So how is this for dinner:   smoked gouda, crackers, and a bottle of white wine (Jolie Blond from Breaux Vineyards in Purcellville, VA).  I actually really liked this when I went wine tasting last Saturday.  I don’t think many others liked it, but hey, I’m the one drinking it!  So I don’t really care what anyone else thought of it

Anyway, after a REALLY bad day at work…another night of not leaving during daylight hours (and problems that lasted all day long due to a coworker not thinking), I stopped at Harris-Teeter to find something to eat.  Just out of curiosity, I looked in their Virginia Wine section, I noticed one last bottle of Jolie Blond from Breaux.    So, I grabbed it.   Then I decided to get some smoked gouda and crackers.

So, now I’m home.  Kind of hurty from physical therapy this morning.  And….I’m not doing work.  This weekend is going to be pretty low-key with homework because I’m massively behind in US History 121 and helping to care for a friend’s cat while he is adventuring westward for a couple of weeks.  And while I’m not really a cat person, I like all animals.  And his cat is incurably cute and sweet.

So, it’s been just over 2 weeks since I had surgery.  Now is the fun physical therapy phase.  It’s going well.  I have almost full range of motion back.  Now it’s more of a focus on strengthening.  There’s a significant deficit in strength when comparing to my other leg now due to over 3 years of compensating with my other leg.

I’m getting REALLY antsy to ride at my firehouse though.  But it’s still going to be a while still unfortunately

So, Monday of last week…I finally had surgery on my knee from an injury I received initially 3 years ago.  The doctor tried physical therapy with the initial injury.  That helped, but I’ve not been 100% on it since.  For most of the last 3 years, I’ve just ignored it.  Unfortunately, last January, I apparently agitated it in such a way that I really didn’t feel like I should continue to ignore it.  I changed doctors and went to a very local place (office, surgery center and hospital complex are less than a half mile away).  After dealing with Workers Comp and trying to get everything approved, this doctor wanted to operate.  He agreed initially with my original diagnosis of medial meniscis tear, even though nothing could be seen on the MRIs.  So, he operated.

I have to give the Reston Surgery Center credit.  The staff was incredibly pleasant, helpful, and had wonderful bedside manners.  They also have a fairly decent procedure that each patient goes through that keeps things moving for the patient.  I really had little time to sit there and dwell on the potential surgery ahead of me.   I came in a little nauseated, probably from the anxiety of not having any clue how I’d react to all of this, but was given the standard anti-emetic cocktail intravenously.   The cocktail did a wonderful job of eliminating and preventing any nausea.  And suddenly before I knew it, I was in recovery.  I actually had to ask the nurse if I was done.  I think it took about 20 minutes and I staved off any foggy head from the anaesthesia.  Got home and was bored out of my mind.

 So now, is physical therapy and recovery.   Which this part of the process is turning out to be much more painful than the first few post-op days.  I didn’t even need any pain meds during those days.

So. I’m gimpy for now…and I really wanna get back to riding at my firehouse.  I’m so frustrated with not being involved more that this has brought me close to resigning….

Oh!  And I almost forgot…the surgeon when he scoped my knee removed the plica.  Basically some bands of tissue that are used when we are developing in the womb, but as an adult, it’s completely unnecessary.  The plica had been apparently been injured 3 years ago, and was rubbing against the bone.

As many who know me know I am an avid Simpsons fan, they won’t be shocked at how amusing I really found this to be:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007320865,00.html

So, I started out the holiday in my usual Tuesday night fashion…by going to Shooter McGee’s in Alexandria for wings.  When I got there, it was unusually packed due to the holiday most likely.  This meant I actually had to park in the rear of the building.  We had a good time, ended up staying pretty late as well.  And as I walked back to my truck, I saw some guy who was at my truck, looking inside or something.  He turned around, saw me walking that way, and ran and tried to hide behind a concrete wall with half of himself sticking out from it.  I turned around and walked back and got someone to walk me to my truck as I really didn’t feel like even having to be in a position of defending myself against him.   As we walked back, I watched him go from his hiding place, and up to the parking lot next door (about 10′ up a hill) and hide behind some bushes there while watching us walk back.   I made sure he knew that we were aware of his presence, location and description.  I got in my truck and left, and called Alexandria PD to report the suspicious person.

Now, last night….wow.   I’ve had some suspicions about a neighbor of mine and him being up to some nefarious activities.  He has a lot of traffic at his house, and they don’t usually stay very long, etc.  I’m not going to get into much detail other than that.  But last night, at 1am, he had some of this same traffic.  I heard them since they were right outside my door talking.  The conversation didn’t help to quell my suspicions either.  They finally went into his apartment and it was quiet until 20 minutes later, I heard a very loud bang.   I at first thought it was just a firecracker, but then there were two more that each had that nice reverberating sound that accompanies a gunshot.  I turn out my lights and go into my bedroom and I’m just listening to see what’s going on. It sounded a lot like gunshots at that point, but it still could have been fireworks.   As I’m just about to relax and go to sleep, I hear something outside my back patio door.  I then see the silhouette of someone walking by my bedroom window.   At this point, I call the cops.  The cops come out, and I find out that what I’d heard and seen later was actually another cop.  Someone else had called the cops reporting gunfire and he was investigating that.  Okay. I can finally relax and go to sleep.  I did have a nice conversation regarding my neighbor, and they basically had confirmed most of my suspicions.  Or rather, they told me I wasn’t wrong.  The cop who had been there first had no way of confirming either way whether they were fireworks or gunshots.  Awesome.