The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

As many of you know, for the past 5 or 6 years, I have been actively pursuing Social Security Disability.  It has not been an easy road. It was hard for even my lawyer to wrap his head around the fact I have a Masters degree in Library Science.  Never mind that there was little wrong with the left side of my brain. I, like many with disabilities, have been able to beat the odds and overcome adversity. My parents were told I was blind and would never walk. Sure, both are issues for me but I can still do them!  And then my dream job at the seminary happened. How can I prove I can't work when I in fact am and am now reasonably able to pay most of my expenses? Should I have turned down? Maybe. Have I ever pondered saying "No?" Hell, no. Two months later, the seizures happened and simultaneously, I experienced the darkness months of my life (Much of that time I don't actually have memory of...) but my case, morbidly gained new life. Recently, I've been mentally, ps...

The whole Donald Sterling controversy is surely blazing inferno in our society and I must put my thoughts down for posterity. Conservatives pounced when the NBA cracked down on it.  "We're allowed to be assholes!" a friend commented on Facebook. Like fuck you are! In this particular case, as owner, Sterling was the face of a NBA franchise which, theoretically, should be a family friendly thing.    "If you don't agree with his policies, just boycott." Yes, you could, still, for that matter, but the NBA still did the right thing for removing the reason for doing so. I have never been to LA so I couldn't tell you how far apart where the Clippers play from where the Lakers play but let's assume the NBA aren't just money grubbing whores and LA needs both teams for the greater good. "But he's been a racist since he bought the team back in the '80's." We didn't have the internet so info didn't travel as quickly.  The Cl...

Man, I'm unproductive today.  I'm also somewhat annoyed. As some of you may have noticed on Facebook yesterday, I related the story on how I got a call from my doctor's office that I still hadn't gone for lab work that had been ordered 2 weeks ago.  One, I don't remember hearing this before. Two, it wasn't mentioned last week when the pain in my side was determined to just be a, really bad,  muscle pull.  If such an order existed wouldn't it be cancelled after the ultrasound found nothing? Anyway, my second clue that this  clue this wouldn't end well: the lab test was set up at not my usual hospital but the other one.  Say what?  So I went that afternoon.  They had no record of the order.  They called my doctor and I waited though when she go an answering machine, I knew the damn office was closed. I waited anyway about 2 hours.  My entertainment was druggies and Fox News... I was going to review The Wolverine here but it's not pla...

So I'm back in Portland. Still not 100% but I have the energy to do what I need to do.  (Isn't that the slogan for "Powdermilk Biscuits?") I have nothing more to add to that. Questions? Fingers crossed that I get back on the hospital's free care program because this upcoming bill (Still paying off the April fun...) will be horrible even after my insurance pays their part... Oh, Amos' self-cleaning litterbox finally bit the dust after the rake kept getting stuck and made noises like an MRI machine. (Machine gun for the non-medical among us).  Guess who, while recovering from neurosurgery, had to take the outercasing off to convert it to a normal box? Man of Steel devolved into non-stop action towards the end of the movie but I really can't say any of the action scenes were completely unnecessary. They made logical sense. They were just too long.  Readers of fanboy rants know the issues they had with all the previous movies.  Too much Luthor and not enou...

1. So for those of you not Facebook friends with me, the shunt malfunctioned again.  The day before my scheduled follow-up with the neurosurgeon,  the incision in my head started to leak cerebral fluid.  The cause was either an infection in my abdomen or the scar tissue build-up had formed  a "reservoir" or "swimming pool" and the system simply backed-up and out my head.  After being the hospital for about 10 days,  I am now back at my parents and feeling pretty well.   2. A couple weeks ago, my parents and  I went to see Paul McCartney's son, James, in Portland. In addition to many of his songs reminding me of his father,  my mother  and I were surprised that many songs sounded a lot like John Lennon including the song "Bluebell" which James wrote about his mother.  I had a good time.   The opening act was Jon Sandler and he was pretty good as well...   3. Star Trek Into Darkness was an awesome movi...

So to update everyone on my post-surgery recovery: I have returned to Portland and gone back to work. Still on painkillers and not at 100% energy-wise but I'm feeling well enough for my non-high energy life so woo hoo? Amos the cat is still making me pay for leaving him. Complicating matters, I don't have the energy to fight with him.  He could be pretty fat when all is and and done.  Anyway, he got up on the cabinets again after a catnip fix but got down before I could snap a picture. Oh well... News on the new fall season are emerging.  Really, the only two shows I care about given the axe were Body of Proof  and Vegas so that's nice .  Honestly, after their cast shake-up, Body of Proof 's writing went down hill. The first 3 or 4 episodes seemed derivative of Castle and this season mind you!  I think they hit their stride after that though. This week's episode was probably the best of the season. When the period drama Vegas was announced with it's ...

As many of you know, it turns out the flu I thought I had was actually classic shunt malfunction symptoms (horrible headaches and chills) that was always told to look for.  In 35 years, I had never experienced them and really am not looking forward to ever experiencing them again!  Again, this discovery came from going to a different doctor.  This time, instead of my eye doctor, it was my primary care physician.  According to this blog's archives, I was apparently irked, the first time I went to see her after moving to Portland,  she wanted me to touch base with the neurosurgery office.  My shunt has now malfunctioned twice since.  [Insert morbid laugh here].  The medical opinion is that this malfunction occurred because 35 years worth of scar tissue was impeding the flow of cerebral fluid into my abdomen.   Overall, I really don't feel as bad as the incident last summer.  My aunt says I'm an "old pro."  Luc...

Maybe you wish I had...  Busy week. Probably mentioned a choral group that has rehearsed at my church before to some but may not have blogged about it.  Anyway, this year in addition to 6 Sunday afternoons in a row, this year, they used the church for a week as well. Longer days.  Much extra money for me. Yay!  I know I blogged about the prima donna pianist that accompanied the string quartet years ago. Well, this group had a harpist. (Or a "harpie" as I came to refer to her. )  Anyway, long story short, she got me in trouble with the sexton and managed to piss off the director himself with her antics.  Did I mention the extra money was good? Speaking of money, I officially sold another copy of my first novella, Winter Storm . You can't buy a candy bar (at the "high school price" for that matter) with the amount of money I made but how many books have you published?  So the health drama continues.  Clearly, mid-next month is longer than thre...

For reasons that are not really important for complete strangers that stumble upon this blog to know, I discovered that even though my health insurance's billing department has been here in Maine for years, and I've paid for 2 appointments with my PCP and 2 eye appointments (the last of which discovered my recent shunt malfunction incidentally) and a neurosurgeon office with no problems, it's now become a problem I have a Connecticut-based policy.  The problem here is if I need to see a specialist, I can't find out if one is covered by my insurance because the website search engine doesn't accept my Maine zip code. So I requested paperwork to transfer over to a Maine policy.  It seemed like forever for it to come so I called them back to see what's up.  Aside from being a huge corporation (Is it any wonder why I'm anti-Big Business?), I'm pretty sure their phone system was having problems.  Anyway, long story shorter, I get a hold of the right operator a...

Friday night, my parents came down because my grandfather's birthday party was yesterday. The three of us went to Friendly's. I hadn't been there in awhile so that was different. My mother and I went in to get a table while my father parked. We told the hostess there was three us. She asked if the other person needed a kid's menu. Thinking about this question later, "Yeah we have a two year old parking the car." When my mother said this, I responded, "Well, this is Maine..." Afterwards we soaked in the hot tub at their motel. This may have been the first time I went hot tubbing since my move to Portland... The party the next day was in two parts. We were joined by my grandfather and his wife at Applebee's. Also in attendance were two aunts, an uncle and one of my young cousins. Most of us were set to order from their "pick two item lunch menu" when the waitress noticed us reading it and informed us that was just Monday through Friday. I...

I'm officially an old man. I had my yearly physical yesterday and I'm now apparently at the stage where I have to get my cholesterol checked. Yes, high cholesterol runs in the family but I thought I was young. Two more signs I'm now old: I was encouraged to start giving myself monthly hernia exams. (I'd make a comment on how I prefer it when she does it but mine is not the right audience for that...) I also had my first rectal exam. Woo Hoo! My glucose level was good and my LDL (bad cholesterol) level was only 11 points higher than normal range which she wasn't concerned with at all. The only thing she was concerned with was my HDL or good cholesterol level which was 17 points below normal which means, apparently, I don't exercise enough. Those of you who know me should not be surprised by this but, in my defense, I am more active now than I use to be. I've been more ambitious fixing lunch lately. I've gotten into this kick of warming up canned soup on t...

The other night we, and another friend, watched a movie we had wanted to go see this summer mainly because everyone was in this movie. Rendition investigates a bombing in Northern Africa. Part of the investigation by the CIA uses a practice called rendition to basically kidnap a suspect and take him off to get tortured. Reese Witherspoon plays the wife of just such a "suspect." She has a friend (Peter Sarsgaard) who works for a senator (Alan Arkin). He tries to help her find her husband but there's only so much he can do. Meryl Streep plays either the head of the CIA or at least someone very high up and does such a good job being a bitch. Yes, the evil senator she played in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate was similar but she wasn't evil here. She was just good at her job. In other news, I have a cold or I guess you could say that I have "flu-like symptoms" as they say in baseball. I haven't worked at the library for the past two mornings but I a...

In case you all were wondering, I finally have found a dentist but that's just the end of the story. Tuesday, I call another dentist. They inform me that they haven't taken new patients in five years. I call the next on the list and they enthusiastically tell me they do. I then tell them about my spinal rod and that I have to take a pre-cleaning antibiotic so the rod doesn't get infected. I went without it once but why chance it? This is where the story turns fun. They tell me that the first time the previous dentist calls it in and then they take over. I call my old dentist in CT and the secretary gets all huffy about it says she wants to talk to this other office because of how irregular it is. She calls back about five hours later for the number of the pharmacy near me. She didn't sound happy. An hour later, I walk over to the pharmacy to pick up the meds. Hadn't been called in. I call them the next morning and am told they recieved the prescription but need mor...

Since I've been living up here for about a year, I figured it was about time to set up a doctor and dentist up here. My planned first step was to find a dentist as I'm due for a cleaning. I found a dentist within walking distance but I called them and they apparently aren't taking any new patients. I go online and find the name of another dentist who's not within walking distance (Well, not safely anyway.) but on the busline. I call them but they're closed. The secretary calls me the next day and informs me that they only do extractions not cleanings. There are a few more dentists within city limits including one slightly closer than the extractionists. The search continues. I began my search for a doctor at the same time. Mapquest's listings are apparently not updated often as the first name I found was apparently now in another town which is not on busline. I found a practice on the other end of the main street here but I was really hoping for someone closer. ...

My parents came back up this weekend for my grandfather's birthday party but our story starts on Wednesday afternoon when my cousin/roommate, his mother and I were walking downtown for lunch when my cousin's chair basically ejected him. After they spent time in the emergency room, it was determined that his flag stuck in his wheel. His mother also found a chunk of wood stuck in it. He was a bloody mess at the time but had nothing broken and is healing. Thursday night when I realized the "Glasses" post label would have to be used a second time. Yes, my glasses broke again. I was just sitting there when all of a sudden my lens was in my hand. I took the frames off my face to get a better look at the problem and it turned out that the top part of the "lens hole" that connects to the nose bridge had broken. I think I had those particular frames for a few years so maybe it was time. My aunt, who was there at the time, and I attempted to tape it up. This held mayb...

Recently, I finished reading Michael Crichton's Next . While I thought his last book, State of Fear , was at least one of his best books, this has to be counted as one of his worst. The major problem with this book was there really wasn't one, or two even, central storylines and I think this really hurt him. Now if he just structured the book as a collection of short stories, it might have turned out better. I loved the the stories of Dave the transgenic chimp and Gerard the transgenic parrot (Although Gerard's storyline could have ended better.) but the rest of the plotlines were rather hohum. I now officially done with orthopedists and have been medically cleared for my move. Unless my physical therapist has other ideas, I'll be done with PT this week. Woo Hoo! In sports, I point my "Evil Monkey" finger at those darn Patriots. They had the Colts on the ropes and couldn't close the door. I know they had some injuries and the Colt offense is a good one but...

Here's a blow by blow account of my recent Christmas and subsequent vacation for you all to peruse. Christmas Day-I woke up rather late as my cat decided to spend the night before with me and that is difficult for many reasons. We had our stocking and presents and then hit the road for Maine. When we arrived, we had a present exchange. Tuesday- My aunt, who arrived at my grandmother's just before we did the day before was down and a cousin came over so there was a Christmas party of sorts. The downside was that my intestinal thing from Thanksgiving returned but more on that later. That night, we watched the movie The Upside of Anger . I really can't say you should definitely see this movie or that you definitely shouldn't. Overall, it was very well acted and isn't about time Kevin Costner put out a movie that was at least Tin Cup good? The best line came from the writer/director: "Who should I sleep with, Terry? Women like you? Your age? My age? I don't. Y...

Ok, what I consider just serious and not interesting is what you all would find most interesting so we will start with that. Last night, I had plans to go to the movies with JRRyan and others. These plans changed when I get a call from my mother that my father had fallen and hurt his arm while they were ice skating and she was taking him into the hospital. It turns out that his wrist is "partially fractured." The other thing I wanted to discuss was that I finished my other birthday book the other day. Armageddon's Children , by Terry Brooks, reminded me a lot of Dark Angel if created by said Brooks. No, it wasn't about a genetically created super soldier turned bike messenger per se but a good chunk of the book took place in post-apocalyptic Seattle. This series, I'm unsure how many books it'll be, is a continuation of the Knight of The Word trilogy which I didn't read. Aside from maybe three references, it doesn't matter. Not to ruin anything, but, t...

So today at PT, I was put on the bike. No weight and we weren't sure I could do a whole rotation. I was able to do it, however. I was peddling pretty slow at first but, once I got going, I was peddling at a pretty good clip considering. I've been experiencing popping first the on the underside of my knee now on top. I was told my my orthopedist this is just the scar tissue breaking up. Anyway, I experienced a big pop on the bike so this is a good thing I guess. A new stretching excercise was added: while on my stomach, I pull my leg towards my head, holding it for 10 seconds then repeating. This makes a complete ten excercises now but this new one goes into the "just twice" catagory instead of three times. (Making 3 of those now.) Just like when I went to PT this morning, I didn't wear my brace to the movies last night when I went with my mother. We pondered sitting in our usual spot on the first elevated level but we decided I need more space so we sat in the s...

I saw the orthopedist this morning. He pulled out the last stitch and told me not to wear the brace around the house and only when I go out. I also have to remember to tell the physical therapy people they can be more aggressive. Yay me! Did I mention I can bend to 108 degrees now? This has been the limit for a few days now so, hopefully, it will improve soon. I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say but I'm drawing a blank so here's a quiz: You Have Your Sarcastic Moments While you're not sarcastic at all times, you definitely have a cynical edge. In your opinion, not all people are annoying. Some are dead! And although you do have your genuine moments, you can't help getting your zingers in. Some people might be a little hurt by your sarcasm, but it's more likely they think you're hilarious. How Sarcastic Are You?