Arx Hereticus

Palaver Chicken

2009-12-17T20:50:00.001-05:00

PALAVER CHICKEN
(So-called because when enemies met to palaver, this dish was good enough to make them sit down and shut up and eat)

Chicken breast (deboned or boneless and skinless) cut into 1.5 or so inch cubes
Can of diced tomatoes (or a couple of cups of skinned and diced 'maters"
Onion
Garlic
Hot pepper (we use jalapeno) and/or sweet pepper if you're not a fire-eater
Peanut butter and/or/tahini
Spinach
Feta (or other good goat-ish cheese)

Spices/herbs:
Salt and pepper
Harissa (or dried red pepper flakes if you can't fine it)
Cumin
Curry
Coriander
Oregano
Parsley

Optional spices:
Chili powder
Cardemon
Nutmeg

Dice half the onion, garlic and pepper very fine, the remainder more coarsely

Chop spinach coarsely and set aside

Brown the chicken pieces in good olive oil and/or (real) butter
Add the finely diced onion, garlic and pepper
Salt and pepper lightly
As the chicky cooks, spice to taste with the dried herbs and spices

When done, remove chicken from the skillet and let rest

Add tomatoes and remainder of onion, garlic and pepper and bring to simmer
Add spices to taste
Cook 15-20 min, adding water or white wine to keep soupy but not watery
Add in 1-2 Tblsp peanut butter and/or tahini (to taste)
Stir in well
Add crumbled feta or other cheese until all is thickened and stew-like

Return chicken to skillet and mix well, warming through

Add spinach and let wilt

Serve with rice, couscous or flatbread

Thoughts on Self Defense

2009-11-18T10:52:00.001-05:00

Some thoughts on self defense, spawned by a conversation in an online forum:

First rule of self defense: Don't be there.

Seriously.

Don't go to bars or other places/events where people get drunk or high.
Don't go out alone. Don't go out at night. Don't go to bad parts of town.
Don't carry anything you aren't willing to throw away.
Don't wear anything you can't run in.
Don't hang out with people who attract trouble.
Don't get drunk or high.
Don't use an ATM in a lonely corner of the city at night.
Don't wear flash clothes or obvious bling.
Don't be a jerk.

Okay, I know that some of that is unrealistic for the average person.

But if you want absolute security, you aren't going to find it.

Self defense isn't fighting, it's escaping and surviving.

Being trained to fight, I'm talking military or police close quarters combatives type training, if taught properly, will probably get you in jail or sued if applied in most situations.

The things taught in most self defense classes and schools can bolster confidence and might give you an edge, but could also get you hurt or dead.

Carrying a weapon as a means of self defense is probably unrealistic unless you're trained and very fast. Chances are, you might wind up with your weapon used on you. No winners in a knife fight, really, only survivors.

What _can_ you do?

Be aware.
Be proactive.
Be reasonably fit.
Be smart.
Be present, reasonably sober and be reasonable.
Know where it's safe and not.
Have an escape route in your head.

A fellow I know on another (martial arts) forum is a cop and CQC instructor. He posted this recently:

---

... “magic formula” to avoid 99% of “street attacks”:

Don’t participate in illegal activity. Don’t hang out with people who attract trouble (need I clarify that?). Don’t hang out in places that attract trouble. Don’t get drunk or high. Don’t tolerate domestic violence, call the police and/or leave the abuser. Be alert to your surroundings and if something “feels” wrong…leave. Many people stick around thinking that they are being needlessly paranoid.

For that remaining 1% of instances where you are attacked while just “minding your own business”. Study an art that exposes you to striking/grappling/fighting with a resisting opponent and exposes you to getting hit and working through exhaustion and stress. Be aware of your states self defense laws, and have a plan for “post-incident” already thought out.

---

He goes on to say that for him, he's happy with about a 50% safety factor, and I pretty much agree with him.

The odds of getting into SD situations when the people around you are drunk and/or you are drunk are exponentally higher.

The chance of being a victim of violence in your own home by someone you live with is exponentally higher than being attacked on the street by a stranger.

Situational awareness is probably the best tool in your self defense kitbag ...

These are pretty much my opinions formed through about 35 years of study and teaching of classical and modern martial arts and combatives, and time in uniform as a cop and a soldier ... YMMV, of course.

There is no one-size-fits-all self defense strategy, but not being stupid, drunk, high or ignorant are good starters.

Training for Self Defense

Almost any martial training will help you in terms of confidence and bearing. Some will even be useful in terms of self defense. Most martial arts training is fun.

But for real world, practical, common-sense self defense, you probably ought to look for someone teaching such, rather than a particular style.

Failing that, get a solid base in striking (KISS, nothing fancy, no Mighty Mulching Power Mower stuff -- boxing is a good basic striking system), grappling (old-school judo, the better of the modern MMA gyms, even solid collegiate wrestling will help you on the ground).

You need to learn and practice escapes from various sorts of grabs. Again, simplicity and directness is critical. If you have to spin three times and change grips twice, it won't work IRL.

You need to train and practice what you learn regularly. If you don't practice, you will lose the 'muscle memory' and capabilities.

You need to learn how to take a hit and keep moving, how to hit the ground without getting badly hurt, how to protect yourself from getting struck while standing or on the ground.

You need to practice what you learn in the kinds of clothes, situations and locations you may face on the street.

You need to train with a variety of partners, various sizes, abilities and skill levels.

Practice cooperatively at first, gradually ramping up the resistance. In order to practice with any practical result, you'll need to practice at least some of the time with good, solid resistance.

Nothing done in the dojo, however, will really replicate what you would face in the real world, situationally, emotionally or physiologically.

Kata, drills, competition and practice are not combat. They might teach you things that can be ported over into combat, but none of those things taken in isolation are preparation for getting whacked upside the head by someone seriously seeking to mess you up.

Whatever you do, remember that training for self defense has one goal in mind: escape. Not toe-to-toe fighting, not superhero BS, just get free and get away.

It's a great fantasy to think about taking on evil and winning, but it's far more realistic (and satisfying to those who care about you) to get away in one piece.

There's no ultimate art or system.

Primarily, I study and teach an old Japanese system of jujutsu and weapons, and I make it clear to students that this is a system of archaic combatives instruction, it's not movie-fu and it's not CQC. It is what it is but it's not modern combatives.

I've also studied and taught straight-up practical combatives to folks who might actually need it, but generally do not teach such things to the general public. Most folks who exercise reasonable care will never need it, and those who do are generally unable to put in the time it takes to internalize and maintain the skillsets.

When I _do_ teach self defense, the curriculum is much more about personal security than about physical struggle -- lock windows and doors, don't use the ATM alone, don't walk down dark alleys, how to secure your home, etc. The physical portion is primarily escape drills ...

The Devil Made Texas

2009-05-15T12:29:00.002-04:00

(to the tune of 'Irish Washerwoman')

Oh, the devil in hell they say he was chained,
And there for a thousand years he remained;
He neither complained nor did he groan,
But decided he'd start up a hell of his own,
Where he could torment the souls of men
Without being shut in a prison pen;
So he asked the Lord if he had any sand
Left over from making this great land.

The Lord He said, "Yes, I have plenty on hand,
But it's away down south on the Rio Grande,
And to tell you the truth, the stuff is so poor
I doubt it will do for a hell anymore.
"The Devil went down and looked over the truck,
And he said if it came as a gift he was stuck,
For when he'd examined it carefully and well
He decided the place was too dry for a hell.

But the Lord to just get the stuff off His hands
He promised the Devil He'd water the lands,
For He had some old water that was of no use,
A regular bog hole that stunk like the deuce.
So the contract was signed and the deed was given,
And the Lord went up to his spread up in heaven.
The Devil soon saw he had everything needed
To make a good hell and I'll say he succeeded.

He scattered tarantulas over the road,
Put thorns on the cactus and horns on the toads,
He sprinkled the sand with millions of ants
So the man that sits down must wear soles on his pants.
He lengthened the horns of the Texas steer,
And added an inch to the jack rabbit's ear;
He put water puppies in all of the lakes,
And under the rocks he put rattlesnakes.

He hung thorns and brambles on all of the trees.
He mixed up the dust with chiggers and fleas.
The rattlesnakes bites you, the scorpion stings,
The mosquito delights you by buzzing his wings.
The heat in the summer's a hundred and ten--
Too cool for the devil and too hot for men,
And all who remained in that climate soon bore
Stings, cuts, bites, scratches, and blisters galore.

He quickened the buck of the bronco steed
And poisoned the feet of the centipede.
The wild boar roams in the black chaparral.
It's a hell of a place that we've got for a hell.
He planted red pepper beside of the brooks;
The Mexicans use them in all that they cook.
Just dine with a Mexican and you will shout,
"I've got hell on the inside as well as the out!"

Happy anniversary eyeball!

2009-01-19T18:06:00.000-05:00

Okay it's a day late. Jan. 18, 2008, I was in the Universitat Regensburg clinic (hospital, really) getting my eyeballs punctured, lasered, cryo'd, reinflated. Oh yeah. There was that new lens thing, too, so the doc could see what he was doing.

Frakking miserable weeks of pain and weird sight followed, but in the end, my eyesight was better in that eye, and I wasn't standing to lose said sight.

BTW, that was also the year-and-a-half anniversary ... to the day ... of getting a new hip.

18 months ago, today, I was taking my first walk on the new hardware and crutches.

Today, I'm hiking and cycling in season, and walking to work when the weather allows.

Still have some limitations on movement (will never sit tailor-style again, for instance), but generally speaking, the hip is WAY better than it was in the months prior to the surgery.

The eyeball get dry a little quicker, but remains solid and sightful.

Can't complain ...

On being poor

2009-01-19T17:51:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to post a link to John Scalzi's powerful essay "Being Poor" (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/) ... it's a powerful read. I try to re-read it a couple times a year to remind myself.

I grew up very poor, broken home, crappy end of the country, no real future or possibilities ... but due to some fairly incredible sacrifices by those who loved me, I wasn't that aware of it until I got older.

Not that my folks were angels, they could be as mean and stupid as anyone's folks can, but there was love, too. They weren't very good at being parents, but they tried hard with what they had.

Mom had a problem with alcohol and all its assorted baggage for many years, Dad had a problem with being there. I survived it all and am doing pretty damn good right now.

Growing up, I didn't think of myself as poor until - probably junior high school, and then it hit hard. Before, there was always food, always something clean to wear, always family and friends of the family around giving mom a boost.

I realized that my stuff was from the dime store or hand-me-downs, that we used food stamps, that Mom stretched our food budget in some amazing ways anyway, that my folks were 'low-class' (whatever the hell that means), that I'd never be popular, get a car for birthday or Christmas, never go to college, and that I was, indeed, poor white trash.

And increasingly, as I grew into my teens, the fact was hammered in. The rift between me and people lik eme and the rest of the world seemed to gape wider and wider. Some of it was teen alienation, angst and rebellion, sure, but I was acutely aware of the discrepency between me and my 'peers'.

As I got older, and Mom aged, her folks and then her sibs started dying off, and things got tougher.

She had a severe spinal injury about my freshman year, spent a year in hospitals, rehab or at home in bed being cared for by myself and my married older sister. Sis did what she could, but I was Mom's primary caretaker for a good while.

I learned to cook, to wash and iron clothes and clean house.

I never learned much about money and the intelligent handling thereof, because we hadn't any. It took her a year or so to get her disability straightened out, and we were pretty much SOL in the cash department for what seemed to be years, but was at least several months.

We dealt, due to help from family, kindness of friends, sometimes dumb luck. She got back on her feet, but never back to work. I spent the rest of high school on the wrong side of the tracks, and Mom mostly stayed one step ahead of the landlord, bill collector and bottle.

Looking back, I can see a lot of ways things could have been netter, but they could have been lots worse, too.

I left that world, pretty much just walked away as soon as I was of age. Made regular as possible visits to meet familial duty, but I was growing fast, learning fast and really, turning into someone else. Pretty much succeeded, in some very unexpected ways ... I wa snever part of that world again, and never will be. Not the poverty, I've been almost desperately underemployed a couple of times since, but always climbed out of the hole.

And the idea that that hole still exists, and could open up again is never far from my consciousness.

I do remember, and I read things like Scalzi's "Being Poor" and try hard to keep perspective. I work hard, earn good money, have had some real breaks ... but I also try to remember to pay it forward, if I may resurrect an old cliche.

Not always good at it, and the road to hell is well-oaved, but I do try. I give when I can, of time and money and knowledge. And I encourage and offer perspective and remind others that you don't have to continue the cycle that is poverty in America.

(Addendum: And I know very, very well, that even at the poorest of my youth or later years, I was still so much richer than many in this world will ever know or even dream of ...)

Bifteki

2009-01-19T17:51:00.001-05:00

Half/three-quarters pound of good lean ground beef (or half that and half ground lamb!)
Quarter butcher onion, finely chopped
Good feta cheese (Trader Joe's has great feta)
Half a banana pepper minced
3-4 toes of garlic, finely minced
Paprika, coriander, dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp of good olive oil
1 goodly squeeze and drizzle of lemon juice
Dump all but feta in a big bowl, use two forks to mix thoroughly (or a pulse in food processer if you're lazy)
When well-mixed, form a football shaped lump on a bog sheet of waxed paper or plastic wrap
Flatten by hand, keeping an oval shape
Fold or lay wrap/paper over oval of meat and use rolling pin or wine botle to further flatten and thin, carefully keeping the edges clean and well-shaped
Slice or crumble feta (mores better) in the middle of one half of the meat
Fold meat over and crimp or mush edges together to seal
Add another tbsp or more of olive oil to hot skillet
Carefully add meat pie, brown one side well
Carefully flip, brown other side
I usually add extra salt/pepper to each side as it cooks

When done, remove and let rest

Drizzle a goodl dollop of dry white wine into drippings, stirring constantly to reduce, add wine as needed to create a silky, thickened sauce

Serve plated with chopped parsely (or cilantro if you want a more mid-eastern version) and drizzled with sauce

Accompany with a good dry white wine (if you can get Agiorithikos, GO for it)

Enjoy!

Bahārāt

2009-01-19T17:50:00.002-05:00

Here's a recipe for a spice mix from the Middle East (from Apartment Therapy). I'd reduce or even delete the cloves, and punch up the heat a bit, but otherwise, it sounds quite nommy:

Bahārāt, which simply means "spice" in Arabic, is a all-purpose seasoning used in Middle Eastern cuisine. Although the particular blend varies by region and household, it always includes black pepper and typically has cumin, cinnamon, and cloves, among other spices.

Aromatic, warm, and sweet, a pinch of bahārāt can add depth and flavor to soups, tomato sauces, lentils, rice pilafs, and couscous. It can also be used as a rub for fish, poultry, and meat; mixed with olive oil and used as a vegetable marinade; and blended with garlic, parsley, and olive oil to make a condiment paste.

Bahārāt is sold in Middle Eastern grocery stores, but it can also be easily mixed in your own kitchen. We recommend starting with whole spices, which tend to be more flavorful, especially when they are toasted before grinding. Here is one recipe, but feel free to alter the ingredients and proportions to create your own signature blend. Other additions may include sumac, saffron, turmeric, and chiles. Turkish style bahārāt includes dried mint, and in North Africa the blend often has dried rose petals.

Bahārāt
Makes about 3/4 cup

2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon allspice berries
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
4 (3-inch) cassia or cinnamon sticks
2 tablespoons ground sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Grind the whole spices using a mortar and pestle, spice mill, or coffee grinder. (You may need to do it in several batches.) Add the paprika and nutmeg and combine.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

Uncle Aldo's spaghetti gravy

2009-01-19T17:50:00.001-05:00

1 or so pounds of good lean ground meat
I've used beef, pork, chicken, moose and venison for this - moose courtesy cousin Frank Gordon)
half a large onion chopped fine (not quite minced)
3-5 large toes of garlic, minced or crushed
1-2 med. meaty (rather than juicy) tomatoes (I used homegrown Romas) chopped coarsely
half a red bell pepper chopped small
salt and pepper to taste (I use sea salt and fresh ground mixed pepper)
Dried or fresh:
Sage, oregano, basil, rosemary, other herbs to taste (I added generous dash of Herb de Provence)

Sautee the onion, half the garlic, the bell pepper (I like to use a spicy red chili when I have it) in good olive oil, salt and pepper while cooking, till not-quite brown

Spice the meat with herbs and half the remaining garlic, brown with the base veg mix

I cheat here, Uncle Aldo made his own tomato sauce, I use a can of diced tomatoes (make sure there's no MSG or sugar in), and a small can of tomato sauce

Add in more herbs, salt and pepper to taste, periodically splash in generous amounts of dry red wine to keep wet. Use wine to keep cook lubricated as well ...

(A little wine for the pot, a little wine for me ...)

Perfectly, I'd cook it all day, adding wine and chopped fresh 'matoes as needed, realistically, about an hour

Serve over your favorite pasta or use Emily's spaghetti squash (which we are) recipe. See her for said recipe. Sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan or reggiano,or any good,strong dry cheese, sprinkle more herbs if it makes you happy, drink a good dry red wine or whatever tickes your palette.

(And yes, this is the way Uncle Aldo taught me to make it ... "A littla this, a littla that, how's it taste? Pour us another glass of wine.")

Kefta/Koefta/Kofta al la Schloss Gordon

2009-01-19T17:49:00.001-05:00

My not-quite traditional Kefta recipe (one of 'em) for Janet:

This is actually an amalgam of a couple-three different recipes

Take a whack of ground meat (I lean toward ground lamb and lean ground beef mixed, have also used infidel pork and ground venison - Nom!) - 1 lb/half a kilo makes a good meal, for leftovers double.

Dump meat in big bowl

Add in:
A handful of finely chopped onion
3-4 toes of minced/squished garlic
Half a japaleno, minced
About a finger of minced or grated fresh garlic
A whack of C spices (in order of how much I use, most-to-least):
Coriander
Curry powder
Cinnamon
Cumin
Dark chili powder (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

(Occasionally, depending on fresh ingredient availability, I also use powdered garlic and ginger)

Mix well (I use two forks in a sort of slice-and-dice motion till thoroughly mixed, but bare hands are more fun)

Let meat mix sit to marinate while you:
Chop another half onion, coarsely
Chop come more garlic
Chop some more ginger

Form the meat into 1-1.5 in. balls or small sausages or patties, as you prefer (makes great burgers: grill, top with feta and serve in pita)

Saute a small amount of onion and garlic, add in meatballs when aromatics are sweated nicely

Cook through, browning all around, remove and set aside to rest

Throw a can or two of canned tomoatoes (add in fresh chopped from the garden if you got 'em), remaining onion and garlic, bring to high simmer, not quite a boil, and reduce heat

Add more C spices and cook down a bit

Put meatballs back in and cook on low for a few minutes (about long enough to check e-mail)

Stands alone as a sort of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern meatballs Arrabiata, or add in:

A tablespoon or two of (any or all):
Tahini
Peanut butter
Feta (or other crumbly cow or goat cheese)

Stir in to thicken and flavor.

Serve the whole mess over couscous, rice or hummus, or alone; add in chickpeas or fava beans as you like or not.

Top with Tahini, cacik/tzatziki (Ask Em for that recipe) or chopped cilantro/fresh oregano, or for bus-stop kefta, dish kefta-tomato sauce mix into bowls still simmering and crack a fresh egg into each serving while it's still simmering and let the egg cook up.

Making store bought steak taste like restaurant grade meat

2009-01-19T17:48:00.001-05:00

Y'all know that generally speaking, the meat we buy in the grocery (to include Sam's and Costco-type operations, I presume) is actually a couple of grade below the cheapest stuff you get in a restaurant. At least, that's what all the food writers tell us ...

This trick/technique works great to enhance the flavor of steak, specifically, and I've also used it on slabs of pork tenderloin cooked steak-style, and can only guess that it ought to work on any cut of meat sufficiently thick.

You need to start with thick steak, at least 1" thick. No thinner than 3/4" ... the sirloins I cooked the other night were about 1.5" thick.

First, decide if you want any seasoning on your steak. Generally, Em and I use a garlic-rosemary seasoning so that'll be my example.

Get some chunky salt, sea salt or kosher or whatever, just as long as it chunks and not table salt.

Lay down a bed of the salt plop the steaks down on it, season the top with the garlic-rosemary mix, then layer more salt on top.

I'm talking bury the steak here, enough salt to cause a heart attack. Really, you want to bury the steak ... try to leave no meat showing.

Now, step away and let it sit for 30 min to an hour, thicker steak, more time. No more than one hour at any rate.

Go check your e-mail, update your FaceBook page or whatever.

When your timer goes off, dump the salt, rinse the steaks, pat dry.

Voila, They're ready to cook.

I've used this to grill and in the pan.

Why does this make steak taste better? It's teh Sceince!

The salt creates a fairly interesting physical/chemical reaction that exchanges water, drawing moisture out of the steak (in this case, through the seasoning) and then back into the meat (carrying seasoning back into the meat).

I stole the technique from a food blog, and was a little leery, but tried it and was thrilled with the result.

Another technique I say last evening on a cooking show looks interesting, too -- a method to simulate dry aging.

The chef basically pre-heated the steak (in a warm oven 275F IIRC) for about 20 minutes before pan-cooking in a heavy steel pan. Theory is that the pre-heating does something similar to the salt trick, and with the meat warmer internally, you can cook it hotter and shorter to get a good crusty finish with a better, less grey interior.

The steak au poivre we made this way:

Crush peppercorns coarsely, put 'em in a plate or dish, press the steak into the pepper top and bottom..

Melt a dab of butter and some good oil in a pan, brown the steak on both sides, remove and let rest (under tented foil or between plates to conserve some of the heat).

Reduce the heat, remove the pan, pour in about a half cup of decent brandy (the chef flamed the brandy, but when I tried it, the hot pan evaporated enough brandy instantly that it wouldn't flame) to deglaze, adding in a bit of cream to create a pan sauce.

Just before you're done with the sauce, add a shot of fresh brandy for flavor. Return the steaks and coat them in the sauce briefly, letting them warm back up, then serve with the sauce drizzled over.

Sirloin isn't a good choice for this, it's too lean, we had to add more fat (butter) to get the sauce happy.

Good eatin'!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T14:11:00.002-05:00

Ever since humankind could record and understand the progression of the years, we've celebrated the changes of the seasons.

In the spring, we planted and prepared and celebrated the fertility of the land. In the fall, we harvested and celebrated the bounty we'd earned through hard work.

And in the winter, when the sun seemed to be fading, when the winds howled and superstitions told us that the wolves were at the door, we huddled and waited, and then, on the shortest day of the year, when the sun began to return, we celebrated the return of the light.

Almost every culture and civilization has celebrated the seasons, and mid-winter celebrations of one sort or another feature prominently in every major religion, every culture, every people on the planet.

In the East, the Japanese held that their goddess of the sun, Amaterasu hid in a cave and was lured out in mid-winter.

In the West, the ancient Celts celebrated the Winter Solstice, and raised Stonehenge and Newgrange to mark the passing of the seasons.

The ancient Romans held Saturnalia festivals and honored Sol Invictus in December, and the Zuni and Hopi celebrated Soyal in their kivas.

Modern Christians revere the birth of Christ in mid-winter; those of the Jewish faith celebrate Hanukah - a festival of lights; Muslims observe Ashura and the Islamic New year in mid to late December.

No matter what you celebrate this season, whether it be Yule or Hogmany, Ashura or Hanukah, Lenaia or Sanghamitta, Christmas or the Winter Solstice, I wish you health and prosperity, love and joy, and for us all, peace in the world and hope in our hearts ...

Miscellania ... Home-making

2008-08-15T15:48:00.003-04:00

Hedgewitch has seen a sudden upswing in interest in her practice since the Frederick News-Post article. She's almost-famous again!

I've made connections with a rheumatologist and GP, getting set up for a 50K check-up (over-50 physical).

Household is mostly unpacked and we've held a yardsale to divest ourselves of lots of junk.
Getting ramped up to go to Detroit to visit friends and review the Shinto Hatakage Ryu iai kata; and in mid-September, we'll start an 8-week course in Shinto Muso Ryu jodo.

Still no firm plans or possibilities for local dojo space, but I'm pretty happy studying something else for a while, despite HW's gentle pushes to nudge me into starting my own dojo again.

Work's a bit quieter (for now), and I'm still trying to decide if I like it here or not ...

2008-08-10T18:49:00.002-04:00

Been a while, but if you've been following the news (and know I'm working at Fort Detrick, MD) you know I've been busy lately ...

Update time:

Well, it's been a bit over a year since the hip replacement. In that year, I've had an attack of reactive arthritis that set my rehab back about two months, and in January, discorvered that I had a: a cataract in my right eye, and b: a detached retina in that same eye.

Two major surgeries in six months and the arthritis, which is mostly under control, but still an issue, AND a trans-Atlantic move, and the short result is that I haven't spent as much time on the mat lately as I'd like.

Em and I do some veyr light training once a week or so, but I'm not up to taking ukemi, which sort of puts a damper on my teaching style ...

However, we do sword and staff when we can and we've signed up for an 8-week course in Shinto Muso Ryu jodo locally, and will be getting to know some of those folks soon. Looking forward to that!

Otherwise ...

We did about 10 miles today on the C&O trail, an old canal stretching from DC up into W. Va. Got onto the trail just south of Frederick, went east past the Monocacy Aqueduct and Lock 27, turned around and went back toward Point of Rocks a bit, before calling it a day to retire to Brewer's Alley in Fredneck for a late lunch and beers.

The Trail handled well on the mostly gravel and mudholey trail, did do a little x-country here and there, but it was mostly flat and pleasant.

Very comfy, responsive and agile. If I do much trail riding, I'll replace the tires with something a bit less street and more knobby.

Sit Down and Shut Up?

2008-05-29T09:50:00.002-04:00

Recently, the infamous (and utterly incorrect) Sit Down and Shut Up meme has raised its ugly head again, this time in an ad flogging a Kieffe and Sons Ford in Mojave and Rosamond, Calif., Ford dealership radio ad telling non-Christians to "sit down and shut up."

It's been all over the intertubes recently ...

BoingBoing reported on the ad May 26, then again on May 28, saying: "J.W. Horne", who claims he works for the dealership writing the ads posted to his blog, defending his decision, telling "non-believers" and "plain doubters" that we are "in the minority and as loud as you yell and protest, you will always be in the minority."

On May 28, the Bakersfield Californian reported that dealership owner Rick Kieffe has apologized for the ad and said that he didn't actually approve it. Who knows what the truth of all THAT is?

Basically, the meme is this:

"It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, I have a very hard
time understanding why there is such a mess about having `In God We Trust' on
our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the
14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!"

I've actually received this glurge a couple of times over the years, and know folks who've received in in snail-mail, e-mail and as postings to blogs. I've addressed this before, but feel compelled to do so again ...

Dear Believer,

A lot of you really want people like me to "Sit Down and Shut Up." You say we're a minority, and that the USA is a "Christian Nation" ... and that we're inconsequential and irritating to the "Christian Majority" because we're beginning to stand up for our (non) beliefs and defend the Constitution and the First Amendment.
Fact is, the "Christian Majority" is a myth. Amongst that "majority", the
several various denominations can't even agree on what the term "Christian"
means, much less about doctrine and dogma.

Many "Christians" believe the folks in the church across the street aren't
True Christians (tm) and are damned to hell; and vice-versa. Catholics believe
Baptists will bunr, Baptists know Mormons will burn, Mormons are positive that
Methodists won't make it into their highest level of Heaven, and Methodists aren't too sure about the Pentacostals. And we haven't even touched upon the other Abrahamic faiths (Judaism and Islam) or the non-Abrahamic religions.

If you start stripping away the contention, the spite, the back-biting (and
stabbing) and sheer hatred that exists between the various flavors of
Christianity, you ain't got much left to be a majority with, Bubba.

Some estimates (look up Pew and the Barna Institute figures, for instance)
put the unchurched (i.e. not religious - leaving the remaining folks divided
between various Christian sects AND other religions ...) at anywhere between 9
and 16% of the American population.
Today, the US Census Bureau puts the population at about 301,139,947. If we take a conservative estimate of 10% of American who are unbvelievers, we're STILL looking at about 30,000,000+ Americans who don't believe in the god that you do.

You want to silence 30 million voices, strip their rights to freedom of
(from) religion and freedom of speech?

Of course you do. Not all of you, but some very vocal and persistent folks like the guy who did the Ford ad, do ...

Fact is, though, the unreligious are the fastest growing 'religion' in the
USA. You're fighting a lost battle and your rear-guard is getting
snippy.

Sincerely,

30 million of your atheist/agnostic/apatheist neighbors, colleagues, relatives, friends,
team-mates, store-clerks, teachers, students, cops, firefighters, Soldiers, meter-readers ...

Bloody hell

2008-05-12T10:37:00.002-04:00

It's wet. It's more than wet, it's sideways.

Basement's got water seeping in, despite the four 60 gal. rain barrels Hedgewitch installed under the downspouts last week.The barrels overflowed, and one actually overturned, dumping all 60 gallons right at the worst of the seepy corners.

Blerf.

We spent a goodly part of yesterday afternoon getting drenched whilst rearranging barrels, ensureing overflow hoses worked and routing drain hoses away from the house.

Fortunately, we got in a nice hike at the local state park before it started raining yesterday afternoon. It was my first actual hike since the total hip replacement last July. We'd walked around town(s) quite a bit, and my walking to work every day is strengthening the hip nicely, but this was the first actual in-the-woods, on-the-trail hike.

We put in about 2 miles, a moderate trail, with about a third of it decent up and down grades.I was tired after, but in no pain, and am in no pain today.

Cool. The science (mediccal science in this case), it is your friend.

Speaking of science:

This I believe: I Am Evolution
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90311455
by Holly Dunsworth

I believe evolution. It's easy. It's my life. I'm a
paleoanthropologist. I study fossils of humans, apes and monkeys, and I teach
college students about their place in nature.
Of course I believe evolution. But that is different from
believing in evolution.
To believe in something takes faith, trust, effort, strength.
I need none of these things to believe evolution. It just is. My health is
better because of medical research based on evolution. My genetic code is
practically the same as a chimpanzee's. My bipedal feet walk on an earth full of
fossil missing links. And when my feet tire, those fossils fuel my car.

Expelled -- the other side of a very nasty coin

2008-04-20T09:53:00.002-04:00

Math and physics blogger Blake Stacey posted a disturbing look at what happens when teachers stand up for science against the ID/creationists:

Creation, Power and Violence

Excerpt:

The issue of creationism has been simmering for decades, sometimes frothing up into great legal battles which attract widespread attention. The most recent of these watershed events happened in Dover, Pennsylvania, where a school board tried to push “Intelligent Design” into the science classrooms.

Judge John E. Jones III, a Republican and faithful Lutheran, delivered a landmark verdict in which he summarized the claims of Intelligent Design proponents as “breathtaking inanity.” Once the verdict was revealed, Judge Jones became the target of character assassination and even received death threats for the crime of doing his job.

His decision put Judge Jones on the cover of Time Magazine, but you don’t have to be famous to have someone get very upset about you. Michael Korn sent threatening letters, adorned with skulls and crossbones, to several biology professors at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Several of the messages were delivered by slipping envelopes under the professors’ office doors after working hours; Korn’s missives referred to “killing the enemies of Christian society.” He then skipped town and is currently a fugitive from justice.

Expelled?

2008-04-14T20:11:00.002-04:00

Have y'all seen the ludicrous anti-science movei

Expelled?

Ya know what's ironic? the silly movie

Expelled is supporting NPR, and specifically NPR's Science Friday!

Expelled ... What a hoot!

(See Pharyngula for details ...)

Gordons in Maryland

2008-03-29T17:43:00.000-04:00

Heya all,

We're on the ground in Maryland, minimally lagged, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Landed last eve about 19:00 at Dulles (the Dullest airport in the world) and were met by my colleague Sarah, who took us home to deposit kitty and luggage and then to dinner at a local brewpub (decent beer and good food!).

Faceplanted shortly afterward and slept well.

We got up today and unpacked, then wandered the neighborhood a bit, bought some groceries and supplies. The landlady came over to offer us a quick and dirty tour of Frederick (totally charming town), which we leapt upon and then to her favorite beer/wine store where we grabbed some alcoholic imbibations.

Em's making phone calls to let folks know we're here safe and sound and we're going to head out again in a bit to find something to eat.

Pleasant spot, all in all, and so far, very friendly folks.

As long as we have to be here, this ain't a bad place to land.

More soon,

Hugs, koshis, etc.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
-- Philip K. Dick (1928 - 1982)

Chuck Gordon

Down to the wire

2008-03-22T11:56:00.002-04:00

The house is beginning to look naked ...

Still got lots of stuff, but curtains are down and cleaned, art off the walls and nail holes patched, Army furniture sorted and set aside, lots of trash thrown out, un-needed things given away, cleaning in progress.

We've had tons of assistance, lovely people giving freely to help us get ready (some of whom, I suspect are helping to ensure that we actually GO!), and Emily's done tons of work here while I slogged through the final days in the office.

In between the preparations, we had a wonderful farewell luncheon with folks from work (and presentation of a medal from the commanding general), dinner last evening with many friends, and have had promises extracted to spend some time in the coming week here and there with others.

Andy came from Freiburg and Joachim and his bride Ingrid came in from Frankfurt. Fitting, in that Joachim and Andy welcomed us in Frankfurt as we arrived, and graciously came to spend time with us on out way out.

We had our last class in the home dojo this morning, with Andy giving our students a taste of his delightful aikido.

After class, several folks stayed around to help us move furniture, stack heavy trash out for sperrmuehle day (and for the Easterners and gypsies to scavenge) and share a quick and dirty Mexi lunch.

Em's started packing her luggage, and I need to look at that myself.

We've got a couple of day left to do such, then next week will be a whirlwind of movers, inspections, cleaning and then a long, sad flight away from this lovely place.

It's all coming together and coming altogether too fast.

Hating life ...

2008-03-08T12:07:00.001-05:00

Right now, I am. Hedgewitch and I have been making preparations for the move back to the USA (she's taken on the lion's share of the pre-packout tasks, bless her pagan little heart).

Pulled down curtains and curtain hanging paraphernalia in the kitchen, taken down photos and art, staging various pieces of the household for the packers, patching nail holes in the walls ...

The kitchen looks naked and grim. I'm in a pissy mood and am being inordinately annoyed at stubborn screws and recalcitrant hardware. Cursing like a sailor when things get balky. Wish I felt better about this, but I'm not. I hate the idea of leaving this place.

HW has been working hard to keep a cheery face on, but I'm failing miserably.

I really just want to get drunk and scream obscenities at the universe.

We're running into folks we've know since we got here, chatting up neighbors, letting them know we're gone. There's a sense of disbelief in the Germans, some of whom have family ties to this area for about 2,000 years.

"Gypsies" they call us Americans. They can't comprehend the idea of massive relocation every few years.

Me either right now. Not liking it at all. This from a guy who's never really had a home, never stayed in one place for much more than a few years, who has really never had or wanted 'roots'. That seems to be changing.

HW and I have been here not quite six years, and they've been good years. Ther've been shitty times, yeah, but all together, it's been a wonderful time and living has been good. I simply can't imagine that Frederick, MD, -- as nice as it seems to be, as near as we can tell from the Intarwebs -- is going to be as good to us as Pressath has ...

Blech.

Where's the whisky?

Chasing Paper

2008-03-06T13:26:00.002-05:00

Daaaannnggg.

Setting up transportation for HW and me, our stuff, our car, her kittiness, etc, etc.

I _think_ we've got it hammered down. We pack out the 25th (maybe also the 26th), ship the car the 26th, ship the fast unaccompanied baggage the 27th, fly the 28th.

Tween now and then, we have to clean stuff, arrange stuff so that the movers don't put the wrong stuff in the wrong bunch of stuff for shipping of said stuff overseas ...

And drink lots of good wine, eat lots of good food and get ready for culture shock.

Damn.

Ch-ch-changes ...

2008-02-29T01:13:00.003-05:00

Still headed to Maryland (it's official, I got the confirmation letter yesterday), but dates have moved back. My last day at JMTC will be March 26 or so and we fly March 28 ...

We're making the deal for the house we wanted and HW has started cleaning out drawers and closets.

Hang on tight, these next few (very few) weeks are gonna be hectic!

Here we go!

2008-02-25T15:26:00.003-05:00

Got my release date from JMTC, confirmed that they're paying move costs, filled out a request for orders and turned it in ... and here we go. Maryland, here we come!

We'll fly on April 11.

Next few weeks will be ver' ver' busy.

If I don't post much, stay tuned. I will when I have time ...

Damn.

When I get orders, I have to make arrangements for:

Shipping household goods (the big stuff)
Shipping hold baggage (slightly faster, smaller shipment of essentials)
Mailing must-have immediately stuff
Shipping the car
Shipping me and HW and the cat
Outprocessing here
Putting together a smart-book for folks when I'm gone
Saying goodbyes to dear friends and beloved places
Moving into the on-post hotel for the last couple of weeks

Sigh. And then there's the dojo. Miguel gets kicked out of the nest. Class is his now. HW and I will show up and point and wave, but he's on his own.

There's not much I can give him in six weeks that I haven't already. He's got to find his own footing now. Kevin's a good student and will keep Miguel honest, and Lydia will make sure he doesn't lose sight of being soft.

Bittersweet.

Hate leaving Germany and Europe. Hat eleaving dear friends and adopted family ...

But it's a new adventure and a good career move.

Are we ready? Hell no.

But we'll get there and we'll do fine anyhow.

Here we go!

Na na na na, hey, hey ...

2008-02-20T15:58:00.001-05:00

Heya all,

Well things are suddenly precipitously charging forward.

I got a tentative offer today for the Fort Detrick, in Frederick, MD, position, tentative only insofar as they have to do a security check (I've got a current clearance, so that's really moot). I expect to hear the final, firm offer within days.

That means that Hedgewitch and I will be headed toward Maryland the end of March or early April.

Wow.

It's all, suddenly, very real, and we're starting to celebrate, albeit with mixed feelings. We hate leaving Europe and our dear friends here, but are eager to get on with life and start exploring our new home.

Em's got her eye on a house near the fort, and we'll inquire if it's still available tonight. Got lots to do in the next few weeks, ship the car, get household moved, clear this installation, close down Schloss Gordon (very sadly and reluctantly, that), and start saying goodbyes.

The job looks interesting and challenging and the area looks great. It's a promotion of sorts and will bump up my retirement pay in the end. All to the good.

We'll keep y'all posted as things develop.

Destinations

2008-02-10T11:07:00.000-05:00

First: For anyone interested, an update on my eyeball. It's getting better, eyesight improving, but still itches and scratches like hell. Doc at the university said, "Of course it itches, you've still got stitches in ...." Duh.

Second: Destinations ... as in the move back across the pond. Wow. I had a job interview Monday last, and the organization has contacted my boss for info and references. He said they sounded enthusiastic and eager ... soooooo ... Hedgewitch and I may be on our way to Maryland in a few weeks.

Dunno, have to see if they come up with a concrete offer, then we'll negotiate salary, etc.

Anyhoo ... the reality of leaving Europe and heading back to the US is setting in.

We could do worse, says HW, than Maryland, and I agree. The location is an hour from DC or Baltimore, a couple hours from mountains, ocean, big cities, expansive parklands ... and we have friends and contacts in that part of the country.

HW's scoping out neighborhoods and houses. If we wind up there, we'd love to find a place from which I could walk or bike to work when the weather's decent.

Not eager to move, and hate the idea of leaving Europe, but that part of the US ain't bad a'tall.

Groundhog Day 2008

2008-02-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

Wine: Serristori Sangiovese Toscana
Dinner: Kefteh and palaver chicken
Music: KPLU, from iTunes, jazz from the Seattle area

Just got my ass kicked at Scrabble by Hedgewitch, but it was fun. Good exercise for the new eyeball. I can read large print and the bubble of gas is getting smaller. It is about the size of a pea (doc said it was 20% Friday, down from 80% -- I can SEE the damn thing), and is a dark-ringed spot that's vaguely translucent. The fluid filling the eye has a slightly yellowish cast. Dunno if that'll go away or if I'll be seeing the world through a pissy filter from now on ...

Not much pain or discomfort, but still tire easily. HW says the new lens flouresces if the light's just right. Taking my arthritis mids is really, really helping the Reiter's. Got little of no pain in the feet. Prednisone and some other drops in the eye through the day.

Vision's improving rapidly. I'm looking forward to the results of teh sceince!

I made the kefteh:

Very lean ground beef (wish I had some nice ground lamb to go with)
chopped shallot and garlic
corainder, cumin, dry harissa (wicked hot chili seasoning from the MidEast)
oregano

Mixed, rolled into meatballs, fried in a light oil and then sprinkled with more herbs and the pan deglazed with a splash of the Sangiovese, it's mellowing while Em finishes the chicken.

Got some wild rice cooking (with saffron).

Palaver chicken (for us) is chicky breasts, chopped in chunks
Tomatoes, garlic, onion (and shallot), peanut butter, thyme, oregano, chopped spinach, a jalapeno diced, saffron, butter. She added a dash of black cumin (very cool stuff).

Nom nom nom.

We'll be watching Colbert Report and Daily Show tonight, maybe some No Reservations, if there's anew episode on iTunes.

Been on a No Res binge. Tony's funny as hell. Got me real homesick a couple times, and his Beirut episode was ... tantalizingly familiar.

Life is better. Slowly, but better,

Yarr.

2008-01-27T04:06:00.001-05:00

The experiment continues

2008-01-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

Yarr, avast me maties ...

Okay, cue the pirate jokes. Or more like Popeye. I yam whut I yam ...

When you look up "cure worse than the disease" in the dictionary, what you will find is retinal detachment.

Before the (emergency, hah! See Em's post below) surgery, I was in no discomfort, and could sort of see. Today, three days post-op, my eye itches, I've got headachey aches around it, and my vision is sort of like looking through a glass bowl of mineral oil.

But it's all gonna be okay in a couple of weeks! Uh huh. No doubt, but right now it sucks.

It was a three-fer: scrape out the cataract, implant a new lens and laser the retina back in place. Oh yeah, don't forget that they sucked the fluid out of the eyeball and replaced it with a neutral (SF6) gas.

The Good News: the new lens is corrected to make it more like my 'good' eye, in other words, the vision should be way better than it was before. Provided I make it through this next few weeks without pulling a "If thine eye offend thee" fundavangelical nutjob act and poke it out with a sharp stick ... oh wait, the good docs in Regensburg already poked me in the eye with sharp sticks ...

Sigh.

I can has normal now? Please?

We Can Has Science?

2008-01-18T15:37:00.000-05:00

I'm afraid I used most of my mom's patience delivery, today!

I ended up stalking the halls until I found him, because the nurse's station was so flustered.
The Germans are very orderly.. unless they are having an off day, and then they might as well be Greek.

I recognized his elbow, and buttonholed the nurse to make sure it was him before I burst in and started my Florence Nightingale routine.

He was groggy, but glad to see me. Poor guy, every time he perked up today and tried to eat something or sit up, he lost his lunch. Not doing well with the aftermath of the general this time. They taped a loose bit of gauze and what looks like half a flattened Whiffle ball over his eye, and he was getting a little oxygen and saline to help the recovery.
I'm tempted to make a little skull and crossbones to tape over the bandage... I got to see the doc examine him, they said the procedure went well and is proceeding nicely (despite the pressures of barfing up his biscuits several times). You know he's missing his sense of balance (due to the Meniere's) missing one eye and dealing with the anasthetic, I think he's largely just very dizzy.

The nurses are very sweet, one speaks perfect English but I have to translate for the others (this is why I stay there most of the day, other than the fact that back rubs and scratches, extra sips of water, emails and messages from friends read to him, special food-even when he can't keep it down! - and just being there and checking in makes all the difference) and for the roomie, who speaks the regional equivalent of Deep Redneck. Normally,cg's German comprehension is as good or better than mine, but under duress, it deteriorates.

I left at about 7 to get home and get some rest and let folks know how he's doing. The day after a procedure seems to be about systemic recovery. Details get worked out later.

I think he'll feel a LOT better tomorrow.. they're very good about giving pain and nausea meds, and the pain meds knock him right out.
I can't wait, to see what he can see! so to speak. Sure, he's not out of the woods yet, and if the retina doesn't stick down, he'll need another procedure, but the cataract is fixed and he has a new lens. Maybe it's the geek in me, but this is really, really NEAT! it's not easy for him, and he's feeling very annoyed, but I guess not going blind is important enough to suffer some annoyance. He says he feels like he got a sharp stick in the eye. Well, he got several...

So, if my first marriage was "I married an Axe Murderer" (fortunately he just looked like one) my second can be "I married a science experiment?"

Keep the good wishes coming, I read them all to him. I'll take a memo if need be.

Under the Knife Again

2008-01-17T16:59:00.000-05:00

I've just gotten home from spending the whole day in the Monty Python Circus that is emergency treatment at a German hospital.
I left cg there, awaiting treatment in the morning. I'm finally getting something to eat here at home (after coaxing him to eat what they gave him there-- dry bread and salami! I bought him a beer to settle him down. He's pretty annoyed about the whole thing. Poor guy, he's spent so much time as a science project already.

"It's an emergency, so you have to wait three hours" here.. there.. etc.. and when we presented our emergency admittance papers to the guy at the front desk, he basically said "you don't LOOK like it's an emergency!" at this point I forgot how to say Detached Retina in German and the guy got that we were in the wrong place, and set us right. The funny thing was, that he looked like a skinnier Lurch, with a club kid bleach job. Next time I'll attach a plastic shark or something.

After tons of here and there and measure this and that, and cg looking like Bambi on a bender with all the eye drops, they did tell us what they are going to do, and it's pretty cool.

It all started, when we got him in to be examined for cataract surgery, as that eye has been going from bad to worse. Even I can see the cataract. In the course of the operation, they will give him a new lens, because they can't see through the old one, to work on the retina! They will tack the retina down with laser and cryo therapy, and take the liquid out that has seeped behind it, refilling the eyeball with a kind of fluorine/sulphur gas to press the retina back to the lining of the eyeball.

They are saying a week, but if we can break him out earlier, we will. The docs say they have a 80-85% success rate, even in the case of multiple tears.

Keep your thoughts on that 85%... this list has been the richest source of positive energy we have.
Think about the 85%, think about him, in a few weeks, having a clearer view of anything he wants to look at.

I'll keep you updated as I get back home and to email.

My handheld email is rolfing (attimus@) katsujin (dottimus) com. I will have it around, to read him well wishes, and answer inquiries. Be sure to include his name early in the subject line, as I get so much spam on that account.

I'm excited about the possibilities, nervous about general anaesthesia, and soothing the cat, who hates it when her Favorite Person goes missing.

Yeah, kitty. Me too.

I have to say that Safari and Blogger formatting are a big mismatch. I have to cut and paste, then edit under Compose, because Blogger is too stupid to understand where a regular paste should go.

2008-01-17T16:51:00.000-05:00

Is the USA a Christian nation?

2008-01-05T06:07:00.000-05:00

Some folks, if they have their way, would have you think so. Sadly, a small group of vociferous right-wing talebangelists would LOVE to remake the US into a theocracy (and stunningly, they've actually made inroads toward that goal), and rewrite American history to reflect the lie.

PZ Myers recently highlighted the issue on Pharyngula and pointed to a good dissection of the issue on Daily Kos. In that article, the folks at Kos linked to Liars for Jesus.

Who voted how on HR 847 ("Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith"):

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll1143.xml

How did your elected representative vote? Ours, Lamar Smith, R-TX voted "yea". Sigh. Go figure ...

Spineless frakking politicians.

Whatever happened to the America of the Founding Fathers?

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
-- James Madison

"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"
--John Adams

"The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun."
-- Thomas Paine

"The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Warning! Science Content Ahead!

2008-01-04T12:07:00.000-05:00

A little light science for you today ... first, a comment about the Texas de-evolution of education:

A great article from ScienceNOW Daily News:

Another Big Bang for Biology

By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
3 January 2008
Researchers have uncovered what they think is a sudden diversification of life at least 30 million years before the Cambrian period, the time when most of the major living groups of animals emerged. If confirmed, the find reinforces the idea that major evolutionary innovations occurred in bursts.
The main points of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which he carefully laid out in The Origin of Species 149 years ago, have stood the test of time. But where Darwin assumed that natural selection proceeds slowly and orderly--much the way Isaac Newton imagined a clockwork universe--modern investigations have shown that the process more resembles the chaotic world of quantum physics. Scores of new groups of species can appear within a few million years. By far the biggest and most famous of these events is the Cambrian explosion, a period between 542 million and 520 million years ago, when due to some still-unknown cause, the ancestors of nearly all extant groups, or phyla, of animals appeared.
>> READ MORE

And George Mason University's History News Network:

Is the Theory of Evolution a Matter of Faith?
By Leonard Steinhorn and Charles Steinhorn
There are moments in history when wrongheadedness leads to interesting insights. Perhaps this is one of them.
Consider the Republican presidential candidates who said they didn?t ?believe in evolution? at a debate earlier this year. They may have been onto something ? but for all the wrong reasons.
The truth is, we don?t believe in evolution either. But we don?t have to, because we know it to be factually true. And that?s the nugget of insight that?s too often been missing from the public debate ever since Darwin first laid out his theory of evolution almost a century-and-a-half ago.
Leonard Steinhorn is a Professor of Communication at American University, Author of The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy, and a member of the HNN board. Charles Steinhorn is a Professor of Mathematics at Vassar College.
>> READ MORE

And an excellent book:

Science, Evolution, and Creationism

How did life evolve on Earth? The answer to this question can help us understand our past and prepare for our future. Although evolution provides credible and reliable answers, polls show that many people turn away from science, seeking other explanations with which they are more comfortable.
In the book, Science, Evolution, and Creationism, a group of experts assembled by the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine explain the fundamental methods of science, document the overwhelming evidence in support of biological evolution, and evaluate the alternative perspectives offered by advocates of various kinds of creationism, including "intelligent design." The book explores the many fascinating inquiries being pursued that put the science of evolution to work in preventing and treating human disease, developing new agricultural products, and fostering industrial innovations. The book also presents the scientific and legal reasons for not teaching creationist ideas in public school science classes.
Mindful of school board battles and recent court decisions, Science, Evolution, and Creationism shows that science and religion should be viewed as different ways of understanding the world rather than as frameworks that are in conflict with each other and that the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. For educators, students, teachers, community leaders, legislators, policy makers, and parents who seek to understand the basis of evolutionary science, this publication will be an essential resource.

>> READ MORE

And maybe Americans aren't as anti-science as the fundies would have us think:

Survey: 61 Percent Agree with Evolution

By LiveScience Staff
http://www.livescience.com/history/080102-evolution-teaching.html

Americans would rather hear about evolution from scientists than from
judges or celebrities, according to a new survey that finds a majority
agree that evolution is at work among living things.

A coalition of 17 organizations reacted today to the survey by calling
on the scientific community to become more involved in promoting
evolution and other aspects of science education.

The coalition, including the National Academy of Sciences, the
American Institute of Physics and the National Science Teachers
Association, released this statement:

"The introduction of 'non-science,' such as creationism and
intelligent design, into science education will undermine the
fundamentals of science education. Some of these fundamentals include using the scientific method, understanding how to reach scientific consensus, and distinguishing between scientific and nonscientific explanations of natural phenomena."

>> READ MORE

Eine Guten Reutsch!

2007-12-31T13:27:00.000-05:00

Wow. It's been a wild ride this year, but everything looks to work out in the end.

Hedgewitch and I are planning a fairly low-key New Year celebration, good food, good wine with fireworks and champagne after. We've got t-bone steak, some nice shrimp and Texas blackeyed peas and cornbread for supper, and since we're not driving anywhere, are already sipping good wine (Badische Mueller Thurgau in my glass, an Italian chardonney in hers).

The local custom is for everyone ot go outside and shoot fireworks at midnight, and neighbors usually get together to toast the New Year.

Otherwise, we've begun the ramp-up for the Big Move back across the pond, and are de-cluttering and re-organizing.

We have the Euro-specs BMW up for sale (e-mail me if you're in Germany and in the market for a very, very, sweet black BMer), and have bought a Honda Elefant, er, Element to take back to the States.

We're planning, plotting and setting timelines for the things we have to do to make the move happen.

It's gonna be an exciting, albeit bittersweet, 2008 as we leave our Bavarian home and head back to the USA.

So, for now, Happy New year, from Bavaria, hope yours goes well and happily!

Happy Solstice Season, all!

2007-12-25T08:34:00.001-05:00

May the turning of the light
bring joy and glad tidings to you and all of yours.

Texas education meltdown

2007-12-09T06:46:00.000-05:00

OM(N)G! Have you SEEN what's happening in Texas:

State science curriculum director resigns
Move comes months before comprehensive curriculum review.

By Laura Heinauer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, November 29, 2007

The state's director of science curriculum has resigned after being accused of creating the appearance of bias against teaching intelligent design.

It made the New York Times:

Official Leaves Post as Texas Prepares to Debate Science Education Standards

And Wired:

Texas Science Curriculum Director Canned for Mentioning Evolution

And even the Bad Astronomer has commented:

Texas: so, so doomed

Here's Americans United's take:

Americans United Blasts Ouster Of Texas Educator For Supporting Sound Science

Sigh. As y'all know, HW and I are probably moving back to Texas next year. Looks like we've going to have lots of opportunities to get active in politics and such.

God-patriot glurge

2007-11-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

Glurge: (GLURJ) n. A sentimental or uplifting story, particularly one delivered via e-mail, that uses inaccurate or fabricated facts; a story that is mawkish or maudlin; the genre consisting of such stories.

-- WordSpy

I got glurged this morning:

Subject: FW: New Pledge of Allegiance

New Pledge of Allegiance!

Since the Pledge of Allegiance and The Lord's Prayer are not allowed in most public schools anymore Because the word "God " is mentioned...

A kid in Arizona wrote the attached NEW School prayer. I liked it ! !

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a s erious vice.

For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes m e liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!

Amen

If you aren't ashamed to do this, please pass this on.

Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but a commitment to continue."
David Moore

It came in a shotgun e-mail to a ton of people in my official work e-mail domain, it had been forwarded several times already, and I'm not acquainted with the latest sender in the least. Here's my response (sent only to the last sender, I didn't want to waste all that bandwidth AGAIN):

First off, nice to meet you.

Second, please check your e-mail addresses, as I'm probably not who you think I am.

Third, I am one of the non-believers -- an atheist, actually (despite the picture some would like to paint, even as an atheist, I'm also a veteran, a GS employee, a patriot and am happily married).

And yes, atheists are a growing part of the American populace. Depending on whose figures you want to accept, the number of Americans who don't believe in any gods ranges anywhere from 9% to about 20% ... even if you take the low end, say 10%, that's STILL more than 30 million Americans who are unbelievers. That's a significant population.

The numbers, by the way, come from sources ranging from the US Census, to Pew, to Barna Institute (a Christian thinktank). Some surveys actually put the number of unbelievers at about 1 in 4, but I think that's a bit high.

Now, with even 10% of American being unbelievers, we have to also look at the believers.

Many of those folks who identify themselves as believers aren't going to believe exactly the same way as you. Break Christianity down into Catholics, Baptists, Pentacostals, etc, and you'll find that even amongst Christians, many of those folks don't identify other denominations as being "Real Christians".

For instance, most evangelical Christians believe (or at least their doctrine preaches) that Catholics are not real Christians and that those folks (and the Catholic chuch is the largest of all Christian denominations, by the way) are not going to make it into heaven. Catholics don't think Protestants are on the right path and Mormons don't think Baptists will make the cut for the highest level of their heaven either. And the real hard-corps evangelicals don't think anyone who doesn't follow their exact doctrie is going to make it.

It's difficult to talk about a Christian America, because, frankly, it doesn't exactly exist. There are, indeed, lots of Christians in America, but they can't agree on what "Christian" means and on exactly what the rules (or even the right way to worship) are.

Then, too, aside from Christians, the numbers of believers includes the Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Rastafarians, etc.

Now, all that said, please understand that I'm not trying to be argumentative, but when a believer talks about unbelievers being a minority, that you can expect the non-believers to rebut the statement and try to straighten out the facts.

So, on to the Pledge. Personally, I don't care whether there's a mention of God in the Pledge of Allegiance or not. I don't have to say that part if I don't want to. And if you check the history of the Pledge, you'll find that the original Pledge, written by a Baptist minister, by the way, did NOT include the phrase "under God" at all. That was added much later.

Truthfully, I also don't care if a child wants to pray in school. Really. It's the child's right. I'm all for Freedom of Religion. It's part of what has allowed American to flourish -- allowing people of many faiths (and of no faith, you might be surprised to learn that there were atheists and what we'd call Unitarians today, among the Founding fathers) and from many cultures to come together, and work together to build a nation that is strong and prosperous.

However, that said, prayer should not be forced upon others who might not want to pray (whether it's because they pray to a different god, pray in a different way, are taught not to make prayer a public display by their scriptures, or they simply don't believe in praying at all).

Freedom of religion also means that one's religion cannot be forced upon others. In other words, having a classroom pray together is un-Constitutional but a child taking a moment to say a silent blessing over lunch is perfectly fine. Fact is, that _your_ prayer could very well be offensive to the Muslim or Quaker or Rastafarian sitting next to you. That's the core of all the fuss.

I hope I haven't annoyed you too badly, or bored you, but these are important issues, and when folks blindly throw out ideas like the "New School Prayer" (oh, and look at Snopes.com for more info on that), someone's got to step up to the plate and try to correct the misinformation.

I know you meant well, and were only trying to pass around something you found inspirational or informative, but the fact is that by far, most of those e-mails and inspirational stories are just that, stories.

There's a good reason that the USA has a separation of church and state. Imagine if the church and state weren't separate, but that the church running things wasn't YOUR church.

Anyway, Name deleted, take good care and remember that when it comes to chain letters like the one below, research (and websites like Google and Snopes.com) is a Good Thing.

I get 2-3 similar glurge e-mails a week at home or at work, and I usually will answer them in similar vein. I try to provide info, and not just argument.

Folks, a lie repeated is still a lie. And crap like the New School Prayer -- while they may contain an element of truth -- are almost ALWAYS not exactly true. And many are outright fabrications.

These things disturb me on two levels:

First, the indiscriminate linkage of godliness with patriotism. Look folks the old saying that there "ain't no atheists in foxholes" is an outright lie. I was one (and am still a member of Military Atheists and Freethinkers), and I know many, many more Soldier-atheists from my association with the military over the last 20+ years. IN fact, some statistics seem to indicate that the number of atheists in the military is significantly higher than that of our civilian counterparts.

I will not tolerate it when some knucklehead impugns my dedication and courage because I don't believe in the same god he does. I served my time (and continue to serve today, as a civilian employee of the US Army). The Lie, told again and again (and military chaplains can be some of the worst offenders), impugns the bravery of the thousands and thousands of other atheists in the military.

I do have a dear friend who is an Episcopal chaplain in the Army who took his commander to task for stating The Lie.

Chap gleefully related his experience to me and thanked me forsome of the ammo he used to flesh his argument out and educate the brigadier general in question.

And second, the attitude of some senders of glurge that "even if it IS not quite true, it's okay if it turns even one heart toward God!" or "but even if it's not true, it still makes people FEEL better!"

Lies is lies, and a lie told for God is STILL a lie. And under the rules of Christianity, it's still a sin to lie for God. Whether it makes them feel better or not.

Glurge sucks. Really ...

Anyhow, this guy replied:

I must say you make a very interesting point.

Sorry I got you mixed up with another Chuck Gordon.

Have a good day.

Sigh ...

2007-11-04T14:41:00.000-05:00

Experiment in progress:

Bavarian Budo Fest

2007-11-03T04:47:00.001-04:00

Or, remarks on the Bavarian Budo Fest, October 27-28, 2007

When our dear Budo Bum buddy, Peter Boylan, waved the possibility of his being here the end of October, friends hereabout started talking about a mini-sem, gathering aikidoka, judoka and sword bunnies to experience the red-headed martial mania that is Peter in all his glory.

Peter had come to visit us in Bavaria before, but it was a family vacation and he was striclty limited to two regular classes with no special budo marathin arrangements.

This time, he'd be in Germany on business and would stretch his time out over the weekend to come play.

Somewhere between then and now, however, my immune system exploded and I wasn't sure I'd be up to anything remotely budo-related, however, I supported the notion and aided and abetted as much as possible.

When the event actually gelled and we started gathering itineraries from friends in Holland, Greece, Germany and the UK, I was feeling better, but still not on top of my game, so I sat Saturday's body arts (a day of aikido and judo in Regensburg) out, saving energy for Sunday's sword slinging soiree here in sunny Grafenwoehr.

I'd asked Peter to teach us the Shinto Hatakage Ryu, a set of iai kata possibly derived from the Katori or Kashima lineage, that is, sadly, almost extinct today. One of Peter's teachers, Kiyama Hiroshi Sensei, says that the last headmaster of SHR (who was a MJER practitioner as well) and his eldest son both died within months of each other, leaving no one in possession of the scrolls or designated as soke.

After WWII, the system had almost died out.

Peter learned the SHR almost by accident. Kiyama Sensei (who named my dojo, by the way), was practicing one of the SHR kata in a corner of the Kusatsu dojo when Peter lived in Japan.

When Peter asked about the chiburi -- it's more than just a bit different from the standard Seiteigata or Jikiden-style return -- Kiyama Sensei offhandedly remarked that it was just on of the old Shinto Ryu things.

Peter continued to pester Kiyama S. until he was persuaded to actually teach the set of 26 kata blocked into seiza-no-bu, tate-hiza-no-bu and tachi-no-bu (sounds to me like there was more than a little cross-pollination of SHR by the Jikiden line) to a handful of folks.

I had no hope that we could absorb and retain the entire set in one go, but wanted to offer my students and a few sword-bunny friends the chance to sample something rare.

I wasn't disappointed. Sunday was a total overload, and I can recall and replicate maybe half a dozen of the kata, but got what I feel was a good grasp of the basic 'feel' of the SHR.

My evil plan is to keep Peter coming to visit (whatever shore I wash up on in the next year or so) and start over with the first few kata, and continue to build from there.

Now, the thing is, right now, I'm pretty limited. I cannot do seiza for more than about 5 seconds, and while I can sit tate hiza, I can't get UP form there. The arthritis simply doesn't allow my feet to work that way (I'm slowly rehabbing all that, however). I had to do all the kata standing.

However, my limitations notwithstanding, what I learned was extremely interesting (and fun). And some of it felt very familiar, while other bits apparently originated on the Moon.

Some thoughts on SHR:

The Anti-kesa

There are a lot of what I call anti-kesa cuts. In our swordwork, we always do kesa giri into the open space on the stance, in other words, if my left leg is forward, my kesa is always going to be L-to-R.

The anti-kesa cuts the other way: if your left leg is forward, you're going to cut R-to-L, with the cut finishing just above your left knee.

In my entirely uneducated opinion, I think this is a vestige of a tobi chigai or chidori ashi foot-switch. If you were to do the SHR anti-kesa with the foot switch, you'd end up cutting kesa "normally".

Chiburi-noto

The SHR signature chiburi and noto are interesting to me, because some of our batto kata are very similar.

Generally speaking, in SHR, the kata performer will raise the kissaki to seigan no gamae, then shift her body about 45 degrees to the right, then do the chiburi and noto.

The SHR kaiten chiburi spins the sword (on the axis of its length) much like the Katori school does, but there's no thump at the end, just a repositioning of the hand, which is then followed by a reverse-grip noto.

Mixed in with this particular chiburi-noto combo are a good handful of 'standard' yoko chiburi and even 1 or 2 (by the time we got to these I was pretty worn out and boggled, but will review the pics and video later) o-chiburi with standard-grip noto.

I'm thinking that the yoko and o-chiburi bits were grafted on at some point, replacing the SHR ones ... but I could be completely wrong. In the kata that I remember having more Jikiden-ish chiburi, they did make sense.

Footwork

SHR uses the fairly square footwork common to the MJER and Muso Shinden Ryu iai I've seen and practiced, but not a rigidly square as, say, Seiteigata.

Playing with a couple of the kata, I find that they get much more, um, zing, for lack of a better word, if you use more of a sankaku stance (heels on a line, hips not square to teki, but canted away at about 45 degrees).

Yeah, yeah, I know I ought to be doing the kata as exactly like Peter taught them as possible, but I've been doing un-square stances and ashi-sabaki for 30 some-odd years. Even when I TRY to be square, it don't always work.

At any rate, I'm thinking the footwork of SHR has been heavily influenced by the Jikiden lineage as well and may well have featured a more koryu-like tachiwaza and ashi sabaki at some point.

Duck and Thrust

In a couple of the kata, you draw and thrust, but the thrust used is unique.

Instead of the fairly simple thrust of Seiteigata's Ropponme, the SHR thrust is a sort of full-body exercise with the torso tilted forward, the head almost between the arms and an extremely long reach.

Maybe the head-down posture is meant to duck under and evade a wild swing (perhaps a pole-arm or spear?), and reach in under the attack to skewer teki.

Aside: I think developing a set of kumi-tachi to suss out the SHR iai kata would be a fascinating exercise for someone who's learned the complete set and could pick someone's brain, (perhaps Kiyama Sensei, ahem, someone like Peter).

Conclusions

Otherwise, the SHR encompasses sword and cutting principles that are fairly basic to the Jikiden lineage, such as the BARCing cut (that is, a Big-arse Arcing Cut), except for one kata that used what definitely appears to be a Katori-style compression cut. I have extensive photos and video of the day, and of Peter's demo (despite his claim that the Tachi-no-bu Ropponme is a Faux Kata in Fugue), and will try to post some online soon.

All in all, the experience was excellent and I hope to continue working on the SHR to help preserve a small, but I think interesting piece of budo. I can only wonder, how many other such sets are being lost even as I type ...

Resolution

2007-10-18T13:01:00.000-04:00

(Another post that's all about ME-ME-ME!)

Last couple of posts were pretty grim, I know, and, honestly, things looked pretty grim from in here, too. Hedgewitch was worried out of her hide and I wasn't feeling too damn chipper meownself.

However, it seems we've got a 95-99 percent sure diagnosis to the vast load of suck that I've been carting around this past month or so.

Here's what's happening ...

July 18 - THR. All went well, 10 days in hospital, two weeks in rehab, then home.

Two weeks home - I was doing very well, moving well, exercising, crutching around like mad.

And, I was even getting on the mat in the dojo, albeit cautiously. I sat in and observed a class or two, and actually taught a bit, and threw Miguel around whilst sitting on a physio-ball.

About four weeks home - I was in my first week back at work full-time. Somehow, two things happened almost simultaneously; I contracted a stomach flu and -- somehow -- strained my right (op side) ankle.

That's when the fecal rotary oscillatory melee began.

Shortly after suffering from a 24-hour gastric flu that lasted about 10 days, my right eye blew up (uveitis/iritis).

Iritis is a nasty condition of inflammation and spasm of the eyeball. I'd had an episode about four years ago, and recognized the symptoms. I started self-treatment and got an appointment with the ophthalmologist. He started me on a regimen of dilators and steroid drops. Immediate improvement and steady recovery.

About the same time as the iritis was flaring up, my right ankle swelled to Biblical proportions and my left great toe (the ball joint) turned into a nasty chunk of rotten sausage that was painful even to have the bedsheet touch.

I was back on crutches due to the intense pain and was slipping into sleep dep from the pain and discomfort.

Oh yeah, about the same time, I had an intercostal muscle spasm that felt alternately like someone was sticking a dull needle in between two of the ribs in my back (and wiggling it around) and some small, hungry burrowing creature was chewing its way through the meat there.

Sleep was out of the question, as was taking very much time off. I was tapped out of sick leave and diving into my reserve of annual leave.

We consulted a rheumatologist friend of HW's who said it sounded a bit like pesudo-gout. She called in a prescription for oral steroids, 5 mg, 4x a day for 3 days, tapering to 3x3, 2x3 and 1x3.

The relief was immediate, but not quite complete. I felt good enough to go traipsing around Utrecht and Amsterdam, Holland -- though it was more a slow stumping in my case, and my days included two-hour naps while our friends escorted HW around. We did have some of the BEST.Indonesian.food.EVAR.

And a very restful boat tour of the Amsterdam canals (otherwise Am-dam was full of drunks, stoners and clueless tourists; terribly crowded and expensive. If you go to Holland for reasons other than chemical recreation, go to Utrecht, it's prettier and cheaper). That was the boat trip where poor Kevin found the one curious wasp in all of Am-dam.

Then about the time I hit the 1x3 phase of the oral steroids, things had devolved almost back to pre-steroidal levels.

When we got back from Holland, I went to our German hausarzt who started ruling out conditions, and who gave me a fairly massive injection of IM steroids and methatrexate.

Again, immediate relief, but as soon as the injection worked its way through my system, I crashed hard.

A second dose a week later yielded the same result.

And, by the way, I was anemic and my inflamatory factors (CRP) in my bloodwork were about twice the high norms (15).

SO, being anemic, the docs decided to draw more blood. Three times, each time at least 2 vials and once six. Okaaaaay. You're anemic, so let's suck you a little drier!

Yay! And I didn't even get orange juice and a cookie.

Anyhow, most of the bloodwork was solidly normal. However, as soon as the injections wore off, the pain returned, though by last week, it did seem to be abating a bit.

Went Wednesday for a full-blown consult with HW's rheuma doc friend and spent a couple hours with her. When she had the above timeline and info, and had done x-ray and exam, she decided I'd developed not pseudo-gout, not rheumatoid arthritis (as I'd feared), but non-sero-reactive arthritis.

It acts like RA, but can actually self-resolve after about six months.

She started me on another regimen of low-level steroids and Indocin, a pretty powerful arthritis med. This regimen should resolve the situation in four-six weeks, if all goes well.

Yesterday, I was pessimistically hopeful, and today am positively optimistic.

I'm feeling good. Still in some pain, but WAY less than a few days ago, and have more mobility than I've enjoyed for weeks.

I taught beginners class last night, moving gently and carefully -- it'll be a long time before I trust the new hip to full-on ukemi, but I can still teach and move bodies around.

Today, I'm walking more normally, standing, sitting and turning quite easily.

I'm hopeful about the upcoming mini-seminar we're arranging for the last weekend of October. Dunno how MUCH I can do, but I know I'll enjoy it way more than I'd been hoping I would.

On the job/move front: Nothing new, but we've firmed up the timeline for Plan A (Austin). If the Great Job Fairy does come along, we'll work out details on Plan B (something else).

Peeking into the future

2007-10-10T14:22:00.001-04:00

Quick update on our status and plans.

This past month has been a huge load of suck for me (and thereby for Emily). Without going into lurid detail, the hip's fine, the least of my problems. Now ... if I can keep the rest of my body from falling apart ... sigh.

It's all due to decreased resources, resistance and energy reserves post-op (I NEED naps, damn near every day - If I don't get 'em, I crash the next day, hard and fast).

I've had sort of an inflammatory blow-up and a really annoying bout of false-gout (calcium crystals deposited in joints of one big toe and a slight strained ankle turning into a Crisis, etc) AND just found out I've got a cataract in one eye. Geez. Growing old ain't for the weak.

Anyhoo ... things are getting better and I'm getting better. Slowly, but surely.

In other news ...

Looks like, unless the Excellent Job fairy taps me on the shoulder before March, that Em and I will move back to Austin in Spring/early Summer '08.

She's been offered a grand, and near-unrefuseable opportunity at a wellness center in Austin, makng more money part-time than I do full-time.

As an interim crutch, I've applied for a position as Public Info Officer for the Austin Police Dept (yeah, I just keep ON working for Satan), and would plan to work there for a couple of years while Em's career grows legs.

If that don't fly, in the meantime, I'm exploring retirement/seperation options from Unka Bubba's gubbamint.

Howsomever, we're 95% certain that Austin's our direction at this time.

If the APD gig don't work out, I'll househusband for a while, supporting her getting up and running, and I'll start sorting out my writing and research, probably do some consulting and webwork on the side.

I'll also be devoting more time to promoting Peter's Mugendo thingie and probably whore myself out on the budo seminar circuit.

Right now, plans are:

Em'll head back in March to get started, find us a place to live, etc. I'll follow on in May when my term here expires and I moon the command on my way out the door.

If the APD job comes back with a tasty offer, I'll quit here forthwith and we'll be back even sooner.

We're, frankly, pretty excited about it. She's eager to kick her career in the ass and start doing what she does seriously, and I'm -- even more frankly -- tired of working for the current government (sorry, George ... I still love YOU, and I mean that honestly.).

It DOES mean we'll be closer to friends and fambly, although we'll both miss Europe horribly.

If all goes well, we're sort of looking at developing (in a couple of years, after she gets her practice well-developed) a migratory lifestyle (Em sends a big wave to Frank, Philip et alia, and promises good jams and other treats when we arrive on your various doorsteps), spending the worst parts of Texas summer and winter elsewhere.

Just call her the Rambling Rolfer.

Finally

2007-09-16T08:09:00.000-04:00

Getting over the stomach flu. I was on my ass in bed or running for the toilet for a week. Simply not enough reserves available, I guess, to fight it. Last couple of days, I've still been weakly, but feeling much better. Took a short walk with HW yesterday evening, a short bike ride (my first since the hip surgery!) today.

Feeling passable human so far, but still a very low energy level. I've lost probably 3-3.5 kg ... can't recommend this as a weight-loss program, as such.

Last week was freaking miserable. Between the achies, the, um, gastric distress (no vomiting, thank the IPU, just the other end behaving very, very badly), and the lowered resistance, I've had a cold sore outbreak (taking lysine and using Abreva), and for some damn reason my right eye is inflamed and irritated.

Sigh.

Anyhow, I's better. The day's loverly, and is probably the last gasp of summer for hereabouts. It's in the 20s, sunny and breezy. We'll have a few days of this off and on, and then it'll be absolutely Fall and we'll be settled in for wet, windy and cool until it decides to frost and start sprinkling snow.

More soon ... working on some somewhat more philosophical posts about life, the universe and the absence of gods, and about budo.

Stomach flu

2007-09-08T10:48:00.000-04:00

Glurg.

Not happy. Guts not happy. Damn flu. Going on two days.

More when I feel better,

On the mat

2007-09-05T15:44:00.000-04:00

Taught beginner class tonight, moving slowly and carefully, about half and half on one crutch or none.

Working hard on being able to walk without a bobble (no, Peter, you may NOT make a LOEP bobble-head).

If I walk very consciously, I can minimize the bobble, but the easy, thought-free loping gait I enjoyed before the hip went to hell is gonna take a while. HW has some ideas, and I pinged the PTs for specific help the next session. See what they all come up with.

On the job front, now that the hip's not the huge issue it was, I'm pretty much resolved to move on. I find myself -- dreading isn't the right word -- rueing the morning drive to the office these days.

Time for something new. Preferably, here in Europe. We'll see ... I've got some nibbles. See wha' hoppens. The Navy/Wallops Island and NASA/DC possibilities are still floating, too.

Over at TexPat, HW has talked about our discussions about staying here. I suspect she's worried more about the safety net than I am, although the hippy bizness has made me become more aware of that very net.

I'm really in love with Europe, and would hate to leave, but if we need to spend a few years in the US again ... whatever. We can have fun wherever we go, but I'll really miss the easy lifestyle, the exuberant European hedonism, the truly groovy attitudes of most folks over here, the cafe culture, the much wider dispersion of intellectualism and atheism.

However, some recent studies in the US indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans self identify as atheist, agnostic or unbeliever. If so, things are looking up back home for us godless heathens.

Miguelito

2007-09-04T16:28:00.000-04:00

Quick post before bedtime:

Did physicla therapy this afternoon. The chief therapist basically said there wasn't much they could do for me, I was already too far outside the curve. What could they do for me: muscle training, stability training, massage ...

BINGO! I got fango (wrapped - fairly politely - in hot mud) and then rubbed ver' ver; nicely. Sigh ...

Student (and dear friend) Miguel and his bride Naydy are the proud parents (second time around) of the newest dojo grandbaby, Miguelito -- all 10 POUNDS of him. Sheesh. Poor Naydy!

He's a cutie, too. Head full of hair, hairy ears, good, gentle grip and good lungs. Reminds me of his Da'.

I'll post a pic soon.

Had dinner after at our favorite Greek restaurant. Mikie and Thomai just got back from three weeks in their homeland. Luckily, untouched by the terrible fires that have ravaged the Peloponnese.

Sipping Bushmill's best and headed very shortly for bed.

Dojo Grandkids!

2007-09-03T04:38:00.001-04:00

Happy Labor Day!

Miguel and Naydy are going to the doc today for their final visit and consult before having a baby tomorrow. The new little one will be born (c-section) sometime Tuesday morning. He's already proving to be a little scrapper, kicking and punching his dad from inside Naydy's belly.

This will be yet another in a long line of dojo grandbabies for HW and me.

The first to be born into the dojo family was Tim-n-Leanne's Cedric, who was a wriggly little thing, barely rolling himself over on the dojo mat when we left Indiana in 2002. His little bro' Vaughn came along a few years later.

Then there's the Kelly brood -- a raucous, chaotic thundering herd of (is it SIX now, Martin?) adopted kids from all over the world. Quite a little United Nations at suppertime, with Irish-American Martin, Korean-American Jean and the kids from Korea, Africa, Central America and who knows where else these days.

Kris and Masami, now living in Japan, have a couple of little ones, surely already swinging mini-bokuto and hopefully getting ready to follow their dad's footsteps into the MJER dojo.

Old student Pete (who's not old, but he was from among the earliest of my students in Indianapolis) and his darling girl have a fairly new baby, Aiden, too.

Over here, Miguel and Naydy's little Laura (truly destined for Diva-hood) is getting ready to welcome her new little bro'.

Wow. That's a passel of little ones.

Someday, we're going to have to get 'em all together.

HW and I are planning a trip into Czech today (if the weether will quit being glumpy and cooperate), to Hrad Loket (Loket Fortress), a fortified castle in a town about 90 minutes from here. We've never visited it before, but have driven through the area before. It'll be sort of a test outing to see how I do clumping around the town and castle.

I'm moving around the house with no crutches, using one for stairs and the yard, two for longer walks.

Still pain-free, and feeling less fatigued at the end of the day, although I still tire far too easily, compared to "normal".

Stopped taking the heparin sticks last week (sixth week post-op), and am cutting the diclofenac (a strong anti-inflammatory) down to once daily.

I'll start back to work full days this week, and will likely drop to one crutch only for most of the time around Wednesday or so.

We're planning a meet-up with a handful of budo friends in Amsterdam the end of the month, and just found out we might have a chance to meet Jon Bluming (a genuine budo legend, unlike many, many imitators and wannabees in more recent years). I've been warming up my restaurant Dutch, which is a terribly frustrating language, because it's sort of like the bastard stepchild of German and English, and can sound positively Gaelic at times.

Some fresh pics of the garden from yesterday can be found on our Photobucket site.

And we just got news that we're going to get to visit with dear friend Andy next week. Woohoo!

On-the-mat rehab

2007-09-01T07:02:00.001-04:00

I've been on the mat teaching this past week.

Wednesday (beginners class), I stumped about on one crutch (mostly), teaching single-hand techniques -- releases, simple controls, exercises for connecting and feeling your partner's structure and movement, etc.

Hedgewitch is torn between applause and scolding. She's been teaching our beginners up until now, and will still have most of the burden of teaching them ukemi for a while yet.

Our newest student is a tall, willowy, very self-possessed teen who's delightfully irreverent and eager to learn. She's also something of a spitfire and will give you a run for your money given the opportunity. A delight to teach.

As for me, ukemi-wise, I can take simple pill-bug ukemi (tiny rolls from a seated position), though rolling onto the right hip is a bit touchy yet and going backward is a bit daunting for the non.

Last night (just Miguel and HW in the home dojo), I taught atemi and maai (range and timing). I used a crutch a bit, but mostly stumped around crutch-free (much to HW's chagrin).

I'm moving well, albeit carefully. It's been more than six weeks since surgery and my progress has astounded even me, myownself.

For the most part, I'm still pain-free, unless I move wrong or get too eager with my physical training or have a particularly intense physical therapy session. Had one of those Monday past and had to go home for a lie-down and an ice-pack after.

Recovery from such is quick, though, and I'm moving better every day. In the kitchen, for example, I wander around with no crutches, but then, there are lots of handholds and support options (chairs, cabinets, table, etc). I can take a few steps easily, and can help unload the dishwasher, see to cutting up veg or meat, do a little cooking.

I'm still religiously using a crutch to help negotiate stairs or walks of more than crossing the room, and both crutches outdoors, especially for walks further than the mailbox or back porch. That terrace, BTW, is currently overshadowed by some of the biggest sunflowers I've ever seen -- the tallest is easily more than 12 feet high, and is just now bursting into flower. Most of the sunflowers average out at about 7-8 feet high, with a couple-three of them pushing 10 feet.

Dunno what HW has fed them, but whatever it was, it worked. She's done wonders with the garden this year, and we've feasted on fresh summer squash, tomatoes, sweet corn and lots of green rabbity-food type semi-food thingies. We'll have a nice crop of snap peas soon, too.

Delish!

Story time

2007-08-21T13:53:00.000-04:00

First off: Went to the doc for my 5-week checkup and all's well. Better than well, actually. I'm on crutches for a few more weeks (20kg max weight-bearing until Aug 31, then +10kg per week to full weight-bearing).

Now, the story:

1977 or '78. I was young, dumb and full of more testosterone and ambition than sense. I did something dumb and potentially dangerous. Papa-san found out about it. He didn't rant. He didn't raise his voice. He took me aside, a private tete-a-tete. He said, "I'm disappointed in you ..." and walked away.

I have no words to describe how devastated I was. He was that kind of guy. It was never mentioned again. I've lived with the force of that simple statement for these 30-some-odd (some VERY odd) years.

Many, many of the lessons he gave me (some of them not in any sort of class, just Papa-san being Papa-san and playing with grandkids, helping someone who couldn't help themselves, BEING there for people who needed someone there), not EVEN getting into the deliberate and specific lessons of budo and dojo he taught ... are still percolating and still being learned.

Even today, after 30+ years from way-back-then, I often walk onto the mat, try to teach and suddenly have an insight: "Damn. THAT'S what he was talking about!"

It's humbling.

He was that kind of guy. That kind of teacher. That kind of budoka. That kind of Papa-san.

Someday -- I can only hope -- some of my students will look back and think half as fondly of me as I do of him.

ch

In Memoriam: Richard (Dick) Gordon, aka Papa-san

2007-08-19T06:21:00.000-04:00

Richard Gordon, aka 'Papa-san', my uncle and my primary budo teacher, died Thursday, Aug. 16, at St. John's Medical Center, Joplin, Mo. Funeral services will be tomorrow, at his wife Marilyn's church in Joplin. Funeral services are being managed by Parker Mortuary in Joplin. A link to his obit is below. You can post messages of condolence to the family or sign a guestbook online at the mortuary website.

Papa-san had been a student of budo for many years, and among other systems, spent time training in Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii and elsewhere. He was one of the rare birds who did both Yoshinkan and Shinshintoitsu aikido -- about as diametrically opposed philosophically and technically as aikido can get. He studied old martial arts (koryu budo) as well as new. He was a pioneer in military combatives, police and security defensives and arrest tactics, and was a mentor for thousands of martial arts and self defense students.

He was a mentor to me, and an inspiration. He will be missed, and will be remembered and honored by my students and theirs.

In lieu of flowers, HW and I will prepare a donation for Ozark Camp Quality (a camp for kids with cancer with which Papa-san did extensive work in his later years) in Papa-san's name from The Dojo and Shobukan.

Camp Q website: http://www.campqualityusa.org/
Mo. website: http://www.campqualityusa.org/camps/oz12.asp

If you feel so led, feel free to donate (the mortuary is arranging for collection of donations, I believe) or send flowers as you see fit, but I'm pretty sure Papa-san would rather have seen donations to help the kids at the camp than have a bunch of smelly wreaths at the church ...

Quick update from home

2007-08-12T03:14:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post from home (Yay for Home!).

First off: I slept the best sleep of several weeks last night. Almost 12 hours, too.

Yesterday, I found myself wandering around the house, making sure I could navigate between the couch and coffee table, around the kitchen, etc. And I found myself checking the clock to see what appointment it was I felt like I was missing.

And at this time, a few words from Misty, who's crawling in my lap and trying to get on the keyboard ...

nlvcohe;l, pm pfvu dsfvml;kn.

That's Cat for: "He's Home! He's Home!"

Hey, nobody ever said cats could type.

HW has made the house more welcoming for her crutch-beladen Heretic, and we're sort of re-establishing our orbits, albeit on some slightly different planes.

For instance, I can get downstairs in the morning and make coffee, but haven't yet figure out how to take a cup back up to her. She's gonna have to fetch her own coffee for a while ...

She's puttering around the kitchen right now, getting things together to make a Mexi-garden omelette. Mmmmm!

Although I DO miss my nice honey and broetchen breakfasts at the Reha Zentrum!

More later ... thanks for all the kind words, well wishes and sweet comments.

I've included a post-op pic above. Here are a couple that are NOT for the squeamish:

2 days post op, with stitches, IV and drains in place

1 week post op

He's good to go

2007-08-09T14:52:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to say how proud I am of this guy and his motivation to return to normal life after a really steep degradation and drastic measures to return him to something resembling normal.

It's no small thing, to decide to get your greater trochanter sawed off, your acetabulum bored out and replaced with high-impact plastic, all your hip rotators and your tensor fascia latae cut through, ESPECIALLY if you are a budoka and this is, literally, where you live.

I still suffer fits of paranoia and regret on his behalf, something I know AH/cg doesn't do, thinking there was something else we could have done. But when my teacher Peter Schwind suggested we get an Xray of the joint because he suspected something serious was going on, we didn't delay.

I literally did everything I physically could to prevent the surgery. But when my mate kept sliding back into pain after the manipulations, I realized it was out of my hands.

After the pre-op treatment with Peter S, CG was "himself" for barely two days before sliding back down into the black well of pain. I realized that my heart was going to break if we didn't go through with the surgery and find CG some hope. Seeing him so bright-eyed again, after the Peter's treatment, just broke my heart.
I realized how far CG has slipped into pain, and missed the vital, powerful, warm, totally giving and brilliant man I fell in love with.

Now, I see him again, now that we've gone through the (gruesome but well-medicated and well-managed) surgery to replace the greater trochanter with chromium steel alloy, and the acetabulum with carefully angled (to allow further budo training) plastic.

We were told that ceramic was great, but hard to replace and, well.. squeaky.

It's a bloody miracle, with emphasis on the "bloody".
I'm a holistic health practitioner, but this experience, especially my 5 days in the hospital directly post-op with my mate, have reinforced my faith in "a damn good knife when you need one".

We bodyworkers can't do everything. It's a mistake for us to think so. We need our "partners of the knife" close at hand, for when our hands can't do it all.

Meanwhile, I'm doing my best to work up a challenging rehab..

HW

I yam (almost ) OUTTA here!

2007-08-09T08:18:00.001-04:00

Finally. Had my final doc appointment, all's well (albeit with a slight low red blood cell count -- more red wine for me!) and I'm done as soon as I finish my appointments and self-driected activities tomorrow afternoon.

Saw the chief doc for the rehab center and he basically said, "You're going home! Hurrah! Good luck."

Here's the PT schedule I'm planning for the next couple of weeks, I'll be consulting my family and ortho docs and the PT crew at Eschenbach next week:

Self-administered PT

Self-Krankengymnastik
(Massage table or bed, daily, mix and match any combo for 20-30 minutes)

1. Po-presses
Point toes up, press knees down, tighten thighs, po and tumy, hold 10 seconds
Relax, repeat 5x

2. Toe twirls
Circle toes inward x 30 sec., rest, reverse, repeat

3. Pedal pumpers
Toes up and down to full extension/contraction for 30 sec.
Relax, repeat

4. Knee raises
Heel stays on top of table, raise knees, alternate L-R for 30 sec.
Relax, repeat

5. Leg lifts
Knees up, keep knee bent, raise leg off bed, alternate L-R 30 sec
Relax, repeat

6. Hippy shimmy
Lie flat, wiggle hips, pressing heels down (like belly dancing), 30 sec.
Relax, repeat

7. Leg spreader
Lie flat, toes up, knees down, alternate L-R leg spread for 30 sec.
Relax, repeat

8. Pelvic arch
Lie flat, knees bent, toes off table, arch back off tabletop, hold 10 seconds
Relax, repeat 2x (for a total of 3 arches)

9. Arched belly boogie
Lie flat, knees bent, toes off table, arch back off tabletop
Tilt pelvis up and down for 30 seconds
Relax, repeat

10. Mule kicks
Lean across table, feet on floor, knees bent
Raise heel, keeping knee bent, alternating L-R for 30 seconds
Relax, repeat

10. Seated leg lifts
Sit on edge of table, legs dangling, not touching floor
Lift foot, straightening knee, alternate L-R, 30 seconds
Relax, repeat

12. Seated belly boogie
Sit on edge of table or chair, tilt pelvis forward and back for 30 sec
Relax, repeat

Assisted krankengymnastik
(Massage table or bed, any combo for 20 min, 3x per week)

1. Po presses
Patient does po presses as above
Tech applies positive resistance to toes
30 seconds, rest, repeat

2. Knee raises
Patient does knee raises as above
Tech applies positive resistance to knees
30 seconds, rest, repeat

3. Leg lifts
Patient does leg lifts as above
Tech applies positive resistance to knees
30 seconds, rest, repeat

4. Leg spreader
Patient does leg spreader as above (O/P side only)
Tech applies positive resistance to leg (at ankle)
30 seconds, rest, repeat

5. Pelvic arch
Patient does pelvic arch as above
Tech applies positive resistance to try to push knees together, then apart
30 seconds, rest, repeat

6. Mule kicks
Patient does mule kicks as above
Tech supports o/p/ side knee, and at apex provides lift to go slightly higher
30 seconds, rest, repeat

Physio ball exercises
(20 min, 2-3x per week)

1. Bouncy bouncy
Sit and bounce, 30 seconds-1 minute
Relax, repeat 2x (total of 3 sets)

2. Rolly rolly
Sit on physio ball
Roll back and forth for 30 seconds
Rest, repeat 2x (total of 3 sets)

3. Leg lifts
As in seated leg lifts above, but on physio ball

4. Catch
Sitting on physio ball, left one foot
Play catch! Alternate feet
Start at one toss per foot for 3-5 tosses
Increase to 2 per, then 3 per, etc, up to 5 tosses per foot

5. Egg rolls
Lie on mat or table, O/P foot on top of small physio ball or similar
Roll ball toward and away from body, 10x
Rest, repeat 2x (total of 3 sets)

Water exercises (bewegungsbad)
(20 min., 2-3x per week)

1. Walking in water
Walk in chest-deep water, 1-2 minutes clockwise, 1-2 min, counter

2. Big slow kicks
Stand in chest-deep water, holding side rail/edge
Raise and lower legs slowly front and back, alternate L-R, 10x per side
Rest, repeat

3. Little fast kicks
Stand in chest-deep water, holding side rail/edge
Kick back and forth in small arcs, front to back, alternate L-R, 10x per side
Rest, repeat

4. Side kicks
Stand in chest-deep water, holding side rail/edge
Raise leg laterally, lower, 10x per side
Rest, repeat

5. Flutters
Stand in chest-deep water, back to side rail/edge, holding on
Let legs float, flutter kick, 30 seconds
Rest, repeat

6. Bicycle
Stand in chest-deep water, holding side rail/edge
Let legs float, pedal like a bicycle, 30 seconds
Rest, repeat

MTT
(3x per week)

1. Reclining bike
30 minutes, increase time as endurance allows

2. Butterfly, arms
5-7 Kg, 15 reps, 3 sets

3. Butterfly, thighs
17-22 Kg, 15 reps, 3 sets

4. Leg presses
OP leg: 20-30 Kg
Both legs: 50-60 Kg
15 reps, 3 sets each, O/P and both, alternating

5. Lat pull-downs
15-30 kg, 15 reps, 3 sets

(Increase weight as endurance/strength allow)

Other:

1. Lymph drainage massage, 20 minutes, 3x per week

2. Ice packs, 2-3x daily or as needed for muskelkater (muscle aches)

3. Massage scar, surrounding tissue, 1-2x daily

I'm not supposed to put more than 20kg on the o/p leg until about the end of August. At that time, I'll get another x-ray and my local doc will make the call. I found out today, that SOME hospitals and docs allow much more weight, but Hr. Dr. Prof. Grifka is kind of conservative and prefers to err on the lighter side.

Eh. Whatever. The crutches are great for stability, primarily, and I'll continue to use them until Fr. Dr. Eisner says to put them aside.

I have to keep up the anti-thrombosis shots and wear the luverly support stockings till then, too. Fashionable AND functional!

Monday/Tuesday, Aug. 6/7

2007-08-07T09:53:00.000-04:00

Last week here. Thank goodness. Not that it's been a bad experience, but I'm left, in the end, a little underwhelmed.

SOME of the PT is very good, and some is head-scratch material (but, then sometimes the hard-nosed, ever-practical Deutschers have a strong whiff of woo around the edges).

Yesterday, was a little muscle sore from training and the walkies of the weekend, but still not hurting anything like I was before surgery. Had several appointments, one of which was with a treadmill. The tech slung me up in a harness, sort of like a parachute rig – sort of a zero-balance thing with most of my weight in the harness and maybe a quarter of my weight on my feet -- and I spent 10 minutes walking on the treadmill. That's it. Ten minutes. And that's the only time I do it.

One appointment to walk for 10 minutes. Huh. Go figure. I'd have thought that'd be a daily thing.

More on that in today's comments:

Yesterday, I was examining my training schedule for this week and noted a few discrepancies like the one above, and the fact that they'd slated me for sessions on Saturday – the day I'm supposed to be going home.

After PT this morning, I went to the nurse's station and asked about it.

Apparently, (despite HW and I making clear at every turn as we checked me in, with the surgeon and when I was transferred into the rehab center that I was only here for TWO weeks), they put me on a THREE week schedule. Uh-huh. So much for German efficiency.

I set up an appointment with the floor doc to talk about it and she was flabbergasted that I wouldn't do the full three weeks.

I patiently explained that I was here under the American system and not the German one, that I'd made it clear from day 1 that it was a two-week gig, and that I was simply not getting much out of a lot of what they were throwing at me. I explained that HW and I had already begun setting up the outpatient therapy, and my docs back in Eschenbach were aware and cooperating, and that I was, in fact, leaving the rehab center Saturday – one way or another.

I don't know where the commo broke down, but it was broken.

She has had to step back and punt now, and once she wrapped herself around the idea that I really had no desire to stay an extra week, she admitted that I was so far above the curve that they really couldn't do much for me anyway.

I'll finish this week, then head for the house and start outpatient rehab with the very good PT folks at Eschenbach (they were great to me when I was trying to resolve the hip problems without resorting to cutting). We're working out a more sports-medicine oriented approach rather than the cookie-cutter, one hip to rule them all approach they seem, institutionally, to take here.

Some of the experience here has been excellent. The nursing staff (except for that commo problem with administration and my surgeon), have been great, friendly, efficient, helpful and tolerant of my weirdness and bad German.

The PT staff has been a hoot, one guy in particular who, once he figured out I wasn't your average THR patient, really challenged me and gave me some good stuff to work on.

The facility is great, high-tech and well-equipped and restful; which is, I think part of the theory here, that you get away from it all, rest and relax and de-stress.

Overall, I'd give the surgery and post-op stay in the hospital an easy 9 out of 10. The rehab experience, if I were 75 and feeble, would probably also get similar marks. However, as an active, strong, flexible and determined martial arts junkie, hiker and cyclist, I have to knock the rating down to about 6.5 or so.

Other than clarifying that mess, today's been quiet and slow. PT and lymph drainage this morning. A different PT tech, while my guy from last week's on vacation. She was a wee slip of a woman, but strong and smart enough to know that she couldn't offer much in the way of active resistance. She did some fairly intense and deep massage on the o/p leg and the scar, and taught me a couple of exercises.

First is using a physio-ball. I lie on my back and prop the o/p foot on the ball and roll it back and forth. No problem, except that she provides resistance to make the ball harder to roll.

Second exercise is leaning across the table and doing back leg lifts, knee bent, raising the heel to the ceiling. She supported my knee at the apex and helped me raise it another centimeter or two. Good stuff.

Nothing else today on the plate except exer-cycle and weights. I'll hit those after supper, about 18:00, when it's cooler then and not so crowded. Supper. Mmmm. Cold cuts and cheese probably. Again.

I'd kill for a schnitzel, pommes frittes and a beer.

Weekend, Aug. 3-5 – Weekend Catch up

2007-08-06T05:33:00.000-04:00

Quick catch up for weekend festivities. Friday went off without significant event, and HW showed up at about 17:00. We made kissy faces and rodeo hugs and got her settled, then headed out on the town for hot night in Bad Abbach.

We went uptown to the Zirngibl for drinks and supper (cordon bleu with homefries!), and a stroll through the town center.

Like many German towns, there's a pedestrians-only shopping area, but truthfully, there's not much to be seen in downtown Bad Abbach. A handful of pubs and restaurants, a few shops and service, but that's about it.

Back in the room, we watched a bit of TV and conked out fairly early.

I had a schlingenkaefig appointment Saturday morning right after breakfast, and after that went ahead and knocked out my gym-time. 15 minutes on the bike and a round of the weight machines.

HW took a little walkabout around the grounds while I trained, and got herslef locked out of the PT center and had to go all the way 'round the place to get back in.

By the time we recovered from our healthiness fit, it was time for lunch. Meals are very close together here; breakfast hours are 7:00-8:30, lunch 11:15-12:30 and supper is 17:00-17:45.

After lunch, I took a little siesta with an icepack on my ass and HW hiked up the ridgeline behind the rehab center. She came back slightly sweaty from her exertions. It's a pretty steep climb and the one trail she took went pretty much straight up the hillside.

That afternoon, we took a beautiful drive along the Donau (Danube, to you English speakers ... an dno, it's not blue) to Kloster Weltenburg to spend the afternoon in the beer garden. It was a longer walk than I'd have cared to make, fortunately, there was a shuttle service from the parking lot to the kloster proper (probably half a mile or so). The shuttle was driven by a delightful Thai woman who was equally comfortable in English or German.

The beer garden was packed, and we had to wander about a bit for a seat, and while the beer and snacks were excellent, it was a bit expensive and altogether too crowded.

After a couple of hours, we'd both pretty much had enough and retired to the quieter (and friendlier) environs of the Zirngibl once more. The Zirngibl's garden is big and cool, lots of fest tables shaded by big chestnut trees and several large umbrellas. Very restful, excellent gemuetlichkeit.

As suppertime approached, we decided to try a tiny Indonesian place we'd spied on the way through town, Yanis Kaffeehaus. Most of the day, they serve coffees, drinks and ice cream, but in the evenings, they have a limited but excellent menu of Indonesian specialties (Yanis, the owner is Indonesian, and had met his wife on a cruise ship some years ago. They married and settled here in BA and opened the coffee shop). I sampled the fried rice while HW had a curry beef dish, both of which were excellent. We wound up eating supper there again on Sunday.

If you're in the Regensburg area and have a hankering for spicy noodles or fried rice, Yanis is the place to go.

The weather was grand all weekend, sunny and warm, but with a gentle cool breeze all day long.

Sunday after breakfast, I hit the gym again and then, with HW's help, got a thorough cleaning: shower, shave, foot care (I can't really reach my right foot to scrub away the dead skin from the swelling or cut toenails, etc). We were lounging about in the room afterward, and HW asked for a good footrub. I obliged, and she sprawled on the floor while I worked on her tootsies.

About that time, a nurse walked in with my next week's PT schedule. Did I mention I was naked and HW was wearing my bathrobe and not much else?

The nurse took it all in stride and didn't bat an eye. She' probably seen far stranger things in this place ...

Karl was planning to cycle down from Regensburg (about 16 km on a fine walking/cycling trail along the Donau) and we met him in the Park Cafe after lunch. Had a beer and chatted for a while, and decided to check out the little sommerfest that had been advertised for the downtown area that afternoon.

The fest, put on by the independent voters' club (Freie Waehler Verein) was indeed cozy. Downright small. But folks were having a good time. There weren't any good shady seats and the music was a bit loud for our tastes, so we went to ... the Zirngibl (who'da thunk?) for a quieter time and more opportunity to talk without having to bellow over the schlager music.

Karl is always a great visit and he had to depart all too soon, to fetch his family from a lake where they'd gone swimming.

As the afternoon wore on, HW and I wandered back to the edge of the fest, plopping down at Yanis for drinks, and wound up staying for supper (I had spicy noodles and she got a chicken, lemongrass and coconut milk thing; both quite good).

Did I mention that I walked from the rehab center all the way to Zirngibl and back (well, crutched). No problemo. Stronger and better every day.

All too quickly, the day drew to a close and HW had to head back north to Pressath. I spent a while catching up on e-mail, and when she called to let me know she was home safely, I headed for bed.

This week will be somewhat busier than last, but – thank the non-existent gods – it'll be time to go home on Saturday!

Thursday, Aug. 2

2007-08-02T13:15:00.000-04:00

15th post-op day -- 6th Reha Day

Mood: Clean! (just had a shower! Only the third since surgery)
Music: Wicked Tinkers, “Toasty”
Currently reading: Dave Lowry's “Traditions” (A compilation of his colum from Black Belt magazine), and Jim Butcher's “Proven Guilty” (A Harry Dresden novel)

Feeling much better this evening after a long hot shower. Stitches are out and healed up nicely, so the doc said “Get thyself clean, boy” and I did, and it was good. Sigh ...

Mostly slow morning, after breakfast, I did 15 minutes of the stationary (reclining) bike, but had to wait for the weight circuit (everybody else had the same idea). Piddled around with some e-mail and took a couple small walks around the place.

Had a visit from a couple of the docs, looking my incision/scar over and talking about my therapy and my expectations. They promise next week will be more challenging. In addition to the PT I'm doing now, they'll add water exercises and treadmill( assisted by a sort of parachute-like harness to offset the weight. Ought to be interesting.

Did about 20 minutes in the schlingenkaefig before lunch, strapped up and spreading my legs. And now that THAT picture is burnt indelibly in your heads ...

After lunch, I was supposed to attend a lecture of some sort, but one of the nurses stopped me and signed off on my training plan for the one today and another tomorrow. He said, “No need for you to be more bored than you already are.”

Group exercises (grandmas doing synchronized leg waving) at 3, with a trip to the weight room to wash that down. 15 minutes on the bike, and a round of the weight machines for which I've been approved so far. I bumped the weights up a bit on each of them, and still find them a bit light, but I'll talk to the therapist about it next session.

Supper was positively picnic-ish. Cold chicken leg and a very fresh pretzel stick (German style, soft, warm, salty and bigger than Churchill's stogy). Gobbled the chicky and savored the warm staengl with slathers of good butter. Yumm.

The cafe downstairs is open tonight till 8, and it's tempting to wander down for a bit, but I couldn't drink coffee this late and they only have light beer on the menu (shudder). I'll content myself to a little brain-rot, a little reading and early bedtime.

Got to try to do a load of laundry tomorrow, and Hedgewitch will be in later in the afternoon. We're talking about taking a boat trip (or maybe just a drive) to a local monastery, Kloster Welternburg, for lunch and some very excellent dark beer brewed on the premises.

Tomorrow's sched:

0700: Breakfast (They have some of the BEST creamed honey)
0820: Individual physical therapy
1020: Lymph drainage massage (feels nice, but damnme if I can tell if it's DOING anything)
1500: Group exercise (Omas waving legs about in unison)

Other than that, all I have is the self-directed exercises, 2x bike ride, weight circuit, and cold air therapy (for whatever THAT'S worth).

I'm downloading the latest season of “Eureka” from iTunes. Quirky show about a bunch of mega-geniuses sequestered in a sort of utopian town and allowed to do R&R at will with a very much more mundane sheriff who's sort of baffled by it all. Very fun and occasionally strange.

Also, bis morgen, y'all!

Edits and updates

2007-08-01T12:35:00.000-04:00

Just went back and linked many of the books and TV shows I've talked about. Hover over the title to find the linkie.

Wednesday, Aug. 1

2007-08-01T12:11:00.001-04:00

14th post-op day -- 5th Reha Day

Mood: Cautiously optimistic
Music: Evanescence, “Tourniquet”
Currently reading: "Altered Carbon” by Richard K. Morgan (cyberpunk meets film noir) and “Preacher: Until the End of the World” by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (second compilation of the series, wicked cool and big fun)

Two weeks after the surgery, I'm feeling pretty good. Got the stitches out today (though THAT was a Keystone Cops episode all in itself), got my DSL fixed, got a very nice intro to the weight and cardio machines and got a routine for 'em.

Things are looking up.

Tablemates in the cafeteria are an odd lot, though all of them are quite nice. Two older gentlemen, on here for some hip work the other on 'kur' and the third is a younger fellow with back problems. If you miss a meal, they ask after your well-being.

Today went pretty fast, busy morning, then spent the afternoon getting caught up on the blog and e-mail. Still have work to do on the blog (links, etc), but I think I've tamed the e-mail inbox for now.

Took about an hour just before supper to go to the training room and go through the complete workout (15 minutes on the recumbent stationary bike, 3sets x 15 reps each on upper body and leg butterfly machines, lat pull-downs and leg press).

Stitches: I'd been told today was the day for removal, but no other info. Got a call just as I was about to leave for my krankengymnastic appointment, and was told to “drop by the doctor's office when I had time”.

I took that to mean that it wasn't time sensitive, and since the caller didn't identify herself, I guessed that it was the doc who'd seen me on my first day.

Nope. Tweren't to be. I went to PT and then to the first doc's office.

After sitting outside HER office for 15 minutes, she told me to see another doc, who told me I was too late and would have to wait until after lunch, unless ANOTHER doc were in and able to do it. Fortunately, the third doc was in and got to me immediately. She popped the 20 external sutures out quickly, bandaged them up and told me to hold off on the shower till tomorrow.

Shower! Woohoo. Who'da thunk simple hot running water could be so ... luxurious.

Went from there to another lymph drainage massage, and ... finally ... the DSL techie had showed up and flipped the switch to make it work. Magic!

Blerf.

Anyhow, I'm done for the day, and nicely tired from the workout, and plan a lazy evening of Threshold, Desert Punk, e-mail and blog maintenance.

Online again!

2007-08-01T04:49:00.000-04:00

Finally, the techies got here and got my DSL connection sorted out. Seems to be working like a charm. I'm back online!

Tuesday, July 31 -- 13th post-op day -- 4th Reha Day

2007-08-01T04:47:00.002-04:00

Still no DSL. I complained at the reception desk and the nice lady promised to call the tech and have him schedule an appointment to look at it. However, as of 4 pm, no call, no tech, no DSL.

Light day today. Had Gruppengymnastik this morning after breakfast. A roomful of hip and knee patients doing synchronized swimming on tables with no music. They could at least give us a backbeat. I've gotta say, group exercises were a waste of time. I'd prefer to be turned loose in the training room with the machines, and would probably get better from it.

Got my bauchspritz and dressing change (no drainage today!), made some light walkies off and on, but mostly waited for the AWOL network guy to come fix my DSL.

Spent a lazy afternoon (waiting for the AWOL techie), had a couple phone calls, hung out, waited ... napped.

This afternoon's training was better, it was a lot like the krankengymnastic, only cranked up a notch. Got some good muscle work, but these folks simply cannot stretch me. “Unglaublich!” the PT says. Impossible. My mantra repeated:

“I walk, I hike, I bike, I do martial arts 2-3 times a week and have done so for 33-34 years.” No, seriously.

I've started complaining about the unbearable lightness of rehab, and had a good talk with the PT guy just now. I hope they'll ramp up the intensity a little. Otherwise, I'd might as well check out after the stitches come out and go home and do this myself. I can go to the freaking gym and do the exercises at home with HW's help and probably get a more intensive and effective training for my time.

And not have to deal with non-functional DSL, boredom, repetitive menus and a near-absence of anything resembling supper. Cold cuts, cheese and the occasional cold pork chop ain't cutting it.

Grumpy. Yeah, that's me.

On a lighter and funner note, dear friends C&K are coming down for a visit tonight, and we'll hang out across the street at Park Cafe for a beer or so and maybe supper. Maybe they've got schnitzel on the menu!

C&K got here a bit late, so we eschewed the walkies and simply drove up to the center of town to a very nice Italian place called 'Papa Michele's Ristorante'. Good eats. Spent a couple hours chatting, nibbling, sipping and catching up. Ver' good time.

They also brought me a prezzie: a bottle of Agioritikos, a crisp, sunny white wine from Greece (picked up from Mikie and Thomai at restaurant Athen no doubt). I'll save that till the weekend when my HW is a'visiting.

Back to the room, tidy up loose ends, call HW to say night-night and to bed.

Stitches come out tomorrow!

Monday, July 30 -- 12th post-op day -- 3rd Reha Day

2007-08-01T04:47:00.001-04:00

Had lab work done first thing this morning (6:30 am), and, unusually for me, bled like a stuck pig after getting stuck. Blerf. Got the flow stopped and the spot dressed, then headed for breakfast.

Breakfast (again, typical German b'fast foods, cold cuts, cheese, bread, jams, honey, yogurt and fruit), is served buffet style. Folks on crutches get a helper to load the plate and carry it to your table, others can help themselves. It's a merry pile of chaos.

After breakfast, Heparin shot and dressing change and then started the process for setting up DSL access in the room and am waiting for ime to go get my anti-thrombosis shot, then will start bugging folks about my actual daily schedule.

Got the schedule for my first week of rehab. Here's today's calendar entries with all the trivia as well as the PT stuff:

0630 – Labwork
0700 – Breakfast
0900 – Anti-thrombosis shot
0920 – Lymph drainage massage
1100 – Kaltluft therapie (about which more later)
1130 - Lunch
1230 – Krankengymnastic (phys. Therapy)
1300 – I'm doing LAUNDRY!
1530 – Schlingenkaefig
1700 – Dinner

Already talked about the labwork thing, brekkie, the bauchspritz (shot in the belly, the Heparin goes into the fatty tissue of the belly) and dressing change, the DSL connection is still not working, and if it doesn't come up soon, I'll be climbing on the reception desk tomorrow morning after breakfast.

Lymphdrainage massage – very light massage intended to facilitate the flow of lymph and reduse swelling (did I say I've got an ever bigger ass on the right than I do on the left side?).

Kaltluft – Exactly what it sounds like ... cold air therapy. Basically, there's a machine that creaste and pumps cold air through a hose with a sort of fat wand on the end. You hold the outlet about 1.5 inches from your owie and let the cold air wash over it for about 3 minutes. Felt good on the wound site, but not sure what that will do that a simple icepack won't ...

Krankengymnastic – It's just another name for physical therapy. The PT guy asked a few questions, measure mobility, made a quick exam of the joint and started the exercises. Same sort of things Frau Winter did, but a bit more intensive and a few new ones; all still with active resistance. He was red-faced and sweating by the time we got through, but then, my leg is about as big as he was. Everybody who gets hands on my leg remarks about how strong it is. Listen folks, I do Japanese martial arts, and have for 33 years. I fall down, I get up, I swing weapons from kneeling, crouching and standing positions, I grab strong young men and women and wave them around on the mat. I may be soft on the edges, but the legs, thems gots muscles.

Laundry was a bit of a trial. You're told it costs 2 Euro each, per washer and dryer load, but it's only in the fine print in the instructions on the wall of the laundry room that you have to go BACK up to Reception and buy tokens for the machines. After marching around up and down stairs, I finally got a load in and sat sipping cappuccino at the cafe (across the hall from the laundry room) and reading while my things got clean. Didn't get to dry them completely, as I had to go to the schlingenkaefer thing before they were done, but I spread the damp stuff out on the wonderful towel warmer in the bathroom and they were dry by the time I returned to the room.

Schlingerkaefer – It's a sort of welded steel rod cage, about 2.5 meters on a side (7-8 feet or so), within which the therapist connects hooks and carabiners and pullies and such to do the same sort of things the pulleyforme exercises did. I couldn't help but think that with the right marketing, there's a segment of the population who'd buy the hell out of the schlingerkaefer system.

And then supper and I was done. Still trying to get the damned DSL to work. Blerf, I say, blerf indeed. Setting up a 'net connection ain't rocket science. I'm annoyed.

Sunday, July 29 -- 11th post-op day -- 2nd Reha Day

2007-08-01T04:45:00.000-04:00

Listening to Los Lonely Boys (among others, next up is Thievery Corporation's "Indra" -- got to clean out and refresh the iPod, it's mostly full and I've got a fair amount of new music at home to install) while HW is taking a stroll around the kurpark and checking out the kurhaus. I'm not quite agile enough yet for my walkies (which are getting better but can still be tiring), to be enough exercise for her. I get a free pass to the kurhaus whilst staying here, so she'll report back to me on what possibilities await.

I'm chilling in my nice little room (easily as nice or nicer than many hotels I've stayed in, sipping Cola Light and catching the blog up. The room has a single bed (electric control to raise and lower the height, head, etc). Built-in desk and tiny fridge, nice WC/bath with a large shower (equipped with sturdy handholds) and a towel warmer (luxurious but a bit overkill as warm as it's been).

Should have DSL 'net access tomorrow -- Woohoo, I can reach out and participate in the world again! -- so I'll update the Arx Hereticus blog, and check out and answer any comments.

Can't begin to image how much spam I've got waiting in my various mailboxes.

After yesterday's hurry-up-and-wait, today's a nice break. I'll learn tomorrow what sort of schedule I'll have in the coming weeks.

Meeting a friend or two in a couple of hours for an afternoon visit. We'll probably find a nice beer garden or cafe in the neighborhood to hang out and talk.

Had a very nice visit with the Red Haired Ant Fan, and my dear friend Walter this afternoon. Drank a couple of beers, a couple of coffees, a couple of waters, and after they had to leave, HW and I shared an excellent pizza at the Park Cafe.

And now, HW has headed back home, an hour and some small change up the highway from here. So close, but so far. I really, really miss her. She's such a comfort to me and such support. She tells me so often, “I'm so proud of you” ... for doing so well after the OP.

It's very mutual. I'm so very proud of her, as well. Proud of her accomplishments in these past years, proud of her courage and dogged determination to do well in the face of (sometimes) seemingly unsurmountable bureaucracy and willful blind-mindedness. She's a treasure and I'm a lucky man.

Planning some brain-rot while awaiting her call when she arrives home safely. I'll likely head to bed shortly thereafter. I've got to try to get up early to beat the rush on the laundry room and get some fresh undies for next week, then get and start my rehab schedule.

Also dann, bis dann, and schlaf' alles Ihres sehr gut!

Saturday, July 28

2007-07-29T16:19:00.000-04:00

-- 10th post-op day -- 1st Reha Day

So far, rehab is a lot like the Army. Hurry up and wait.

I was told to have all my bags packed and be ready to go before 9 am, and did so. After a wash-up, breakfast and quick dressing change ... I waited. 0900 came and went, 0930 ... and about 1000, one of my floor nurses came along to fetch me and my baggage. We traipsed over to the rehab center, got my room key, dropped my baggage and then I was deposited at the nurses station where I ... waited. There were two newbies ahead of me and there was only one staffer working the new folks.

Eventually, I got questioned, poked, prodded, got a mini-tour, was sent to lunch and given an appointment with one of the rehab docs later in the afternoon. And after a decent lunch in the cafeteria (fairly civilized), I'm back in the room ... waiting.

Got Tal Konsort playing; very nice classical played by a bunch of former Eastern Bloc musicians in Munich. Live, they act more like a jazz combo, very lively, active, interacting with the audience, and their interpretations of some of the classics show a distinctly jazzy influence, but are excellently done.

HW is apparently on her way here, I tried to call to let her know I was in the room, but she didn't pick up, so I assume she's driving. Not really expecting her before 2 or 3 pm or so anyhow. My appt. with the doc is 3:15, so I hope the timing works out.

Surprisingly, I'm not the youngest person I've seen hereabouts. There are several who look to be my age or in their 40s, a large handful of folks who look to be in their 30s and a smaller few in their 20s. Most, by far, are a somewhat more geriatric crowd.

HW showed up in the early afternoon and we had good cuddles and hugs, and took a couple of small walks, showing her around my new digs.

Despite my having warned reception Friday evening, they weren't prepared for her to stay and we had to somewhat vigorously assert ourselves, but once the staff figured out we were serious, they were very accommodating, especially the station nurse, who practically bent over backward to make HW welcome and make sure she was settled in, had a trundle bed, covers, etc.

Had an appointment with one of the rehab docs in the afternoon, general look-me-over, Q-and-As and so forth. She'll start developing my rehab plan and get things rolling for Monday.

Life in the rehab center is a bit more laid back (at least so far), less bustle in the hallways, I take my own meds, nobody barging in and out of the room (for the most part), I keep my own schedule and am responsible for making appts, etc without a sheepdog to nip my heels. And while roomie was a great guy, it's so very nice to have my own space again.

HW and I spent the evening chatting, catching up and playing dominoes. Watched the pilot episode of "Threshold", a TV series about a mysterious ET craft finding its way to Earth and wreaking havoc (whether intentionally or as a side effect of some undetermined and un-understandable purpose is kept muddy in the first of the series).

*HW: I still have no bloody luck at dominoes... *

HW was a little freaked out by some of the more thriller-ish aspects of the show, but I thought it raised some very interesting questions. I've got the series on DVD, let's see how many shows it takes for the thing to fall apart in cliche and "gee-whiz" limbo as so many good shows seem to do. Got some great actors, though, especially the linguist team-member. Me, I think the bastich little pug-dog is responsible for all the nastiness ...

*HW: I am not a fan of television in general, for the most part I find it a tremendous waste of time, which is great if I WANT to waste time (watching Snake in the Eagle's Shadow or Bullshit!, The Simpsons or King of the Hill) but otherwise it just hurts my eyeballs. I don't like "monster movies" I spent weeks after watching Jurassic Park opening gates at 0-dark-30 in the deep countryside in a quiet panic over velociraptors and the neighbor's pet tiger cub (not kidding!!!). Threshold was centimeters from being great, unlike Firefly, which WAS great. I just thought it pandered too much, while Firefly pandered too little. It's a bloody sad fact that it's the right balance of pandering which makes or breaks any media... I think that's why I'm so cynical about it. Besides, I'm more interested in what comes out of my head, when I give it a chance, and much more careful about what I put into it. I have learned to be careful of my mental digestion. Meanwhile a relative of CG's has a pug dog...no comment.)

Friday, July 27

2007-07-29T16:07:00.000-04:00

-- 9th post-op day

Slept well last night, mostly pain-free, woke a couple of times, but fell back asleep fairly promptly. Awoke about 5:30 to begin the morning grind. Nothing new today, but anticipating packing for the rehab center! After doc (who was pleased with yesterday's x-rays) wash-up, breakfast, PT and changing clothes, started organizing papers and books, and will start the packing process sometime today.

I plan a fairly leisurely day, with lots of lying about, and a celebratory eiscafe this afternoon.

HW will be down tomorrow sometime after I get moved with fresh clothes and supplies, and I hope to get a day-pass to get out of the clinic area for a while.

Barbarians is an amazing book. It's a look at the Roman Empire from the outside, and is extremely interesting and telling.

Randomness ...

Tornadoes: Not the whirlwind kind, but the German Luftwaffe kind. Most mornings are punctuated by several whooshing passes of the fighter jets as they fly sorties in support of NATO training ongoing at Hohenfels, for which we are apparently right under the flight path. One of the pilots got a little jiggy the other day and apparently pushed a little hard and we actually got a sonic boom. Kind of cool, if a bit unsettling for some of the older folks here.

Kuwaitis: There's apparently a fairly well-to-do Kuwaiti patient here, with quite an entourage of family and associates. His personal translator and assistant speaks excellent English and as soon as he found out I was American, he began saluting me when we passed in the hallway or on the terrase, and he somehow learned my name, Good MORNING, Mr. Gordon with a crisp, parade-field salute.

*HW isn't sure why this kinda freaks her out... *

Roomie had been out for a turn around the station when he came back in a rush (as rushed as a man on crutches with a fresh knee surgery can rush) with news: He'd found a patient lounge with a coffee machine! For .30 Euro, apiece, we got decent (instant) cappuccino and had a nice sit and chat in the airy, sunny lounge. It's right down the damn hall. Why the hell doesn't the staff let people know about it?

Blurf. Ah well, all reports say the rehab center has a great little cafe-like coffee bar.

Had a great mushroom ragout for lunch, and supper (which came at 4:30 pm!), once again was ... fishy. However, I'd splurged at about 3 pm and had both an eiscafe AND, American friends, brace yourselves ... a beer! My first since coming into the hospital.

It's pretty much accepted here that you'll have a glass or two of beer or wine if you want and no one gives a shrug. I could have had beer all along, but decided to pass on the alcohol to allow for any meds or other side affects (not to mention the possibility of even greater instability on crutches). However, today, being Friday and being my last day here, I celebrated.

HW promises a nice bottle of wine for us to split this weekend and a mini-bottle of good Single Malt for a treat. Mmmmm!

*HW brought a Sommeracher Katzenkopf, which unfortunately turned out to be a halb-trocken. I also got myself some incredible Italian Chardonnays, which I have gotten a bit mad about. I save them for special occasions, as I could literally drink the stuff 'til I fell over. Except that it goes so well with food, like the coconut curry pork I made Friday for my return today, Sunday. Yes, I'm a planner. I knew I'd be unhappy returning without CG so I made dinner and the bed... a poor substitute but a comfort nonetheless.*

Roomie's wife is visiting, and she MUST love him, she brought him beer.

I've got to get packed up this evening, sort out dirties, etc. Someone from the rehab center will be around before 9 am tomorrow to fetch me. I figure the morning will be taken up with orientation, and HW should be here sometime around or just after lunchtime.

I'm moving pretty good, though I have a slight 'muskelkater' (lit: muscle hangover) from the increased pulleyforme exercises. I can actually stand and take a careful step or two without the crutches (shh, don't tell the staff ... they're aghast that I prefer flipflops to tennies and dare to stand and walk around barefoot on occasion), however, I keep it to a bare minimum and only when I'm sure I can reach out and grab support quickly.

I've figured out how to bend over to pick something up from the floor without compromising the new hip (which isn't supposed to bend very much for a while). Basically, I stretch the bad leg out behind, lean on a sturdy support like a non-skid table (crutches work, too) and use my good leg to do the bending.

And having arms like an orangutan helps.

*HW: you should have seen him hanging off the overhanging handle of the hospital bed scratching his armpits and going "ook" I thought I was going to fall off my own hospital bed laughing. That was in between getting so confused with the various controls and levers that I variously impersonated a sandwich, a mudslide, and some unfortunate airplane landings.*

After supper (weird fish salad thingie, thank the gods for beer), roomie (Hr. Bail) and I took a walk over to the rehab center and he gave me a tour. He'd spent a few weeks there a couple years ago getting a shoulder fixed up.

Very nice digs. Very quiet, too, not nearly as bustle-full as the hospital part.

*HW: the rehab apts just exude serenity and restfulness. And the area is almost 10 degrees warmer than the bloody dripping, chilly GTA area- from 21C to 15 in an hour's drive. Brrr. Raining in sharp brittle bursts here, cold and uncompromising. Bleah. *

Thursday, July 26

2007-07-29T16:01:00.000-04:00

-- 8th post-op day

I feel like I'm running out of things to write about here. The hospital routine is ... well ... routine. Wake up, wash up, every other day get blood drawn, wait for the doctor, eat breakfast, take morning meds, take a little walk, die putzfrau kommt, schwester/pfleger visits, wait for the physical therapist, do PT, rest a bit, take a little walk, eat lunch ... etc. etc. Can you tell that I'm a bit, shall we say ... BORED?

Ah well, today and tomorrow here, and then to the rehab center we go. Roomie sings the praises of the Asklepios Reha Zentrum, according to him, it's sort of like getting into heaven after the purgatory of hospitalization.

I've gone through all but two of the books I brought with. Finished Mainspring last night waiting for the nacht schwester and my sleepy meds, and I highly recommend it. It's a well-crafted romp through an alternate universe wherein the Deus is truly and exactly en Machina. I'll start Barbarians by Terry Jones (formerly of Monty Python fame) today. It's a dissection of the history (and apprently the mis- and disinformation about) of Europe's barbarians and their interactions with the Romans.

The other brain-rot I've brought with is an anime series called Desert Punk (downloaded from iTunes). Very twisted and funny. The story of a diminutive bounty hunter in a post-apocalyptic Japan wandering the Kanto Desert, fighting bad guys, trying to get laid and always looking for a bigger gun. Big fun, weird, but fun.

Roomie's garrulous, a very social guy, and chats happily and at length with anyone who'll listen to him; sadly, our own conversations are pretty limited. He's a retired metzger (butcher), with three grown kids and a handful of engelkinder (grandkids). Was born and raised within 20 km of Essing, a town not far from here. He was born in '45, and grew up with that generation of Germans who saw the US Army as liberators. Talks about memories of soldiers bringing truckloads of food around to the villages, sharing out K-rations with the kids.

He's an interesting and engaging guy, and didn't really snore all that badly last night. He wears a sleep-apnea mask, which makes a sort of soft sussurrus (how the heck IS that spelled, the spell-checker isn't a bit of help on that one), sort of like distant surf, though he lost the mask sometime in the night.

PT today was the standard krankengymnastik I've been doing for several days, plus the pulleyforme system. I'm supposed to do that again this evening, on my own. The good news: I get to take a shower this evening! The schwester has a waterproof bandage for my incision. I've been doing spit-baths in the sink, and Em helped me get cleaned up pretty good this weekend past, but a shower sounds incredibly good right now.

Fr. Winter also scolded me again, basically for doing too much. She said I was sitting up, moving around too much, I should be lying in bed more. Sigh. Darn. Make me hang out in bed all day. Too bad it's without HW at my side! But that'd be a whole 'nother kind of PT that Fr. Winter would probably rather not know about.

*HW: One of the things I did this Sunday was scrub much of the dead skin from the postsurgical swelling off. One of the nicest things you can do for a very good friend or, indeed your partner, after a major limb surgery like this, is to help with exfoliation. Gentleness is highly recommended, as the limb has been traumatized, but the Betadine-discoloured overstretched skin sloughed off in impressive quantities as I gently, persistently scrubbed. I followed up with gentle application of natural skin lubricants based on vegetable oils (petrolatum and mineral oil are for machines, not skin) preferably pleasantly scented, with gentle, loving hands*

After lunch, I went down to the cafe and had a cappuccino, quite good, actually. Sat and read Barbarians a bit, but found the terrace quite warm, so I retired to the room to have myself a little lie-down ... got the fan drawing in the last of the cool air before the sun hits the room's balcony fully. Have to move things around in about an hour or so, close curtains, move the fan so it's not pulling in hot air. Did I mention there's no AC in the place?

After a little walk and very nice cappuccino in the cafe, I came back to the room and chilled for a while, did my pulleyforme exercises a second time after supper, then spent the rest of the evening anticipating a treat that had been promised to me by the day nurse: then glory of glories, I got to SHOWER!!!!

Just before bedtime, the schwester changed my dressing for a waterproof one, and I got to scrub away a week's worth of hospital (at least from everywhere I could reach). Luxurious.

I passed on the pain meds at bedtime, only taking the sleeping pill. I'm really not in very much pain unless I do something wrong, then it's a twinge that goes away shortly. The sleepy meds are because of the noise and constant bustle here (and the schwester looking in on roomie every two hours.

Wednesday, July 25

2007-07-29T16:00:00.000-04:00

-- 7th post-op day

Awoke about 3 am, but fell back asleep in about an hour, and slept until almost 7 am. Damn, I'm such a slug-a-bed. Got up, washed up, changed into fresh clothes (that had mostly arrived in the care package from HW yesterday).

My primary surgeon isn't in today, so a substitute peered at my wound, changed the dressing and blessed it as doing quite well. The drainage decreases daily, though at times it's still soaking the (ever smaller) bandages.

Nurses came bustling in shortly before breakfast, bringing in a new roomie, an older gent who's getting some repair work done to his knee. He's affable enough, though his thick Bayerische dialect and my stumbling mish-mash of German don't let us communicate much more complicated info than weather and generalities. Apparently he and his wife both have had surgeries here before and have spent time in the Reha center, too. They're big fans and many of the staff seem to know them.

It's suddenly late evening and I'll try to catch up. Nothing huge to remark, a few walkies, roomie went away and came back snoring with his leg wrapped in bandages, couple of phone chats with HW. Learned new exercises from the physical therapist, using a spring and pulley device suspended from the ceiling in the room. I'm translating the instructions for all my exercises and all the guidance they've given me and will post that somewhere along here.

Suffice to say that the 'pulleyform' thingie is quite an ingenious bit of torture, and 20 minutes of work with it was sufficient for me to be wishing for a cold beer after.

Spent a lazy afternoon, rewarding myself for the pulleyform exercises with an iced coffee from the cafe. Bought a few postcards and wrote notes, read more of Mainspring and wandered back up to the room to settle in for the evening, and was surprised to find my dear friend Karl at the door shortly after I got to the room.

The cafe was already closed, so we wandered out in front of the clinic and chatted on a bench, watching Bad Abbach roll past.

When he headed for home, I went back upstairs to find my anti-thrombosis shot waiting and a nurse checking her watch. Of COURSE! Silly me. I should have noted that it was TIME for my shot ... Ahem.

Winding down the day and getting ready for night-time. Hopefully roomie doesn't snore too badly ...

Bis morgen ...

Tuesday, July 24

2007-07-29T15:52:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, July 24 -- 6th post-op day one week in hospital

Usual morning festivities today, get up, wash up, wait for the doc and breakfast. The surgeon said the wound is healing well and he's happy with the progress. Much less drainage yesterday and last evening than the day before.

Lots of bustle and hustle in the hallways, and suddenly, I have a roomie.

Interesting young fellow from Hohenfels, a US Soldier working with the visual info team there. He has a buddy with who can speak a bit of German, but I wound up translating a bit, and helping him get settled in.

He's here for repair of a fracture of a finger and possibly of one of the bones in his hand. Looks a bit like 'boxer's fracture' to me, but I have no idea what happened and haven't been nosy about it. He's probably here only for the day, and will likely be gone again tonight.

Took a quick turn around the hallway and spoke to the PT briefly, but just now, when she was passing by my room, I got scolded. As I type this, I'm sitting on the edge of the bed (knees dutifully lower than hips, feet theoretically flat on the floor), but when she was passing by, I had unconsciously crossed my legs at the ankles (thought the knee-hip angle and the spacing between my knees about two fists wide) was still correct.

It's interesting, the things I'm supposed to be undergoing and the things I'm not supposed to be able to do. I'm afraid I tend to push the envelope a bit, and am constantly trying to find the edges of my new functionality. For instance, I'm not supposed to be able physically to touch my toes, but I can. Of course, I've got arms like an orangutan, too.

I'm not supposed to be able to do this or that, but I can find a way to do it and stay within the parameters of my restrictions, for the most part. It just takes longer or I must re-learn simple skills and replace the old way of doing things.

*HW: It's been interesting watching his creative approaches to simple problems with doors, shoes, clothes, those damned unsexy anti-thrombosis stockings (I really must get him some proper white lacy garters) et cetera. He lives for pushing the envelope, which anyone who has trained with him can vouch for-- he WILL find your envelope and he WILL push it! He's not a big one for rules and tends to follow them with a jaundiced eye... but he's being very good, especially for him. *

Be interesting to observe, as this progresses, to see how much of what I can and can't do changes over the coming months.

Overall, I feel pretty good right now, pretty functional. I'm thinking healing thoughts at the wound (Mostly along the lines of, Quit fucking seeping, already, dammit!), and am marking off days on the calendar.

Later that day ..

Alex woke up craving a smoke and by that, the nurses figured he was ready to go home and kicked him out.

The rest of the evening was quiet, restful and utterly unremarkable. I did get a care package from HW, clean clothes and a few treats and necessities.

Every day, almost every hour, I feel better, hurt less, seem stronger. I still tire pretty easily, but stamina is coming along as well.

Couple more days here, and then we'll see what Reha brings.

OP BLOGGAGE: PART DEUX

2007-07-29T15:45:00.000-04:00

Monday, July 23 -- 5th post-op day

Slept decently, but not deeply, nor well. No real pain, more discomfort and restlessness at being stuck in 'the position' ... I'd kill to be able to sleep on my side, curled up comfortably and snuggled in deep.

Ah well, a few weeks more.

Awoke and started my day about 5:30 am, listening to the hospital begin bustling about me. I got up, made water, washed up, brushed teeth and slicked down the thistle patch that I call my hair (HW absolutely refused to let me shave it for this ordeal), and of course, while I was mostly naked at the wash sink, the surgeon stuck his head in the door.

He said to take myself a restful morning, he'd be back later.

Restful morning. Well, tweren't far from that, but wasn't exactly a day on the beach either. Lab tech came in about the time I finished my morning ablutions, took three vials of blood, followed by a peek-in from the physical therapist with a promise of her return shortly, breakfast (with which they gave me again only a single cup of coffee ... sigh) and various nurses, assistants and cleaning ladies.

When the PT showed, we chatted about my weekend, how many times I'd walked and to where, how I was feeling about and after walking, etc. We did stairs today. She was surprised that I'd already researched the info and had practiced at home before the OP, and she only had me go up and down two flights and satisfied with my demo, sent me back to my room to await further ministrations later.

She's also using me as an example to other patients, Look at him walk, he's had his surgery only a shorter time than you. Watch, pick up your knee like that ...

I read a bit whilst waiting, Bill Bryson's I'm a Stranger Here Myself, about his return to the US after having lived in England for 20 years. Trenchant, in that HW and I will likely have to move back to America in the next year sometimes.

He's an excellent writer with a gift of prose that should be studied by any serious writer or student of the English language.

Fr. Winter showed up a bit later and put me through a series of exercises, designed to strengthen the legs and hips. She always seems surprised HOW strong I am already. I told I'd done budo, in German "Japanesische kampfkunst" for more than 30 years.

She first tutted a bit about me not being able to do that any more, and I said, And why not?

A lengthy discussion followed about what I do and whether I could continue taking falls, moving in the fairly specialized manner of my system of martial studies. I told her I'd already talked to the surgeon about it, before the OP, and that I had told him I expected to be able to continue, albeit perhaps more slowly and carefully ...

I've bustled about the room a bit, washed out a pair of shorts and t-shirt in case I don't get my resupply soon enough, they're hung out on a folding drying rack conveniently provided on my balcony. Yes, my hospital room has a small balcony with a view of the courtyard and cafe terrace below. Very spiffy, but I wish I could sit out there. There's a chair, but it's utterly insufficient for my current condition, I fear.

So, here I sit, on the edge of my bed, typing away at my laptop sitting on a slightly slanted bedside table. If my words are a bit off-kilter, that's why. It has nothing to do with the drugs. Really.

Actually, I'm not getting good drugs at all, these days. A NSAID *HW: Diclofenac, administered with Nexium to protect the stomach* (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug the same family as aspirin, narpoxyn sodium, metamizal, etc), an antacid (both of those twice daily), and a strong antibiotic (three times a day). At night, a slightly stronger NSAID and a mild sleeping pill. That's about it. I can get an extra dose of NSAID a couple times a day if I want it, but so far, the past couple-three days, haven't needed it.

My biggest concern right now, is increasing walking duration, stability and getting the wound to dry up an quit seeping.

Quite a bit of seepage yesterday, the nurses changed dressings 3-4 times, and finally sort of packed it in with a double layer of absorbent gauze covered by the main dressing. It held through the night, though there's seepage at the edges this morning. Nothing to worry about, it's normal. The wound must drain to cleanse itself, and as long as the seepage is not infected, it's healthy.

That bit, drying up the wound, is simply a matter of time.

I, however, want it finished TODAY, right NOW. Dammit. The hospital's not horrible, but I'm looking forward to the rehab cebter and in a couple weeks, Real Life.

Langsam, langsam. Du muss' geduld haben, says Fr. Winter. And HW. And the Schwestern and Pflegeren.

Slowly, slowly. You must have patience.

Langsam, my ass. I'm ready to move on.

Most of the rest of the day passed uneventfully, and I took couple of walks around the floor and ventured down to the gift shop. That was a wasted trip. Candy bars, underwear, postcards and assorted other junk. Debated going to the cafe for an eiscafe, but I'd have to figure out how to lug a cushion and a book, so said, fuck it, I'll hang out in the room.

Fortunately, one of the nurses must have read my mind, for she appeared at the door with a fresh cup of coffee shortly after I returned.

Doc came in about 4 pm, examined my incision, changed the dressing and told me the only thing keeping me from moving to rehab right now is the drainage. As long as the incision is seepy, there's a chance of infection.

All else, he says, looks great. Oh, and I can fly again, any time after August, so it looks like the trip to Greece in September (a little gift to me for my recuperation), is a go! Woohoo!

Aside from fighting off boredom and trying not to nap overmuch, I'm doing pretty good and can't WAIT to move on to the rehab phase!

Afternoon and evening passed quietly. I took a couple of strolls around the hallway, read, watched TV, played on the computer, etc. Nothing of note, really, except calls from my HW and a dear friend who is a rabid Adam Ant fan and a fiesty little red-head.

(I plan to link some of these references when I get 'net access again, but for now, y'all know who you are.)

For some delightful reason, I got my pain and sleep meds early, which was good, as I was dog-tired by about 7:30 pm, and treat of treats! -- I got a footbath.

I can't reach my feet very well right now, and these damn compression hose make my legs itch and my toes sweat. The nurse who did it told me she'd recently been in the hospital herself for a blood poisoning problem and had had to wear the hose for a while, so was quite sympathetic.

By the time she was done (as HW will attest, if you want to put me to sleep, rub my feet), the drugs were taking hold and I was utterly relaxed and happy. I read a bit (Just finished Bryson's Stranger here myself and started Mainspring a clock-punk novel by Jay Lake) and was soon fast asleep. HW called, but I was pretty incoherent, so we kept it short. The tucking-in by phone is a long-standing tradition when we're apart.

Slept like a log until about 2 am, woke for a while and read some more, than fell back asleep and didn't stir again till about 7. A late morning for me lately.

Post Surgery - The Heretic gets Hip

2007-07-22T16:34:00.000-04:00

Saturday, July 21 -- 3rd post-op day

Morning brought the typical start to the day, but a little extra: With breakfast, I got a full pot of coffee rather then just a cup! For the first time in days, I feel adequately caffed-up.

If y'all don't know about typical German fruhstuck, their normal breakfast consists of a couple of broetchen (known as semmelen in Bavaria), a slice or two of some kind of wurst – think cold cuts – with cheese, and honey or jam with butter. Better than the French equivalent (a bowl of coffee and dry bread) or the Greek ( a cigarette and a cup of coffee). I actually rather enjoy the German b'fast, being a huge honey fan, I am.

Overall, feeling better, not as much pain, though some movements are still distinctly tender and must be undertaken quite carefully. Very tired today though. Learned with some (somewhat surprising) relief that I'd not see the physical therapist today or tomorrow, and felt grateful for the rest. The doc will make it in sometime today, but not on the usual early-morning schedule.

The nurse had to remove my (I've forgotten what to call an in-dwelling IV catheter) from the back of my left hand this morning, it'd stopped working. Another Pfleger came by to try to start one in the right, but it blew out and he had to remove it. They were using the shunt to give me a drip of antibiotics, and I'm taking capsules until they can consult the doc for options. Me, I'm fine taking pills rather than dealing with the tubes.

Somehow or other, the day flew past and it was suddenly lunchtime.

I'd watched some TV (love German TV -- wish I could understand more so I could enjoy the weirdness of it all in the native tongue. I can make out the gist of most spiels, but detail eludes me sometimes, especially if they're talking fast or about technical matters.

There's a Saturday morning show about talk shows (Talk Talk Talk), with a very pneumatic, Barbie-doll hostess who changes outfits and hairstyles for EVERY segment,
and has maybe 10 seconds of dialogue, draped or perched provocatively in front of a flat-screen by means of introducing each segment.

They go so far as to translate foreign shows (Spanish and English anyway) into Deutsch, complete with trying to match the voice to the characters. Very strange.

Some interesting history and culture shows, and a couple of familiar (Canadian or American) shows voiced over in German. I always try to catch the news, and can generally suss out most of what they're talking about.

Anyhow, talked to HW a couple times and she's getting ready to head this way. Probably the last night she'll be able to spend here with me. After tomorrow, they may want to plop in a roommate and I'm going to be thinking einzelzimmer (single-room) thoughts most likely. My insurance pays for a double, and we're paying extra for HW to stay over (50 Euro a night, including 3 meals a day), but if the single's not too horribly expensive, I'd be willing to pay extra for peace and quiet and not having the distraction of a roomie right now.

Unless she were a very cute Czech girl, of course (with a big wave at John in Old Blighty).

HW has to go back to work next week. As an independent contractor, she gets no leave or bennies and a week out of the shop is a week with no pay.

I'm very proud of her work and her progress. We haven't bought Euros in several weeks, due to her practice on in town on the German side, and she continues to ply her trade on broken and achy bodies on-post as well. As long as the dollar's in the sewage pit (0.71 Euro cent to the dollar last I looked), HW's Euro income is a Damn Good Thing.

Lunch today more than made up for dinner yesterday – Jaegerschnitzel (pork steak with mushroom gravy) and Spaetzle (a sort of noodley dumpling)! Yum.

I'll drop all this on a thumb drive and hand it off the HW to take home with her tomorrow to update the blog, feel free to comment or query, she's got access and will try to keep posts from herself running, too.

One of the surgeon's assistants showed up in his stead, and we chatted a bit about my progress. He changed my nighttime meds, as I'd been having a lot of trouble sleeping, changed my dressings and said all looked good. He decided to leave the butterfly IV out and give me oral antibiotics, something for which I was greatful. The butterfly was annoying at the best of times.

(HW: for the nonsurgical among you, a butterfly is a shunt inserted into a vein in the hand. It looks like it would hurt, and my supersensitive hands winced every time I saw those tubes inserted in the back of my mate's leathery-skinned paw. It beats a new needle every time, but his body simply got tired of it and shut it off. The last nurse got it to work by stroking the vein, which makes sense, as CG can be made to do darn near anything by petting, and absolutely nothing by striking.. his body threw out the butterfly, it threw out the drain, and is currently draining itself very nicely thank you.. I had to use stain remover on a pair of pants he decided to wear, despite bandages, tape etc. I keep telling him he's just getting in touch with his Feminine side, having to wear stockings and bleeding all over the place involuntarily.. )

HW showed up just before dinner and we had good cuddles, then she showed off all the treats she'd brought, fresh peaches, grapes, watermelon chunks ... tasty!

We spent the evening chatting, playing Scrabble (we were 1 and 1, she took the seven-tile game easily and I swept the nine-tile round away), occasionally seeing what weirdness German TV was up to, and nibbling fruity goodies. We took a walk around the station, debated going down to the cafe, but decided it was a bit much, though we might try to go tomorrow afternoon.

(HW: We did, with a dear German friend who visited that afternoon, make it down to the cafe on Sunday. CG did great, we used a prop pillow stolen from the waiting room on a cafe chair. Funny now it's doc's orders that CG takes his usual comfortable long-legged slump)

I was pretty chipper and alert until after 10 pm, unusual for me since the OP, but after I took the new nighttime meds at about 1030, I was out like a light. Slept pretty much like a log, though I did have one weird dream about HW, P!nk (!?) and myself wandering around this little town drinking beer and raising hell.

(HW: Hmm. Must have had to do with me observing MoPed punks putting on helmets and then punching each other, and wondering how much fun it would be to walk up and knock one over without really hitting the helmet... )

Woke up twice, once to crutch to the WC and once to wave at the night nurse peeking in, then suddenly, it was daylight.

2007-07-22T15:52:00.000-04:00

Friday, July 20 -- 2nd post-op day

Morning routine. Poke, prod, "How ya doin'?" then breakfast.

Surgeon came in and removed the second (and last)drain from the wound. Says all looks good.

(HW: Post-op patients wander around with a kind of movable "blood bucket" which looks like they have a bottle of beet juice attached to *wherever*)

HW has to go back to Pressath to deal with some business and chores today and tomorrow, so she loaded up and headed out just a bit ago but she'll be back tomorrow around lunchtime.

(HW: The hospital presented me with a "pre-bill" of about 12,500 Euro for the hospitalization and rehabilitation. They want it by the time they discharge him. I told him they would get it when the insurance company sent it, because we didn't have that kind of money, but that they would get it. The lovely young lady I spoke with [in broken Denglish] seemed resigned.. I used my age and presence to just make things "as they were" and the Germans, bless them, understand bloody bureaucracy all too well. I think they invented it, and are very sorry. )

She helped me get up and make my first trip of the day to the WC (I have a piss-bottle for that, but the WC calls, especially after coffee.), which was challenging, but not as exhausting as yesterday. Staff has bustled about, but I haven't seen the PT yet, and am anticipating her arrival with mixed feelings ...

I'm not in a whole lot of pain right now, but have recently discovered that my right butt cheek is numb. Weird, but not a real problem. That sort of thing happens after you get chopped upon.

Morning went fine, but the afternoon and evening sucked. More pain, more restlessness, and the staff here was running around like they had their hair on fire. I was basically on my own for the most of the evening, when usually the nurses or helpers are poking their heads in every hour or so. They were apparently having a Bad Day yesterday eve.

(HW: It was the first night I was gone, and I was furious when I called and found out about it. My guard dog hackles went up, my teeth itched and I wanted a piece of whomever threatened my mate's health Real Bad... fortunately I wasn't there, and CG's equanamity prevailed. He worked in a hospital for years, and knew that sometimes, things just go tits-up. It's something I try to learn from my mate, this centered empathy and some truly legendary listening skills... the art of siddown, shaddup and LISTEN. One of the best lessons anyone can ever learn. I'm studying hard. )

I was annoyed, too, because supper basically sucked big green eggs. Smoked herring. Holy shit, that stuff is horrible. Fortunately, I also got a big brezel stangl (pretzel stick), bread and butter and cheese. That was all fine, but I was Jonesing for a bottle of red wine to go with and wash away the taste of the herring.

(HW: I have a bottle of St Emilion Grand Cru from the Alsace I am saving, for when we can enjoy it outside with the duckies and the bunnies and the excellent sunshine south of Regensburg)

Dear friend Miguel promised some of his wife's excellent Cuban cooking should the next Friday menu threaten similar poor fare!

Evening finally came (along with a crashing thunderstorm and, believe it or not, a 30-minute firework show and blaring music from a fest going on this weekend – all in all, I'd rather have been at the fest drinking beer ...), and things settled down a bit after shift change, but I had a bad night. Lots of pain, restlessness, and nothing seemed to help. I had extra pain meds and sleepy drugs. I went to sleep pretty fast, but still woke up sometime after midnight and only slept intermittently from then on, waking up about every hour or so and thrashing about trying to get comfy. I'd sit up on the bedside, watch some of the truly bizarre German late-night TV, lie back down, try to sleep.

Amused the night nurse (who's a real sweetie with excellent English and a good touch) by waving at her every time she peeked in the room.

2007-07-22T15:26:00.000-04:00

Thursday, July 19 -- 1st day post-op

The mornings start early here, and I was awake and being poked, prodded and queried by about 5 am. "How are you feeling, having any pain?" Etc. Got to take a nice little spit bath and got my back rubbed with some soothing cooling gel stuff, too.

(HW: He was on super drugs and has always been able to get in and out of sleep effortlessly -- I, on the other hand am a deep and slightly fanatic sleeper... Nurses would come in, do things, and then I would get out of my bed, go over and check on him myself with cuddles and kisses. Touch is nothing when you really need morphine, but touch is great on top of excellent medical care.)

The staff are very attentive and responsive and very tolerant of my attempts to speak the language, and many of them speak quite excellent English, though some are quite shy about it.

I saw the surgeon before lunch. His assistant removed the bandages and took my leg out of the brace and MAN did that feel good.

They removed the first of two drains from the wound, and we got to see the actual incision. It's about 10 inches long, sutured up with bright blue nylon. Sort of festive, if it weren't for all the, um, pain. HW, of course, took a photo.

(HW: I'm not sure yet where to put that or what kind of cautions to put on it. Surgical scars aren't pretty to look at, but our friends are exceedingly tough-minded and, well, kinda morbidly curious.)

After lunch, I got my first physical therapy session.

Wow. I've never been so ragged out after doing so (apparently) little. Frau Winter is an intense compact woman with a brisk manner but a very caring touch. She taught me a handful of exercises I must do every hour, isometric contractions of the feet and legs, toe wiggling and deep breathing routines designed to keep circulation flowing and prevent bedsores.

She also did some assisted flexion and extension exercises that, truly felt wonderful

And, I got up and walked the first time. I was given crutches, helped to my feet and pointed at the door. I walked out of the room, made a circle in the hallway outside my door and walked back to bed.

I felt like I'd just run 5 miles. It was the first of three times, I'd be up on my new crutches that day,

Apparently, the implant I have is a titanium shaft in the thighbone, roughened to let the bone adhere to it. The more it's used, the stronger the bond is.

The rest of the days went pretty much like: Get up and crutch to the WC and back, take pain meds, nap. Get up and crutch to the WC and back, take pain meds and nap.

By 8 pm, I was exhausted. I had taken some meds, and the Pfleger came by with more. He said he wanted to be sure I slept well. I took the extras and was out like a light. Despite waking up to get temp taken, a small dose of antibiotics and such, I slept fairly well, though I'd kill to be able to curl up on my side.

Won't be able to do that for several weeks, I fear. I've got to 'sleep politely', as the Japanese say, on my back, feet and hands arranged just so. No crossing of feet, no rolling on the side.

It's a little frustrating, but almost do-able.

(HW: it's amazing how much a guy who's not supposed to be able to move around can thrash, flip blankets and drop things... )

2007-07-22T15:18:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, July 18 -- Day of surgery

Early morning started out with a sleepy pill, surgical prep (shaving the thigh and hip and my pubes), and waiting. Kinda like the Army -- hurry up and wait.

Finally, a couple of Schwestern wheeled me briskly into anesthesia where I got and IV, a shot of something else sleepy-making and a muscle relaxer, and the anesthesiologist did the spinal. Two or three shots in the lower back, and immediately my feet got very warm and within minutes, were gone. Weird feeling, but not unpleasant.

By the time they wheeled me into the surgical suite, I was barely awake and the soothing bustle and chatter faded into black.

I awoke on the operating table when they were done, likely due to the anesthesiologist administering an anti-narcoleptic, and felt nothing at all from my waist down. It was weird, being mostly awake and watching the surgical assistants wave my legs around as they applied bandages from toe to waist on the operated leg.

They noticed I was awake and there was some soothing chatter and shoulder patting. The surgical assistant told me all had gone very well.

I think I fell asleep again and awoke en route to the recovery room/pain management center where I was given some very, very, very good drugs. Repeatedly. And was once scolded for not asking for them frequently enough. I was ber' ber' happy for a while there.

However, as the spinal wore off and feeling started coming back, I was less and less ver' happy and was decidedly not bashful in requesting more good drugs.

My OP-leg was encased in elastic bandages from toe to waist, and was further supported and stabilized in a foam form that kept me from moving it around at all.

Most of the rest of that day passed in pain management. I was in and out, napping after the drugs, awake and chatting with the nurses and HW off and on, and got to see the surgeon again. He commented that he hadn't expected so much muscle in my thigh, and we reminded him that I'd been doing martial arts for 30+ years. He evidently had to rethink the situation in the OR and adjust for the more robust structure he encountered. Folks, I got thighs, and they ain't decorative, but they're damn strong. He's commented about how much and the quality of my thigh musculature every time he's been in to see me. He said, "70-year-old women are MUCH easier to operate on."

(HW: yep, he's got legs like a cuttin' horse, and I LIKE 'em! ;-) )

I had a (very) light supper in the recovery area, then they took me back to my room where I spent the rest of the evening in wrapped in druggy fuzzy goodness, but started hurting about bedtime.

Fortunately, the nurses kept me supplied with pain relievers (though not as tasty as the opiates they'd given me in recovery), and I slept most of the night.

I mustn't neglect mentioning the excellent company HW had during the day. Two dear friends came down from Graf and spent the day with her here, keeping her in very good company whilst I was getting cut upon and later while I was heavily doped up.

Once they knew I was out of danger, and HW was hovering at my bedside, I sent them off to have a good lunch. She popped back in after and I told them to go to the local swimming pool for the afternoon. I was mostly conked out anyway, and the nurses knew how to reach her cel phone if she were needed.

I can't thank those two enough. They were an immense comfort to HW and made the day much less stressful, and probably a great deal more fun for her.

(YES! TW and JP, you guys are sanity savers.. thanks for making one of the harder days in my life fun. You are both so sweet, kind, smart and beautiful, you should both get Miz Universe and the No-Bell Peas Prize all on the same day!!)

2007-07-22T15:09:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, July 17 -- To the hospital.

Spent the morning sending a few last minute e-mails, having a nice pancake breakfast with HW and apologizing to the cat for the suitcases. We were still shunned.

Got on the road and made pretty good time, all considered, and arrived at the hospital right on time. Check-in and orientation were, as typical for Germany, efficient and complex.

In between all else, last minute blood work and consultations with the surgeon's assistant and anesthesiologist (we decided on a spinal rather than general and some good sleepy-making drugs that wouldn't take me completely out, but would relax me to the point of not caring. took up most of the morning.

We were finally shown to the room about noon, and found lunch waiting. Roast pork with gravy and knoedel, typically German fare. After lunch, I answered a ton of questions (that had been covered at least three times already in various interviews -- information sharing anyone?) for the floor nurse (a male nurse is a Pfleger, a female is a Schwester -- Caregiver and Sister respectively, despite the female nurses NOT being nuns).

My marginally conversational Deutsch got a real workout, and HW's super translation powers helped muchly. By the time all the wandering about and interviews and finally meeting with the actual surgeon was done, it was almost suppertime. HW went for a walk to acquaint herself with the area while I awaited a couple of shots and more chatter with nurses.

We're doing the Lucy and Ricky thing here, separate single beds, but despite that, it's very cool for HW to be able to actually stay in the room with me. In the coming days, she'd prove to be a great help and a real trooper.

(HW: I threatened to set up a tent on the grounds if they didn't let me stay. It's evidently rare for a family member to want to be around for surgery, but there's no way I could be kept away. The power of touch is the best medicine in the world, and CG and I have a very touch-oriented relationship.)

She's infinitely curious about how things will get, what will happen and how I will be affected. I'm just ready to get this done and move forward.

Recovery

2007-07-20T05:50:00.000-04:00

This is M (HW or Hedgewitch) filling you in on CG's progress.

The surgeon keeps remarking on the mass and strength of the muscles he had to go through for the procedure, and CG is pretty bruised up, but the staff is extremely attentive and generous with pain medication.

The surgery was Wednesday morning, and he spent most of that day heavily drugged and napping. I spent it with two dear, dear women who came to keep me company with Scrabble, lunch out, giggles and hugs and even a swimming expedition. I checked in with Chuck hourly, with a 2.5 hour break for the swim, from the time they told me he was awake.
They put him back in the room that evening, and by jiminy the PT had him standing up and walking the very next day. He did the same today, and got a little walk around the hall in, with her encouragement. He's doing his exercises faithfully, and had his first visitor (our wonderful landlord) today. He's not in much discomfort, he gets ice packs and cooling rubdowns (it's a very hot muggy summer) and the staff is just wonderful.

I spent the last couple of days in the hospital bed next to him to provide small wifely comforts and translate a bit for the staff. Many of them speak English, but my fluency is a little better than his, and I'm not on drugs.

Hospital beds aren't bad, kind of fun actually, but I don't know how anyone is supposed to get better in a hospital.
They don't let you sleep for more than two hours! Sheesh! At least tonight I will get 40 uninterrupted winks.
He tends to sleep lightly in any case, so it doesn't bother him.
Thank you all for your support, I read him every message.
--Hedgewitch

Ready to go ...

2007-07-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

HW and I are sitting down with coffee and pancakes, getting ready to go to the hospital today. I'm ready.

Spent the weekend packing, deciding what I needed for the coming week, sorting last minute details out.

It's hard to let go of work, but a relief as well. They'll do fine without me. Gonna have to get used to it anyhow, as I've come up against the 5-year idiocy rule, meaning I will have to head back to the USA before next June.

Pancakes are done, I'll check in when I have 'net access again.

Lots of folks have been sending or phoning well-wishes. Thanks to all. Y'all are all appreciated.

2007-07-14T16:28:00.001-04:00

Doc says I'll have to have a tuneup in about 20 years, but by then, we may be regrowing the whole joint (his words).

2007-07-14T16:27:00.001-04:00

Thanks for the good wishes and tips, folks. The phys. therapy angle is dead on. I'll get an intensive, pretty much 8 hrs a day rehab the first 2-3 weeks following the surgery and another couple weeks with 3 hrs a day as an outpatient.

I'm really, really looking forward to hiking again. There's a lovely castle ruin atop a ridgeline near here, Weisenstein. Our favorite path up to it is about a kilometer up a goat trail-ish path that zigs and zags and requires the occasional all-fours scramble. Atop the ridgeline, the ruin give a good chance to cath breath and rest a bit before taking one of several trails in the forest.

About 4 km from the castle ruin is a lookout point with a tall observation platform, allegedly the highest point in the Oberpfalz. Beautiful if the weather's clear.

Yeshi: Thanks for the good thoughts and the prayers. I'll be getting sliced up on the 18th. Don't know the exact time, but it'll be sometime after 8 am and before noon.

Airports: HW says I have to wear a kilt when flying from now on, so when they question me about the metal thing, I can flash 'em.

Had my pre-op exam yesterday. Blood work (six freaking vials! I felt like I ought to have felt dizzy from blood loss), EKG and stress test because of a minor (and ultimately) harmless anomaly, pulmonary function test, etc.

All normal to high-normal. Surgery is a 'go' at this station.

Discussion with the family doc (great guy with a wicked sense of humor -- he instructed me to watch Fred Astaire's "Singing in the Rain" when I came back to see him post-op, so we could dance) about the surgery. Very reassuring and supportive of HW.

Also started a little more aggressive 'pre-hab' fitness training Monday. While HW taught the sword class, I spent 15 min each on a couple of cardio-trainers in the gym. I'm not getting on the mat again until after the operation and rehab, so she and our student Miguel are handling the beginners an working with each other on the intermediate stuff.

We're hoping to put together a mini-seminar in Regensburg in October, featuring a good friend and fellow sword-swinger (and long-time judoka) who'll be visiting form the US. I should be mostly functional at that time for sword work, but the matwork will probably have to wait a bit still.

Ah well, gotta get ready for work, although I'd prefer a longer lazy morning with breakfast on the patio with HW, but I still have to go to work this week.

2007-07-14T16:26:00.001-04:00

HR surgery seems to be growing in the US and Europe, mainly - I think - because as we 'Boomers' are getting older, we're not settling down as much as or as early. We're still hiking, biking, playing judo, whatever. More wear and tear on the system.

HW kids me about getting the world's weirdest German souvenier. I'm planning to get the schematic of the implant tattooed on the hip, wreathed in flames with the doc's signature and a tiny "made in Germany" line.

Hippy resources

2007-07-14T16:25:00.000-04:00

Several sites for info about hip replacement surgery:

http://hipsterclub.com/support.html

http://www.biomet.com/patients/hip_replacement.cfm

http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/hip/hiprepqa.htm

http://www.mhrrc.org/kopacs_corner/i..._hip_repl.html

More to come ... feel free to add.

Hippy hippy shake

2007-07-14T16:24:00.001-04:00

I'm slated to go into the hospital next week for replacement of my right hip due to degenerative arthritis.

I'm 50, in reasonably good shape and health and my wife is a bodywork professional (she's a European Rolfing Association certified Rolfer, if anyone's interested). I am more flexible than average and have been fairly active (martial arts 2-3 times a week, hiking or biking almost every weekend, 1-2 times a week in the gym as well) until this past year when the hip has really gone gimpy; steadily increasing pain and occasional failure to operate properly. I'm on daily pain meds (Metamizol 3 times a day) now and walking with a cane.

The doc will take off the head of the femur and remove the socket of my pelvis. Then the surgery will replace the head with a titanium allow ball, set on a shaft that will extend into the thighbone itself. The new acetabulum(?) will socket into a stainless steel cup attached to my pelvis.

I'll be in the hospital for about a 7-10 days (physical therapy starts the first day post-op), followed up with 2-3 weeks of in-patient rehab and 2 more of outpatient rehab.

The surgeon is highly recommended, probably one of the top 10 in Europe according to my GP) and the clinic (at Bad Abbach) if affiliated with the University of Regensburg and is supposed to be one of the best around.

I'm not particularly anxious about the surgery (it'll be my third major operation in 20-some-odd years), but my wife is very, very stressed. She's never had to deal with anything quite like this before (we've been together about 7 years).

I AM looking forward to not having the pain anymore and being able to get back on with my life.

I should have 'puter access at the hospital and rehab clinic and I'll post updates from time to time.

Holidays

2006-09-03T03:19:00.000-04:00

Kali sperra,

We're off to lovely (warm) Greece for a holiday, a couple of days in Athens to meet with a friend and do the tourist schtick, then on to Lefkas on the west coast to loll about in the sun and enjoy the ocean, fresh seafood and the incredible hospitality of Agios Nikitas.

Hedgewitch has been prodding me about keeping this better maintained, so when we get back, I'll try again.

'Till then, good night and good luck.

Splooge

2006-03-09T14:50:00.000-05:00

All the wonderful fluffy snow? Going ... slowly. Painfully.

It's raining. The snowpack this morning was more ice than snow, and it was raining as I shoveled the walk and drive. Sheesh.

How far away is Spring?

Well, it's certainly Spring-ish back in Texas, and Tom Delay, indicted in Austin, Texas on criminal charges of conspiracy to violate election laws has just gotten the GOP nod in primaries. Crazy world we live in.

Speaking of rain, apparently Cassini has discovered liquid water on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Ver' cool! Well, yeah, literally. Enceladus is tiny (not much more than 300 miles across) and is quite frozen. But the probe has recorded what appears to be outflows of liquid water coming from cracks in the icy crust. One step closer to finding something resembling life on another rock in our Solar system.

The conditions may be similar there to Lake Vida, in Antartica. It's a hyper-saline body of water buried beneath the ice cap, under some 19 meters of ice. Scientists have been drilling there and have found some amazing things, including ancient microbes that may have been sealed up some 2,800 years ago and that may represent a totally new type of ecosystem. They came to life when warmed, by the way ...

Between that and the life flourishing around the black smokers in the ocean deeps, we're discovering that life is weirder and more pervasive than we have ever though it to be.

The more we learn about Terrestrial life, and the extremes within which it can exist, the more confident I am that we'll find something similar on some of the other planets or moons in this wondrous place we call home.

Counting Texas votes?

2006-03-05T05:07:00.000-05:00

As in do MY votes count? You know what a Texas resident living outside the country has to go through just to vote?

We have to re-register for EVERY single election, re-request a ballot every time, and then hope that the vote actually GETS counted. Double that, because the Hedgewitch and I both want to vote.

Sheesh. Is it just that the great state of Texas simply doesn't think anyone should ever LEAVE Texas? C'mon folks. I want to participate in my state's political process, but the state itself makes it horribly difficult.

So anyhow, we're coming up fast on the gubernatorial election. If you are a Texan and are registered to vote (you ARE registered to vote aren't you?) remember to Save Yourself for Kinky and stay away from the polls on March 7.

Speaking of Texans and politics, have you heard about the Upchuck Rebellion? Check it out.

There WERE some shrubs out there ...

2006-03-04T04:46:00.000-05:00

However, they're currently covered in snow. And that means it's time to shovel the drive. Again. Hell, even most of the Germans in the neighborhood have stopped being meticulous about clearing the snow and are doing the bare minimum.

Speaking of the locals getting less meticulous ...

Back in the 80s, for the most part, Germany was immaculate. Spotless. Trashless.

It's changing.

There's more litter on streets, country lanes, in parks. Sad. Some Germans point toward the East and give the influx of former East Germans, Czechs and such. My observations, though, are that the German kids themselves are less careful, more apt to toss a McDonald's sack out the window than to find a trashcan.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Germany, and mostly, really enjoy the people here. Seeing them loosen up a bit is a Good Thing (tm). Some of the most German of the Germans are incredibly tightly wrapped ...

There's a recycling collection point on the corner by our driveway, big igloo-looking containers designated for glass, paper, etc. It's usually a bit of a mess, but there's a small copse of trees tween it and the drive proper, so it's not an eyesore or anything, but occasionally a drift of old newspapers or somesuch has to be policed up.

As we live on a sort of alley, lots of folks who use the recycling point will pull into our alley, make their deposits, then use our drive to turn around. It's not annoying unless they park there (happens occasionally), or park so that they block the drive (happens a bit more often).

We've gotten used to the traffic there, and the occasional unexpected visitor, however, the giftie I found the other day was a surprise. Clearing some ice from the drive one day, I noticed what appeared to be a full 'yellow bag' in the copse of trees, tucked back in the corner.

Yellow bag is plastic, plasticized paper, styrofoam, etc. It's packed up in neat yellow sacks, (thus the name, gelbe sacke). You place it outside to be collected every couple of weeks. Recycling here isn't an option, it's the law. As a colleague of mine found out recently, you can and will be ticketed and fined if you fail to sort your trash properly and put it in the right place.

First thought was that it was the gelbe sacke was one of ours that had somehow escaped, but upon inspection, it was clear that it was neither strictly yellow bag nor at all ours. It contained batteries (a real no-no in any trash here, there are very specific laws about how old batteries and such are to be disposed of), kid's toys, all kinds of broken or useless crap that looked like someone cleaned out a child's toybox.

It had to have been dumped there by someone who pulled or walked up our drive and shoved it back in the trees. There's no way to get to the corner from the recycling area.

Damned annoying. Damned un-German.

2006-01-13T10:34:00.000-05:00

Dad died Tuesday evening about 8:30 pm.

He was home, under hospice care, and died in his sleep.

He'd had a busy weekend, with our arrival Saturday and lots of visits from old friends Sunday. Monday he was just too worn out to wake up and by Tuesday morning, he was really not there anymore. The body was just still executing the program, but the mind was checking out.

Me Mum had done most of her grieving while he was still there, and is doing pretty well, all considered. She's surrounded by friends and her sister is visiting from Scotland.

The Hedgewitch and I are here until Saturday, when we will return to Germany.

It was good to say goodbye. I think he recognized us, and was probably just waiting until we could be there. We got to talk and hold hands and offer lots of love and joy while he was still having moments of lucidity.

I'm still processing all this, but have also done most of my grieving already. There's a definite sense of loss, but also a sense of release.

He was a Good Man, me Da', and will be remembered fondly.

Guten Rutsch

2006-01-02T09:57:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to all you heretics and heathens and freethinkers of any ilk!

2006 promises to be just as ... interesting ... as last year, maybe more so. Hedgewitch and I celebrated the Solstice and New Year pretty low key this year. Stayed in, pampered and spoiled each other, had dinner with friends for Xmas, wound up partying with new neighbors New Years (early, early) morn. Had friends over for a Hangover Brunch (at 3 p.m.) New Years Day.

The season was only tarnished by one note of bad news, a pending death in my family. Not unexpected, but will still be a sad event as we move into the new year.

So, now, the season's wound down and it's back to the grindstone.

I've got some thoughts about wehre to go with this blog, and will try to post at least once a week.

In the meantime, check out a couple of Texas favorites of mine:

Jim Hightower
Kinky Friedman

And don't forget: VOTE KINKY!

Frohe Neue Jarh, ya'll!