Holes in My Soles

For the last few days, praise God, we have had lots of rain here in Atlanta. I really don't like rain, but hey, in a drought I will pray for it with the best of 'em. Anyway, I was walking the dog yesterday morning (in the rain) and noticed after a few minutes that my foot started feeling a little wet in my left shoe. I kept walking, but I was all the while quite perplexed as to how my foot could be getting wet on the bottom and near my toes. I kept looking down, wondering if maybe I was walking in deep water, but no, it was just surface water on the road, no puddles. Then, before I could make sense of this peculiar feeling, my right foot started feeling wet. At this point I had no choice but to keep walking, let Kelsey do her business, and worry about it when I got back inside. I wasn't up for troubleshooting while holding an umbrella in one hand, a leash in the other, and not to mention freezing my butt off.

So I got home and found, in disbelief, that my trusty old shoes (operative word OLD) had developed holes in the soles. Both of them! If you look in this picture, it's not so obvious...

But with a little sold bending, the cavernous culprit is exposed.

Darn the luck. I guess it's time for a new pair!

Overdoing It?

I have been a bit under the weather this week. Woke up with a killer sore throat on Tuesday, the day of one of the biggest (and longest) presentations of the semester for our spinal orthotics class. That went well, thankfully. I started taking medicine that night for a cold and sore throat, and for a few days I went through the usual array of symptoms... mild fever, coughing, coughing up delightful stuff, sneezing, etc. Yesterday I felt pretty good most of the day, and then today it returned as mostly sinus congestion and coughing. I stopped by the Georgia Tech Health Services to get some free medicine (one of the joys of being a student). If you go in there and write down your symptoms and then check off which medicines you would like for your given symptoms, they will give you (up to a certain amount) any over-the-counter medication for free. This is very nice. Well, today I went through the form and answered all the questions, handed it in, and they rejected me from the quick service because I had answered "Yes" to blood in mucous. I tried to explain that it was not a big deal, that I was not coughing up a lung, and that I simply wanted some Sudafed so I could go home and take a nap and clear my sinuses. They insisted that I see the doctor, which took well over an hour. She very thoroughly checked me out, agreed that it was nothing serious, and then sent me out the door with the following assortment of medications:

So, I got sudafed plus 5 additional pills, sprays, and syrups. I hope this will be enough to cure the common cold. And I'd hate to see the prescription list if I actually did have something serious!

No Work

I don't know why, but I absolutely cannot bring myself to do anything remotely productive this evening. I got home a bit later than usual, and of course I had to take a break to watch The Office, but seriously I have done nothing worthwhile since I got home. This is not giving me a good feeling about Friday night. I might have to make myself stay home and work. This will probably be ok because noone has asked me to do anything on Friday night, but still it is not ideal.

Commercial Conspiracy

I just noticed something about TV that I haven't noticed before. It is possible that this has been going on for a long time, but I don't watch enough tv to catch it. I do, however, watch The Office. So right after The Office tonight, Scrubs was coming on. What I noticed was that there was no break whatsoever between the two shows. No commercials, no nothing. As soon as the final scene ended on The Office, before I reached for the remote and turned off the tv, Scrubs was already starting. It seems to me that several years ago, ok maybe 10 years ago, the standard was to have one commercial break during a 30-minute show and one break in between shows. Today, there are at least two commercial breaks in a 30-minute show and no breaks in between. So I guess the brilliant marketing people have realized that (1) if you have commercials during a show, people are more likely to sit through them, and (2) if you don't have commercials between shows, people are more likely to get hooked on the next show and then watch more commercials during that one. Am I the only one who thinks this is a conspiracy? I did not fall for it this time because I think Scrubs is a stupid show, but if I had nothing better to do, I might just sit and get hooked into one show after another all night long. Be careful, they are out to get you. And then after you watch tv all night long, you will go out and buy a new cell phone that you don't need, or a new and improved tv so you can watch more commercials and see them more clearly.

Back to the Blog

Well, well, where to begin again after many months of bloglessness? I don't know. I guess rather than trying to recap the last two months all at once, I will start with now and fill in the rest later. I'm not sure why I all of a sudden stopped writing here, but I have to say I miss it and vow to get back in the swing of things. So, more to come later on September and October, but let's talk about the first few days of November.

First of all, this week has brought with it not only a new month but also a new average low temperature here in Atlanta. Let's just say in the mornings when it is time to take Kelsey for her walk, I am now bundling up and can see my breath in the crisp, cool air. I am not a fan of this.

The first week of November also brings with it the realization that this semester of school is very quickly winding down. We have about 4 weeks left of class and then final exams, and then a break! I am looking forward to the break, but I have also enjoyed this semester. I am loving what we are learning in spinal orthotics and in transfemoral prosthetics. Just trust me, it's fun if you are me. And even if you aren't me, you can't argue that watching someone walk on an artificial leg that you made for them would be fun.

I will briefly mention the time change, since that did occur this week. I only like it for one day because of the extra hour added to that day. Otherwise, I do not appreciate this seemingly small change that makes the mornings all the more cold and the evenings darker sooner. Again, I am not a fan.

I am a fan, however, of LSU football. I was very proud of the Fighting Tigers this past weekend as they effectively broke the hearts of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Geaux team! The Georgia Tech Yellowjackets were not so exciting this week as they lost miserably to Virginia Tech Thursday night. The only two exciting things about that game were (1) my friend Julian came to the game, and (2) Big Boi of Outkast played a concert at halftime.

And to round out this quick update, I will share a picture from a Halloween party last weekend. I dressed up last year, but I wasn't really that into it. This year I somehow received inspiration and managed to whip up this Wonder Woman costume the day of the party. I incorporated a spinal orthosis just for fun and because I am a nerd like that. The shoes were everyone's favorite part of the costume, which were well worth wearing even though they were the most uncomfortable shoes I've ever worn. If you can't see them very well, they are high top tennis shoes with stiletto heels. I have no idea why anyone would make such a thing. Hopefully they were supposed to be a joke.