Is It Fall Yet?!

I was happy to return home after our trip to Idaho and somewhat dreaded it at the same time. It meant coming home to pay those nasty bills, the junk in the air that I had been doing so perfectly well without, and the hell...I mean heat. The only thing I'm looking forward to is going to Hawaii on Wed to meet my brother. I can't wait to see what life aboard the Ronald Reagan is like. Being on the ship was supposed to be my last vaccation this summer, but yesturday I recieved an unexpected surprise...James has bought me a ticket to spend August 1st through August 17th with him in Ephrata, WA. It is so beautiful there and quite a lovely town. I fell in love with it and the weather almost immediately.

Well gotta go get ready for the Jaycess GAI convention this weekend. Take care and stay safe!! Also check out the pics of Idaho on my blogger: http://monicaandblue.blogspot.com

Adios,
Monica

IDAHO was great!!!!!!!

I'll post pictures soon. I had a great vacation. Idaho is absolutely beautiful. The idyllic landscape is breathtaking. After my next two surgeries, I'm definitely moving to Idaho. Probably Eagle.

Why Good Programmers Are Lazy and Dumb

Why Good Programmers Are Lazy and Dumb

My First Time Bowling

I had an awesome time. I plan to start bowling as often as possible. It was great fun and it's a sport I can participate in without causing my legs any pain. My elbow on the other hand was so sore, that I couldn't use it for two days. I'll need to get an elbow brace before I play again but, I will play again. Part of the problem is the weight of the ball. Because I'm bowling from a sitting position, all of the force is generated by my arm. If I were standing, the force would be generated through my arm as well as the momentum generated by lunging forward. So, a lighter ball would generate less stress on my elbow. The problem is, the weight of a ball seems to be proportional to the boring of the holes. Thus, the lighter the ball the smaller the holes. Because of this, I was forced to use a 12lb ball in order for my fingers to fit in the holes.

Anyway, bowling is COOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

PT is coming along really well.  I can stand by my self and put a fair
amount of weight on my leg.  I have another month until they
reevaluate me.  I got my home office finished and have been working
long days.  I have a major release due by July 1st that I'm getting
ready for.  I'm looking into a 4 bedroom house.  I'm planning for a
year from now so I'm looking at new houses that will be finished
around then.  June 2nd, Dan and I are driving up to see Jeff.  We'll
be there until the 11th.

I got ride of the top part of my left leq brace :0)

--
Jeremy Roberson
Software Engineer

wheels531.blogspot.com

Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.
-Anon.

Summer time...

Well I've already purchased my tickets to go to Boise, ID. I'll be there from the 3rd of June to the 13th. Hope you and Dan will be able to go to!

Monica

Raining in my apartment

After only 3 hours of sleep, I awoke to the sound of rain in my apartment. When I went to the kitchen, I noticed water pouring out of my airconditioning unit. By the time maintenance got here, the carpet in the hall and both bedrooms was flooded along with my guest bathroom. Turns out the toilet in my upstairs neighbors bathroom had overflowed while they were asleep and kept running all night. The carpet will be fixed by Monday or Tuesday and then they will have to begin repairing the walls and ceiling. What a shitty way to wake up.

WE NEED RAIN!!!!!!

PT is going well

After a few sessions of PT, I asked how long they thought it would be before my left thigh and knee were up to speed and they said I would probably need years of rehab.  To be expected I guess since I have had a brace on for 15 years.  This doesn't mean it's going to be that long before I can drive and stand though.  After PT, I'll probably just setup a permanent workout routine focusing on my legs. 

Update on PT

Monday is my first day of Physical Therapy. It's a 2 1/4 mile walk each way. I'm also able to ride my exercise bike again. Exercising as well as simply moving is so much less painful now that those locking screws have been taken out.

Rucas Updated Pictures

Rucas trying to take his E-Collar off

I'm alive

The surgery went well and I'm back at home recovering.  I'm able to move and get around but it hurts. 

 

P.S.

 

Rucas is also doing well.

 

A Dog took a huge chunk out of Rucas

$450 later.

Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar

- There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.

- Tell the truth or trump -- but get the trick.

- Adam was but human -- this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

- Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.

- Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was, that they escaped teething.

- There is this trouble about special providences -- namely, there is so often a doubt as to which party was intended to be the beneficiary. In the case of the children, the bears, and the prophet, the bears got more real satisfaction out of the episode than the prophet did, because they got the children.

- Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

- Remark of Dr. Baldwin's, concerning upstarts: We don't care to eat toadstools that think they are truffles.

- Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

- Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs at step at a time.

- One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

- The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it
will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.

- Consider well the proportions of things. It is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of paradise.

- Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

- It is easy to find fault, if one has that disposition. There was once a man who, not being able to find any other fault with his coal, complained that there were too many prehistoric toads in it.

- All say, "How hard it is that we have to die" -- a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

- When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.

- There are three infallible ways of pleasing an author, and the three form a rising scale of compliment: 1 -- to tell him you have read one of his books; 2 -- to tell him you have read all of his books; 3 -- to ask him to let you read the manuscript of his forthcoming book. No. 1 admits you to his respect; No. 2 admits you to his admiration; No. 3 carries you clear into his heart.

- As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.

- Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward, it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word. Consider the flea! -- incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage. Whether you are asleep or awake he will attack you, caring nothing for the fact that in bulk and strength you are to him as are the massed armies of the earth to a sucking child; he lives both day and night and all days and nights in the very lap of peril and the immediate presence of death, and yet is no more afraid than is the man who walks the streets of a city that was threatened by an earthquake ten centuries before. When we speak of Clive, Nelson, and Putnam as men who "didn't know what fear was," we ought always to add the flea -- and put him at the head of the procession.

- When I reflect upon the number of disagreeable people who I know have gone to a better world, I am moved to lead a different life.

- October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.

- The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world's luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took: we know it because she repented.

- Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.

- Behold, the fool saith, "Put not all thine eggs in the one basket" -- which is but a manner of saying, "Scatter your money and your attention"; but the wise man saith, "Put all your eggs in the one basket and -- watch that basket!"

- If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

- We all know about the habits of the ant, we know all about the habits of the bee, but we know nothing at all about the habits of the oyster. It seems almost certain that we have been choosing the wrong time for studying the oyster.

- Even popularity can be overdone. In Rome, along at first, you are full of regrets that Michelangelo died; but by and by, you only regret that you didn't see him do it.

- JULY 4. Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one Fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so.

- Gratitude and treachery are merely the two extremities of the same procession. You have seen all of it that is worth staying for when the band and the gaudy officials have gone by.

- THANKSGIVING DAY. Let us all give humble, hearty, and sincere thanks now, but the turkeys. In the island of Fiji they do not use turkeys; they use plumbers. It does not become you and me to sneer at Fiji.

- Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

- It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.

- Even the clearest and most perfect circumstantial evidence is likely to be at fault, after all, and therefore ought to be received with great caution. Take the case of any pencil, sharpened by any woman; if you have witnesses, you will find she did it with a knife; but if you take simply the aspect of the pencil, you will say she did it with her teeth.

- He is useless on top of the ground; he ought to be under it, inspiring the cabbages.

- APRIL 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.

Obligation of an Engineer

A lot to live up to.

I am an Engineer, in my profession I take deep pride. To it I owe solemn obligations.

Since the Stone Age, human progress has been spurred by the engineering genius. Engineers have made usable Nature’s vast resources of material and energy for Humanity's [Mankind’s] benefit. Engineers have vitalized and turned to practical use the principles of science and the means of technology. Were it not for this heritage of accumulated experience, my efforts would be feeble.

As an Engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance and respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of my profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth’s precious wealth.

As an Engineer[, in humility and with the need for Divine guidance,] I shall participate in none but honest enterprises. When needed, my skill and knowledge shall be given without reservation for the public good. In the performance of duty and in fidelity to my profession, I shall give the utmost.

Next Surgery

Well, Surgery is going to be on Friday February 17th. I'll be back to work Monday morning. They are going to remove the locking screws. The down side is that I have to wait until the 17th. I can't exercise until the screws have been removed or I'll cause myself more pain. I'll be able to go home that night or the following morning and there is no real down time. I'll just have to let the incision heal before I start back on PT.

One more surgery!

Normally, the locking screws at the posterior and anterior of my femur are supposed to be removed after the osteotomy heals. I attempted to keep them in to prevent another surgery but, recently the screws towards my knee are severely agitating the surrounding soft tissue. This is causing fluid buildup and severe..Severe pain. I'm going to see my doctor next week and hopefully setup an appointment to have the screws removed. I should be able to leave the hospital the same day as the surgery and there should be no additional down time. See the following link for picture references. http://wheels531.blogspot.com/2005/11/x-rays-from-mayo.html

Physical Therapy

I made a really big move and removed the top half of my right leg brace. Now that my femur has a nail through it and is straight, my hope is that I can get strong enough to stand and drive with out the support of the top half of my brace. I haven't been without an entire leg brace since I was around 13 years old. It's an amazing feeling not having all that plastic and metal around my thigh. My hypothesis appears to be correct as I can use my leg...very carefully without the top half of my brace. I'm even able to ride a recumbent exercise bike. I hope to be able to stand without support by the end of the month....wish me luck.

Xmas Decorating Contest

I lost. Didn't even come in in the top 3. I got a consoalation prize of $25 however.

My latest Dr. Appointment

Great news! The bone is healed. I'm going to start some physical therapy and slowly get back to standing and driving. Yah!!!!!!!!!!