Consistency what a concept.

One of these days I hope to become consistent at this.

I have never been good at journaling, but I'm told that it's a good thing to do.

What strikes me to write today?  It's been 2 months since my life changing event.

What's that?

I got hit by a car while riding my motorcycle.  Shattered right tibia and fibula about an inch above my ankle. I cracked my right scapula, and did something to my right rotator cuff.  So being right side dominant, pretty screwed.  I was wearing long pants, cowboy boots, and a helmet.  I am alive and I didn't loose the foot.  Think hard about that folks, what you wear when you get on that bike matters.  A LOT!

Two months of non-weight bearing on my right leg.  One month of non-weight bearing on my right arm.  I'm somewhat using my right arm again.  I'm working to rehab the shoulder with my physical therapy bands and light weights (<= 10 pounds) at the gym.  My rehab plan is with my orthopedic specialists blessing, of course.  All I can say is trying to heal bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments at 52 sucks.  But it's way better than the alternative.

The hardest challenge in all of this is the dependancy.  It's amazing what you take for granted until you're stuck in a wheelchair or hospital bed and can't walk, climb stairs, dress yourself properly, and need help showering and other private activities.  It's humiliating and leaves you feeling like a burden to everyone who depends on you to do for them.

My wife, God bless her, has helped me and taken care of me.  She gets upset when I try to do things for myself.  I wish I could express myself better to her.  It's not that I don't appreciate her help.  I do.  I love her dearly.  I just want to establish some normalcy of self reliance again.  I need to know that I "can do".  Being able to tend to something myself beats back the mental frustration of all the things I'm limited in doing.

My wish is at my next visit to the ortho, my shoulder will be well enough that I can graduate from the chair to crutches or one of those scooter things that you put your knee/leg on.

That would get me significantly more mobility.  I'd really like to hear him say I can start putting some weight on my foot.  I really doubt that will be the case though.

Enough of that stuff though, life goes on, and that is good.

That's it for my ramblings tonight.  Maybe I'll think of something to write sooner next time.

Ready for school and other summer activities.

This has been an interesting summer.  Kat is accepted into the History and Education programs at Southwest Minnesota State University.  So now we get to go through the whole game of financial aid, setting up her dorm, getting books, and the most scary... moving her out of the house.

You see, I have this very ODD sense of humor.  For the past 20 years, Kat has been the one that "gets it".
It's going to be quiet around here, but I guess they all grow up some day.

We got notification this week that all the loans and aid stuff is final and we have her year covered.  Now it's just getting her all the other things.

Started planning for building JD's next computer.  Dad's going to have fun with this.  He does a lot of first person action stuff so I'm planning the build with that in mind.  Here's what I'm planning so far.  We are trying as much as possible to use PCGold as our source for materials.  They are a bunch of good folks down there.  It's where I do most of my DIY stuff.

• Case - Found one with a 450W power supply and tool-less drive bays for $55.  Looks cool and JD liked it.
• Motherboard - ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 (It's an AMD AM3 board with SATA 3 6Gb/s and USB3 on board.  It's $168, but it has better on-board graphics than the $110 unit with the same I/O specs.
• Looking at a 6 core AMD AM3 for the processor with 8GB of DDR3 RAM.
• PCGold sells WD 1TB SATA III 6Gb/s drives for $W

We're doing this piece by piece, so it may take a few months. I may have to start a topic line to follow this project.

I'm horrible at this...

Got invited to Google+ today.  Saw the link auto loaded on the side of my profile.  I really stink at blogging.  I need to be more consistent and definitely more frequent in posting to this.  I really don't expect any followers.  But, if I'm going to journal stuff, I need to start writing.

Since my last post:

1. Diabetes:  My system has settled down... mostly.  Stress still knocks my glucose levels around, but I'm dealing with that.  I'm actually doing pretty well on this.  A1C is down, got the diet thing mostly figured out.  Working on the weight/work out stuff.
2. Kids:
1. Kat graduated and is now starting college in the fall.  She's going to study history and secondary education.  She is really excited about that.  I'm excited too, but it's tempered by knowing the house will be a lot quieter this fall.
2. Felicia moved into the mountains of West Virginia.  She and her clan are doing well and adjusting to life in the country.  Kae is really growing.  She's 4 now.  Seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital in Norfolk seeing her for the first time.  Time flies too fast.
3. Tabitha is doing well at Langly AFB and enjoying her job and coworkers.
4. JD starts his senior year this fall.
3. Work,  is work.  Things keep moving forward, life goes on.

Not much else to say now.  Maybe I'll think of something profound to post later.

Something New

Installed opensolaris 2009.06 in a vm today.  I am impressed.  Now to see how Oracle 11G installs.

First Post

I figured I'd start a blog today. With all the changes happening to me, I figured I needed to document my thoughts.

Got setup with FMLA today so that I can take the time I need for appointments and other stuff and not get "dinged" for occurrences at work. That is a weight off my shoulders.