Some wicked thunderstorms and tornadoes hit our area last night so we scurried to our basement to sit it out and watch the action on TV. A confirmed tornado touched down within a couple of miles of our house but somehow we never lost power so we watched it on the WXII radar and wondered if any of our friends’ homes were in its path. One family we know in Advance who’s house was very near the tornado’s path is out of town on vacation so we don’t know if their house was damaged but we know they are okay.
Watching the morning news it looks like things got even worse as the storm moved east into the Greensboro area. They are showing video of cars tossed on top of each other, huge trees down all over the place and of course the requisite shirtless, beer-bellied homeowner walking around his house in a daze. That guy really dodged a bullet since a huge tree fell within inches of his house and it doesn’t look like there’s even a scratch on the siding. Now they’re showing a house in Advance that didn’t get off nearly so easy. Yikes.
They just reported that several people were injured and one guy who was in his pickup in a parking lot was killed. Hopefully they don’t find any more injured or killed.
Yep, we got lucky.
**Update** They just showed video of Hanes Park which looks to be completely flooded. The city just spent a bunch of money re-surfacing the hard and clay courts there and I have a feeling this flooding isn’t going to do them much good. My daughter’s soccer team has practiced on the field every Tuesday for the last six months at Wiley Middle School which is next to the park and I’m sure that field is flooded too since it’s right next to the same creek that flooded the park.
Cory Doctorow, he of BoingBoing among other ventures, has put Little Brother, his latest book online and once again shows some very smart publishing practices.
If you’re looking for smart ways to succeed in publishing I highly
recommend watching Cory and his ilk as they work their magic. And keep
in mind that important ingredients in his recipe are interactivity,
multi-media, and user generated content.
As I posted earlier I’m kind of laid up nursing a bum knee so I’ve been reclining on the couch with my leg iced and elevated, a laptop on my, er, lap, and a TV on in the background. If I didn’t already know that tomorrow is North Carolina’s primary then I would have figured it out pretty quickly. I don’t think I’ve seen a commercial that wasn’t paid for by one campaign or another all day, and I’m beginning to wonder if Coke’s gone out of business. I’m also thinking that tonight we’re going to have at least 20 minutes of political ads for every 40 minutes of actual TV programming.
My favorite ad so far is one co-sponsored by three Yadkin County dudes and though it’s low-tech it’s high on the scare tactic meter. Picture a black screen with white text scrolling and it says things like (I’m paraphrasing here because I can’t find the ad online): "English is NOT the official language of Yadkin County" and "Sectarian prayer is NOT allowed in Yadkin County" and "Illegal immigration is uncontrolled in Yadkin County", etc. I’m thinking these cats represent the progressive ticket and are looking to align themselves with Obama’s campaign for change.
In looking for the ad online I did find an article on the Yadkin Ripple website that says that a county commissioner running for reelection is going to file a complaint against a group that is running an ad in support of sectarian prayer at commission meetings. Hmm, combining God and government. Works in Iran, why not Yadkin County?
So last week I posted about playing soccer again for the first time in over 20 years. Yesterday was the last game of the season and once again I started out playing goalie. I had one save, but for the most part we dominated the action and kept the ball on the other end of the field. In the second half the guys let me play in the field and all went well for the first few minutes. In fact I got an assist when I crossed the ball from the right wing and Wayne was able to head it home for our first goal. Twenty minutes later I was playing defense and went to cut to my right (off my left foot) when I heard an ominous pop and went down like a sack of stones. I also heard a loud, high pitch squeal which I quickly realized was coming from me. I quickly squelched it, but the damage was done to my ego.
I was done for the day for sure, but I wasn’t so sure I wasn’t going to be done for several months at a minimum. I was going to just go home and ice it, but Celeste came to pick me up from the field and she talked me into going to the emergency room. We headed down to Davie Hospital in Mocksville which is a 1/2 hour drive vs. the 10 minute drive to Forsyth Medical Center, but there’s never a wait there and it has the advantage of being considered an urgent care unit until 10 p.m. which means that it’s billed at a lower rate than an emergency room.
Within 5 minutes of arrival I was done with paperwork and had a nurse taking my history and vitals, and within 15 minutes I was lying on a table with a young doctor manipulating my knee in all kinds of unnatural ways. I was heartened by the fact that he looked like he’d played football or some similar sport in his day (he had the look of a halfback about him) so he was probably familiar with the concerns of a middle-aged weekend warrior. After examining my knee, then sending me for x-rays and then re-examining my knee he informed me that the "integrity" of my knee was very strong, hence the reason my knee is not qualified for public office, and he said he thought I’d gotten off lucky. He suspects a "Grade 1" i.e. minor tear of my LCL, maybe a little worse, and said that he’s almost certain that I have a non-surgical recovery in my future. I told him that the only negative of this news is that I now consider myself a huge wuss for squealing like a stuck pig over a "minor" injury. He did his best to reassure me that I’m not a wuss, but I sensed that he truly thought I was.
So I’m off my feet for a few days, with my leg elevated and orders to keep my knee iced today and maybe tomorrow. Once again I’m becoming intimate with a bag of frozen vegetables; my brother will remember my stories involving a certain surgical procedure 12 years ago that required I keep a bag of frozen succotash in my lap for a couple of days and I’m sure he’d happily recount it for you. This time I’m feeling the cooling love of frozen peas.
Hopefully I’ve dodged a bullet and will be back to no good in a month or two. If the doc’s wrong then I’ll be seeing an ortho in a week or two and we’ll take it from there.
Silver lining: I have a legit reason for being a couch potato for a couple of days.
Befuddled 