Fun and Games Dept

I just made my first flight video using Final Cut Pro X. It looks good on my computer but it’s in the process of doing some “sharing” voodoo in the background so I don’t know how it’ll look once my ISP scans it for ad revenue opportunities, then Google and Facebook look at it for ad revenue opportunities and then I start getting Amazon suggestions to buy an airplane.

Isn’t the Internet grand? Especially when the U.S. Government is involved? A group of people that have absolutely no idea how any of this works. They just want the donations from the big companies. The world runs on green. Correction, the U.S. runs on green.

Thank goodness Facebook has added random colors to posts.

I think I’m tired. Be good to one another.

<i>This could be considered a TMI blog entry. I share this information for others that have a similar issue, as I found reading the experiences of others to be beneficial to keep my spirits up during my experience. I won’t be offended if you move on without reading.</i>.

So today I visited the very capable urologist that performed the repair surgery to my urinary system at the beginning of this month. The official procedure is called a urethroplasty. Six centimeters of tissue was taken from the inside of my mouth and used to reconstruct a damaged, scarred area of my urethra. The scarring has been there since 1980 or so. I’ve had two catheters since the surgery on the 3rd of March. A Supra-pubic catheter was inserted through my abdomen on the 28th of January (and was replaced during the second surgery). Originally placed to allow my natural parts to calm down and stop the scarring process, the Supra-pubic catheter acted as a backup in case the second catheter, a regular indwelling Foley catheter that makes most people cringe, was installed during the March surgery. That has been my means of urination for 25 days. 

The urologist took some X-rays with contrasting fluid in my catheter, around my catheter and in my bladder. And then before I knew it, the catheter was removed and the doctor had a huge smile. “The graft site is not leaking and looks wonderful. Look at that.” He showed me a picture of a normal looking urethra, something I haven’t had in 35 to 40 years. “You have no strictures”.

I was then expected to urinate using my own parts while laying on a bed under an X-ray machine with four onlookers of the process. I couldn’t do it. Nope. So they filled my bladder with saline solution to the point of where I thought I was going to explode, he saw enough on the X-ray machine to confirm everything was good and then I peed into a special toilet that measured volume, velocity and the like.

Honestly, I broke all previous records in the doctor’s office. Ever. The last record was a man that could pee 40 ml/sec. I went off the chart at 55 ml/sec. I emptied nearly 700 ml of fluid from my bladder in just over 10 seconds. 

I passed the test.

The Supra-pubic catheter will remain in place for another week. For the next seven days I urinate like a normal guy, and then I unplug this little tube hanging below my belly button to confirm that I am emptying my bladder. If I’m not emptying my bladder, there’s a problem. So far, I’ve had 14 drops of urine fall from the catheter tube after going the bathroom. Not even negligible residual urine.

The doctor is confident that things are good to go. There was a worry of incontinence, since my scarring was so close to my bladder, but I can easily keep everything under control. Since my bladder hasn’t had to store anything since January, it’s a little weird having that feeling in my gut again, but I’m getting used to it. The doctor says my bladder will lose some of its muscle tone, as I used to have to push REALLY hard to urinate before this operation. As long as I can keep things at 18 ml/sec or higher, I’m good. And he thinks that’s not going to be a problem.

The Supra-pubic catheter comes out next Tuesday. I then have follow up appointments in July, November and then next March, just to make sure everything holds in place.

I cried with happiness, even though I’m still on healing restrictions, including absolutely no sexual activity for three more weeks. No heavy lifting. Keep your precious cargo supported with good underwear. No straddling anything for at least three weeks, longer if possible. I’ve made the decision that I’m going to replace my long-distance cycling with swimming this summer. And as soon as I have the all clear, I’ll be lifting some weights again.

I feel like a Superman. It’s time to start acting like one again.

Photo from Passenger Shaming Instagram feed. It’s just a random photo I found.

Disclaimer: I’m not linking to articles because a lot of them are click-bait and sensationalistic. The account described below has been pieced together from Twitter claims, follow-up and the like.

Yesterday, apparently two 10-year young girls were denied boarding on a United flight from Denver to Minneapolis. The reason for being denied boarding was due to the fact that they were wearing leggings, which did not meet the company’s dress code. An outspoken bystander who observed this exchange took to Twitter and started tweeting what was happening.

Of course, Twitter started blowing up with all sorts of indignant tweets. Celebrities started weighing in on how awful United. How dare United Airlines dictate what people should wear on their airplanes. But, here’s the rub. What the original tweet didn’t state, and what is often buried in the story when this incident made national news (god knows why), is that these two children were flying “non-rev”. They were flying courtesy of tickets obtained through the perk of a United employee. Many airline employees are given a certain number of slots that they can share with family members and the like, I believe one friend who was a flight attendant could have 10 people on his “non-rev” list. When you’re flying on this type of ticket, you are a representative on the airline. You are a representative of the employee. The employee represents the airline. You’re not guaranteed a seat, you’re usually flying stand-by and, which is articulated quite well in the rules of this type of travel, you must be dressed in “business casual” attire. The airlines can be rather strict about the type of dress for these types of passengers, and the attire of these two children did not meet the criteria.

End of story, right? Of course not, there’s been endless tirades and such on Twitter for the past 24 hours of how children have to follow these rules, complete ommissions of the non-rev part of the story and just a lot of drama and outrage because that’s what we have for 2017. In 2016 we had celebrities dying everyday, 2017 is the year of indignation. God, I wish the Mayans might have been half correct in 2012 and at least spooked people back into finding some common sense.

When I board a commercial flight I do my best to look good. I might be crammed into the back row of a 737 in the middle seat but I can tell you that I will still be wearing sturdy dress shoes, a nice pair of pants, a collared shirt and probably a sport coat. I believe that the way we portray ourselves speaks volumes as to how we conduct our lives and I do my best to show the world that I am here to give more than I receive, to be a leader and to do good things for the world. When you schlep up the aisle, unshowered, unshaven in a pair of sweat pants with your hair up in a bun (man or woman, doesn’t matter), get completely lost while looking for your seat in the sequentially numbered aisles, throw half your belongings in various bins along the way and then plop down, take your shoes off and put your feet up on the armrest in front of you, I can only assume that you’re taking more from the world than you’re giving it. As a fairly judgey person (I own it, I’m pretty good at it), I see you as part of the problem, not part of the solution when it comes to this world of chaos.

Now, I could hearken back to the days when people were dressed up for their flight and you got more than four peanuts in a bag you can’t open and the cost of the ticket might involve a mortgage. I believe that everyone should experience flight. As a pilot, I can tell you that there is nothing better than being able to sit in an airplane and dance amongst the clouds. But an airline flight is allowing you to do something that humans weren’t designed to do, and that’s fly through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour to get from point A to point B. And honestly, that feat alone deserves a lot of respect. Not to mention the people around you that deserve respect as well.

Dress like you respect the world, act like you respect the world and perhaps the world will respect you back.

For the first time in a long while I am working late tonight. Like, ’til the wee hours of the night. Maybe. I’m hoping things will go well and when I go down to my office in 20 minutes there will be a message that says “the database conversion is complete and everything looks great!”. I’ll check a few things, make sure everything on my end of the equation is in balance and call it a night.

Working from home is awesome. We had a collaborative meeting today and I didn’t miss a beat because of all the collaborative technology we have at work. It’s all Microsoft based but I can deal with that, as long as they don’t shut out my Mac completely. I’m thinking that one of these days I’m going to have to switch to a Windows computer to stay ahead of the game at work but we aren’t to that point of desperation yet.

My Twitter feed, Facebook feed and other social media sources are cranked up on Trump and his demise. I’m hopeful that Trump will be nothing but a short nightmare and be out of here by the end of the month. Who knows if it will happen but one can dream.

Sometimes you need to be Clark Kent before you become Superman. I’m getting there.

When all was said and done with this latest snow storm we received 36″ inches of snow in less than 48 hours. Recovering from surgery, I haven’t been able to help Earl with the clean up and when I tried to help out he let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I was to get my butt back inside and that he would handle it. All I was going to wipe off the Jeep but he was adamant. “No!”

We just got back from taking a drive around the area to see how our neighbors were making out with their snow cleanup efforts. Close to home the folks seem to be doing well. There’s a few houses down by the housing development that still have buried cars in their driveways, which are discernible only by a mailbox at the end of the driveway. Driving in the city of Utica was a different story, where many of the side streets barely had a car-width of snow plowed down through them and it looked like those efforts were achieved by well meaning residents of the street. The sidewalks? They were visible here and there but for the most part they were nowhere to be seen. There was a lot of foot traffic to and from the local markets, even though we were out well after dark.

I had to get out of the house a little bit, even if to drive around a few miles, because recovering from this surgery is making me a little stir crazy. I was honestly frustrated with the fact that I was unable to help Earl with the driveway cleanup. I wanted to shovel the stairs and porch so that we would have an alternate means of escape in the event of a fire or something, but he was having none of it. 

The man is a trouper.

The winds are starting to kick up a bit which could make for some interesting driving conditions for the next couple of days, but with spring just around the corner, I’m certain that we will be basking in the sun just as soon my surgery recovery comes to it’s (hopefully) wonderful conclusion.

Schools all around us are closing for tomorrow even though there hasn’t been a flake of snow in the air yet. Some models show us starting to see some snow around 0345, so the schools may be making a great decision but back in my day (gosh I sound old), they wouldn’t make that call until 5 o’clock in the morning. Oh well, times change, bars are lowered and time moves on.

I’ve had a weather station in the backyard since we moved into this house in 2003. The original one was struck by lightning but this one has survived for at least a decade and is doing quite well. I put a yard stick on the side of the post that supports the weather station and I marked the level from the ground in six inch increments up to four feet. We’ll see how much snow we really get here. I enjoy following the weather, I enjoy chasing weather and I enjoy reporting weather for the area. However, I refuse to buy into the hype that many love to engage in.

Be prepared, be vigilant, be safe.

Does anyone think I could easily get on a commercial flight today and not freak out at least one passenger if any of my tubing showed?  

Good thing Steve Austin and Jaime Somers flew before the days of the TSA. 

I have no plans of flying with this apparatus (commercial or as a pilot) but it’d be a kick at airport security. I’d make a “whoo” and “boo” noise just to make the natives nervous. Maybe say a magic word like “Ali Baba”. 

I can be ridiculous. 

The National Weather Service is predicting one to two feet of snow and 50 MPH winds for our area from Monday until Wednesday. One to two feet of snow in March is not particularly surprising for this time of year, but with the wind kicking up that high it could make for some interesting conditions in the area. We might pick up a few groceries just in case but we don’t intend on wiping out the shelves of every loaf of bread or gallon of milk we can lay our hands on. Water works just as well, and melted snow works well for water.

I’m just as anxious as the next guy for spring to be here but the fact of the matter is it’s still early March and early March is very much winter in this part of the country. Watching the snow fall and listening to the wind whip around, coupled with the fact that I’m still recovering my from my recent surgery, will give me the opportunity to study for my next aviation challenge: my written exam for my instrument rating. I’m still a dozen or so flight hours away from being ready for the checkride, but getting the written exam out of the way will be a good step in the right direction.

Mother Nature and my surgery may have conspired to keep me grounded for a while but I can still dream of flight while I study.