13 Random for '25

I've got a couple of other things I could post, but I'm going to go a bit random instead. It's been a while.

I've had a couple of trips to the orthopedic surgeon since my 5th metatarsal fracture, the second one just yesterday. I took pictures of my X-rays both times. The break is similar to the first web located one I'd used for that post... only worse. They'd put me in the room with the X-ray displayed before I saw the doctor, and I was thinking for sure I'd be in for surgery from the look and the giant gap in the bone. The doctor came in, looks at it and tells me, “In about 95% of these breaks, I don't recommend surgery...” then he paused, and I was almost certain he was going to say I'd hit the lottery with mine, but he's willing to let it ride as is. He gave me a legit boot, and I kept from using it for the 3 weeks or so in between.

The second trip, to me, the X-rays looked exactly the same, but the doctor said it's growing bone back, see how it's got white there now??? Umm, it's bone, it's always been white!!! He gave me the go ahead to start using it some to walk on, and I've been using a cane. It feels like it's making it ache a little, but it isn't bad. I've heard you're supposed to use it a bit as it heals anyway.

This was kind of funny, in Pokemon GO, when you do a raid it displays various achievement cards I guess you'd call them. A week or so after I broke my foot, I got the card for the longest distance walked the previous day!!!

Since my wife was still recovering from her back surgery in early December, for the first time since I've been working there, I didn't take her to the company Christmas party. I took the younger son instead. It was at the Aquarium of the Pacific again, and I saw on the itinerary that there was going to be a sea otter show, so we showed up for that.

On the way in, they routed us around the side into the back, where they've got the shark pools. This ray was huge!!! The water magnification makes it hard to judge, but I'd say 10 feet across!!! They also had some fish swimming around in the same tank that had a horn protruding from their heads. I asked the girl who was giving the talk about the various displays about them: “The fish with the horns in here, baby narwhals, right???” She said they were. Can't tell if serious or trolling.

There have been fires raging around here, in no small part because of our stupid local and state government. Of course, that means lots of red flag days, which prior to this they've had 3 other times this season. On the day we were coming back from our anniversary trip, those rat bastards called one, ticketed and towed Scruffy and the Falcon before we were able to get home. Cost over $800 for all that, and of course it wasn't even windy in our area. For this one... the first night they were going to be calling it, it actually did get a good wind whipped up. I was sure it was going to break at least one of our trees, but it didn't Of course, I was in no condition to drive. Our neighbor was going to help moving the cars to where they don't have the parking restrictions, but instead drove one to the next street over, where they have the same restrictions. Then the battery in Scruffy was dead. Long story short, my wife drove the Falcon for the first time in ages, and my younger son, who is as of yet still unlicensed, drove two others.

Anyway, this is a picture of the first morning. I start at 6 AM, and it's usually dark out when I do, and by 7 AM it's light. Didn't even realize until they mentioned on the radio, it was still dark out. I stepped out at around 8 and took this picture. I've had a little cough ever since, and a low level wheeze. It was just the first night of it that we had any wind, but that hasn't stopped them from having a near constant red flag alert. They dropped it for a couple of days, but it's back on. Knee jerk, I think, at this point.

Towards the end of last year, the ceiling fan in the bedroom stopped turning on. First, checked the remote battery, and that didn't work. Next, I pulled the wall switch to see if it was getting juice, and it was (I'd not long before added a timer switch for the bathroom fan, and the wiring backs up to the bedroom). Finally, I dropped the ceiling trim ring, and hard wired past the remote receiver. That did the trick. Tried bypassing to the fan motor while I was at it, and it was fine as well. Found a replacement remote and receiver, and had it mailed, and installed it, and it's all good now. Oh, and now I've got a timer function!!!

For Thanksgiving, we went to our friends' house where they were hosting a get together pot luck. I brought pulled pork and buns and slaw, and it was a big hit. Some friend that have moved to Arizona were there, and they brought their sphinx cats!!! My wife came (the day after she got out of the hospital, after which she didn't leave the house for quite a while) and was reclined on the couch most of the time. The sphinxes are very cuddly!!!

Look at that, without all the fur, you can actually see the brain wrinkles right through their skulls!!! Also pictured is another recent shirt my wife got me, it says, “It's not easy being my wife's arm candy, but here I am nailing it!!!”

A couple more Catalina vacation notes. Since my wife doesn't get around too well on her own, we always take her wheel chair. It's about the only place we take it all the time!!! Since we were taking surrogate son, fitting it in our car would be near impossible, so we borrowed my mom's car. Brought it to our home, and after climbing the hill, it blew off it's upper radiator hose!!! Now, for some back story, near the beginning of last year, she'd had an incident where she said it was smoking. I don't know if it was the leaky transmission pan, oil pan, or a cooling system issue, but she took it to what I've long considered to be a shady mechanic, Gretchen's Automotive, near her house. They came out with a huge laundry list of things that needed to be done totaling thousands of dollars, “Or, I'll buy it off you for $2,000, I've got a son who needs a car...” and she was going to do it!!! It doesn't have many miles on it, and she recently had the transmission rebuilt. I was pissed!!! One of the things they'd said was it needs new radiator hoses, and before she was able to back out of it (the theft of her car, that is), they'd replaced them and supposedly flushed and refilled the system, and they charged her nearly $300 for just that!!! I told her she'd never authorized the repair, since she'd used her charge card call them up and dispute the charge. She wouldn't. Anyway, there you go, you to Gretchen's Automotive in Long Beach, and they'll screw you and do a crap job of tightening your radiator hose clamp!!! Gretchen's Automotive, where elder financial abuse is the name of the game!!!

This was in the window of the place across from where we were staying in Avalon. A ghost tours place. Creepy.

We gave one of the youngers' friends a plush for her birthday, Alan from Smiling Friends. As we'd hoped, she likes it a lot, and sent a picture with the message, “He will sit next to my Perry!”

Sidney is always messing with the trash can in the bathroom. Usually it's just knocking it over, or messing around with the liner. A few weeks ago, though, he pulled the liner our, and jumped into it!!! He was just laying in there, purring!!!

We got dinner from Panda Express a few weeks ago, and this was my fortune. They gave me the title of a Killers song for my fortune. I feel like I was RickRolled by a cookie!!!