So I am trying to keep a positive attitude about the herniated disk. The good news is that surgery is off the table for now. Friday starts physical therapy to stabilize my back. Earlier this week I felt good. So good that I think I over did it and had to spend a bunch of time on my back again. The next month or 2 is going to be a lot of that I think.

The one thing that makes me sad is that I am not riding my bike to work. NIH has an incredibly active biking community. It is headed up by a woman named Angela Atwood-Moore. She is a woman of boundless energy, and enthusiasm for the biking community. She is also the wife of my friend Tchad Moore from the Television Station AMTV. That was an unusual coincidence, I knew I recognized her from somewhere. I just couldn’t place it.

The NIH Bicycle Commuter Club (NIH-BCC) has about 400 members, but I am sure that there are more commuters that don’t know or don’t care about the club.  The club offers information on commuting routes, a mentor program to help new cyclists, and a voice for the community who is trying to make NIH much more Bicycle friendly.  For several years, NIH has won the area Bike to Work day, as the most registered cyclist in this area. We won this year because a little rain doesn’t stop us.  Pictured above is Angela at Bike to Work day.  Did I mention NIH has its own cool NIH Bike Jersey?

It really does make sense that the NATION INSTITUTES OF HEALTH should promote healthy lifestyles by any means they can.  But the gubberment can move at a glacial pace.  The added outrage at gas prices, and the mild summer have done a lot for boosting bike numbers.

Dont ask me why but the but a Detroit paper wrote up the NIH Bike club’s “Bike Bucks” program.  See it here:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080828/FEATURES01/80828028/1026

I guess because the program is fairly unique.  It pays participants 5 “bike bucks” for every 100 miles they commute.  These can be redemeed at a few local bike shops Proteus Bikes in College Park, MD and “The Bicycle Place” in Silver Spring, MD.  I think a few more shops have jumped on board.  Its a nice little boost since the gubberment doesn’t subsidise bicycling.  Although, as mentioned in the above article, Representive Earl Blumenauer from Oregon has proposed a bill in congress that allows for a $20 incentive for bicycling to work.  YAHOO!  I wonder if it will be only for federal employees and not us contractor slobs.  Still a move in the right direction.

In my downtime I have now watched more television then I can remember, and when I was younger I watched A LOT.  Lots of old shows like “The Prisoner” (thanks Brock) and lots of Anime (Thanks Cliff) and now the worst of all I am completely hooked on HEROES (Thanks Mollie).  Yes proving again that I am behind the times.  I was catching up on a lot of sleep until I started watching the disk. 

Tomorrow starts Physical Therapy.  Need to get something more done.  Rant and roll.

-gg

Sit now and hear my tale of woe.

I hurt myself while watching Black Adder, and especially Black Adder the Third and Black Adder goes Forth. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long while. After watching Black Adder 1, 2, 3 and 4, I needed to stop for a while because my jaw hurt.

But you may ask, where have I gained so much free time as to sit and watch all these episodes, plus just about every other movie in my house. Well it seems I have hurt myself far before the jaw incident.

I have given myself a herniated Lumbar disk and I find it sort of uncomfortable to sit.

For those unfamiliar with a lumbar herniation, there is a great page that sums up the whole thing:

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~wwhitehi/atep/496/projects/lumbardisk.html

The picture above is from that page. So I have been on my back for a while. It hurts to sleep or at least rolling back and forth sends a shock into my left hip. Walking does make it feel better but I don’t want to push it too far. So I been on my back long enough to watch everything I cared to in the house and now have gone to borrowing DVD’s from my friends, including Black Adder. My Doctor has put me on real exertion restrictions until I can talk to a specialist which will be next week. OH GOOD GRIEF is this what having free time is like? Holy Crap it is dull. I worked out things at work to try and cover for me which wasn’t easy. I may sneak in for a few hours but I am trying to be very serious about this. The world would not deal well with me on permanent injured reserve.

I missed Otakon this last weekend because of my little issue. Oh well. But Stac, Sam, and G got to go. Sam got a few pics, but the battery ran out.

So Garrett has kept a 1000 batting average on being only interested in Spiderman and Pickachu. Some time I hope to see some diversity but he had fun. Sam had a run on AVATAR characters, she got most all except for Ang. She did say that the next day she saw someone dressed as Ang but the camera battery was not in the camera.

I will try to be e-mail folks with a new e-mail address, the spamcop account is getting overrun.

peace and sonovial grease

GG