I'm blogging about my wrist again

At the end of last year the cast came off my wrist. It was stiff and unmoving - and filthy. You know how your skin looks when it's had something pressed in it for awhile? It was also vaguely misshapen. I had almost no grip strength, and there was a comically absurd mismatch between my forearms. I tested myself slowly at the gym - I didn't want to hurt myself, but I wanted to know what I could actually do.

It wasn't much.

Things as basic as twisting a screwdriver, even without any torque, were taxing. I couldn't do a bicep curl because I couldn't put pressure on my wrist in that direction - I could do a hammer curl instead. There were a lot of substitutions going on. At work I slowly pulled myself back into doing some actual work outside my desk, but doing anything with any substance or merit caused an ache that took a day to subside.

One fun fact about my job is that many of the operations are ambidextrous. I switched most of them to left handed operation and I was able to get things done. Trouble is, you're supposed to go back and forth to prevent strain. I couldn't, so I didn't, which caused a strain on my left shoulder.

Suddenly, I wasn't doing much again anymore.  I have a small team at work (literally one other person) and this person quit, so I had to do everything myself. It wasn't what I would call fun. Long story short, my team is running at full capacity again (someone else was assigned to me) and I'm comfortably back being a shipping manager and assistant production manager.

Hold on, I was trying to blog about my arm.

I had a notepad in my phone where I kept track of what I was doing at the gym and how much weight I was doing it at, and I stopped updating it after the accident. I made another one when I started rebuilding my arm. It was almost embarrassing how little I could hold with it when I started, and it was wobbly. I gave myself some goals, and some others told me it would take a full year from that point before it would feel normal again. 

I felt normal back in June. I checked the old notepad and discovered that I had recently surpassed every single part of it.

Now if only they were able to do something about my elbow. That thing pops like bubble wrap. Whatever. Happy New Year.

Merry fortnite

My kids have two weeks off of school at the end of the year. Two entire weeks. When I was in high school I remember I was in school on Christmas Eve for a half day (it wasn't very well attended, but I was still sent in). Now? Christmas is a Thursday, but they have everything from Dec 22 - Jan 2, plus the weekends bookending it making it 16 days off.

And they keep hoping for snow. Kids, if you already have the day off, the snow is wasted. You can't get a snow day when you already have the day off. You need to time your requests better.

Glasses

I've needed glasses since my early 20's. Fortunately right now my job pays for glasses (something about their contract requiring anyone working there to have 20/20 vision), and I get a new pair every two years. But something unfortunate happened.

Two years ago, they convinced me to get what they call 'progressive lenses', which means that different parts of the lens have different focal... lengths? I don't have that vocabulary, but what it meant for me was uncomfortable. You see, I look with my eyes, but looking anywhere but dead ahead was blurry and warped. They said I'd get used to it, but I never did. After a month, I put on my old pair of glasses and they worked just fine. But something unfortunate happened.

They disappeared when on a nice family weekend for my wife's birthday. Gone without a trace, never to be seen again. I tried to wear the weird ones for the drive home, but it was so jarring that I just went without. My wife drove when it got dark.

When we got home, I went digging and found yet an older pair of glasses. They're a little worn out, with an odd bit of wire holding the rims together and some mismatches screws holding the temples on. They worked well enough, and weren't jarring at all. I've been using them since then, except I have to keep tightening the screws or the temples fall off.

My eye exam was today, and I flatly told them that I was going back to single distance lenses. I'm looking at my six year old pair that needs work and honestly they can't come fast enough.

The old vs the new... car

Remember my "new" car? I needed to replace a busted headlight.

Booooooo.

I bought a replacement bulb, then dreaded it. I kept the package in my car, waiting for it to maybe warm up. (I don't have a garage) I dread this because on my last car, getting to the headlight assembly was a chore. I had to go in through the wheel well, remove the wheel liner (which was guaranteed to break a part because it was held on with parts that snapped into place), then contort your arm reaching through to get to the bulb assembly. Then, after figuring out the combination, you could only pull it back so far because the wires were too short. From there you needed to do some voodoo to get the bulb out, then the new one in, before reversing course. Now you couldn't see the housing going back into place because your arm was in the way. That might be a real problem if you could get your head in there to see it in the first place, so just fumble around for awhile until it sets correctly. This required three, yes three, different wrench sizes and a screwdriver.

So of course I hesitated, because every time I have to do this it's cold out.

I had some time this morning, so I found a video showing how to get to the bulb assembly on my new car and replace it. I was immediately surprised. All I had to do was pop the hood and look down. The bulb assembly was right there, and it opened with a short twist. I did both bulbs in FIVE MINUTES, and with no tools.

I believe someone at Kia told the engineers that they would also be mechanics for basic maintenance like this, because it was almost too easy,

A small private service

My grandmother, my dad's mom, was the kind of woman that never wanted anyone to make a fuss over her. She didn't want a big funeral, memorial, 'celebration of life' (she rolled her eyes at that one), or anything of the sort. She wanted a simple graveside service with family and close friends present.

She got her wish.

It was chilly, but not uncomfortably cold. There was snow on the ground, but it wasn't snowing, nor was it windy. It was the best weather we could have hoped for in the midst of a snowy season. Given the privacy behind the service, it was remarkably well attended. There was no general announcement, but everyone that was told was in attendance. There was concern that her peers would refrain based on how cold it had been, but they all came and the weather relaxed for the occasion.

During a quiet moment, a flock of geese honked madly overhead. It was amusing, but it was also the perfect segue into the seagull story.

I was a small boy, and my grandmother had taken me to a nearby department store. It was attached to a quiet little mall that was dying, so the parking lot was mostly empty. I sat up front in her little truck, and there was a flock of seagulls sitting around, waiting for some discarded scraps.

She turned the truck toward them and gunned it.

My parents drove like they were afraid of the road, so the sudden acceleration was as surreal as the explosion of terrified birds fluttering in every direction. She did that more than once, but it was hilarious every time.

I'm gonna miss that woman.