I continue to heal, and get better day after day. My right arm is getting stronger, and I’m happy about that. I’m also still making very small gains in movement and dexterity, though they are hard to notice on a day-by-day basis, but it’s the aggregate that matters.
My right side still hurts a TON as does my lower back. With those areas it’s just a waiting game. I can pretty much manage my pain with Motrin or Tylenol, so that’s good. I have been going to physical therapy for my back. I haven’t really noticed very many gains since starting physical therapy, but that’s mostly because I haven’t been diligent in my home exercises. I have finally disciplined myself to do my exercises everyday this week, and we’ll see what the therapist has to say Tomorrow (9/25) when I go in for what may be my last PT appointment.
I also visited with my Doctor of Occupational Medicine this last week. He was very encourage by my progress and suggests that now might be a good time to begin a regular exercise routine. Those who know me, know how much I love to hate exercise, so we’ll see if I can actually discipline myself in that regard. I did go out for a 5 minute bike ride on Saturday. What can I say, each little step is a victory.
I have been teaching the Gospel Doctrine class now for about 6 weeks. I’m starting to finally get a feel for the calling. It’s amazing how you can spend all week preparing for a lesson, make a nice outline and everything, and then, when you get up to teach, it goes in a completely different direction from what was planned. I’m confident that the Spirit of the Lord leads our discussions. I’m not sure about the class attendees, but I feel enlightened when I leave.
Things at work are going well. I am on a team that is developing a product in house to help with acquisitions as well as provide remote access to some of Google’s services. That products launched last Friday, and pretty much went off as expected. We even had the bugs in the system that we expected. Over all though, it was a success and should be a nice feather in my cap during my tenure at Google.
I don’t drive to work. Google has a shuttle that makes regular pick-ups around the bay, and I take that to work. Recently, a homeless person has started using the shuttle stop as her bedroom. I suppose because it has benches and a canopy. When I get there in the mornings she is usually still asleep. It’s a scene that breaks my heart really. I finally left her a note with instructions on how to get to the nearest homeless shelter, but she still sleeps at the shuttle stop. One of the things I realized while waiting for the shuttle one morning, is that really, there isn’t much difference between me and her. We are all beggars before God, and in a very real sense, the line between affluence and poverty is very thin. I think sometimes we forget that.
A couple of weeks ago Jaime and I went on a Daddy-daughter date. Jaime is eight and now attends Achievement Days. For the non-LDS readers, it’s kinda’ like cub scouts, but for girls, but it’s not girl scouts. Anyway, they had a western themed dance for the Dad’s and Daughters to go to. It was fun. They had a potato bar and nachos for dinner and they taught us how to country line dance. Jaime, of course, was born to dance and she picked up on it immediately. Her poor old dad was more like an embarrassment, but we persisted and had lots of fun. On the way there and back, I let her control the radio in the car. Jaime is a better channel surfer than me! She finally found the song she was looking for and sang along at the top of her lungs all the way home from the dance. It was great!
October 5th and 6th should be fun. Joey and I are arranging an all night fishing trip for those two days. We’re going to the San Luis reservoir, which isn’t too far from here and is supposed to be famous for bass, cat and sturgeon fishing. We have several other men from our ward signed up and it promises to be a good time. It’s close enough that we can fish all night, leave by 7:00am and still make the first session of general conference. I’ll let you all know how that goes.
You all have seen pictures of Sami’s new do. I have to say, I like it. I wasn’t so sure because I like long hair, but I have to admit, it is very cute. Of course, I’m married to the best looking woman around, so I shouldn’t have been too surprised that she looks so cute with shorter hair.
We sold our red car. (Pause for a moment of silence…) We loved that car. We had it for most of our marriage. But it finally broke down and I didn’t have the umph to fix it. It was (I assumed) an electrical problem because I couldn’t get spark on any of the plugs. I swapped out the distributor and still couldn’t get it to work. We finally put it up on craigslist. A couple of guys came and looked at the car, paid us and drove away. They came back in a couple of hours with a new timing belt. They swapped it out, and the car started right up. We’re sad to see the red car go, but we are genuinely glad it went to people who obviously know how to take care of it, and we hope they get as much joy and enjoyment from the car as we did.
OK. That’s it. I promise no more. For now… If you’ve read this far you deserve a cookie. Go ahead. Go get one.
~Scott
I get a cookie??? Actually we have a bunch of oreos downstairs right now. And while I may not have had breakfast yet, I think a cookie sounds good. Thanks for the idea and the reward! It’s good to hear from you. I am glad you are seeing gains. I share your love of hating to exercise…I understand your pain in that regard. I just recently started teaching the turning 14 year olds in Sunday school and boy it can be brutal! I am sure Gospel Doctrine is even worse. But if I were in your class, I would come prepared every week ready for an inspiring discussion! Miss you all.