One Toe, Two Toes, Three Toes, Broke

As I posted on Facebook on New Years Eve:  I may have the worlds first Scattergories injury (tho others want to claim it as a hockey injury, but really its a much less unique accident while walking while staring at a cell phone injury).

So at 7:30-8ish PM on New Years Eve I was lying down in the guest room of my in-laws house up in Ontario Canada.  I was relaxing and watching a recorded NHL game: Rangers vs my beloved Maple Leafs.  It was close to the end of the second period when my wife texted me from the first floor living room saying the rest of the family was about to start playing Scattergories (one of those word based party games).

Since I had a few minutes to go in the period I decided to watch the rest as I went down stairs.   I got to the 3rd last step when suddenly my feet kicked out from underneath me, my phone went flying, my butt went thumpy thumpy, and I slid down the rest of the stairs to the bottom step.  At which time I took stock of the situation. Most of me felt surprisngly fine, but my right foot hurt.  I slipped off my sock and saw that my middle toe was no longer facing the same direction as the rest of the toes.

To top it off sometime between my foot slipping and me arriving ungracefully at the bottom the Rangers scored on the Leafs.  Literal insult to injury.

So shortly after I got to my feet, my wife drove me to the emergency room of the local hospital.  X-rays confirmed that I indeed had two broken toes. (My first bone break ever - I am so proud) One had a simple crack, the other misshapen one was broken clean in half.  The doctor straightened the middle one, taped me up, and sent me on my way.  He did suggest that I go see an orthopedic surgeon to look at the middle toe.

So we went back to my in-laws house.  The annoying thing was that the emergency room didn't have any orthopedic boots in stock, nor crutches (very small town), so I had to use my hiking boots as a supporting boot.  The next day was New Years Day so I couldn't buy a boot, but fortunately I was able to borrow crutches from my wife's cousin.   So armed with mobility we headed off to complete our plans for New Years Day, which was visiting a photographer friend who wanted to get some portraits of me for his series of beard portraits,

The next day, Thursday, we drive home the 12.5 hours back from Canada.  Once home I booked an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for Monday, and ordered an orthopedic boot off Amazon.  I was soon back in a hobbling but mobile state for the weekend.

The emergency room gave me my x-rays on CD-ROM, so a family doctor friend offered to drop by the house on Friday to take a look at my x-rays for a second opinion.  Once I downloaded a viewer for the images I quickly realized that I actually had a third broken toe.  So the 2nd and 4th toe had cracks, and the third was a clean break.

The orthopedic surgeon looked at my foot on Monday and his first comment was "Yep, you broke 4 toes."   Its a well documented myth that vaccines cause autism, but apparently every time I see a new doctor I break another toe!  After closer examination it was determined that the 4th "break" was likely an old injury, or an x-ray smudge.

Never been more relieved to only have 3 broken toes!

So surgery was booked for Wednesday (yesterday). 

For surgery prep I was basically told to keep my foot elevated at all times, to reduce swelling.  This basically means I spent a couple days lying on the couch and lying in bed.  Before this I was able to go downstairs to my studio basement and get some creativity in.  Staying still has been a challenge.

So the surgery was pretty simple, and pretty unremarkable as things go. I left the house at 9:30, and returned at 2:30.  I was under general anesthetic for about an hour. 

The surgery was to have a pin inserted into my middle toe to keep it stable to give the bone a change to heal cleanly.  However it also means I am basically not allowed to put any weight on my right foot,  and keep it elevated as much as humanly possible.

Annoyingly I am actually less mobile that I was before the surgery.  This is actually mentally very hard to deal with. Previously I could get into my studio and be creative, and do things.  Now I am stuck upstairs, and really limited to the bed or the couch. 

I  described it to my wife as it feels like the exact opposite of depression.  When I was having depression episodes I had all the desire to go do things, my flesh was willing, but I couldn't get up the mental energy to actually get off the couch to go do it. 

Now I want to go do things,  and I have all the mental energy and desire to go do them, but my flesh is keeping me on the couch.

The one benefit of having depression is that I am more aware of how things affect my mood, so I can deal with the mental stresses much better than I otherwise would have - yay for emotional intelligence!

So for now I am taking a couple days off work while I am on post-op pain meds.  Then I will be working from home for at least a week.  I have a follow up appointment next Wednesday to see how I am doing, and whether the doctor will allow me to go to work, or at least go downstairs to my studio.

Until then, its bed rest for me!

And thus ends the story of my 3 broken toes.

The Swiss Chronicles: Trümmelbach falls

During my recent Swiss adventures I visted Trümmelbach falls. These falls are unique due being located inside a mountain.  

 There is actually a series of falls, all inside a mountain and accessible via tunnels and stairs built both on the outside and inside of the mountain.

Trümmelbach falls is located in the valley of Lauterbrunnen.  Since Lauterbrunnen was J R R Tolkiens inspiration for Rivendell, it would not surprise me if these falls served as the inspiration for the Mines of Moria (tho I have no reason to believe this is true - it just reminded me of Moria).

See what I mean?

The power of the falls is quite intense.  Each one would be a tourist draw in and of itself. 10 in a row is quite spectacular.  You can sense the power in the falling water, and I visited at a pretty dry time of year where glacier runoff (the source of the falls) was not at peak.

I could also envision Gollum crawling over these rocks.

Some of the stairs were quite long.  This one is at least 2 storeys worth of stairs, all at once.

This is the pool at the top of the falls (at least at the top of the tunnel system). It is a long way back from here.

So that is Trümmelbach falls.  If you are every in the region, this is a must-stop destination.

The Swiss Chronicles: Lauterbrunnen

Go back in time 10 weeks with your minds eye when I was talking to my co-worker Joel about our upcoming trip to Switzerland, and imagine the look on my face when he mentioned that there is a valley that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien to create Rivendell, the valley of the elves.

Do you have that mental picture of my face?

If it was complete joy, you know me well.  Congratulations! (if you thought otherwise, we have some bonding to do).

During that trip to Switzerland, just a few shorts days ago, I went to that valley. Yep, I visited Rivendell (tho the locals call it Lauterbrunnen).

Lauterbrunnen is a valley in the Alps known for its waterfalls, and one of the highest peaks in Europe.  Some of these waterfalls allow one to climb up behind them.  At least one is actually contained inside a mountain (but thats next post, this is about the outside stuff).

One of the first things we did (we, cause there was 4 of us) was climb up a steep hill, through a tunnel, and walk behind the waterfall.  If you look up and then down in this post you will see the start and ending point of this adventure.

 One of the things I love about wandering thru Swiss countrysides is that there are cows everywhere.  They all (mostly) have bells around their necks (so farmers can locate em on the mountainside) and often paths go right by their fields.   It gives the whole country a folksy "down on the farm" feel.

 Since it is October, and the climate is quite cool - high in the low 60s - I was quite surprised to see that there were a lot of flowers in full bloom in the valley. 

 This cow became my friend.  I call her Ermine The Devine Bovine.

 Since I knew I was going to visit Rivendell, I brought along a Gandalf action figure.  I took this shot while crossing a creek:

My creative muse complete, we went to the place where the waterfall falls inside the mountain (yeah, I know, next post!) then kept moving down the valley.

We then took a cable car up the mountain to a nice town at its peak, where the views were spectacular.
 I particularly enjoyed how the peaks caused the clouds to form interesting and unique shapes that one doesn't see a lot of in my home country.

 We finished off our day of hiking with a nice beer on a patio overlooking some of the most spectacular mountains I have ever seen.

After this we took a train back to Zurich.  Another awesome adventure in the books.

The Swiss Chronicles: Feelin' The Bern

Disclaimer:  This post has nothing to do with US Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, nor his (I presume) crazy relative, Colonel Sanders.

During the past few weeks I have been in Switzerland for work.  During the week I was based in Zurich, but during the weekend I was free to wander and roam. 

I have been to Switzerland a couple times now, and had explored around Zurich a fair bit, so this time I decided to cast my net a little farther away and check out the city of Bern.

This is the view that greeted me when I got off the train.

Bern is an old looking city.  Partly because (and you may find this shocking), it is old. However some old cities modernize over time, while Bern has maintained its old timey charms, with lots of old architecture, statues, and Stormtroopers.

 So I spent the morning walking the ancient streets, and looking around at the swiss-y things.  Naturally, being an avid and experienced photographer, I didn't take many pictures, but this view inspired me.  I bet you can guess why.

 I did have a goal for this trip, which was to see the Barengraben... which is where the Bernists graben the baren (naturally).

So the official animal of Bern is the noble bear.  Since the days of yore (not sure when, but many moons ago... like a large number of moons... a bakers dozen of a bakers dozen at least) they have kept bears (the baren) in a pit (the graben) at the edge of town. 

So I made my way that direction, got to the pit, and saw... nothing.  No baren.  The graben was barren of baren.

Disappointment set in, and I looked about in vain.  Was I too late?  Did the bears go to bear heaven?  I was full of questions, but no answers. However there was a river, so I went to sit beside it and contemplate the situation.

 The river held no answers, so I left to ask a hamburger. 

But before I did I went back to the graben to find it remained bare of bears.  So I went to chew on a cow.

As I chewed I did some research and learned that (of course) the bears hibernate in winter, and often went to sleep for the season in October or November.  This being October, it was possible the bears were simply napping.

However when I was done chewing, I went back to the graben and found, much to my delight, that the bears were graben'd! 

 Yay!

I stayed to watch the baren for a while, then started my way back up the historic streets to the train station to go back to the hotel.  I remembered to take a photo this time.  It looked like this.

I kept on going, when suddenly I got run over by climate change.

More specifically, a march to (I presume, I don't speak swiss German), encourage reform to help stop climate change.

It turns out Bern is the nations capitol, so the good earth lovin' Swiss folk descended on the city to encourage the leadership to stop being capitalist ass-hats and do something to help the earth, instead of their own wallets, for a change.

I joined in and marched for a bit, cause it seems worth it to have a place to live that isn't melted.

After a bit, when my feet threatened to disown me from all the walking, I finally headed to the train station and went back to Zurich.

Thus ended my trip to Bern.

Blast From The Past: Geoacaching Travel Bug Comes Home

Here is a little blast from the past!

On June 5, 2012 I started a global travel bug race. I sent out 8 alien drone travel bugs to 4 countries on 3 continents, and the race was to see which bug would get back to my hometown of Lenoir NC first.

Now, since then I had burnt out on geocaching.  Really I burned out on everything (Depression will do that to you), and geocaching was an innocent bystander.  I had forgotten about this race, until a week or so ago when I got notified that the bug was in a cache near Lenoir.

Today I went to retrieve it.  Here it is:

This bug, drone #5,  was the first to get released, in the south-eastern part of England.  Since then it has travelled around the UK, hopped the pond to Oregon, then made its way to Texas, Ohio, Tennesee, and finally North Carolina.  It has travelled almost 8500 miles, and been in the hands of 115 people.  Here is a map:

Now its back, and will live out its life in my big box of treasures.  A rather nice way to mark Labour Day weekend.

Cache on!

Disney: Magic Kingdom

Our fourth and last day in the Disney Parks brought us to the granddaddy of all of the Orlando parks:  Magic Kingdom.

Not surprising Magic Kingdom feels the most like classic Disney of all the parks, so to celebrate I don'd my Mickey Mouse ears and went about the business of choking back my dislike for the classic Disney tropes and getting into the spirit of things.

This, of course, involved tying Mickey Mouse ears to my Tilley hat... but you likely already figured that out..

We started by getting a family photo taken in front of the Disney Castle.

All throughout the parks are various photographers that are set up to take photos of folks - ya know, for memories and stuff.  We signed up for a package that lets us have all of those images for free.  I am not sure if we had enough taken to pay for that package, but in the moment it was nice to not have to get the hard sell for tourist photos. 

Plus, sometimes, the pictures would have something extra added to them, like Tinkerbell.

 We did a bunch of rides.   I must say Disney is pretty good about making rides that fit larger people, and people with bags, cameras and other stuff.  Something other theme parks I've been to do way more poorly. 

I was surprised to find the kids loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Zeke found Splash Mountain "the best ride EVER!" (neither seem to be thrill seekers.)

 Neither kid liked the classic Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and I don't blame them.  It is rather dull.  Plus they've never seen the movie.  I have, but the ride seemed pointless.

 We hung out for the day, with the plans to get a good place in the crowd to see the fireworks show that evening.

We hung out on Tom Sawyers island, caught some extra rides, ate food, and generally did park things like park folk tend to do.

Somewhere along the way a dance party drove by.

 So I danced with the Mickster.  It was... ok.  Mickey really needs to learn the phrase "Classic rock"

 After several hours of holding down the fort at a good viewing angle for the fireworks, it was time to watch the show. 

The show lasts a good 15 minutes, and has more fireworks than shows that have fewer fireworks than this one. Fact.

It started like this:

 Along the way it looked like this.

 and ended like this.

It was a heck of a show, and well worth the wait.  A perfect way to end our Disney vacation.

The next day we flew home. If you want to know what that was like, re-read the first post in this series backwards.

Disney was actually decent.  I could actually be persuaded to return, tho if I do I am going to ensure our magic Disney Fairy, Missy, is on call.  That is the true Disney Magic.

Disney: Epcot

Day three of our adventures in Disney parks brought us to Epcot, and the world showcase contained therein.

I am not sure of all the relative sizes of each of the parks, but Epcot definitely feels like its the largest park, and by a fairly large margin.

However it also seems to be the least populated park, mostly due to the massive lake and water features in the middle - not to mention the giant ball.

The purpose of the park seems to be mostly cultural exchange, as it features a showcase of 11 nations (tho one of those nations is the USA, which seems utterly redundant).  However from what I can tell its basically just enough things to keep the kids from getting bored, plus a lot of beer.

I am not saying that is a deal breaker.

The park is beautiful tho, and serviced by the classic Disney monorail.

 We arrived just as the park opened at 8, but our first planned event was not until 9:15, so we did some rides, and hung out.

 We went to Norway's area, and hung around a waterfall.

 And Abigail made friends with a giant troll - as six-year-olds tend to do.

 Our first planned event was a breakfast in Norway that had a lot of princesses (I forget what its called, but its in Norway, and has princesses, so ya know, one of those "designed for six year old girls" thingers).  Abigail got to meet a bunch of them.  I got to eat bacon and eggs.  Everyone won.

 We did a bunch of rides and shows, and various things.  They were entertaining, but not much to write about (Nemo stuff was, ya know, fishy). 

However due to the magic of Missy, our Disney travel agent, we got some last minute FastPasses to the Test Track ride - creating a concept car, then going on a test drive. 

 Zeke and I loved it.  Abigail was mixed.  Wifey was meh. 

After that ride we started walking around the showcase of nations, but most of us quickly ran out of energy, so it was more of a death march than a fun thing.  Debbie wanted to explore more, but we didn't.  This made Epcot the first park we felt we couldn't fully experience in a single day.

We had reservations at Chef Mickeys, a buffet at one of the resorts, for supper, so we headed over that way around food time.  We ended up with an awesome table that overlooked the Magic Kingdom.  So this ended up being our first real view of the Disney Castle.

 Chef Mickey's is another one of those "encounters with characters" joints that litter the Disney landscape.    We got to re-meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto (none of them remembered me from my previous encounter in Hollywood Studios, which makes me believe these are not the real characters.  I did get a high-five from Pluto when I mentioned that he was still my favourite planet, so I have that going for me, which is nice.)

 After supper we hiked the 15 minutes over to Magic Kingdom and stormed the gates.  We went specifically to catch the fireworks, and we arrived just in time.   The crowds were massive, but we still managed to get a decent view of the show, despite being in the very back.

The upside was that once the show was over we were one of the first to exit the park and get on the bus back to our resort.

One more day left in our Disney World adventure.  What will we do?  What shall we see?  What rhetorical questions will be posed in order to generate interest in the next post?  Stay tuned to find out!