Foot Follow Up

I've already posted this elsewhere, but for the next few weeks it will be the biggest thing happening in my life.  

So, here's the post on how we got here.  And the picture above is what they showed me shortly after I came out of sedation at the Texas Orthopedic Surgery Center.  

This is kind of what happens when you enthusiastically agree with your doctor that the ideal outcome of surgery is that you never, ever want for your foot to break again.  You wake up with a titanium screw put into your foot that will mean your pinky toe shall ne'er bend again.  

In my head, this was going to be an inch-long screw.  For scale, I wear a 14 wide.  Apparently, and in no way does this surprise me, they learned my bones are very dense and so my surgery took longer than expected.

Surgery was Thursday November 6th, and it's now Sunday, November 9th.  

Does it hurt?  Not like you'd think.  If I have it up, there's a low ache between a 2 and 4.  Nothing I can't sleep through, and I can say that here on day four, it hurts less, and I'm only taking a real pain killer before I go to sleep.  Aside from that, I'm sticking to HEB brand acetaminophen.  I find if I take real pain killers I just fall asleep or can't remember proper nouns.  

If I move around or put my foot at an angle where the surgery site has weight on it, yeah, I can feel it, but I'm not weeping.  I've got crutches, so I can sort of lurch around.  I've been upstairs for a shower and will do so again today.  Back to work Monday/ tomorrow

Anyway, they say I should be back to normal (whatever that is) within 6 weeks.  So that literally puts me at the week of Christmas for walking around just fine.  Which would be nice.  But it does mean I am unsure what holiday decorating will look like this year, and shopping is going to be all-Amazon-all-the-time.  No holiday strolls for me.  

Anyway, yeah, it's going to be a nice, long slog to get through the holidays wherein I am sure people will be losing their shit with me for not keeping up.

I busted my foot

my fracture is further toward the toe, my skin is not invisible and I have fewer radiating concentric rings

So, a while back I was walking Emmylou and noticed my foot was hurting.  But, look, I am aware I have some mild arthritis - which I've had for a decade at least, so sometimes things just start hurting for a while.  If I adjust this or that, it gets better.  But if I do something really repetitive, like push-ups, my wrist will start yelling at me.  

Anyway, I assumed this was that, and I would just get some new shoes and Dr. Scholl's inserts and all would be well.  Well, not so much.  

I woke up one morning and my foot was just hollering at me, which is not a great sign as I am a fellow who prefers to sleep horizontally and had barely used my feet all night.  

Immediately, I got online and got an appointment with my Primary Care doctor, and that appointment was a week out.  After a ten minute visit, I got an appointment for an x-ray so she could get a look and direct me to an orthopedic doctor.  That x-ray was *supposed* to be two weeks out, but I fixed it and it but a mere week out.  

30 Years With Jamie

 

Jamie's 30th Birthday in San Diego

I met Jamie in fall of 1993 during a party off-campus at Trinity University in San Antonio.  We didn't start dating for about two years after that.  

When we met, both Jamie and I were college freshmen, me at University of Texas, and Jamie at Trinity.  My friends Denise and Madi, chums from high school and fellow Longhorns, drove us down for the evening as it was a Saturday in the dorms and we had no plans.  I called my brother in San Antonio and he knew of a party and knew Denise and Madi.  

No sooner had we arrived than I had enjoyed my first Goldschlager and Jagermeister.  Out of the crowd, other high school pal Erica appeared and introduced me to her suite-mate, Jamie, and my memory is that Jamie stepped in front of me and I got hit by that thunderbolt you read about but think is nonsense, something I'd say was a ridiculous bit of fiction had it not been my exact experience.  

It is very odd to have a moment that is going to change the entire trajectory of your life occur, but this was that.  

Immediately, I became acutely aware of my state, and that whatever tools I had for navigating speaking to this girl were nowhere to be found.  I was going to have to just bumble my way through.

Jamie's Latest Blog Post

Jamie finally returned to her blog and put up a post catching you up on what's been going on with us for the past couple of years.  

Introducing: Emmylou

Y'all meet Emmylou.  

After taking some time since we lost Andre, we decided to head to the Austin Humane Society, where we adopted Scout and Jeff the Cat, and we walked out the door with a small friend who will be with us for the next 15 years, I'd guess.

Chicago Trip 2025

Jamie and I hadn't been outside of Texas since 2019.  

When COVID hit, we went into lockdown the same day as everyone else in March of 2020, but took a lot longer to step away from safety protocols.  Add in that my employment has been... a ride since COVID hit, and circumstances have made it difficult to think ahead or plan a vacation.  

We took some local AirBNB trips and we went to San Antonio, but we hadn't really gone anywhere in years.

But on June 13th we flew out mid-day, and returned early in the evening of June 17th.  A short trip, but travelling for us is an ordeal.  Jamie has to schedule dialysis at a local clinic, and we don't tend to have long days of just moving around.

For a first trip out of town in a while, we chose something we knew, and something I was desperate to do - get back to Chicago and take in a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  And a good year for it!  Cubs are several games at the top of the the National League Central right now, with Pete Crow-Armstrong a superstar in the making, and Seiya Suzuki also on a hitting streak.  We have a third baseman in Matt Shaw, and our defense is sometimes better than our relatively solid offense.

Friday

Today is Our 25th Wedding Anniversary

It is true.  On April 28th, 2000, Jamie and I exchanged vows in front of family and friends in a lovely ceremony in South Austin.  

It was a whole thing.

The pics, by the way, are my scans I did real fast on my phone which is about 5 generations behind.  Be kind.  The pictures were shot on film.  This was in ye olden daze.

I don't know what to tell you about 25 years of marriage.  I recommend it if you can work it out.  It helps to marry someone with whom you get along pretty darn well.  There's a tip for you kids.

Kylie Minogue at the Moody Center - April 17, 2025

Now that's how you command an audience

I was aware of Kylie Minogue when she covered The Locomotion (by Carol King, natch!), way back circa 1987.  I figured she was one of a thousand flash-in-the-pan pop starlets, especially as, much like Tiffany covering I Think We're Alone Now, the song was already in the zeitgeist.  

I can't say I thought much about Kylie again until she popped up as The Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge, at which point I began formulating the idea that Kylie is a good idea, indeed.

a stunningly good argument for absinthe

And then, of course, with the release of her album, Fever, she dropped the single Can't Get You Out Of My Head, and America was finally given a real look at Minogue - including a 2002 appearance on SNL (that is not currently on YouTube, which is a shame).  

I turned 50

look at me, enjoying time with Jamie at a ball game while my dad photobombs us

Well, I turned 50 this weekend.

I always acknowledge my birthday at the media review branch of League of Melbotis by finding a song and lyrics that seem to articulate the way we're feeling at the time.  I have a playlist if you want to jam out to my vibes the past several years.  

It's been a wild few years, to be honest.  But that's just life as an adult, I think.  I try to be zen about it all.  Things are tough sometimes, but we have a great family support system, and that does a lot to keep you going.  I've refocused.  You keep moving.

To celebrate my birthday, I managed to pull together family that was in town (Dug and K live elsewhere, but more details on that shortly) and we all did one of my favorite things.  We went to a baseball game.  We watched the Round Rock Express triumph over the Oklahoma City Comets on a windy, sunny day.  

SEC Champions! UT Women's Basketball Game - 03/02/2025

your geniuses at work

On Sunday, March 2, we headed to the University of Texas campus to catch the UT Women’s Basketball team play in the final game of the year. I thought I was being a smart boy and bought tickets for my parents, Jamie and myself. 

This week is my mom’s birthday, and my parents are both alumnae of the University of Florida, who we were playing. I called to surprise them, and they informed me they’d already purchased tickets to the same game. This is how things work at my house. 

Steanso, The Niece and Yours Truly

So, Sunday afternoon my mom and cousin met up with me and Jamie, and then Steanso's family.  We had seats in separate sections, but it worked out.

Andre Crosses the Rainbow Bridge

during Christmas this year

Just over three years ago, we adopted a very large dog.

We'd been going through a rescue that specializes in Golden Retrievers, and got something we thought was a mix.  A 110+ pound mix of Golden Retriever and... something.  Our new boi swiftly got healthier and was now a 120+ pound mix.  And, as it would turn out, not a Golden at all, but a Great Pyrenees mix with a dollop of Pit Bull.  

But because the rescue thought he was a gigantic Golden, they'd named him Andre the Giant.  When given a chance to rename him, we figured he'd just been given a new name, and he sure seemed like an Andre.  

In the end, his breed explained a lot.  As a Golden, he'd had a hard time getting adopted out because he would bark at people who came to meet him, which could be intimidating.  But, Pyrs are sheep guard dogs, and they bark at people entering their territory.  We didn't have that problem - he came to meet us at our house - and it was kind of love at first sight, but when we thought he was a Golden, his behavior was super odd.  

When he didn't want to do something badly enough, or he got scared, he would sploot - just go to ground and dare you to move him.  He didn't want to be in the backyard at all, even with us, and he was very confused by things Goldens love, like toys, pleasing people, and following commands - which is not a thing Pyrs care about at all.  

A Night at The Austin Symphony - The New World

So, back during covid lockdown, I spent a lot of time watching YouTube.  And, as some may remember, during the first days of lockdown in March of 2020, famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma offered up a song of comfort with Dvořák's "Coming Home".  

At the time, this was the thing that wrecked me as I realized how we were all in this together, for a long time to come.  But, I also realized I didn't really know anything about Dvořák, or this song, which we've all heard out there somewhere.  But if Ma picked Dvořák, I thought it was worth looking into.  

There's a pretty great explainer here from 2020 (hopefully the link doesn't die).  And one from NPR on the full symphony.  

I learned it's the second movement of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From The New World", written circa 1893.  You will know this symphony - it's been used in movies, television, etc... in bits and pieces. 

Christmas 2024

the official White House 2024 ornament, amongst some family ornaments

Our mode the past decade or so has been to throw as much Christmas as we can at the wall so when something doesn't pan out or something bad happens, at least *something* Christmassy occurred.

This year we got up decorations inside and outside the house early.

We put up the Super Tree

Me and "Batman" (1989) - at 35

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Batman.   

Our final episode of The Signal Watch PodCast covered this movie.  I invite you to join Jamie and me through a chipper discussion of the movie and the forces around it.  And I've previously written about me and Batman.

To repeat some of what's the podcast and maybe elsewhere - I very much recall my excitement around Batman in 1989. 

I'd really come to comics in 1986, and like a lot of readers at the time, I mostly read X-books and the Bat-titles.  Bat-comics were kind of exploding at the time in the wake of Dark Knight Returns and with the arrival of the terrific talents of folks like Alan Grant on writing chores, veteran Jim Aparo and fresh talent Norm Breyfogle on pencils.  I think this era is one of the many well-loved eras for the books, and with good reason.  

Even in the era of Indiana Jones and Star Wars, Batman was the first movie I ever followed through development and to release date - then through box office and into home video.  It was not the first movie I ever loved, but it was the first movie I felt a level of personal attachment.  

I recall articles in Comics Scene, then the paper.  Reading Nicholson was the Joker and feeling uncertain how that would go.  Prince would be on the soundtrack, which seemed bizarre.

So excited was I - I purchased the novelization prior to the release of the film, and was half-way through reading it when I realized "this is a very dumb thing to do" and I cast the book aside.  I didn't know the term "spoilers" then, but I realized I was going to maybe ruin the experience a mere 4 or 5 days prior to seeing the movie.

My memory of seeing the film itself will always be tied up with a few unrelated things.

24 Years of Wedded Bliss

So, April 28th, 2024 marks the 24th anniversary of Jamie and I making it official.

We'd "dated" for years prior, back to 1995, but that's if you call "dating" two people just saying "yup" to each other and now we were an item.  There wasn't much in the way of trying to figure things out regarding our status.  I wasn't taking her to a movie and then dropping her off and wondering what she was thinking.  We were just together.  And while I didn't know that we'd get married in the first months, there was just not a lot of work there - we just didn't have a trial period or casual dating phase.  

When I hear about people having relationship drama, I'm just of the opinion that you aren't writing a romantic novel about overcoming all kinds of obstacles in liking each other.  I'm not saying there isn't any work or misunderstandings, but, kids, it can be pretty good pretty early on.  With Jamie's medical history, we wound up having plenty of drama that wasn't us arguing, so don't mistake things for being all smooth sailing.  And I got cold feet a couple of times as we headed toward what looked like a lifelong relationship - what with college ending and next phases of life starting.

But into those next phases we headed, sharing an apartment for two years before nuptials.  We got married on a Friday in April of the year 2000.  We were 25, which was pretty young by the standards of my peers.  But, also, most of my friends responded to the news with "shocker, man".  Which means people probably knew we were getting married before I knew.