Scar Tissue Or Fibro? Or Am I Just a Pussy?

Many of you may have used the derogatory term 'dickhead' to refer to someone who may deservedly have earned such a title. Others of you may have earned the title for yourselves.

However, it should be noted that real 'dickheads' do exist in the wild, and may be spending some time this summer at a community swimming pool in your area.

Be alert and exercise necessary caution.
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Leaving in a short while for the Twin Cities for x-rays on the right knee which after two weeks of intensive therapy, which had been going quite well, suddenly became painful enough where the therapist has ordered x-rays to determine what is causing so much pain at this point, when in fact the knee should be getting stronger and exhibiting less pain.

There is a possibility that there has been a build up on scar tissue in the almost two years since the operation.

Then again, it just might be flare ups of my fibromyalgia which comes upon me at totally unexpected times and for no apparent reason. for those of you not familiar with the condition, it is much like having severe muscular flu symptoms as everything hurts.

I have had fibromyalgia since my early fifties and there seems to be no definitive cure for the malady. I am at the point where i am going to have to start looking at diet and I find that frightening as I am ceertain it will tell me that i am going to have to give up some of my favorites such as bread -- I love bread! And white sugar -- which is bad for everyone anyway.

Will cross that dreadful bridge when I get to it!

Thanks To Dr. Chad It Was Good To Be Out On The Water Again

This past thursday evening, I introduced my chiropractor (and friend) Chad Wolter to the Jack Harmon Chicken Dinner at the Durand Rod and gun Club between Downsville and Durand.

We actually arrived quite late (7:30PM) but found that this is probably smarter than arriving at 5PM and waiting to be seated for at least an hour.

In turn, last night Chad introduced me to a new method of fishing for small mouth bass on Dells Pond above the dam on the Chippewa River.

It was a very windy late afternoon, the kind that when I have fished them before, I have come home empty handed, but the wind didn't seem to affect the style we used: A rubber night crawler and large sinker.

Chad has fished Dells Pond extensively and knew where to go to find the fish, which always helps. We headed out at a rapid clip towards the dam and fished the shoreline near the pilings of the old railroad bridge near Pope and Talbot.

It took me a while to get the hang of fishing plastic worms -- I got the first strike of the afternoon but lost the fish after a brief fight of only seconds.

Chad landed a smaller bass a short time later, so we knew they were in there. When we we were almost under the old railroad trestle, I got a good solid strike and landed the bronze back pictured. I decided to return the fish to the river to fight another day.

Overall, fishing was slow, Chad did land a small northern off an island further up into the pond, but we decided to hang it up as it got close to 7PM and I wanted to see if the Packers were going to redeem themselves after the embarrassment in San Francisco last week.

Now Chad I and are talking about possibly doing an overnight fishing/camping jaunt on the Jump River to give me further practice in mastering the art of fishing plastic worms.

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The Green Bay Packers looked much better last night. Question of the day: Is this going to be one of those years where you never know which team is going to show up week to week?

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After suffering more knee pain than I should be this past week at therapy, I have been advised to make an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon this coming week for x-rays to find out if there is a build up of scar tissue. The appointment has been made.

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Kim and I took our bikes into the shop earlier in the week and will be picking them up today. It will be good to work the knee that way as well.

I forgot how allergic I am to poison ivy -- I have an outbreak happening currently -- Man-- I hate the stuff! All you can do is let it run its course.

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Marcie and Joy -- Two Loves of My Life

I wanted to put this picture of my mother-in-law Joy (she's the younger in the picture) and her sister Marcie in my blog today just to say I LOVE YOU to both of them. Marcie passed away recently in Florida. She was a woman of infinite joy and a love and zest for life. She would send me (and everybody else she loved) cards with wonderfully inventive poems she had written.

Joy is the best mother-in-law a man could every hope to have and of late has suffered way too much for such a good person to endure, having lost her husband, Bob, to first, a very severe stroke and then the final blow, a badly broken hip. Right now, Joy herself is struggling with poor health, battling recently discovered lung cancer. So please say a little prayer for this gracious lady!

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Stayed pretty close to home yesterday -- didn't even feel much like doing the blog -- with nothing much worth saying. Still stinging from the way the Packers looked so shitty against the 49'ers and am wondering if it is worth trying to find a friend who gets ESPN for the opening night game against the Queens.

McCarthy obviously has a lot of work to do to get this team anywhere near where it was last year. I find it rather amusing that the organization ships out a three time MVP'er and all time great field general and at the same time raises the average game ticket by $50 a ticket.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Falcons are selling season tickets for $250 a pop.

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The knee was still very sore yesterday and the only workout I could give it was riding the stationary bike twice for 10 minute periods. Woke this morning with the pain not nearly as severe and have one round of stationary bike under my belt already, so maybe I can add a bit of stretching second time around later today.

Took Hammy and Stella in to the vet for their first visit. They were very well behaved and much calmer about the whole experience than our last two cats were. Harley and Hannah hated the carrier and the trip in the car and shook with fear all the while they were at the vet.

we got the kittens their rabies shots and their nails trimmed. The vet suggested that we bring them back in in September for the major operations of spaying, neutering, and declawing.

There was some discussion about the positives and negatives of declawing and we decided ultimately that since we are having it done while they are so young, it is not too intrusive and will save on the couches and other furniture.

The vet did find that both cats -- Stella in particular -- are still suffering an upper respiratory infection and after examining and cleaning their ears, there is still signs of mite problems. ( We couldn't believe the gunk the vet extracted from deep within both sets of ears with a Q tip!)

So Kim and I are now playing doctor at home, twice a day, putting cream in their ears and a liquid antibiotic down their throats (no easy task), but we will get them healthy and up to speed in a week or so..

One thing's for certain -- get two kittens in the house together and you have endless entertainment. and you don't have to go out to the pet store and drop $50 for toys. Try cutting a spent toilet paper roll into thirds and toss them on the floor! Ot the old grocery bag trick! Or a super ball. Almost anything that will move along the floor;

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In an attempt to get outside myself and stomp these miserable blues, tomorrow afternoon I am jumping in my chiropractor, Chad Wolter's boat, for an afternoon/evening of small mouth bass fishing on Dells Pond. It will be a new experience for me as we will be using "rubber worms" -- so I will be in the learning mode. Maybe I can get some photos for the blog! Just to gete in the mood, I bought some catfish fillets and sweet corn for tonight's meal!

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Favre Didn't Look That Old Or Out of Shape to Me!

Hammy does his impersonation of "Snoopy" whenever I am in the kitchen by climbing out on the divider above the kitchen/living room area to watch me work on preparing dinner.

As both he and Stella become more acclimated to the house, we are beginning to recognize their own personality traits that differ from Harley and Hannah's.

For one thing, we never had a problem with Harley or Hannah being interested in "people food", whereas whenever I cook anything and put it on the table there is an immediate attempt on climbing the chairs to get onto the table and get at the plates.
I have to keep a little spray bottle of water handy to put them in retreat -- that works very well! Two quick squirts and they are off the table and gone.

Same is true with the living plants that we have. They like to get right up into the plants and roll around and chew leaves. Out with the water bottle!

Monday we take them in to the vet for their first check up. We are somewhat concerned about Stella who has a constant sneeze and runny eye -- something the folks at the shelter were giving her antibiotics for even before we brought her home.
Hammy, on the other hand, is very healthy and tears about the house.

Stella does not appear to be sick as her activity is good but we are concerned about the sneezing and watery eye.

We bought a 5 by 8 foot piece of carpet to put the cat boxes on in the basement and keep a vacuum cleaner handy. I am finding this a much better set up than the newspapers we used to put down under the cat boxes for our other cats. Now I just clean the cat boxes, take them off the carpet, do a quick vacuum of the scattered litter and the area is brand spanking clean.

I have been diligent in doing this routine daily and that makes the chore much easier.

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I seem to have hit a wall with the knee exercises this past week. The knee became increasingly stiff and painful as the week progressed and I haven't been able to do my stretching exercises for two days.

I have, however, continued to work out on the stationary bike every day and have been icing the knee inside neoprene to try and ease the pain and swelling.

It has been somewhat depressing.

Not as depressing as watching Brett Favre move the Jets down for an easy touchdown march in his first time around as a Jet, then switching over to the Packer game and watching Rodgers dance around and throw off the back foot -- with little or no help from the offensive line.

Ted Thompson, boy genius.

Could be a long season. And all because of Thompson's hubris.

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Numb Nuts Stays True To Form At Olympics

I haven't even turned on the coverage of the Olympics -- and this picture demonstrates why! What an absolute cretin! Now if Bill Clinton ad held the flag up in such a manner, the press would have massacred him!

All I can think back on is the time that my late friend Gerald FitzGerald and I were watching a Brewers/Texas Rangers game, televised live from Texas. This was back in the day when George Walker daddy Bush had put Numb Nuts in charge of the team -- president, no less -- the television camera zeroed in on the box containing Laura and George -- and there's Georgy-Porgy
knuckle deep picking his nose.

The camera quickly panned elsewhere so I never got a chance to see if he ate it or not. My money would be on "pickin' and chewin'.

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Hammy, Stella Adjusting To New Surroundings

I had forgotten the pure joy of having kittens in the house, if nothing more than as a great source of entertainment.

These two are full of boundless energy (n spurts) followed by long languorous naps on their favorite resting place, an old love seat in the basement that is covered with bagged clothes bound for Good Will and one fuzzy blanket which is like heaven to them!

Last night was a big step forward in their feeling at home. Hammy (the buff male), made his first unaccompanied trip to the loft where I was sprawled out watching television. He jumped up on the couch arm first, then slowly made his way to the blanket I had over myself at the time, and snuggled down between my hip and the back of the couch.

Then he grew bold and climbed up on my chest, just below my chin, and must have caught a whiff of what I had for supper on my breath as he began nuzzling my mouth and purring loudly. He then began to lick my face for a bit.

It was welcome as neither Harley nor Hannah would do that intimacy. My first cat, Rose, was a real lover, and during the winter when I grew my beard, she would groom it for my, lapping away until she was satisfied I was clean!

I am finding that there is nothing wrong with their appetites as their bowl is empty most of the time. That's my cat report for today! I will try not to bore you with too many stories -- will wait until they do something spectacular.

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The physical therapy on my right knee continues. The last two days it has been unusually sore but that could because of the weather changes. I am still very much motivated and have a great therapist in Rebecca at Northwoods Therapy Associates, which fortunately, is only about 4 miles away from the house.

I received a call from Junior at Sammy's Pizza yesterday, inquiring if I was considering putting the band back together again. I had, in fact, talked with several of the guys in the band when we played at the Cavalier's game, about getting back together and working bars occasionally (even club work has dried up!) so the call from Junior was the shove I needed and I got on the phone and called Denny Marion, who ordinarily wouldn't work a Friday night, but he will be on vacation both dates that I need him so he said yes -- which pleased me to no end as denny is one of the premiere players in the area. In addition to plaing lead guitar, he is an excellent pedal steel player, a dobro player, a five string banjo man, and he sings!

I also contacted Tim Keilholtz, my regular bas player and he signed on also. Then came the call to Dave "Barney" Barneson, my drummer, as I really needed him to say yes -- and luckily he did!

So the band is in place and we will be at Sammy's Pub (in the back room of Sammy's Pizza, London Road) on Friday, September 19, and Friday, October 24, from 8:30 PM - 11:30 PM. Good hours for a guy whose leg still isn't back to full strength! Hope to see you there!

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Hammy Causes Restless First Night -- Makes Surprise Appearance!

Here are some photos of our "babies" -- they were born on April 12 of this year.

We got off to a rather tumultuous start yesterday (Sunday). We picked the cats up at the Humane Society at noon and took them to the house. The first thing we did was take them, still in the carrier, down to the basement to introduce them to the cat boxes - we have three. They both immediately made a beeline for the boxes and began rolling around in the clean litter, jumping from box to box and then pawing wildly, throwing litter everywhichaway. We decided to just leave them downstairs to their own devices and see if eventually that "cat curiosity" would lead them upstairs.

Well, it didn't! They were perfectly happy to explore every nook and cranny of the basement, each room stacked with boxes of glassware, etc. Eventually, we decided to just leave them down there and went grocery shopping for supper supplies. While at the store, Kim ran into Mari Krenz an her husband, Keith. They also were buying supplies for an evening's cookout. Finally towards the end of our shopping we bumped into them again and they invited us out to their lovely home for tiger shrimp and NY strip steaks on the grill -- never one to pass up a free meal, I said yes.

We returned home, unpacked the groceries, sought out the kittens (still in the basement), played with them for a bit, then left the house for dinner. We returned around 9:30PM to find Stella standing on the steps to the loft. "Where's your brother Hammy?" I asked. Then I went upstairs to see if he was in the loft -- no cat. so then began a thorough search of the house. after a full hour of searching the far reaches of the place we began to get that panicky sick feeling in the pits of our stomaches that perhaps, somehow, when we had left the house "Hammy" had slipped past us and gotten outside.

I took a flashlight and did a complete search around the perimeter -- no cat. By now Kim and I were really feeling low. We looked around the house one more time for good measure and finally agreed that he wasn't in the house and that somehow he had escaped or we would have heard him scratching about.

With heavy hearts we went to bed and both slept fitfully. I got up around three AM and went outside with the flashlight to look under the front steps. No cat. Kim got up around four as the automatic outside light popped on and she hoped against hope -- but again -- no cat.

Kim was up and dressed with first light and by 7am, armed with her cell phone, she left the house to go talk to the neighbors about our missing little friend. I remained in bed, feeling really low, for about 10 minutes, when suddenly, out of God knows where, around the corner, at full speed, and into the bedroom, charges Hammy, who sees me and makes a quick run under the bed.

I quickly dial up Kim and shout: "He's here! He's here! He's in the bedroom under the bed! I just closed the door to keep him here! Come home!"

Then I get down and look under the bed and I can't see the cat! I look hard -- no cat! I begin to think I was hallucinating what I saw. I run to get the kitchen flashlight. I get down on my knees and shine it under the bed. Still no cat. Then I spot him under the tucked in blanket where it hangs down to the floor and THERE HE IS hiding mostly under the folds of the blanket.

Kim comes home and with the help of a feather toy finally lures him out from under the bed. Soon he is nestled up against her on the bed, purring his heart out.

So we are very grateful right now that we didn't lose one of the cats within 24 hours of adoption! We consider re-naming the elusive Hammy -- "Spooky" or "Spook" but he is still Hammy. They are both just the cutest things and we are already smitten beyond belief!

Now that we know that as long as we are careful when we leave the house not to leave the door open too long and to know where they both are, everything is more relaxed. Let them hide as much as they want. Eventually they will have to eat and poop -- and we will see them when they come upstairs to eat, for sure!

And we will shower them with gentle love so much that they will grow to trust us and want to be with us.

We are happy parents!

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