Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[Dallas Tex]

Lodge just bought Finex. That’s like McDonald’s buying Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.

I know it’s two days early, but this sucks.

[Corso]

How about breaking your collarbone 6 days before the D2R2?

On an EZ gravel ride with friends, I crashed hard on a smooth, hard dirt path I've ridden on for 30+ years. No reason, one minute enjoying a perfect day & ride with friends, the next on the ground.

On a fn' clear simple double track type path in a state forrest!

Doctors wonder why I wasn't bitching about the pain, I think my anger at myself hurt more...

I broke the same collarbone 18 years ago riding the PanMass. I guess I was overdue.

[Saab2000]

How about breaking your collarbone 6 days before the D2R2?

On an EZ gravel ride with friends, I crashed hard on a smooth, hard dirt path I've ridden on for 30+ years. No reason, one minute enjoying a perfect day & ride with friends, the next on the ground.

On a fn' clear simple double track type path in a state forrest!

Doctors wonder why I wasn't bitching about the pain, I think my anger at myself hurt more...

I broke the same collarbone 18 years ago riding the PanMass. I guess I was overdue.

Been there. Done that. Heal well.

Blue Moon helps. Ask me how I know. But it’s hard to burn off.... again, don’t ask...

[monadnocky]

How about breaking your collarbone 6 days before the D2R2?

On an EZ gravel ride with friends, I crashed hard on a smooth, hard dirt path I've ridden on for 30+ years. No reason, one minute enjoying a perfect day & ride with friends, the next on the ground.

On a fn' clear simple double track type path in a state forrest!

Doctors wonder why I wasn't bitching about the pain, I think my anger at myself hurt more...

I broke the same collarbone 18 years ago riding the PanMass. I guess I was overdue.

ugh. yikes. hopes for a speedy recovery.

[Scott G.]

How about breaking your collarbone 6 days before the D2R2?

When I broke mine, I sent silly questions to frame builders, then ordered a new bike.
Getting fit numbers while in a sling is fun, and the bike shop people look at you with pity.
You can build wheels in a sling, so there is another activity.

[DaveS]

Ruptured achilles tendon two weeks before D2R2 and right before the weather gets perfect for long weekend rides

DaveS

[bigbill]

Big project starting tomorrow, has to finish by Monday evening. I have 5 shipping containers of material coming from Long Beach, one showed up, the rest are now scheduled to arrive at midnight tonight. The project has to start at 7am tomorrow to finish on time. Just a little stressful. My senior engineer is our manager for the project working with a vendor PM. There's no schedule posted, I've given a deadline of noon to see it. It's all I can do to not take over the project.

[davids]

Hay fever. Blah.

[Matthew Strongin]

This...

[ericpmoss]

Corporate buyouts. Bad for humanity. Stupid and self-serving. Ruinous to quality.

I've been trying to get back into my old company based on a friend's recommendation -- I loved the work when I get a chance to actually do it. However, the company has been sliced and diced and repackaged *again*. They have cut into the bone, casting aside the last people with deep institutional knowledge. The new managers -- even the technical managers -- don't know the product even after over two years there. They are at remote offices, and think that replacing the actual experts with a thousand (!) people paid minimum wage 12 time zones away is "forward-thinking". The test frameworks have collapsed and the entire division will collapse if *one* frail programmer nearing retirement age leaves. Two of the largest insurers in the world will be pissed, but no action is too small to cause paralysis. The stock is up.

[ides1056]

This...

That last M is where I found West Palm Beach when I googled it. Isn't that where Mar-a-lago is located?

[Chad]

Did an early morning ride and counted 7 US flags flown out in front of businesses that were tattered and ripped. I would have pulled them all down if they would fit in my jersey pocket. Places that won't get my business.

I feel you but then I think of this:

[mnoble485]

Like Mathew, I am keeping one eye on the weather reports here in central Florida. My grump is with people who are attending a meeting to plan future expansion and at any given time 6 out of 8 people were either on the laptop or texting on their phone. Am I that old or did I miss the memo about not needing to actually listening to people when they are talking?

Mike

[Saab2000]

My iPhone X was lost today and the circumstances are like the 1985 movie Clue. I had it entering the airplane home today from Europe and it was discovered missing about halfway along the flight. I had placed it in the seatback pocket for storage then at one point discovered it gone. The lower part of this pocket has snaps for cleaning of the pocket, so I reached down all the way to where it could have come out. Nothing. As we were deplaning I took a serious look around the floor all around where I was sitting and found nothing.

I'm suspicious that my seatmate pocketed it mid-flight. If so, this is lame in the extreme. I hope it fell down and was accidentally kicked into a corner. It has been erased remotely should it somehow be reactivated.

I'm not due for a new one until the end of December or thereabouts so this is a bit early. It has always been my supposition that the cost has amortized after 24 months.

The question now is an 8S or an XS? The Face ID of the X grew on me but the 8S is a newer cousin of my long lost 5S. The 8S is much less expensive but is also now several years old.

Anyway, mostly I'm bummed that I lost/had stolen a perfectly good telephone. I hope the new owner has nothing more than a paperweight.

[j44ke]

I am going early. The owner of a three story 1870's house across the street somehow managed to "avoid" historic designation and tore down the building to put in a small 10 story hotel. Five weeks ago, they began excavation and within a couple days, they discovered half their lot is a giant chunk of bedrock. The lot is tiny, and there are two large apartment blocks on either side of them. So no explosives allowed! But that means jackhammers. Hours and hours and hours of jackhammers. For the last three weeks, every M-F from 7AM to 5PM with one hour off for lunch it is jackhammers. No break. Four guys, two jackhammers, when one guy can no longer feel his arms, another one takes it up and carries on. It is going on as I write this. I would say looking down into the site from our front windows that they've easily got another week. Incredible.

This is becoming a problem in the city. Way too much construction. If you come and visit, bring your work boots, a respirator and surgical gloves.

[David Tollefson]

TL:dr == my lumbar spine is, in official parlance, "messed up".

So I posted this in the anti-Grump thread:


I got the results:
Diagnostic Imaging Northwest, Sunrise Imaging Center, 9/30/2019

T11-T12: The disc height and signal are normal. Mild bilateral facet arthropathy. Mild diffuse disc bulge. Small central disc protrusion. No significant neural foraminal stenosis. Mild spinal canal stenosis.
T12-L1: The disc height and signal are normal. The facet joints are normal. There is no significant disc herniation, central canal stenosis, or neural foraminal narrowing.
L1-L2: There is mild disc height loss and desiccation. The facet joints are normal. Diffuse disc bulge. Moderate size central disc extrusion migrates superiorly, greatest on the right side there is mild displacement of the traversing right L2 nerve root. No significant neural foraminal stenosis. Mild spinal canal stenosis.
L2-L3: There is mild disc height loss and desiccation. There is mile bilateral facet arthropathy. Small extra-articular synovial cyst is noted posterior to the left facet joint. Diffuse disc bulge. Small right subarticular/foraminal/extra foraminal disc protrusion contacts the exiting right L2 nerve root lateral to the neural foramen and contacts the traversing right L3 nerve root in the subarticular recess. Mild right neural foraminal stenosis. No significant spinal canal stenosis.
L3-L4: There is mild disc height loss and desiccation. There is mild bilateral facet arthropathy. Diffuse disc bulge. Small central disc extrusion migrates inferiorly, approaching the traverse L4 nerve roots without nerve root displacement identified. Moderate bilateral neural foraminal stenosis.
L4-L5: There is mild disc height loss and desiccation. There is moderate bilateral facet arthropathy. Diffuse disc bulge. The subarticular recesses are narrowed. Severe bilateral neural foraminal stenosis. Borderline mile spinal canal stenosis.
L5-S1: There is moderate disc height loss and desiccation. There is mild bilateral facet arthropathy. Diffuse disc bulge. Moderate to large left subarticular disc extrusion migrates inferiorly, and displaces the traversing left S1 nerve root in the subarticular recess. Sever left and moderate right neural foraminal stenosis. No significant spinal canal stenosis.

Impression:
1. Degenerative findings in the lumbar spine are discussed in detail level by level above.
2. Moderate to large left subarticular disc extrusion at L5-S1 displaces the traversing left S1 nerve root.
3. Moderate size central disc extrusion at L1-L2 displaces the traversing right L2 nerve root and contributes to the mild spinal canal stenosis.
4. Small right subarticular/foraminal/extra foraminal disc protrusion at L2-L3 contacts the exiting right L2 nerve root and traversing right L3 nerve root.
5. Small central disc extrusion at L3-L4 approaches the traversing bilateral L4 nerve root without nerve root displacement, and contributes to mild spinal canal stenosis.
6. Multilevel moderate to severe neural formainal stenosis is worst at L4-L5 bilaterallly and L5-S1 on the left.

I shared this with a co-worker. His reaction: "I'm surprised you can walk."

I start PT on Friday, because the medical establishment won't do anything else until I've endured 4-6 weeks of that with no improvement.

[ides1056]

I know this is a family site, but fuck, what a shitty diagnosis.

Makes me want to cry, and I don't even know you.

[bigbill]

I've got the same around L5-S1. I've had one surgery to remove the bulged portion of the disc but now my sciatic is partially pinched which isn't painful but causes atrophy in my left calf. I'll likely have surgery again this winter to free up the sciatic nerve and to partially alleviate my stenosis.

[bironi]

I hope all goes well for you DT.
I'm sure your reading list on sciatica is extensive.
Byron

[guido]

Beating up our bodies for years just doesn't seem to pay. Best of luck on clean repairs and healing fast DT.