An update on two things

I have finished my 2 weeks of physical therapy on my wrist and tendon issue and there has definitely been an improvement. I wear a hard plastic split on my arm overnight and there is no more pain like I had before. Throughout the day it is less stiff and painful as well, so I am very happy.

I picked up the car from the mechanic last night. Turns out the idler pulley went bad and sort of exploded, shooting its bearings out which knocked the serpentine belt off. That would explain the racing noises I heard, which would have been the bearings going out. Then the clunk which was the idler pulley exploding. They said everything else looked fine, no damage was found. The repair was surprisingly inexpensive.

On the way home the power steering pump was making some bad noises so I checked the fluid level when I got home and it looked almost empty. There was some fluid that got sprayed around inside the engine compartment that I noticed before I had the car towed to the mechanic. I'll just add some more fluid and I'm pretty sure that will solve the problem.

It is still a pain in the butt to get a car repaired that is barely driven.

Really? Again?

My Ford Taurus started making some odd noises the past few times I've driven it. I had to run to the grocery store tonight and the noises were definitely louder, bit of a grinding, ball bearing sound. Well on the way back home the noise stopped, it squealed, then the battery light came on. THen a bunch more warning lights and I noticed the headlights dimming.

I lost power steering as well, luckily it stayed running long enough to get home. I was going to back it into the garage to make it easier to jump start if we had to. I flipped from drive to reverse and the engine died. I had no more battery power left so I just pushed the car into a parking spot on the street. I popped open the hood and saw that the serpentine belt was not looped around the alternator.

I pulled on the belt and it wasn't broken so it looks like it just came off somehow...which is rather odd. It was already quite dark outside so I didn't feel like messing with it. I may try and fix it myself, but I'm concerned at the rattling/grinding sound I heard. It is possible that some part of the tensioner pulley or something actually broke. If this is the case, I'd have no clue whatsoever on how to fix that.

My car knows I will be getting a tax refund when I do my taxes next month, so it fired a preemptive strike against that.

Yay Christmas was fun!

Its been busy around here, as I'm sure it has been for most people. Anna and I headed off to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Molly's house for the annual Christmas Eve get together which is always a great time. The food this year was several lasagnas, baguettes with pesto, bruschetta, plus many other sides, munchies, sweets, wine and booze. Good food, good company, can't really go wrong there.

We spent Christmas day at my parents house with my Grandma and Grandpa Harvey and that was also a great time. Consisted of more munchies and the main course of mom's homemade clam chowder which is ridiculously good. We had some of our favorite wine with it: Starling Castle Riesling, which is a nice German white wine.

We all exchanged gifts and the big gift from mom and dad for Anna and I was a portable GPS unit so we can finally go Geocaching properly. Its the perfect unit, good size, easy to use. Later that night at home, I was playing around with it and saw on their website they had some updates available for it. I ran them and they locked up, even after half an hour. I had to pull the power to the GPS, then it would not turn back on.

I didn't have it in me to troubleshoot it, so instead Anna and I watched an amazing documentary on coral reefs. It was originally filmed with IMAX cameras that play back on 10 story high screens, but it was converted to High Definition for watching at home. Let me say, the picture quality was the absolute most beautiful thing I'd ever seen featuring footage from Tahiti, French Polynesia, and Australia.

Then today, I managed to figure out a way to revive the dead GPS unit and it is now fully functional, which made me very happy!

Anna is up at her parents house this weekend to celebrate Christmas with family. I was unable to come with since I'm unable to get time off during this time of the year. I'm not too upset about it since thats just the way it is and thats the way it has been for years, so I'm used to not being able to travel over the holidays.

And to close out, the weather here today is crazy. Its been above freezing all day and a lot of the snow has melted. will be nice to get the roads a little more cleaned up. Its time for me to warm up some leftover clam chowder, I'm starving!

Busy Sunday

Anna and I slept in this morning until about 9am. The cats were meowing at us to come feed them, so we finally got up and gave them what they wanted. We sat around for a bit then went to dig out the massive snow drifts in our driveway. I made sure to put a pot of coffee on first, then when we got back in we made a delicious breakfast of homemade hash browns (shredded using our new food processor..yay!), bacon, eggs, and toast.

Dad came by around noon to pick Anna up to go back and make Christmas baked goods with Mom. I headed off to New Ulm for my only appointment for the day, which was a very simple printer problem. The wind was pretty strong and was blowing snow all over the place, which reduced visiblity to less than 100 feet. I foolishly snapped a few pictures with my cell phone to share.




I quickly finished up in New Ulm and headed back. Since that was my only appointment of the day, I stopped in at Mom and Dad's where the ladies were very busy in the kitchen. I helped Dad update his GPS unit to the 2009 maps, then helped decorate some of the cookies which was definitely fun.

We had a good dinner then Anna and I headed back home to relax. Definitely a good Sunday.

a new piece of hardware

My physical therapist fitted me today with a hard plastic split that immobilizes my wrist and thumb. I've been wearing it most of the day and it does seem to feel better. One downside is that it renders me unable to play video games while wearing it. Perhaps that is a good thing.

I had yesterday and today off work and I'm back to work on Saturday. A nice hectic day it looks to be as well. Hopefully the blowing snow won't be too much of an issue as I go from appointment to appointment. Anna and my mom are going to bake Christmas cookies and goodies on Sunday. I loves me some cookies!

Tuesday's gone....with the wind

...Skynyrd song lyric in case you didn't catch it.

So Ben, what did you do today?
I actually had a pretty busy work day. I rolled into the store about 10am today and got all 5 things on my to-do list done. I then hit the road to head over to Faribault, MN to clean up a virus/spyware issue on a computer. The client was very excited to have a working computer because before I got there, the computer would not even start up.

My next appointment was for the folks whose furnace stopped working yesterday. I had to make a return trip because their new internet service wasn't quite active yet when I was there. They were so excited when I was done, they gave me an African Horned Melon that they grew in their garden. They had a bunch of them laying around. The gentleman wanted to get a few pictures taken with me, his wife, and the Geekmobile. Now you might think this is weird, but honestly it would be the 5th time or so that a client has asked to take my picture with the Geekmobile. They also explained to me that they have owned 3 different Volkswagen Beetles together over the course of time.

I helped out one more repeat client of mine setting up her new computer then made my way back to Mankato from St. Peter. Anna had sent me a few text messages warning me of dangerous road conditions and a large accident involving multiple cars on Highway 169 near Highway 14. I opted to take Highway 22 back, which is my preferred route anyway. Everything went fine, I didn't slide around at all. I did see a couple cars in the ditches though.

I have physical therapy Wednesday, a full work day, then the next two days off to stay home and relax.

I can't help it!!

Ok ok, so I'm doing a blog post about the cold weather. Yeah I can't help it.

Chilly day here this morning. Woke up to about -10F but at least it was bright and sunny outside. I went to go get the cars started and driveway shoveled and surprisingly both cars started right up no problem. Of course the plow went by about one minute before Anna left and I was able to pull my car in the driveway, so it left a nice pile of snow around my car. Luckily I was able to move it out no problem after Anna left and even better, the plow driver made another sweep through my street to clear out the pile left by my car in the way.

Had my physical therapy again on my wrist and it seemed to make a bit of an improvement. Even tonight it isn't quite as sore as it has been. It could be just that I've been so cold all day that its being kept numb.

My first appointment at work today was in the town of St. Peter. When I arrived at the house, the clients warned me that their furnace has been down all day but someone was on the way to fix it. Needless to say, it was very cold in there, about 50 degrees (I saw the thermometer). They had space heaters and the oven door open just to keep the house from being frozen. The furnace guy finished up right as I was leaving. Turns out their problem was simply an exterior vent clogged with snow. Stupidly simple, but was enough to keep their furnace off.

My second appointment was at a house in rural North Mankato. The computer room was quite cold and the client made sure to point out to me several times that she can't wait to remodel that room and duct in more heat.

I didn't take my coat off at all today while at work, and I work inside! I feel so sorry for the people that have to do road construction, deliver mail, fix utilities, etc in this cold cold weather.

Topic? awww dammit

It would be cliché for me to complain about the blizzard conditions right now, so I won’t do that. I’ve also been complaining about my wrist issue lately so I won’t anymore either. Hmm, what’s left to talk about then?

Anna and I watched a couple movies tonight, including the 1981 cult-classic animated movie Heavy Metal. We’ve never seen it and we both found the film very interesting. It was a collection of short stories all tied together by a theme. Some parts were trippy, others were funny, and others were downright ridiculous, but overall enjoyable.

Pets

Our male cat Simon hasn’t seemed to happy lately.  We were pretty sure he doesn’t like the food we give him, it seems too hard for him to chew so he usually just swallows it whole, which doesn’t make him feel good.  We picked up some canned cat food for them and he seems much more happy now.  Yay Simon!

The pet store also had some cats there from one of the county’s Humane Society on hand for adoption, so we played with a couple orange little kittens for awhile.  They were very cute and well behaved.  We both wanted to take one home, but now is not a good time for that.

I had a good day at work and put on over 150 miles today.  I really don’t mind the long drives, its actually pretty relaxing since I don’t have to travel through any metropolitan areas or anything.

It would appear that retail stores here in Mankato are doing just fine.  Everyone has packed parking lots and there were cars everywhere today.  Its good to see people out spending money.

Physical Therapy

I had my first of 7 visits to the physical therapist. They decided to apply some type of drug to an electrode and attach it to my wrist where the inflammation resides. For the next 10 minutes, it delivers the drug through my skin, then they take an ultrasound device to it for a few minutes which further drives it in deep.

Apparently this is desire over giving an actual injection. Seems like a lot of work for a sore wrist, but hey they are the experts.

I also have some stretching and massaging exercises to do to my wrist twice daily. At least I go 3 times a week for the visits so it will be done with in 2 weeks. I just hope this fixes it. I'll be pissed if I still have to receive an injection after all of this. I have nothing against injections whatsoever, but if it turns out I needed one anyway it would have been nice to just get it from the start.

Doctor visit results

I saw the orthopedic surgeon today and he deduced that I have De Quervain's Tenosynovitis. Don't ask me to pronounce it because there is no way I can. It sounds like it is nothing serious and can be fixed with just physical therapy instead of surgery. I'll be going to one on Friday, hopefully it isn't something I have to go in for weekly or anything since those office visits get expensive after awhile.

Going to the doctor

I don't think I've written about this yet. For the last few weeks, I've been experiencing some pretty crazy pain in my left wrist and thumb. It wakes me up at night and when I try and pull the covers up it is a ridiculous amount of pain. I made an appointment to see an orthopedic surgeon and I finally get to see him Thursday the 11th.

Hopefully something can be done because it is definitely impacting me, sometimes it is painful to lift things up, and waking up during the night due to pain isn't very cool. I do have the next 2 days off so I can relax in case they do something to my wrist that requires rest.

Kitty!

My client today had a very nice Bengal cat. Anna and I both love the look of a Bengal, very wild looking with the spots of a leopard, but very tame and social. This cat was very playful and really enjoyed watching me hook up her owner's computer. The cat loved to be pet and played with and I was kind of sad I finished up with the work quickly and had to go.

I've been wanting to get another cat lately and it would be awesome to find a Bengal cat, but its probably not very likely we'll find one at the Humane Society to adopt. I know I could get one from a pet store or a breeder, but they are expensive cats so I wouldn't go that route.

Here are a few pictures I found of Bengal cats.

ITS GOING TO SNOW!!!!

Apparently southern Minnesota is about to get hit with 4-6" of snow shortly. YAY!

This video is related to the subject of snow and makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it. Thanks to Tony Doll for sending it to me!

Whoops, halloween pics

I realized today while going through pictures that I did not post Anna and I dressed up for Halloween. These are our Renaissance Festival outfits that we ordered online this summer. As always, click the photos for a larger view.

One thing leads to many

Anna and I purchased a Nintendo Wii video game system a little over a year ago and at first we played it all the time. Now it just sits there and never gets used. It did however, develop a video glitch that would make the picture on the TV go fuzzy. Luckily, I bought it from Best Buy with the 2 year replacement plan on it. I took it in and got store credit for the original purchase price, since we didn't want another Wii.

I proceeded to browse around the store for at least an hour trying to figure out what to spend the store credit on. I have been wanting a wireless keyboard and mouse to replace the stock ones that came with my computer. Finding a set that would fit my needs and also be Mac-compatible was actually rather difficult. I ended up having to return the first set because there was a glitch with the mouse that prevented a Mac computer from ever entering sleep-mode to conserve power.

I ended up getting this fantastic ergonomic set from the Logitech company, and I am completely satisfied with it.
We have both been wanting a food processor for at least a couple years now but never got around to buying one. Luckily this time of the year, Best Buy carries a larger assortment of small appliances, so I picked up a KitchenAid food processor that was just the perfect size and matches our KitchenAid stand mixer as well.



There is still some money left over on the store credit so we'll have to find a few little things to pick up sometime. Nothing like going on a free shopping spree! Well, not exactly free since I paid for the original Nintendo Wii in the first place, but over a year ago so that money is written off.

Storm Chasers

Anna and I are finding ourselves watching HDTV programming almost exclusively now that we have a pretty large TV. One of the shows we have started watching is Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel. Fantastic and beautiful show documenting a team of people that hunt down and study tornadoes in the midwest United States. These people are pretty crazy and also ridiculously smart.

One thing I noticed though: there is some definite male sexual tension in the TornadoVideos.net vehicle between Joel and Reed. I'm pretty sure these guys get sexually excited when they are approaching a large tornado on the ground. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against this lifestyle, but at times these guys are pretty silly.

The show overall is very good though, very entertaining and thrilling. A must-watch if you have an HDTV.

Christmas is here!

Anna and I put up the tree and ornaments tonight. Its always a good time doing that, going through all the ornaments and the memories they bring back. She was able to get Christmas weekend off to head back home to spend Christmas with her family. I'm not allowed to take time off during November and December so I don't get to come with. I'm not too bummed out since I'm used to not being able to take off on holidays.

I'm such a geek

And not just because I work for Geek Squad. Last night, I had a very long dream about owning the Apple iPhone. Yes thats right, I could have dreamt about winning the lottery, living on a private island in the Caribbean, or having magical powers. No, I dreamt I had an iPhone.

And I'm almost ashamed to admit that I enjoyed the dream.