I’m Dying

The dang baby got me sick.

I’m sick.

We’re all sick.

The baby started it.

I don’t even feel well enough to write about it. Like every other man when he gets a cold: I am dying.

While I’m whining over here on the couch, knocking on death’s door, I recommend you read my wife’s thoroughly satisfying account of this sickness from her point of view. Click here to read: “It’s Not Like I’m Dying or Anything”. Women really are much better at handling colds. My woman sure is.

Je suis Charlie

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Remembering the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre:

Frédéric Boisseau, Franck Brinsolaro, Jean Cabut, Elsa Cayat, Stéphane Charbonnier, Philippe Honoré, Bernard Maris, Ahmed Merabet, Mustapha Ourrad, Michel Renaud, Bernard Verlhac (Tignous), Georges Wolinski.

I urge you to read Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression by Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier).

Criticizing a religion is not racist.

Criticizing religious zealots and terrorists is not racist.

Islam itself is not a problem.

People who want to silence others are the problem.

People who want to kill others in the name of a religion are the problem, be that religion Islam or Christianity or Judaism or vegetarianism.

(The above drawing is my response to an attack at an exhibit featuring cartoons of Muhammed. More information can be found at this Wikipedia page.)

I Feel Your Pain, Diores

Then fate fell upon Diores, son of Amarynceus, for he was struck by a jagged stone near the ankle of his right leg. He that hurled it was Peirous, son of Imbrasus, captain of the Thracians, who had come from Aenus; the bones and both the tendons were crushed by the pitiless stone.

-The Iliad

That would be his peroneus brevus and peroneus longus tendons, most likely.

I can relate. See: “Return to Peroneus Brevis Hill”.

Here’s the Deal

Can you dig the Queen of Spades?

I did my card game exercise trick again tonight. (Read “A Perfect Record” for details.)

The exercises were as follows:

  • Hearts = 1 minute hip/pelvis stretch using yoga blocks
  • Diamonds = 1 minute back stretch on an exercise ball (while praying the thing would not burst under my 226 pounds)
  • Clubs = 5 dumbell curls each arm (The heaviest dumbell we have is 15. There are weights in the garage out back. But I didn’t want to be a dumbell and walk in the cold to go use them.)
  • Spades = 5 sit-ups

The stretching was fantastic and sorely needed. I tend to run and not do much else. I never stretch before or after I run. I just like to run. That’s it. That’s why it takes some dorky trick like using a deck of cards to get me to do anything other than run. But I know that only running is a bad long-term plan. I guess the frigid weather has dealt me a good opportunity to see what other exercises suit me. (See what I did there? Two puns in one sentence.)

Tonight I went through the entire deck. So, 13 times through each exercise. That equals 65 sit-ups. But as I said yesterday, I hate math. So, I’ll stop all the fancy calculations right there.