My brother-in-law recently completed his first marathon in Philadelphia. He’s been wanting to run one for a while and finally got his chance last Sunday at the Philadelphia Marathon. He had pretty nice weather and was able to run a good portion of the race with his son. I wasn’t able to be there to watch him run it but I did meet him the following morning in Washington, D.C. We all gave him a gentle ribbing about his new “walking style.” If you’ve ever run a marathon before, you know how badly your calves and hamstrings feel the first couple of days. Even stepping up onto a curb can be a challenge.

A marathon is a pretty big accomplishment for someone and definitely worthy of a post on my blog.

Congrats, Marathon Jim!

Kidney stones are not fun! If you’ve ever had the experience of passing a kidney stone, you know what I mean. Those babies are painful. I had one last month in my left kidney. At first it feels a lot like lower-back pain. However, it gets sharper and starts to feel like someone put a knife into your side. That initial pain is when the stone gets lodged in the ureter that’s attached to your kidney. If you’re lucky, it eventually makes its way through your system and you just pee it out. If not, you have to go to the hospital and have them try a few different methods like sonically blasting it, or as a last resort, surgically removing it. I had another one about 12 years ago and the pain got so bad that I had to go to the hospital. At first, they tried giving me vicodin, but that didn’t help at all. Finally, they gave me morphine and that killed the pain. They had me stay overnight and I finally passed it.

The picture below is my stone from last month.

The stone is like a tiny little object with razor-sharp points on it. When the stone is moving through your ureter and urinary tract, the pain can be excruciating. It can make little cuts in the interior walls along the way and that shows up as blood in your urine. I talked with a nurse who had them once and she said that kidney stone pain was worse than delivering her baby. I don’t know about delivering a baby, but I can tell you that kidney stone pain is the worst pain I’ve experienced so far.

We just got back from a two-week vacation to the Washington D.C area. We were visiting our daughter. On Tuesday, August 23rd, we were on the 7th floor of an apartment building when an earthquake struck. I’ve been exposed to earthquakes in the past in both California and Maine. However, being in a high-rise is a totally different experience. The shaking was longer and much more pronounced. Also, earthquakes are not a very common occurrence in that neck of the woods so you’re not really expecting it to happen. There wasn’t any damage that we could see and when we looked out the window to the streets below, there were dozens of people running out of the various buildings and businesses in the area. We eventually came out of our building and walked around the area. Of course everyone was on their phone trying to call or text someone but the cell towers were immediately saturated and calls/texts weren’t getting sent. Eventually, things went back to normal and people reentered their buildings. We figured that would be the end of our excitement for this trip. We were wrong.

Four days later, Hurricane Irene struck. We were in New Orleans in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew struck. Andrew caused some damage in our area, but overall it was more of a really bad storm than a hurricane. Most of the damage from that hurricane was in Florida. Concerning Irene, the media sure made it seem like a catastrophic event was about to take place. The day before the hurricane, we went to the grocery store and bought a couple of meals that we could eat if things got bad. Of course I bought a half-gallon of ice cream. If I’m going down, I’m going to be eating something I like! Anyway, Saturday came and went and Irene only brushed alongside the D.C. area. There was some wind and water damage in places, but overall, things went pretty well. We easily survived natural disaster #2.

That takes care of the “Earthquake” and “Hurricane” in the title, but what about the “Lion”, you might ask? Well, while I was there, I installed the latest operating system upgrade for my daughter’s Apple computer, OS X Lion. Ha!

Texting – texting is getting out of control. I can hardly drive down the road anymore without seeing someone texting while driving. Recently, my wife and I were driving down the highway and there was a semi-truck in front of us constantly drifting to the side of the road. When I passed it, you could see the driver, a woman, texting away. Unbelievable. Sadly, the number of truckers who do it pales in comparison to the teenagers and young adults who are doing it while driving. I’m also not particularly enamored by people who have to text while you’re trying to talk to them.

Loud cell phone talkers – these folks are just plain rude. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to listen to someone yakking their head off in public, totally oblivious to those around them. I really don’t care what a twit their spouse is or how great their date was last night. Sheesh! Spare us the details and keep it private.

Grammar/Spelling Pet Peeves

First of all, I’m not an English major and make no claims to be an expert in this area. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you’ll probably find an error or two on my website. However, that being said, the following items make it on my list.

In order to – Why use three words when one will do? I can’t think of any sentence or phrase that benefits in clarity or meaning by using “In order to” instead of “To.” If there is, please enlighten me.

Irregardless – this never was a real word, but it has been used in error for so long that it has become one in many people’s minds. There is, of course, regardless, but what the heck does irregardless mean? Really, people, what were you thinking?

There, Their and They’re – I’m not even going to try and explain this one. THERE are plenty of websites to explain THEIR usage and THEY’RE very easy to find.

Your and You’re – Again, use YOUR fingers to google them and YOU”RE sure to find them.

It’s and Its – ITS correct usage can easily be found. IT’S not that hard folks. Look them up.

How about them Navy Seals? For you non-Navy types, “Bravo Zulu” is a Navy term meaning “well done.” This mission was executed to perfection and each and every one of the members of that Navy Seal Team deserve our everlasting gratitude. Their names will probably not be known for some time, but I can only imagine that there’s a great sense of pride and satisfaction among them and their fellow Seals.

First of all, as much as I dislike Obama for his complete lack of leadership skills, I’ll give him credit for making the right decision in this case. Also, the decision to go for the kill, rather than capturing him, was the correct one. If we had captured him, I’m sure that his handling and any subsequent trial would have been a drawn-out affair that lasted for years. It would have been a political circus both here and abroad and one that we definitely don’t need right now.

Between the great intelligence gathering by the CIA and the military, and the outstanding preparation and execution by the Navy Seals, this is one mission that was textbook perfect. You couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Getting the DNA match, and probably some forthcoming pictures, should quiet most skeptics as to whether or not it was Bin Laden. I think it was a great idea for the burial at sea. This gives the enemy no unneeded ammunition as to how his body was handled as far as Muslim burial tradition goes. It also gives the enemy no place to go to worship him as a martyr. Salutes to everyone who had a hand in designing this mission.

I hope that all the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 and all the military/civilians who lost their lives during this struggle can take some small measure of solace from his death. This was one evil human being who deserved not one extra moment on this earth.

HOOYAH!

• The principal feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things–war and hunger and date rape–liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things… It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong, or even lucky to join it; you just have to be liberal. (P.J. O’Rourke)
• A conservative sees a man drowning 50 feet from shore, throws him a 25-foot long rope, and tells him to swim to it. A liberal throws him a rope 50 feet long, then drops his end and goes off to perform another good deed.
• A man with both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal.
• Those who call themselves “liberals” today are asking for policies which are precisely the opposite of those policies which the liberals of the nineteenth century advocated in their liberal programs. The so-called liberals of today have the very popular idea that freedom of speech, of thought, of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom from imprisonment without trial — that all these freedoms can be preserved in the absence of what is called economic freedom. They do not realize that, in a system where there is no market, where the government directs everything, all those other freedoms are illusory, even if they are made into laws and written up in constitutions. (Ludwig von Mises)
• If you’re a liberal, anything you say is protected. If you’re a conservative, anything you say is hateful.
• If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain. (Winston Churchill)
• Greed: A word commonly used by liberals, low achievers, anti-capitalists and society’s losers to denigrate, shame and discredit those who have acquired superior job skills and decision-making capabilities and who, through the application of those job skills, achieve success. (Neal Boortz)
• The principal purpose of the Democratic Party is to use the force of government to take property away from the people who earn it and give it to people who do not. (Neal Boortz)
• A liberal is a person whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment. (Willis Player)
• Liberals tend to put the onus of your success on society and conservatives on you and your family. (Dennis Prager)
• A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man; a debt he proposes to pay off with your money. (G. Gordon Liddy)
• I can remember way back when a liberal was generous with his own money. (Will Rogers)
• Bigot-A person who wins an argument with a liberal. (Rush Limbaugh)
• Left has come to represent increasing government control. The extreme leftist typically seeks total government. Working their way toward total government power are the Communists, socialists, fascists, and modern liberals who advocate government solutions for every real or imagined problem. (John F. McManus)
• We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us. (Lionel Trilling)
• One difference between a liberal and a pickpocket is that if you demand your money back from a pickpocket, he won’t question your motives.

Last Summer we had a hawk that would periodically visit the back deck of our house. He would sit there, sometimes for a ½ hour or more, searching I suppose, for something to eat. Our presence there didn’t seem to bother him all that much. We would look at him from our dining room or kitchen. He didn’t flinch a bit but you could tell that he noticed we were there by the movement of his eyes. We get all sorts of birds, waterfowl and other animals in our back yard. As you can see from the pictures, we have swans, geese, egrets, ducks, turtles, muskrats, etc., but we’ve never had a hawk before.

Living on the lake definitely gives us a wide range of animals for viewing. About the only ones I don’t really care to have on our land are the geese. When a flock of them are feeding on the lawn, they leave a ton of crap on the grass and beach. They can also be rather loud, especially if they arrive early in the morning and you’re still trying to sleep. Other than that, I wouldn’t trade living on the water for anything.

That little bit of trivia is pretty small potatoes compared to what happened to a local couple from the Grand Rapids, MI area on that day. They had a baby born on 10/10/10. Of course, you’re probably thinking that a lot of other couples had babies born on that day, too. However, the Soper family’s story is even more unique. They also had a baby born on 8/8/8 and one on 9/9/9. Can you believe that? I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that they’re probably the only ones that can claim that. It sure makes it easy for them to remember their kid’s birthdays!

Here’s a link to the story that was carried by the local news station.

The surgery itself was pretty interesting. I didn’t have them put me under. I avoid general anesthesia whenever possible. Instead, I had them perform what is called an arm block. They basically just deaden the arm muscle. You essentially have no real feeling in your arm and it seems like a dead weight if you try to move it. I was fully awake in the operating room and talking to the doctors and nurses. I could feel the surgeon as he cut into my hand and started to cut out the extra tissue. The surgeon let me look at my hand while he had it cut open. The inside of your hand is a very amazing piece of work. The blood flow to my hand was cut off so you could clearly see the blood vessels, muscles, tendons and bones. He had me move my finger, and as I did, you could see the tendon sliding back and forth on the back side of the finger. It was really cool. It’s times like these that I wish I had gone to medical school and become a surgeon. I think it would have been a great and rewarding career.

All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with the final results. My hand is back to normal and I’m pretty much doing everything I was before the surgery.

One final place we visited on our last day in Bethesda was the Georgetown Cupcake shop (photo on left). This is the store that is featured in the television series, DC Cupcake. I didn’t know that at the time, but my wife and daughter sure did. Normally, there is a long line of people waiting just to get in the door. Fortunately, this was a Monday afternoon and we were able to walk right in. As small as they are, those little suckers are expensive! $2.75 apiece or $29/dozen. We bought a few and took them back to our hotel room and indulged ourselves. We definitely had a great time seeing our daughter and visiting the sites. The time just flew by. The next day we were headed home and made it back in about 10 hours.