Jimmy's off to the Afghanistan

Here's the family pic taken Sunday. Top row (left to right): Jerry, Dork, Brett, Russ, James. Sitting (left to right): Mykin, Dad, Mom, Cort.

Get the "live" cuts off the greatest hits!

I recognize the fact that I'm just one person, that my life pretty much sucks, and I'm not really going to effect a whole lot of change in the world; but if there were one thing...

Maybe this isn't it, but it might be one thing that I'd change. It just shows up a bit further down the priority scale.

What I really want to see is the complete and total elimination of "live" tracks on greatest hits compilations--unless of course the title is Greatest Hits Live. Yes, this is one of those pathetic gripes I have that I like to spout off on once in a while.

So, any record execs out there reading my blog, Efforts in Futility: A) don't you have better things to be doing? like B) put out greatest hits compilations WITHOUT the live tracks. The only exception to this rule (aside from the Greatest Hits Live thing) is this--the only live tracks allowed on the "non-live" greatest hits CD would be those that were played regularly and became hits in and of themselves, but the original studio version should also be included unless it, in and of itself, was a complete flop. Even then, I'd probably include it just to satiate idiots like myself who are generally insatiable on such matters.

Hershey Squirts...

Forgive me for the title. Maybe it's a bit too descriptive? Oh well.

Hershey, the dog, is back inside tonight. It's raining and I feel as though I may have been too hard on the poor pooch. And, quite possibly, I've found the problem--and it very well may be that it's my error (thinking the dog should be smarter than he is). I may have given him too much room to call his own at night. So, tonight I've put up his crate and put his pillow inside it. Tonight when I go to bed, the door closes and we'll see what happens. Seems that dogs don't like to poop where they sleep so you give them room to stand, turn, and lay down, and that's about it. And then, first thing in the morning, outside to poop in the same spot with the same instructions and the same reward.

I hope that I'm that lucky.

Tomorrow, my brother James leaves for Washington to begin his Afghanistan deployment. Two months in Washington (state) training and ten months in Afghanistan doing whatever it is his unit does. I wish him well. I hope and pray he is kept safe and well and is able to return to his family in the same condition they sent him out in. His wife, two girls and one boy should be well cared for in his absence--both his and Ruth's families are local and willing to do whatever. Me included.

OK, I gotta get off the Internet and start reading. I have been majorly negligent as far as keeping up with my reading assignments for my two classes. Bad Maynard! Bad!

02/22/08

A few things are swimming through my mind tonight. I came home from work early because I suddenly felt extremely ill, became rather flushed and turned red as a beet feeling like my skin was going to boil right off. Anyways, I made it home safely with the windows open and cold air blowing through the car. When I recovered from whatever it was, I cleaned up the dogs mess.

So far I’ve had no takers on my offer for a free dog. Go figure. Everybody must already know what he does on the carpet—all over the carpet. Stupid dog! Is it too much to ask that the dog bark or something when it needs to be let out? Rather than bark, the idiot dog cowers in a corner somewhere (I’m assuming that because he doesn't poop until I'm asleep) and waits til it can’t wait no more and then lets loose, crap flying every which way. Or he takes 5 or 6 dumps at various times during the night, each in a different spot. I’ve shampooed the carpet so many times this winter I’m going to start vacuuming up patches of worn-out carpet! Well, no more mister-responsible-dog-owner. He's sleeping outside forever!

Westerns. Westerns—as in movies. There needs to be more Westerns. Good Westerns. I watched Open Range tonight. Good movie actually. Would have been a great movie too, IMHO, if they had eliminated altogether, or at least significantly reduced, the romance that developed between Kevin Costner’s and Annette Bening’s characters. Sheesh! It was forced and cheesy. Seriously though, how many really good westerns have been made over the past 20 years? Half a dozen? Maybe? Certainly no more than 10. And if there are more—what are they?

I’m hungry. Maybe I’ll go make myself a grilled cheese sandwich. Maybe grilled tuna and cheese with tomato. Or maybe I’ll just go to bed.

I’m skipping tomorrow altogether by the way. Don’t even think about bothering me til Sunday!

Free to a good home!

Actually, any home.

What am I talking about?

The worlds most stupidest dog.

Any takers?

Running

I've been doing horribly at tracking my miles this year. I have no idea what my YTD total mileage is. Today I ran 13 miles--6 at work and 7 at home on the treadmill. Loverly.

Anybody remember Roxette?

Update II

Corbin is fine. He's got his wrist set now, hopefully with the bones properly aligned so the growth plate can do its thing the way it should. He goes back to see the doc next week. I haven't talked to him since yesterday morning so I don't know how he's feeling. He said just after coming out of "surgery" that it hurt worse then than it did in the days immediately after he broke it.

Update

Corbin had an appt. with an orthopedic specialist yesterday. The plan is to sedate him (put him out—unconscious) Wednesday morning and non-surgically realign his Radius to within 1 to 2mm of what the bone was before the break. Apparently it’s an extremely painful procedure, but because the growth plate is affected it has to be done. Anyways, they’ll cast it after that and he’ll be wearing that for a minimum of 6 weeks. Good times. For the 10-15 minutes they had the splint off, he was scratching his arm constantly.

One of the other options he was given was a local sedative with the same realignment process. He actually would have opted for that if they could have done it right there and then.

Anyways, that’s the latest. I’ll let you know how Wednesday morning goes.

The broken wrist story as told by Corbin:

He's here with me now. I will transcribe the events that unfolded verbatim as he dictates them to me.

"So, there I was, minding my own business going down the hill. I was no more than 200 feet away from base riding right by the trees. When all of a sudden, an old geezer comes out and blindsides me, scaring the crap out of me! He falls to my left and I fall after him with my wrist crashing into the side of his snowboard. After I pulled myself together, I sat up and realized something was wrong with my wrist. And, of course, the old geezer started blaming me. After he bailed, I attempted to put my glove back on, but when I tried my hand twisted abnormally, and at that moment I knew my wrist was broken. I felt light headed and very nauseous at seeing my hand twist in such an awkward way. Bam!"

The arrows in the above x-rays indicate where the break's in both the radius and the ulna are. The last pic doesn't show both very well because it's the side view where both bones are inline with each other.

Saturday afternoon...

I got a 6-mile run in and it seems Corbin busted his wrist snowboarding this morning. He's at the Instacare Clinic right now waiting--they just finished with the x-ray. Oh what joy.

**Follow-up to the broken wrist. The break involved the growth plates in both long bones in his forearm--the radius and the ulna. The text I received suggested that a orthopedic surgeon's services may be required. How might a break involving the growth plates in his arm affect his growth and development? Go here: Growth Plate Injuries and Fractures.