A Tale of Two Pricey Meals

Last week I had another follow up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He took another X-ray, and said it's progressing, but... with such a wide break, it could take up to 12 weeks, maybe more... so I've got another appointment in a month. I had to take off work an hour early to do so, and because of that, my break times got moved up. My lunch break is usually the entirely too early for me 10:45, but since I was leaving out early, it was moved to 9:45!!! Didn't really bother me, it actually spaced out my breaks more evenly. However, when we were waiting for the doctor, my stomach was speaking up!!!

We had been busy on actual Valentine's Day. I had offered to take my wife out to a late night diner in our area, be she declined. I was quite hungry after the appointment, so I suggested that, since it was just the two of us we could have our Valentine's dinner!!! Not far from there is a really nice steak house, and at first we headed over there, thinking that at the late afternoon time on a Thursday it might not be too busy. We got into the parking lot, and it was very full. There were a couple of spots quite far away, but we decided against going there. Nearby on the map, there's a place I'd seen and heard of before, Pie 'N Burger.

It has a much smaller parking lot, but they'd saved us a spot!!! Inside, it wasn't too busy. It's not too big, and there were a few open tables, but the counter isn't that tall which is often an issue for my wife, so we sat there. First thing, my wife orders a chocolate malt. Not a lot of places where you can get an actual malt anymore!!!

Burger is right in the name, and that's what I'd been thinking. They have several sandwiches on the menu, and then I saw they also have chicken pot pie. Oh, that sounds good!!! Whenever we go to a new place, I'll ask the waitress or waiter if they have a recommendation. She said the burger is really good, but one of her favorites is the chicken pot pie. I'm torn. Then my wife says, “Why don't I get the burger, you get the chicken pot pie, and we'll split both???” Genius. That's why I married her. Also, very Valentine-ey!!!

My wife told me to re create the quesadilla and burrito attacking pictures, and there you go!!! Both the chicken pot pie and the burger and onion rings were delicious!!! Oh, and since it's called Pie 'N Burger, chicken pot pie is also totally a pie, anyway!!! Oh, and the chicken pot pie came with a salad, and I got bleu cheese dressing. It was very chunky, awesome!!!

Of course, a place with pie as the first word in their name, gotta get a slice of pie!!! After everything we'd had we were nearing the limit, but the pies were one of the first things I'd looked at. They had a peach pie on the list that sounded pretty good, but then I saw they have a butterscotch meringue pie, I've never heard of such a thing, and butterscotch is one of my favorite, not often seen flavors, so that's what we got, once again to split. We even had enough left to take some home for the younger to try.

All of that totaled almost $70, plus a generous gratuity for great service.

Last night I had tickets from my work to a Kings game. We've been to several, and it's one of the younger's favorite sports. It was a lot of walking for a guy with a spiral fracture to the 5th metatarsal!!! Of course, I'd gotten the tickets well before that had happened. I was a little achey in my shin and where the break is after getting to our seats.

Every time we're at a stadium, we always get something to eat, and this was no exception. I thought we'd gotten some awesome nachos there before, and so when the menu had Super Nachos listed, that's what I was going to get. The younger got a tray of tendies and waffle cut seasoned fries, we both got sodas, and a pretzel to split. The nachos were underwhelming, it was a good sized bag of Tostito's and a cup of cheese and jalapenos, they were OK but not what I'd been thinking. I went through about half of them, and the boy had gone through the chicken and had some fries, and we swapped for the rest. The fries were a bit on the spicy side, but they had ranch, and it was great together. The pretzel had a split, making it look like a mouth!!!

It was Japanese Heritage night, and I just happened to take this selfie where we were both squinting pretty hard. I swear, it was not intentional!!!

The Kings were up against the Golden Knights, and it came out to be a great game for the home team!!! Kings scored first, in the first period. The Knights scored twice in the second period. Right at the start of the third, the Kings evened it up. There was a fight between a couple of the guys, and they both ended up in the penalty box at the same time, I'd never seen that happen before!!! Lots of action, and very physical with a lot of checks into the boards.

The Kings scored three more times in the third period. I feel like the Golden Knights were demoralized towards the end, but they never gave up. Oh, and since they switch ends every period, every single goal was on our end of the rink!!!

And here's a much better selfie!!!

There's the mascot, Bailey, taking a victory skate!!! He's always an entertaining character, in one part they had the camera on him, and he had a huge bag of popcorn and was throwing handfuls, and finally grabbed it by the bottom and helicoptered it!!!

On the way out, there were the ubiquitous hot dog carts with bacon wrapped dogs and grilled onions. I had been thinking of getting one before, and as soon as I smelled it, it was a done deal!!! It was glorious, but I really overdid it.

The stuff I got inside came to over $70, including a not as generous gratuity (it's nice that they deliver it right to your seat!!!), and the dog was another $10, so they both came out almost the same!!! Good times!!!

Farewell 2024

Welcome to (in all likelihood) the final post of the year!!! I had a few others in me, but they're not ready for prime time as of yet. So, what do I now have in common with my cat???

In 2024 we both have broken a bone related to walking!!!

On Saturday, 4 days ago, I was coming down some stairs, and on the last one I rolled my foot to the inside, and I swore I heard a pop (and, yes, I swore). It was painful, and I was limping around afterwards, but the pain wasn't in my ankle as I would have expected. I went to a local urgent care (which I'd been to once this month already, I had a cough that wasn't going away, and it turned out I had a bacterial infection. The stuff they prescribed did a fine job clearing it up!!!) and was told there was around a 3 hour wait. I expected as much, being a weekend, it wasn't anywhere near that long when I went on a Tuesday. Of course, I work in the evenings on Saturdays, and it was going to be close at best.

After a wait commensurate with the time estimated, they took me in and took my vitals and my story. After a quick visual inspection they took X-rays, and a bit later the doctor comes back and tells me I broke it. Displaced 5th metatarsal fracture, to be exact. They put on a splint (which feels loose to me) and gave me a pair of crutches and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for further evaluation. Oh yeah, they told me before they put the splint on that I may have to cut off my pants when I got home. No thanks, I'll just take those off now!!! My surrogate son had been driving us around, and I know he had his windbreaker, and I figured I'd fashion it into a kilt. I never did, but that's what I was thinking of doing.

Ended up 45 minutes late to starting work that day. I tried to contact the orthopedic surgeon they had referred me to on Monday, and it put me on hold forever, then put me through to a message machine, which told me it was completely full after it beeped. At any rate, I had been looking them up the day before on the map, and they aren't very highly rated. My wife happens to know a place that does some orthopedic surgery, so I contacted them. The soonest they could get me in is this coming Friday.

I never saw the X-rays, so I don't know exactly the location or extent of the fracture. Most of the information I found was it'll be 6 to 8 weeks if no surgery is required. It honestly doesn't feel that bad, unless I try and walk on it or put pressure on it. There are a few types of fractures it could be, avulsion, Jones, or dancer's. I found a couple of images of them, and one of them was actually from another guy on Blogger, and it sounds like his injury came about similarly to mine, but it looks like his was worse, with some swelling.

This is now my second broken bone, the first one I referred to when it had happened, back in 2005 around when I'd started blogging. I have a couple of mentions and links to the picture, but they were hosted on Geocities (now defunct, if you didn't know), and if I'd posted about it, it was probably on MySpace. You remember MySpace, don't you??? Maybe I'll post about it at some point, I tell people it's where my newest tattoo came from (they injected numbing agents in my knuckles through my greasy dirty hand, and the mark remains) and it's one of my many tales that my younger likes me to share with his friends.

I was thinking of making this into a random post with several bits of the aforementioned possible future posts, but not tonight. One of the things I would have had that carries over is my wife had broken some of her back rods again, and had surgery at the beginning of November to repair and reinforce things. She got out the day before Thanksgiving, and thankfully she's got a good amount of her mobility back, which works out since I now can't drive. It was on my right hand foot.

Still holding the title of Titanium Queen!!!

A Most Random Confluence of Events

Since the first time we went, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire has been an annual pilgrimage for at least part of the family. Interestingly, the younger has been the only one to hit it every year. Two years back both the boys and I went, along with the olders' girl. Last year was the first year since I've switched to working the Saturday shift, and it was shortly after the oldest shipped out to boot camp, so that year mom and the younger were the only attendees. This year, mom wasn't interested in going so much, so it was the younger and I. Good times!!!

While we were there, this happened...

We're walking along, and see an apple on the ground off to the side of the road. The boy says, "It looks like there's a smiley face on that apple" I look bit closer, and sure enough, there's indentations on the apple in the shape of a smiley face!!! Just then, an older lady in full Ren Faire garb holding two cabbages comes running up to us. To the boy, she asks, "would you like to play a free game???" Yea, sure!!! A cabbage she hands to him, and says to try and hit the apple with it. From about ten feet, he throws the cabbage at it, and scores a direct hit, fracturing the apple into at least two pieces!!! "You did it!!! Let me get you your prize!!!", she says, and runs off. Quickly she returns, and presents him with a radish!!!

As we were heading off, she has further inspected the apple, and calls after us, "You knocked the smile off his face!!!"

Bad Scene at Eaton Canyon

Over the weekend we went for a hike up Eaton Canyon again. I realized as I was preparing for this post (and looking at the previous Eaton Canyon post) it's been almost four years since we were up there!!!



The weather has been excellent, and it looked like everyone else had the same idea!!! The place was PACKED!!! My dad had suggested bringing a change of shoes & socks, as it had been quite wet leading up to this. He'd anticipated the stream being swollen and that we'd end up getting our feet wet.



We probably could have avoided soaking our feet, but it was so crowded that it would take a while crossing on rocks & such, as you'd have to wait for people coming the other way. The stream was a bit fuller, but not that bad.



Of course, the water was freezing. I kept saying, "It's as if they made it from melting snow!!!" My younger boy would complain when he'd get his feet wet. His brother helped him across several times by carrying him on his back. We made it up to the falls and were resting, taking pictures, enjoying the view. The falls, I'd say are 30 to 40 feet, with the canyon walls rising 45 to 55 feet on either side, a classic box canyon.



Now for the bad scene: After we'd been there a few minutes, there's the noise of rocks coming loose and bouncing off the walls. Shortly after that, we hear screaming and crying. Looking over, there's a young teenage girl out cold. Quickly a crowd is gathered around her. I check to see if my phone gets any reception, but no. Fortunately, someone else has better reception that me and calls 9-11. We left pretty quick after that, as did a few other hikers with small kids. Guess no one wants their little kids to have to deal seeing a dead person, or whatever.



It was rather chaotic there, and we're not exactly sure what happened yet. The official story that the local paper had on their site was what we'd thought had happened: She (and other hikers) had climbed up over the falls, and she ended up falling down, and in the process knocking a few rocks loose that ended up raining down on her. We did see people up there, and it seems like an exceeding bad idea. The other stories we'd heard were that she had been down below, and someone above inadvertently loosened some rocks, which fell of her, or they were tossing rocks down from above. The latter two scenarios seem plausible, as I would have expected to hear some yelling if she'd fallen. Of course, one rap on the head right at the beginning of a fall and you'd be silent the rest of the way.

Anyway, there was just a little bit of blood. The paper's site said she was in serious condition. We got to see the rescue helicopter nice and low on the way out, and saw a couple police and half a dozen firemen, as well as a couple of park rangers heading in as we were on our way out. I looked up the hospital's phone number today and was considering calling and seeing if I could find out any more information, and even toying with the idea of paying a visit. Hope she's OK!!!

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Like my vacations and events and such that attend, I also feel compelled to rate the recent earthquake. I'm pretty sure I did this a couple years back for a smaller one, too. This quake ROCKED!!! Hard!!! Didn't seem to go on very long, but what it lacked in duration, it more than made up for in intensity. Whittier narrows and Northridge were both longer and shakier, but the shaking was more gentle, the kind where people describe it as a rolling motion. This one it felt like a huge sideways and down jolt or drop or some such, followed by a little bit of the classic rolling motion. Strike-slip faulting is what they say, and that name seems quite apt.

I was working, and was on the first floor of the bin structure. I wasn't up a row, and if I were I probably would have made my way out of it quickly. Everyone from all the different levels described it about the same, felt like something ran into the bins, hard. Moments afterwards, the evacuation alarm started going, and I started heading out. I noticed that I seemed like the only one going, several other fillers were bracing themselves in the entrances to the rows. Didn't take them long to get going, though. I noticed that the upper level fillers didn't seem to hesitate to get going. It struck while first shift was at lunch, and something that hadn't occurred to me before, the cafeteria has huge glass walls. Around half an hour later we headed back in, just about the time second shift should be going to lunch. We met at the first floor cross aisle while they figured out the course of action. Someone asked about second shifts lunch, and they decided to let everyone go to lunch and meet back at one. Something that worked out good for me, they asked the second and third shift workers to come in an hour early. First shift scored all around, they got two lunch breaks and didn't have to work an extra hour.

No actual damage to the premises, but in the rack area, I heard there was quite a bit of merchandise that fell off, and these racks are about as tall as the bin structure, so that's quite a fall. The quake led to some speculation about what would happen if there was one big enough to cause the bins to fall. One girl was wondering if they'd pancake. The consensus was probably not, but it could collapse to the side, or aisles could domino. I actually think that with the exception on the merchandise falling off the shelves (99% is in boxes anyway), the bins are probably one of the safest areas in the plant. It is constructed of heavy wall box steel, braced this way and that. Like being in a roll cage. I hope.

By the way, the image is stolen from the Washington Post. You'd think I'd find a decent earthquake graphic more locally.

More detail about the Northern Cali trip next post, I promise!!!

Into the Fire

Fires raging in the southland today. The biggest, most news making one in Malibu. Didn't all that burn down just five years or so back??? Funny thing, though, they keep going on about the hurricane force winds whipping up these fires, but its near perfect calm just a few miles away at my home.

Janis has been running like a Timex. The last major thing I had to do was to put in a starter, just a couple of days after I bought it. I did the brakes a few weeks ago, and it had gotten a flat a couple of weeks ago when my wife was driving it, right near home. I went ahead and bought a full new set of tires after that (no small amount of money, once you add in disposal, mounting and balancing, and road hazard insurance) as well as bought a lifetime alignment. I also picked up an outside passenger's side mirror and a new block of window switches at the junkyard's 1/2 price day. I had a problem with the transmission not wanting to upshift a week ago. I suspected a vacuum modulator problem or line going to it, and the first thing I found googling it said exactly that. Easily fixed problem. Still not a speed demon, but gets great mileage.

Friday morning, I head out to go to work and warm up the glow plugs and start it up as normal. She runs for a couple seconds, then stalls. Hmmm, that's strange, she never stalls. I go to crank her again, and I can hear the starter engage and try and turn the engine, but it doesn't go. Hmmm. I give up and drive the Storm.

I have a couple theories at this point as to what could have happened. The one I hoped for was that the engine got on a compression stroke and the starter didn't have quite enough to kick it past there. I'd had that problem on the Maverick before. The next, slightly less desirable possibility was that the starter just gave out. It has starter history. The last option in my head was that the timing chain jumped or broke. If that happened, it could be a semi simple fix on up to catastrophic failure, with valves bouncing off pistons and such.


Saturday I got out there and managed to get the engine to crank backwards a bit, then it cranked fine. Cranked, but didn't start. And something didn't sound quite right. I had my wife crank it while I attempted to observe the cam through the oil fill hole. The cam was turning, but I noticed something else... the valve cover was rising up about an eighth of an inch on every revolution. Ut oh...

Didn't know exactly what I'd find, but I pulled the valve cover off to check into it. Turns out the cam shaft is broken into three sections, as well as the cam shaft pedestal. I'm seeing dollar signs. The cam turns out to be about $150, plus another around $80 for a timing chain and gears. I'm not going to go through all that and not replace the timing chain. Not to mention several other incidentals that would no doubt arise.

I found a guy who has a complete engine in an 81' that was rebuilt around six years ago. $250 complete. Sold!!! But, it's all the way out in Simi Valley, right out near the Malibu fires. It was like a heavy fog out there, and my shirt smells of smoke.

My dad made the observation that I buy more than a few cars and end up putting in new engines within six months. I guess this will be the fourth time I'll have done that, only one of them being planned before the original purchase. If it wasn't for the tires and alignment (and the fact that I rather like this car) I'd probably cut my losses and look for another. Oh well, its been several years since I've done this, it's time.

Like It Or Not!!!

No choice. I would have chose "no" if I had my way, but I didn't. Now I will likely have to type 18 characters instead of six to log in, as well as a use of the shift key. Thanks for nothing.