Modern Vespa

'nite 'nite

Hope you get some relief, and that all-important sleep

Nasty stuff. I've seen a lot of it over the years, and as much as people want the relentless pain to go away....which it does, if you can find patience with nerve pain .... just getting sleep is my first objective. It's interesting how much pain one can tolerate during the day vs. laying awake at night.

Been lucky to never have had it myself, but when I sprained my shoulder I finally went to a physiatrist who first gave me a couple of meds, including Tramadol. Sleep was the big issue, but lying awake feeling weird with the drug gave zero advantage over lying awake with pain, so I gave up on that. A masterful, painless cortisone injection did the job.

Not a general fan of steroids, but have to say, oral steroids are probably the best firstline approach for intolerable sciatica. Maybe not a huge help, but enough to feel like living isn't the worst thing.....

Anyway, hope things get sorted ASAP

I've had back nerve pain off and on for years, from C1-2 to L5-S1. Various injections worked for various periods, but the newest and best thing is "radio ablation "which seems to do the job permanently (we'll see.). Find a "back/pain" guy. An MD. Avoid yankin' and crankin' and bones and feathers.

You had the same issue with the Enfield, didn't you?

phone took a drop at the gym this morning and the screen went dark so i'm phone-less for a few days while I wait for the new screen and tools for the swap to arrive.

harumph.

Yeah. I know that it's a first world problem but it draws a lot of nostalgic attention.

I think it's actually worse than the Royal Enfield if I'm honest.

You can park up and then start counting because someone is going to start asking questions because they knew someone who had one once.

I'm not very good in these situations.

yup I had RFA done on c3-7 both sides and its been working pretty darn well for the last yr and half.

This is my second round of sciatica, same spot, same leg. I've just had (unrelated) surgery, and have been on the mend for about two weeks, but also fairly constrained in how much I can (or should) move around. As a result, I have not been able to stretch or do any of the PT exercises that have kept the sciatica at bay since the first encounter.

And of course, it came right back. At the worst possible moment, while recovering from surgery.

So now I'm on oral steroids for a few days. Then I have to find a way to do some stretches without ruining all the fine needlework my surgeon has done. Thanks much. Genuinely.

The pretty 1982 Honda CB900C that I purchased about two weeks ago is still sitting in the dealership's service shop while they try (I think) to figure out how to replace the badly leaking oil seals in it's shaft drive/rear end.

I dropped by the dealership late yesterday afternoon after work for a progress report on the situation, but it seems that they're still waiting for their mechanic (pardon my gaffe, I think they're called a 'service tech' these days?) to get around to tearing it apart and assessing exactly what and where the problem is so that they can precisely know what (obsolete) seals or other parts need to be sourced to fix the damn thing.

If this 'wicket' gets much stickier, I started to float the idea of the dealer possibly just buying the bike back and I'll be done with it, but that's not the outcome that I want, so I'll see how it goes for a while longer before any drastic action is taken on my part.

I sure would like to ride that beautiful old Honda around these parts this summer.

I seem to have injured the big toe on my right foot. I can't put any weight on it, it's extremely sensitive to the touch at the joints of the toe, and it's slightly swollen. Not to mention the constant low level pain. I'll be contacting my doctor today, even though I know there's not much to be done about it.

Not sure how I injured it.

Gout?

My father went through the same thing this past winter. He thought it was an injury, but on further reflection says it may have been (at least partially) gout.

He has had it in the past. It really presented itself as an injury.

Classic presentation: No remembered injury, but largest toe joint hurts, and can be reddened. Frequently happens after a meal or several meals with red meat, red wine, cheese, etc.

Tripo, MD

Ok, now I've looked up Gout.

While I'm not ruling it out (because I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV), I'm less inclined to think it's gout. But I could be wrong.

The swelling is uniform around the big toe, and does not extend down to the ball of the foot. There is no redness. The swelling is not obvious to a casual glance.
I haven't had any meals with an inordinate amount of red meat in them in quite a while.
While my beer consumption did increase from May 23-26, it's back to normal (one beer every 3-4 days at most).
No red wine (or any wine) consumed within the last year +.
Cheese consumption was up from May 23-36, but is back to normal.

Like I said, I'm not gonna rule it out, so thanks for the tip that it might be what's wrong.

Hey, hey, hey...it's not Wisconsin's fault!!

So the Nurse Practicioner said she's fairly certain that it's gout. She had my foot x-rayed to rule out a break, and to see if the crystals would appear on it. In the mean time, she's treating it as gout.

She did say that it's odd that it's presenting almost completely in the toe, and not further back, though, so validation!

The thing that pissed me off about the visit had nothing to do with her or the diagnosis. When I called to make the appointment, they told me it would be with a Nurse Practicioner. I expected that. They then said her last name was Salina. When I arrived to check in, I said I had a 3pm appt with Anna. They replied, "Escobedo?" I said no, and checked my note and said "Salina." They then said, "Oh, she's upstairs on the 11th floor, and goes by Salina-Escobedo." So I limped back to the elevator and rode up to the next floor, hobbled to the check in desk, and said I was there for a 3pm with Escobedo. They said, "oh, she's at the other check in desk, all the way down the hall on the left." Again, I limped down the hall and got checked in. It would have been nice if the person I made the appointment with had said her full name, and had confirmed where the check-in was, especially since my health complaint was an injured foot. I did remain pleasant through the whole thing, because it's not the staff's fault that the previous person didn't give me proper information.

So now I wait for the x-ray results, while my foot throbs in pain.

Birthdays come at a cost.

OFG

I had the same on Saturday and then again on Sunday, it happens quite a lot when you have Triumph stamped across your Fuel Tank.

First guy said he used to have a Street Triple which wasn't a bad conversation as I did too but the next guy said he has a Bonneville and that's when my eyes glazed over, luckily my mate soon pitched in so I left them to talk about
"old mens bikes" whilst I got my gear on.

X-ray results are in.

No fracture.

Not gout.

It's bursitis. She's sent in a Rx for Etodolac for the pain, and said to essentially keep doing what I'm doing, treatment-wise. The only real treatment change is no oral steroids.

Welp ... so much for your basketball career.

(I hope it gets better.)

I've had this kind of injury before, though it was from a period of possibly excessive amounts of walking. It healed on its own with no lasting impact.

Early last week (or late May), an internal customer contacted us regarding printing a bunch of items for an event they were having on Tuesday, June 18th. They wanted the following:

500 double-sided 8.5x11 Rack Cards
70 laminated and mounted 24"x36" posters
500 Name Tags 4"x3"
six 7'x4' vinyl banners
60 laminated and mounted 12"x24" signs
and 60 laminated and mounted 6"x12" signs

Our production manager told them we'd need the files to print and a paid requisition by no later than Thursday, June 6, so that we'd have time to produce everything in time.

We heard nothing from them until yesterday afternoon, when they finally approved/paid the requisition. But still no files.

They got the files to us at 8pm last night.

And the specifications changed:

500 double-sided 8.5x11 Rack Cards - now they're 8.5x5.5
70 laminated and mounted 24"x36" posters - now they want 130
500 Name Tags 4"x3" - stayed the same
six 7'x4' vinyl banners - now they're 6'x3'
60 laminated and mounted 12"x24" signs - now there are only 45, and they're 7"x23"
60 laminated and mounted 6"x12" signs - now there are only 55, and they're 7"x23"

The deadline is still EOD Monday, because the event happens on Tuesday. We're closed on Fridays (Summer Hours), and Overtime is NOT allowed (no budget for it).

I got approval to reduce the size of the mounted signs from 24x36 to 20x30, so that they'd print faster (2-up on 42" wide roll stock instead of 1-up), and we have the added benefit of using less materials. It also means the 7"x23" signs need to be resized to 6"x19", because they fit a blank spot on the larger signs.

It pisses me off that we told them we needed 5 days to produce their job, and they gave us two, and increased the quantity while doing it.

And to top it off, my foot still hurts like hell, and I have to be on my feet pretty much all day today.

Maybe the budget for overtime could come from some sort of extra charge to the customer for providing the artwork late.

I seem to spend an increasingly larger part of my life looking for stuff. Enough that simply misplacing something triggers me....

Lost my wallet yesterday, thank goodness it was Father's Day so I could make my wife pay for taking me out. It sometimes plops out of my pants when taking them off, but after looking everywhere for quite some time (think about where you were, look in the most likely places, say, 3 times, then the less likely places, then the patently absurd places.....wash, rinse, repeat), talking my wife down from having me cancel all of my credit cards (she also called the last store I was at that day)..... anyway, a deeper dive did it...it had slipped under the blanket, which gets thrown back in hot weather, and actually migrated to the middle of the foot of the bed. Bonus find, 2 quarters, an odd sock I've been missing, and one of my wife's camisoles.

On to today's big event...I'd bought some wire fencing for rabbit-proofing my garden Saturday as it looked like I needed more, proudly strapped it behind me on the GTS, bring it home and an hour later spy a nice bunch rolled up from last fall (complete with dried leaves, lol). First thought is I'd use it eventually, but that might be 5 years from now, and I don't need the clutter. So, where's the receipt? Check my wallet, shirt pockets, dresser, I'd swear the scooter....nowhere. Checked our recycling basket in the kitchen, turns out I'd emptied it already, so out to the bin, start unpacking that until I was sure the remainder was there well before the receipt could be. Nope. Refilled the bin, went to my topcase, and, well, there it was.

I can't wait for the next event....

Welcome to my world.

As soon as I get in I put my key on a hook, my wallet in the kitchen and my phone next to my PC.

Having said that the short term memory is the first thing to go.

Well, I did end up getting an hour of overtime last week, which they're going to pay me for.

I also mentioned to our office manager about adding a rush fee due to the quick turn time, and it was brought to my attention that part of the delay was lack of communication on our part - one of the estimators didn't send an email to the customer regarding the production timeframe that she should have sent, so the customer wasn't aware of the need to get the files to us earlier.

We were able to get everything done by 10am today, by having everyone pull together and get it done.

A few weeks ago, I got gas for the scooter on the way to work, and when I arrived at work, my wallet was missing. The only thing I could think of was that somehow I dropped it at the gas station.

So I put my credit cards on hold and called my wife to go to the gas station and see if anyone found a wallet. As she was pulling in, she saw it lying on the ground at the entrance.

So what happened?

I wear armored overpants. So, as I was putting my wallet back into my regular pants pocket, I somehow missed the pocket and the wallet slid down the leg of my armored pants. It dropped out the bottom as I was pulling out of the gas station. Luckily, it didn't drop out somewhere on the freeway and no one else saw it and picked it up.

Yeah, this is my life now, too. It is truly horrifying to imagine the things that disappear into the void simply because I cannot recall having set (or dropped) them someplace.

I try to keep a routine similar to Bill's: keys, wallet, phone always go in the same place every day, but the odd bit that is out of routine such as occasional receipts or small parts, well, those are definitely at risk.

At least I still can recall where I parked the scooters (garage).

Cheers,

Bob

That's been a worry from the lasttime I misplaced my wallet..and the gas station was the last stop before it went missing. Turns out it didn't happen, but still. I hate it when my wallet is in my pants pocket and I have to fish it out from under my too-snug overpants. Maybe it's just me, but unzipping and dropping my overpants makes me feel like a weirdo, even if I'm fully clothed underneath.

For us, it's Mrs Syd's glasses. Between prescription and two pair of sunglasses, each pair could be anywhere at one time. But usually either on her face (can you see?), or in the place she just looked. I am militant about where things go on my person, so I can find anything three times out of five.



*Edited for clarity

I must admit I was spending more and more time looking (and digging)for things I may have misplaced and finally had enough. When I retired over a year ago, I started at the bedrooms and went thru everything. If I did not need it in the next months, did not have strong memories tied to it or would very expensive to replace, it went in a donation pile. I worked my thru the bedrooms, bathrooms, out thru the hall closets, thru the dining room, great room, deep cleaning, ripping out carpet, replacing with wood floors and painting along the way. The big ones are left: the kitchen and garage. Bottom line: less stuff, less metal stress, better life. Way easier to put my hands on what I need. I don't know why or how I got all this stuff to begin with! Too much stuff! George Carlin would be proud of me.

Me too, and just because I like to tell this story;

I'm very near sighted, so I'm almost fanatical about making sure my glasses are on the same spot on my nightstand every night. I won't find them otherwise. Then came the day I fell asleep on the sofa. Darling Bride, being the helpful, caring individual she is, placed my glasses somewhere safe, pulled a blanket over me, and went to bed.

In the morning I woke up essentially blind, and started patting flat surfaces everywhere hoping to feel my glasses. Twenty minutes of searching by touch later my hand finally landed on them, I put them on my face, thought out loud "that will help", and continued searching for another 20 minutes...

First time catching it. Body was aching all night, took a morning test. Son of a BIATCH!!!

Creeping Buttercup in the lawn of our new garden. - well i say lawn, its more like odd bits of grass on a sea of creeping buttercup.

More embarrassing than pissed off, today for the first time in my 38 years of riding I rocked up at a fuel station and was unable to open the cap. I pride myself on my strength and general fitness but I just couldn't get that little sh1t to open.

I ended up sneaking away from forecourt with a red face and getting the adjustable pliers out in my garage to open it.

And that is why I carry a few basic tools in the pet carrier.

OFG

Another 2 hours out on the Cub and I made 3 total dog's breakfasts of my gearchanges.

We're not making progress.

I feel your pain. Truly.

Going back to the Neurosurgeon today. 6 weeks of PT helped a little, but not much. Probably going to get a MRI on the lower back to find out where all the sciatica pain in both my hips and legs are originating. If surgery happens, this will be my third in the same area, but the last one lasted almost 9 years. Just tired of constant pain, but I'm still above ground and walking around, so I'm thankful for that.