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.