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My Almost-daily Journal |
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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed Previous Posts
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Tuesday, July 08, 2003
The Painful Branch After returning home from our extended weekend in Traverse City, I noticed that my lawn was covered with branches, twigs, and other appendages from wind-savaged plant life. Damn! I missed a tornado!? Venturing into the backyard, I discovered a huge branch sitting in the middle of the lawn that apparently came from the tree in my FRONT yard. Weird! After unpacking, I donned some junky clothes, got out my rarely used (but so nice when you need it) chainsaw, and started quartering the fallen branch. The chainsaw started up perfectly, only needing a few pulls and half-choke. I LOVE chainsaws! There's so much destructive power in such a little package. I've actually seen chainsaws on ESPN that were equipped with Kawasaki Ninja motors. Those things cut through redwoods like butter. Anyway, I started joyously quartering the fallen limb by first cutting off the little runners, then cutting the larger limbs into three foot lengths to meet local garbage ordinances. About ten minutes into cutting, I felt a little snap & pop in my hip and spine as I was bent over in a funny position. The position looked funny, but it was really related to safety. I was wearing sandals (like a dumbass) and shorts (like a dumbass), so I positioned myself to prevent the least amount of injury should the chainsaw snap uncontrollably toward flesh. Well, as soon as I got up, I noticed that something was quite wrong with my body: the snap & pop were a combination of my spine and hipbone bearing down on a nerve which was a result of one of my body's atypical muscle spasms. I get muscle spasms frequently, where a back/neck muscle will stay in a locked position, which often results in a pinched nerve. Heat, anti-inflammatories, pain killers and muscle relaxers are the only things that seem to work to get the muscle relaxed again. So far the last few days, I've been anguishing in pain, hobbling from point A to point B. I thought about going to a doctor to get some medication, and possibly a back readjustment, but with only a few days before we leave for Greece, who has the time? Right now, it just seems that good rest is the only thing that has been working... which means no more four-hour sleep nights for me. I do have a bottle of some expired prescription-strength Motrin, which I have been taking regularly. They expired in 1997. They work fine. I just hope the anguishing pain disappears by the time we board the 747 to head over to Greece. It would really suck if I had to deal with the pain for ten hours on a not-so-ergonomic airplane seat. Surveillance Tapes So, how did that tree branch from the front yard tree make its way to the backyard? That's a good question, and I demanded an answer! You know all those webcams that I have in my house? Those things also act as surveillance cameras, taking pictures every 60 seconds! I bet nobody knew that. Well, I jumped onto the spare bedroom computer and watched the surveillance video from July 3 - July 5. On July 4, around 2pm, I watched the sky turn from blue to grey to black to purple. It was AWESOME! Trees were sideways, debris was everywhere, and I think I even spotted Toto and a cow flying by. Dammit! A tornado, and I missed it! Drats! A few frames later, when the sky was purple, I saw the front tree branch sitting in the middle of the front lawn. And a few frames later, the branch was gone! How in the heck did it end up in the backyard? So, I jumped onto the family room computer, fired up the TrackerCam software, and watched the surveillance footage for the side of the house. I dialed in the date and time to July 4 around 2pm, and my question was answered! Josh hauled the tree branch to the backyard. Good thing for surveillance cams. At least they were put to a practical use finally. I then went outside again, and started picking up the debris that was littered on my lawn. It took a while. My neighbor came out and I asked him what I missed. "Horizontal wind shear", he said, "Lasted about ten seconds." So, I guess it wasn't a tornado after all. But I am a little disappointed that I missed it. posted by Dino at 11:51 PM (permanent link) |