  The room was OK.  In fact it was a palace compared to what Captain Bob and I are used to on our bike trips.  But when you get over $300 /  day I would think you would have an exhaust fan in the bathroom.  Maybe even a wide-screen TV?

The hotel was about 9 miles from where I was going every day.  So the Metro was the only choice.  Fortunately the start was right under the hotel.  Good thing as Nicole hit the mid-Atlantic this week. 


I have never been on the Metro and I think the last time I was on a NY subway was in the early 80s so I'm a wide-eyed newbie.  When you look at the Metro Map you can get the heebie-jeebies trying to figure out how to navigate the thing. But it turned out to be easy.  All I had to do was hop on the Red Line, transfer to the Blue or Orange Line at Metro Central, travel a few more stops and I was there.

Now I did need to walk outside the hotel.  But it was to an area with a cover so no rain on me.  An elevator brought us down about one level.  About 50 feet to right was an escalator.  The longest, steepest escalator I've ever seen.  I'd swear this thing must be 1/4 mile long.  At the bottom there are a row of machines vending tickets.  For my $20 I got a small square piece to heavy stock paper with a magnetic strip down the middle.

So I put the ticket in the slot and it pops out a few feet away.  I took the trains to my destination and fed the ticket through the turnstile slot again.  When it popped out this time, a new balance was printed.

Come near the end of the week I was running low on money.  Just popped the ticket in, fed a couple bucks in, adjusted the total to what I knew I needed, pushed the button and out popped a new ticket and my change.

Now I'm no Luddite but I think the sophistication is pretty marvelous.  Yeah I guess if I jumped from an early 80s PC to today's PC maybe I'd find that marvelous too.  I have since been told that the Metro is cleaner and such than the NY subways but they have synthesized voices announcing stations and the like that you can actually hear and understand.  The Metro is still a human over a loudspeaker that you can't understand.

perspectives

Nippy lost the DVD I made of the Alaska pictures I took in May 2009. I found my copy and duplicated it.  Of course I spot checked the copy to make sure it duplicated correctly and ran in to some pictures I had taken at Glacier Bay.

The pictures do not provide a sense of the magnitude of the Alaskan wildness.  Perhaps it is the difference between congested New Jersey and the glaciers, but probably not.  I think even a Texan would find the landscape immense.

We headed in to Glacier Bay and on in to the Tar Inlet.  Two glaciers come in to the end of the inlet.  Like many glaciers, the Grand Pacific Glacier is receding.  This is where the Grand Pacific Glacier hits Tar Inlet:

-------

I know it's not very impressive. Although I couldn't get the entire glacier face in the frame, I'd say it's 90% there. You're looking at a 2 mile wide glacier face. A little perspective? If you laid the Empire State Building on it's side, it would be about (actually a little less) the length the dashes underneath the picture.

To the left is the Marjorie Glacier.

The Marjorie Glacier is about 1 mile wide and 350 high (250 above water).

Note that those caves are about 1/2 up in the first picture. The splash is about 1/2 to the cave. So the splash is about 60 feet high!!!

One of the other things that impresses me is the color of the water. I first encountered this at Glacier National Park in Montana. It was even bluer and clearer there. This picture doesn't capture it very well, but I think it gives you the idea.

The color is from Glacial Flour (also known as Rock Flour, but I like Glacial Flour better). Note that spectacular blue in the photo of Peyto Lake:

When we left Glacier Bay I was gripped by the sunlight on the water. It is a little out of context as it doesn't provide perspectives, but I liked it enough to toss it in.

The final perspective was the Gulf of Alaska coastline after we left Glacier Bay. Do you think there is enough elbow room in these parts?

Shuttle Delay

NASA announced that the last two shuttle launches have been delayed.  The last launch is now scheduled for Feb 25, 2011.  I talked to the Captain and we agreed to delay our Florida trip.  We're going to try to get tickets for the February launch and drive to Florida.

Whew.  The knee is still swollen etc.  I'm sure glad I'm not trying to do 50 miles a day in two weeks.  At least I've got a year to make this work.  If the knee isn't good by then, well perhaps the touring days might be over.

4rth of July

I was running through some photos and thought this picture of a pair of bald eagles would make a fitting simple 4^rth message.

Happy fourth of July

An LBI Day

The wily captain brokered a deal where he painted a few rooms in his ex-mother-in-laws Long Beach Island house for a week stay there.  So, of course, most of his family glombed on to this and joined him for part of his stay.

Spousy had a retirement party to attend to so we went down on Friday.  The drive down was fine although my knee started to bother me.  I would have thought that keeping my leg straight and foot on the foot rest would be the best position.  Wrong.  I found that bending my leg so that my foot was back by the front edge of the seat.

We got there around noon.  Although I'm not much of a beach person (so why am i on LBI?), soon we were off to the beach.  I really hate sunburn so I stayed under an umbrella until about an hour before we were going to leave.  Most of time I watched the local fauna or this dredge that had little activity.

The next morning Captain Bob and I rode north to the Barnegat lighthouse.  It was a great ride on the way down in the cool morning.  Apparently we had a tailwind.  The way back was tougher.  It was hotter and we clearly had a head wind.  By the time we got back, my knee was a bit sore and swollen.

That evening we ate at the Greenhouse Cafe.  It was pretty good and reasonably priced.  Captain Bob and John both brought too much wine.  But as I expected to drive back later, I only had a 1/2 glass.

Later we went to the final showing of the Black Maria Film Festival (John is the founder and director).  It was hosted by the LBI Foundation of the Arts & Sciences.  I didn't think any of this year's films stood out.  I didn't like Pickles for Nickels and a couple others but didn't have any favorites.  Perhaps I was less in the mood because my leg was starting to hurt while sitting there.  It was also so cold that I had to get up and walk around about 1/2 through.  In fact, at one break, I heard others call for the air conditioning to be turned down.  As near as I can tell, that never happened.

When the films were done, I was glad to get out in the warm humid outside.  We waited for John to out, chatted for a bit, then left.  When I got back to the car I was surprised that it was already cool.  Remember awhile back, Captain Bob had to buy a new car?  Well he had this new Prius that he apparently left running for 3 hours.  We will see how good his gas mileage is after that.

We went back to the beach house.  Captain Bob made me some coffee.  I put my bike on the rack and we took off.

Two hours later I was back and in my own bed.

Road to Recovery

As she has done for the past few years, Princess hosted a father's day get together.  It was small this year.  Just her brother-in-law (and family), father-in-law (and spouse), and spousy and me.  I usually bicycle there and plotted a longer route for my knee rehabilitation. 

This was the third time outside on the bike since my knee surgery.

I had been on the mag training bike in the basement a couple times.  I hadn't put any effort in to that.  I was mostly trying to flex my knee.  So I kept the tension and gearing low.  I spun at a low 60-70 cadence.   I think this helped loosen me up.

The first time outside was two Saturdays ago.  I walked the bike up to the main road because I didn't want to have a short stop forced on me by oncoming cars.  I mounted the bike OK and started off.  I just road around locally for about two miles and came back.  I didn't have any problems and figured I was on my way.

Next I rode around the block.  This upped the mileage to about 5 1/2 miles.  It also added a steep little bridge that goes over the railroad tracks.  I did alright on this one too.

Finally, I decided to take the long way to Princess' house.  I fired up my old Microsoft Streets and Maps because I find that the easiest to play with with this sort of plotting various routes to get a decent ride and the desired distance.  I settled on a 9 mile route that took me out to US 206, then north, and finally back to Princess' green acres.

I left about 12:30 and of course it was dang hot.  I rode down to the high school then over to US 206.  Fortunately there was one car waiting to turn left as I came up behind it.  I like a single car.  That way it trips the traffic signal and I get to go and not hold up traffic as I will if I'm behind three or four cars with more behind me.

The ride up 206 was fine.  I hit the usual nervous area where the cars are fast, the lanes are narrow, and there is no shoulder.  But I reached the promenade without incident. 

By this point I was about 2 miles from the end but I was getting a little tired.  Maybe it was a combo of the knee and the heat.  At any rate that last 2 miles was not as pleasant as the first two miles.  When I got to Princess' house I felt light headed enough that I put my bike in her garage rather than lifting it up to the roof rack.  But a short time in doors with some more ice water and I was ready for the shrimp, burgers, and of course Mike's shots of Irish whiskey.

Under the Knife

Went under the knife.

It was a pleasant experience.

The operation was at a surgical center, not the hospital. Spousy drove me there for my 7:15 arrival.

The receptionist and other staff were pleasant and efficient. Of course there were many forms to fill out and questions to answer but the worst part of this sort of thing is the boredom of waiting and I only experienced a few moments of inactivity.

A few minutes after being move to the operating room, I was out like a light and waking up in recovery. I don't think I was there for very long. Maybe 30 or 40 minutes munching on cookies and drinking soda.

I had a little trouble changing in to my street clothes. I was wheel chaired out to the car and hobbled without difficulty in to the seat. Had a little trouble getting my bulky, bandaged left leg in, but the ride home was uneventful.

Now where is my pampering and ice cream?

Lance a lot

Although I don't usually answer the phone when it does not provide a good caller ID, I just happened to on a whim this afternoon.

Turned out it was a Leonard Lance town hall. Work being a little boring at the moment and never having been on one of these I punched in to it (this time a lark and not a whim).

After a few minutes, a voice came on and said that if I had a question to press *3.

Now I've held his yes vote on Cap and Trade against him for the last year. So I decided ask him that given recent questions on the science and CO2, given the commercial scam being backed by Soros and Gore, given the revealed mysterious patents acquired by Franklin Raines while at Fannie would he still vote for it? So I pressed *3 and a voice came on. The voice knew who I was and asked what question I had. I just said it was a question about Cap and Trade.

I didn't actually expect to get to ask the question as I figured these things are monitored and filtered. BUT, to my surprise, they called on someone from Bridgewater who did ask almost the exact same question.

LL did come out and say he would not vote for the same bill if it came around again. A true change of heart? Does he see a tea party in his rear view mirror? I don't know of course, but I do have to give him credit for admitting that he was wrong. That seems kind of refreshing in today's political world.

Given what I seen on his recent voting record, I'll have to give Lenny another look. A real mea culpa might actually earn him one extra vote.

 

Voodoo Rituals in Toyota Land

Consider the following.  A Voodoo ritual?  The secret code to find an Easter Egg in some new video game?  Nope.  Read and try to figure this out.  Then scroll down for the surprise answer.

1. Start with the driver door open and unlocked. Key out of the ignition
2. Insert the key and remove 2 times in 5 sec. Just insert and remove, do not turn the key
3. Close and open driver door 2 times in 40 sec.
4. Insert the key and remove it again from ignition. Just insert and remove, do not turn the key.
5. Close and open driver door 2 times in 40 sec.
6. Insert the key in ignition,
7. Close the door,
8. Turn to on and back to lock in 1 second intervals. 1 time for add, 2 times for rewrite, 3 for confirmation 5 for prohibition. (yes, there is no “4”)
9. Remove the key
10. Power lock will cycle to confirm
11. For add or rewrite mode within 40 sec of the confirmation,

Mouse over me for the answer

Here is the rest of the ritual. I hid this so it wasn't too obvious.

A. press “lock” and “unlock” buttons of the FOB at the same time between 1 and 1.5 seconds.

B. within 3 sec press “Lock” button for more than 1 sec and release.

C. If it’s correct, the power door lock will cycle once. If it’s wrong the door lock will cycle twice.

Ok, so here it is. Remember the Captain's Camry? Off to the great car wash in the sky. Well he found the key fob that locks/unlocks/opens the trunk etc. So he gave it to me. Mine is older but is the same platform so it seemed likely I could use it.

After a bit of internet searching, I came up with the above. Of course I was skeptical, but I gave it a try anyway. Voila! Now I have an extra remote that works with my car. Of course it is a remote I don't really need.

So my question is "Does Toyota really need to make it this complicated?" Perhaps so. But it seems to me that 1/2 the steps would be random enough to prevent accidentally entering this add a key fob modes.

The Wheel Goes Round & Round - sometimes

I have ridden on the Central Jersey Bike Club's Farm Land Flat Tour continuously for about 12 years now.  Despite my knee problems or maybe even because of knee problems I was determined to do it again this year.  Besides, I had already sent in my $30.

One of the reasons to do this ride was that if riding was going to be a problem, let's find out now while I still have a chance to get the knee fixed and re-habbed before my intended trip to Key West.

We usually ride either the 50 or 62 (metric century) route, but I didn't want to get stuck 25 miles away when my knee finally broke, so I thought I'd do one of the shorter routes.  Of course what I really wanted was an excuse to go there to get a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and my free tee shirt.

Captain Bob was still kind of in recovery from his two broken ribs (see Sometimes it rains and Sometimes it rains - Update) so it was easy to convince him that a short route was the right thing this year.  He was thinking of driving the new Prius here.  He doesn't have a bike rack but thought he could put down a blanket or some protection and put his bike in the back.

Because the Captain drives here from 90 miles away, I drive to the bike ride most of the time.  I prefer my roof rack over the trunk rack so Thursday I decide to put the rack on.  Yes, yes, it's unusual to be that far ahead of the game for me, but there I was.

If you are not familiar with Thule roof racks, they consist of a pair of load bars to which you attach various accessories.  In my case, bicycle carriers.  I have an older version of this Big Mouth.  Where the bike carrier attaches to load bar was sliding on one of the carriers so I tried to tighten it up.  That's when the lever that you push down to lock it broke.  I've only had this rack for eight years and not only did something break but I go to the Thule sight and not only is it obsolete but they don't even list the model.

So on our Thursday night call I mention this and say that I can use the trunk rack.  But the Captain says that he has planned on bringing his old Camry (yes he does still have a running one left) so we're OK.

We get down to Brookdale Community College a little after 10AM.  We check in to get our tee shirts and water bottles and then proceed to the back where you load up on peanut butter sandwiches.  They have those as well as the usual bananas.  But the traditional granola snack bars, fig newtons etc are MIA!  Even worse, the mix of nuts and M&Ms and such that you scoop in to sandwich bags is not there either.  Why oh why did I even bother?

I did notice that the parking lot was not nearly as full as it usually is so maybe this event is going out of style.  I also noticed a bagel cutter and I think, cream cheese, so maybe we're just too late for that.

We make our sandwiches, pass on the bananas and head out.

After looking at where the low end routes diverge, we decide to take 18 and 25 mile cue sheets.

A couple miles down the road and I'm thinking "hey this is good".  My knee is not bothering me.  It's dry and warm. The sun is warm on my back and I'm having a good time.  That lasts a little while longer until I have to make my first stop.  I come down on my bad knee and WOWZEE! Well, I get going and begin thinking maybe all is not well.  I am especially thinking how I'm going to come to a stop the next time.

Well of course the next time eventually comes.  I make sure that both feet are unclipped and I come down on the good leg.  Unfortunately the road has a slight upslope.  So I walk to the other side and prepare to start riding again.

Hmmmm.  I can't seem to put all my weight on the bad leg so that I can start pedaling with the good leg.  Likewise, I can keep my good leg on the ground, but I don't think I can put enough effort pushing with the bad foot to get going.  Finally I sort of lean my chest on the handlebar which allows me to keep my left foot on the ground and I get going by pedaling with my right foot.

Eventually we come to where the 18 & 25 mile routes diverge and in a joint command decision decide that I have nothing more to prove.  I'm going to call the Orthopaedic doctor on Monday so there is no point in going the longer route.  Fortunately at this stop, getting going is slightly downhill so I'm fine.

The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We stopped at a rest stop and they did have some fig newtons ( and more P&B of course).  There was a curb there which helped me get going.

Near the end of the ride we have to cross NJ 34.  This is also uphilll from the light but for the very first time I was able to slow down enough and keep in the saddle until the light turned green.  The moderate hills between there and the end were no worse than any other year and thus our ride ended.

Almost.

We got back to the car and I could not get off my bike.  I edged down a little so it was not upright thinking that would make swinging my leg over the top easier.  I think it was a good plan.  Still do.  And it would have worked if I hadn't gotten caught on the seat.  Next thing I know I'm sitting in the shade on the grass with my bike on top of me.  My gracious captain did come over and pick up the bike.  I sat there a minute and gimped to my feet.

Well I can ride with a bum leg, but can't walk very well later.  At his point I was limping along at about six inches a step.  But about an hour later we got back to my house and I was applying folk remedies to my knee in the form of Yuengling to speed my recuperation.

 

Sometimes it rains - Update

When we last saw Captain Bob, he was a bloody mess but appeared to be OK.  And Mrs. Captain had gotten back home and the dead Camry was in the driveway.

At the Captainette's insistence, the Captain went to the doctor.  So the doctor says as you get older your brain shrinks and the doctor wanted to make sure that the Captain's brain wasn't rattling around getting damaged¹.  So they order x-rays or some sort of imaging and decide that the brain is OK but that he has a broken rib.

The next Saturday night, the Captain awakes in pain and decides to get thee to a hospital.  There he finds out that now he has two broken ribs (however no word on any continuing brain shrinkage).  So they give him some sugar pills pain pills and send him home.

The Camry is less fortunate.  It needs a heart transplant.  Apparently a used engine with 50% more miles than the old (but busted) engine will cost $8,000.00.  A quick look at Edmunds shows us that the retail for his car is maybe $10-12,000.

After lengthy wailing on the Captain's part, the Camry heads off to the great car wash in the sky and a new Prius is now gleaming in the Captain's garage.

1.I've been saying for years that the Captain's brain was shrinking but no one would listen to me.

  

Take Tea at 3

I wanted to see what all this tea party stuff was about.

I was too lazy and too cheap to get up, buy a bus ticket, and get to the bus to go to DC.  So I went to Morristown to their rally (billed as for those who were to cheap or lazy couldn't go).

The rally was held on the Morristown square.  The Morristown square is in the middle of town, in the middle of the business district.  The square is much like the Boston Commons but smaller.  There are four intersecting streets that form a square block.  That square is a park with benches and the like.

The rally was scheduled to run from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM.  I got to Morristown a little after 11 and had to spend a few minutes finding somewhere to park.  I found a new parking garage a few blocks from the square.

So I missed the beginning, but caught the first speaker part way through his spiel.  The speakers / speeches were pretty much what I had expected.  The speeches mostly railed against big government and government spending.  It was kind of having come out of Mr Peabody's WABAK machine.  If it was not for the topics being government spending rather than the war in Vietnam, I would have lit one of those Winstons I smoked back then.

I thought it was a decent crowd considering most people should be at work and if you had any ambition you'd be in DC.

I would say the majority of the attendees were older, but there were a fair number of 20's & 30's as well.  There were a few mothers with strollers as well as toddlers and preschoolers.   I didn't see any of the left-wing sabateurs like Crash the Tea Party types.

I did see a kind of counter protest by a small group in the very back. 

But I'm not sure what they were saying.  Can someone tell me what MORE BLOOD WON'T CLEANSE BAD BLOOD means?  Does this have anything to do with the Tea Party?  Are they saying drink blood, not tea?  I'm so confused.  One thing I did notice was an SDS sign.

 Gee, those guys are still around?  I mean I know that several of those original SDS ( and Weather Underground) founders / members are presidential advisers, but I didn't know they were still on college campuses (I assume the kids were from some local college).

The Tea Party people had their signs of course.  For the most part the signs were anti-taxes and government spending.  The sort of thing you would expect of the Tea Party people.  But I did see this one that I guess

seeks to explain the how and why of the Tea Party movement.  I was thinking it might be a little more complicated than that.

Unlike the news accounts you hear, I didn't see any wild terrorist wanna-bees.  No hitler signs.  I did see guns though.  Strapped to the several police who were there.  The hired security were armed to the teeth with a vest and walkie-talkie.

The only sign I saw which was a bit obnoxious was this one:

 

But I also thought it was kind of funny too.  If this is the worst the Tea Party has, I think Bill Clinton needs to look elsewhere for his terrorist concerns.

Sometimes it rains

For the last couple years, my sister has hosted an Easter get together.  Given my knee problems and how the clock is getting ever closer to when I'm supposed to hop on my bike and head for Florida, I decided to ride there to get a sense on how my knee would react.

Originally I was going solo, but at the last minute, Captain Bob decided he would join me.  We decided to mostly ride our standard route.  We did decide to avoid the bastard hill by swinging over to Route 206.  From there we wound through Princeton until we got back on track.

About 3 miles from sis's, we were going through an intersection.  I was about 20 feet behind the captain.  As I watched helplessly, a gold Hyundai went about halfway past the captain and turned right.

The captain was down.

The woman did stop about 20 feet up the cross road.  I asked the captain if he was alright, etc.  He said he was OK and actually seemed to be.  Turned out that he didn't have even the smallest patch of road rash.  The most significant problem was a broken helmet.

The woman moved her car in to a parking lot.  I fiddled with my Droid camera trying to figure out how it worked.  I figured I should take pictures of what I could for record keeping.  Most importantly, I wanted to get a pic of the rear of her car in case she bolted so I'd have the license number (turns out those fears were completely unfounded).

We moved our bicyles over to where she had parked.  She was about to give out her info when the police came.  The most amazing part was that any given time, there must have been at least 3 police/EMT vehicles there.  Another would come and one would go.  By the end there must have been 8-12 different vehicles show up.

The EMTs felt up the captain, took his blood pressure, etc.  The captain refused treatment and they called off the ambulance.

I called my sister and related just a bit of information to get their imagination going.  I basically said that we were delayed and I was trying to keep the captain out of jail.

Captain Bob declined filing a report so the last police officier left and we got on our way.  His front fender was rubbing the tire so we performed a quick adjustment and then really got on our way.

About a mile down the road as we were discussing the accident, the captain ran in to a curb and went down again.  This time, the blood was flowing all over the place.  It was like the Monty Python Black Knight skit.

Somehow we dealt with accident 2.  We had to adjust his fender again, but then we were on our way.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we got to sis's without further incident.

But after a while, the captain was on the cell phone talking to Mrs. Captain.  She isn't at sis's because Mrs. Captain is visiting her daughter for Easter.  She has gotten back to Pennsylvania.  Just to the I78 tollbooth.  Her car has died.

Fortunately, AAA was on the way and that seemed to end well as the last I heard Mrs. Captain was back and home with her dead car.  Captain called when he got home later that night.  We'll have to see how he is after his doctor visit.

Click Me Off

So with new pedals, I went out for a ride and fortunately my head was strapped in to my helmet. If it wasn't, it surely would have exploded. The click was worse than ever!

[Rant On]

I asked for advice in a couple forums. I got a few useful ideas, but also a lot of the usual forum responses. Why do people respond when they don't actually read the entire post? I started off with that I had first posted last fall. I included that I had my bottom bracket replaced at the local bike shop, put on new pedals etc. So in addition to some useful suggestions, I get responses that included suggestions to check my pedals and bottom bracket. One got a little further reading my post because they knew about the new bottom bracket. But they asked whether I had done (assuming my incompetancy I guess) it myself or had my bike shop do it.

[Rant Off]

Anyway, I went back and tightened cranks. I tightened my chainring bolts although I was nervous about that as I think those threads are aluminum. Given that new pedals didn't do the trick, I put the old ones back on. Finally, I put new cleats on my shoes and went out for a ride.

Voila! No click.

Please pray for me that I've finally solved the problem. I don't care which thing did it. If it is finally gone, that's good enough for me.

Fix a Flat

One of the subscribers to a bicycle touring list that I also subscribe to recently got a flat (he lives in Florida so it's not too cold to ride) and he decided to let his LBS fix it while he made a video of the process.

I thought the video was worth posting. Probably because it almost exactly matches my method.



My notes:

I wrote to Ken (the bicycle owner) and noted that the mechanic talked about positioning the tire label by the valve in order to know where to look next time a flat occurred.¹ However, the mechanic never performed that search with the flat being fixed. Ken said that because of YouTube limits, he had to edit the video and that the mechanic had spent about five minutes examining the old tube / tire.

I actually position the label opposite the valve. Presumably you can position the label anywhere as long as it is consistent so that you can use the label and valve to locate where the cause of the flat came through the tire.

Another member of the list noted that if the offending bit of metal or glass or whatever is not lodged in the tire but is loose inside, it will continually roll to the bottom as you examine the tire so you ought pay particular attention to that. I've added that to my procedure.

I pump up the tire maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 way and examine the bead seating as in the video. I also knead the tire as you can see. I also might bounce the tire on the ground in a couple places. After that, I deflate the tire again in order to relax the inner tube. My theory is that if there were kinks or creases, the now relaxed inner tube allows them to straighten out.



¹ When the next flat occurs, you pull off the tire and find the flat in the inner tube. Once you find the puncture, you know to look at the tire the same number of degrees away from the label as the puncture was from the valve.

Guns for Lead Based Toys

"China's military stepped up pressure on the United States on Monday by calling for a government sell-off of U.S. debt securities in retaliation for recent arms sales to Taiwan."

 - Washington Times 2010-02-10

When will we wise up?  Will it take a real economic strike by China crippling our economy before we tighten our belts and stop the insane spending.  Federal, state, and our own consumer addictive self destructive behavior has to stop.

Sanctions

The news today reported that China is threatening sanctions against the US because of arms sales to Taiwan.

How could they?

As many have been predicting for some years now, our debt will come back to bite us in the butt.  China has been buying up our debt for years now.  And now like the poor broke neighborhood gambler up to his eyeballs in debt to the loan sharks, we could be truly screwed.

If we are to prevent our proverbial legs from being broken, we need to STOP THE SPENDING.  I never thought this was going to work.  But the feds took a shot.  It ain't working.  The projection is now that every penny of personal income tax will be needed to cover the interest on the debt. 

What's next?

Default?

Hyperinflation?  That worked out well in Germany now didn't it.

STOP THE INSANITY!

Droid Drippings

I finally bit the bullet.

About 10 days ago, I traded in the old cell phone for a Motorola Droid. Joined the 20^th21^rst century.

I would have gotten an iPhone like Peachy did, but after reading a lot on the internet and talking to a bunch of people who have an iPhone concluded that the network was a significant issue.  I know a couple people who haven't had a problem, but Peachy didn't have a network in South Carolina.  Her cousins have dropped calls (although Rachel seems to think Paul is exaggerating a little).  Given that the main justification is that I need to keep track of shuttle launches and hurricanes on the Florida trip, I felt that I ought to stick with Verizon and the Droid seems to the obvious choice for that network.

It is pretty cool alright.  It isn't quite a PC in my shirt pocket, but it isn't far off.  The basics are there out of the box.  GMail, Calendar, navigation, and maps are there.  It has pre-loaded apps like FaceBook and twitter.  I'm not on FaceBook and I've written about 4 tweets total so I  haven't even tried those out.

I can just connect a USB cable to the PC for charging although that is slower than the AC charger.  I suspect that is because of the current restrictions on a USB port.  The AC charger is rated about 1.75x the maximum USB port. The AC charger is interesting.  It has a fairly compact plug and a USB cable.  So I can unplug that cable and plug it into the PC.

While charging on the PC, I can backup the SD card and/or download MP3s to the card.

Weather Channel
I added a WeatherChannel app that isn't quite as good the web interface but it will do. It would be nice if it showed the several days of hour by hour as the web version does and provide as much information.

Cherry Radio
Cherry Radio is a streaming radio application.  I've found WHYY (NPR) and fox news radio.  If I can keep the battery charged, this should provide night time listening.  I do need to find a 60s/70s music station too.

MyMaps
MyMaps is the Droid app for interfacing with google maps.  MyMaps doesn't work very well.  It crashes fairly often and sometimes sits for hours loading a single map.  While push pins are showing up, the routes that Skippy put in for our trip are not showing up.  Hopefully this will get better by August.

Google Sky Map
Google Sky Map is like google maps but for the heavens.  It shows planets, constellations etc.  The App seems to work ok but I haven't really been able to test it against my night sky as it has been raining forever here.

My only regret at this point is carrying the thing around.  I never found a good way to haul around the old flip phone.  This of course is much worse.  I need more shirt pockets.  Or maybe it's time to go Euro boy and start carrying a pocket book.

That's about all I've tried at this point other than GMail which works but mail is boring, so no review of that.  I'll have to post an update at some point on battery life and such.  

First Ride - 2010

I put new batteries in the computer head unit and sensor today. Finally slapped on a new set of pedals and headed out for my first outdoor bike ride of 2010. It was a little chilly despite putting on layers.

It was a short ride. I mostly wanted to shake down stuff and see what work I should be doing for fixes or maintenance. The other reason for a short ride was that my knee has been hurting lately. I want to see if I can exercise that out over the next month. If not, I guess it's another doctor visit.

I'm not going to change the chain until right before we leave for Florida. I might put new batteries in then too and I'll have to think about fresh tires. But the bike seems in pretty good shape. I didn't even have to pump up the tires.

I did have a close encounter when I made a right turn at the CVS plaza. A car coming the other way turned left and was on my butt for the first 100 feet or so until it turned in to CVS. After I got home, I called daughter #1 and accused her of attempted patricide. She claimed she didn't know it was me so it would have only been patri-manslaughter.

Bailey's

We spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to get our bicycles over (under? through?) the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel. You aren't allowed to ride it. Others have held placards for rides, etc. I found one guy who claimed that you could call the tunnel people (hmmm sounds a bit like H. G. Wells) and for the price of the toll, they would toss you into a pickup and take you across. Now that has all changed.

At the family Christmas gathering my sister brought her usual homemade Bailey's. But she had it in two new fancy bottles that she got after Christmas in Williamsburg. My niece, who was joining the Iron Bailey's competition, brought hers in an old plastic milk jug. By the end of the taste guzzling 'er tasting contest my brother and I had changed our route.

We are still crossing the Delaware Bay on the Lewes Ferry. But now we are going to swing over to the mainland via either Tangier or Smith Island so we can hit Williamsburg. I have never been there so I don't know what to expect. I know it is a working colonial village, but that is about it. I guess I'll have to find out late this coming August. But it appears that the main objective is to purchase some fancy bottles for my niece to even out the contest.

I guess there could be worse tasks. And it certainly would require a Bailey's rematch.

Oh, and the judging? My sister's was judged more traditional. Different, but similar to the stuff you buy in the stores. My niece's had a sweet edge. We though it made a good after dinner drink. So of course another round will be required in the future to find a clear winner.

I did forget one thing. My sister was challenged ala Iron Chef to concoct more (of course we had run out) on the spur of the moment. She flew through my kitchen grabbing 1/2x1/2, coffee, 2/3 of my Bushmill's Irish Whiskey, etc. Although somewhere along the way, my son-in-law spilled a bunch of 1/2x1/2 down the front of the counters, the effort paid off. At least I think it did.

Peachy helped me clean up pretty well although she went to bed around 11PM. I think I finally got the kitchen 1/2 way presentable sometime between 12AM and 1AM Sunday morning.

Taxpayer Subsidized Pet Care

wow. Two posts in one day and both political.

Republicans keep saying to trust them. They are the fiscal conservatives, blah, blah, blah.

How about Thaddeus McCotter, Michigan Republican Congressman?

This miscreant from the fiscal conservative party wants to give everyone a $3,500 deduction for pet care! This is outrageous! Don't make me pay for YOUR freakin' gold fish. You want a cat? Pay for it yourself! Sorry Jen but that includes you and Leo too.

No. It isn't April 1. Read the official PDF of this garbage.

Michael Steele - same old same old

Michael Steele was on the John Gambling (710 AM) show this morning (some guest host Dom G??) saying the same old tired stuff. He talks and talks about the bad old Democrats and never tells us how he is going to clean up his own party. How can we trust a guy who blasts Democrats for their health care, cap and trade, etc. etc. and yet won't call out his own Republican party members who vote to pass that stuff.

He talked about Republicans listening to the people. BUT, when I wrote to my Republican congressman who voted 'yes' on cap and trade, I never got a response. Seems like the RNC is still a bunch of hypocrites in for the politics and not for serving the nation or its citizens.

I am worried that the current administration will totally wreck this nation and or the economy in short order. I am concerned that a third party would take so much time that it would be too little too late. But at this point, although it is a long shot, I'm leaning towards a third party as the only chance.