Another Lost Season in Flushing

That big "WHOOSH" heard earlier today was the sound of the Mets dreams going down the drain. Hopefully just for the remainder of 2013.

Jeez, nothing seems to be going right for the Mets this year. Injuries are part of the game but the New Yorkers have suffered what seems to be more than their fair share.

The latest is a partially torn UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) in the pitching arm of 24-year old Matt Harvey. This is an injury that could require surgery (Tommy John surgery) but the Mets and Harvey will see if rest leads to repair. He is, however, through for the season.

The Mets had said they were going to shut him down once he reached 200 innings this year and Harvey has pitched 178 1/3 so were talking just about 22 innings lost—call it three starts. Obviously, that’s not a big deal. But the injury is. If rest doesn’t suffice and surgery is called for, the NL All-Start starter will probably miss all of the 2014 season. And there’s no guarantee that when he comes back he will be anything like he was earlier this year: 2.27 ERA (159 ERA+), 0.931 WHIP and 6.16 K/BB ratio. Just this last Saturday he went 6 2/3 innings, 0 walks, 4 Ks and gave up 2 ER while absorbing the loss in a 3-0 game against Detroit in which he faced AL All-Start starter Max Scherzer (19-1) who went 6 innings, 4 walks, 11 Ks and, of course, 0 ER.

The Mets will limp through September without David Wright (hamstring strain), without Matt Harvey, without closer Bobby Parnell (herniated disc in his neck) and, despite being professionals, probably without much enthusiasm.

College Football: Week 1 Rankings and Schedule

Opening day of the 2013 college football season is upon us so I hope you’ve got a comfortable seat, plenty of snacks and a desire to watch some amazing football. I do. I have. I’m ready!

 Teams ranked in the top 25 are slated to play Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. In addition, many of the other FBS schools will start their seasons this week. (My alma mater, Rutgers, plays Fresno State on Thursday night at 10:30 PM EDT. RU is something like 77^th and Fresno State 26^th in the CBSSports Preseason 126 Poll.) Only a few will be idle this week.

Alabama comes in as the reigning national champs and are picked to go the distance again this season, the final year of the BCS Championship. (Yeah, next year there be playoffs!) However, first they have to win a few games and nobody gives you anything…especially in the SEC.  

The numbers on the left are the rankings in the Associated Press Poll, Coaches’ Poll and CBSSports Poll. NR means the team is “Not Ranked” in that particular poll.

1/1/1 Alabama The Crimson Tide hosts the Virginia Tech Hokies Saturday, August 31^st . Look for the Tide to roll.

2/2/2 Ohio State After spending last year in limbo while wracking up an impressive won-loss record, the Buckeyes are again eligible for a championship. They start by playing host to the Buffalo Bulls on Saturday, August 31^st. Could, no, WILL be a long day for the Bulls.

3/3/4 Oregon has the weekend off. The Ducks open their season Saturday September 7^th at Virginia.

4/4/3 Stanford has the weekend off. The Cardinal begin play at home against San Jose State on Saturday September 7^th.

5/5/5 Georgia The Bulldogs play at the home of the #8 Clemson Tigers on Saturday August 31^st. This could be an interesting game, but the home field advantage goes to Georgia and the Bulldogs win a shootout.

6/7/7t South Carolina The Gamecocks host the University of North Carolina Tar Heels Thursday night August 29^th. The South will rise again!

7/6/7t Texas A&M The Aggies host the Rice Owls on Saturday August 31^st. Aggies, regardless of who is the QB, will win this but there will be lots of scoring by both sides.

8/8/6 Clemson The Tigers play host to the #5 Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday August 31^st. Sorry Tigers. If it were at Clemson it might be a different story.

9/9/9 Louisville The Cardinals host Ohio University Bobcats on Sunday September 1^st. Teddy Bridgewater will have a Big Day to start the year…and the Heisman talk gets louder.

10/10/10 Florida The Gators host the Toledo Rockets on Saturday August 31^st. Gators chomp.

11/12/11 Florida State The Seminoles go on the road to play the Pittsburgh Panthers on Monday September 2^nd. It’s on the road. The first official ACC game for Pitt. Savage is the quarterback. Anything could happen but the Panthers need a ground game. If they find it….

12/13/12 LSU The Tigers play at the home of the #20 TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday August 31^st. The Tigers are always tough but they better come ready to play some defense. LSU in a shootout.

13/14/13 Oklahoma State The Cowboys host the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday August 31^st. OSU will tame the Bulldogs.

14/11/16 Notre Dame The Irish host the Temple Owls on Saturday August 31^st. It wasn’t wise of the Owls to book this game. Especially in South Bend.

15/15/14 Texas The Longhorns host the New Mexico State Aggies on Saturday August 31^st. The Aggies are no match for the Longhorns. There will be lots of scoring. All by Texas.

16/16/15 Oklahoma The Sooners host the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks on Saturday August 31^st. The Sooners should have an easy time in this one.

17/17/17 Michigan The Wolverines host the Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday August 31^st. Wolverines! By at least 21.

18/18/18 Nebraska The Cornhuskers host the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday August 31^st. Another mismatch that will see Nebraska score big and get their supporters talking Big 10 Championship. (Sorry folks. That won’t happen.)

19/19/21 Boise State The Broncos head west to play at the home of the Washington Huskies on Saturday August 31^st. Broncos win this one in entertaining fashion…if you’re a Boise fan.

20/20/20 TCU The Horned Frogs host the #12 LSU Tigers on Saturday August 31^st. It will be high scoring but the Frogs will come up short.

21/21/22 UCLA The Bruins host the Nevada Wolfpack on Saturday August 31^st. Nevada will run, run, run but the Bruins will score, score, score.

22/22/NR Northwestern The Wildcats play on the coast against the California Golden Bears on Saturday August 31^st. The Wildcats will be the visitors, but they will also be the victors.

23/23/NR Wisconsin The Badgers host the Minutemen of Massachusetts on Saturday August 31^st. Well, UMass wanted to move up and play with the big boys. Be careful what you wish for. Badgers by a lot.

24/24/24 USC The Trojans head over the Pacific to play the Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii on Thursday August 29^th. Who will play QB for the Trojans? Does it matter? Hawaii has lost its luster the last couple of years. They will also lose this game. USC by at least 21.

25/25/NR Oregon State Beavers have the weekend off. They begin play at Hawaii on Saturday September 7^th.

NR/NR/19 Baylor. The Bears open the season against Wofford on Saturday August 31^st. Bears win big.

NR/NR/23 Miami The Hurricane host the FAU Owls on Friday night. Intra-state games can be interesting. The Hurricane, however, will blow away FAU.

NR/NR/25 Ole Miss The Rebels play on the road against the Vanderbilt Commodores on Thursday night. The Rebels should pull out the victory even on the road, but the Commodores will make it a fight.

A Welcome Loss of Weight

Prior to surgery on my knees I would list myself as weighing 220 pounds (or 225 depending upon what the week had been like), Having undergone the trauma of bilateral knee replacement with the accompanying 15 day stay in the hospital and rehab facility--and another two weeks of appetite suppressing narcotic pain killers--my weight has dropped to 200 and sometimes 199 on a pretty damn accurate digital scale. (I checked it against the doctor's scale when I went to see him last week.)

Not that the hospital food was terrible--it was quite good, in fact--but the portion control and the lack of snack foods between meals certainly reduced my desire to eat. Even when I got home, I found myself telling Terry not to put so much on my plate during meal times because I just didn't want to eat it. The daily exercise regime, while not overly strenuous has certainly contributed. As has the fitful sleeping at night. (Just staying in one position too long can get the knees to aching no matter how recently I have taken some extra strength acetaminophen. Much better than staying on those narcotics, BTW.)

Now, I am NOT recommending either major surgery nor narcotic pain killers as a means of weight loss. But as a side affect, I'll take it!

I have had to go and buy a new belt because the old one was too large and, when next I go upstairs, I'm thinking of getting the "skinny" pants out of the closet. I think even their 36" waist may be loose, however. Which is fine by me!

Next trick will be trying to keep the weight off which means trying to get Terry to change her cooking habits a little.

Personal Progress, Gardening Successes and More

We’ve had some terrific weather during the last week. The nights have been around 50 degrees and the days topping out at 80 degrees. There’s been very little rain and the breezes make things even more pleasant. It’s nice to sit out on the deck and watch the hummingbirds fight over whose turn it is to be at the feeder. There are three of them now. That may be the result of a successful fledgling of a youngster. There were only two earlier in the year. The female seems more tolerant of the other female/fledgling but the male simply does not want to share. Sometimes he chases the other two around the yard and they buzz about like miniature fighter planes.

***

Today, my knees are six weeks old. They still hurt and probably will for a long time, but there’s been tremendous progress made. I’m comfortably walking quarter miles on the flat surface of the deck. (Thirty feet—ten yards—from end to end. Forty-four round trips equals 440 yards. Sure, it gets a little boring but there are moments. Like when there’s a bald eagle soaring overhead, an indigo bunting flitting around the edge of the yard, or a pileated woodpecker flying back and forth. Or the day a military transport(?) flew over the mountain from the southwest j-u-s-t high enough to clear the windmills, low enough to almost see the pilot’s face, and then seemed to drop even lower as it flew north over the valley. Probably heading to Fort Drum.)

In addition to walking/pacing twice a day, I’m doing my exercises at home at least once a day. I wear 2.5 pound weights on each ankle while doing leg lifts and what I call line dance (forward, back, side, and cross-over steps for each leg). Then there’s step-ups (forward and side), mini-squats and lunges. Finally there are the heel slides. (Lay on your back. Put a strap on your foot. Pull the heel back toward your butt as far as you can and hold it there for a count of ten.) It takes about half an hour to do the exercises.

I’ve been going downtown to Elite Therapy three times a week for two+ hour sessions under their watchful eye and on their machines. That will switch this week as I will be reduced to just two sessions a week for a while. They are putting me in the pool for one of those sessions.

I’m still taking stairs one leg at a time. Good leg leads up and bad leg leads down. I’m this close to going up in a normal fashion, but down…. That’s going to be a little longer. Walking uneven surfaces like the lawn or the woods is doable, but slow. 

Terry has been my designated driver. Until she left for Poland, that is. Luckily, the physician and my right leg have agreed that I'm okay to drive the Tundra on my own. It's got an automatic transmission so the fact that my left knee/leg is what I consider my 'bad" leg has little affect on my driving ability.

***

Terry, her sister and their mother are in Poland. They landed there late Saturday afternoon following a long flight from JFK. They will visit family and tour parts of the country until next Sunday. Then it’s back to the US of A.

***

The garden has been winding down as to be expected as August turns into September. 

The squash vine borer has done its thing and all the zucchini and winter squash have died off—thank goodness. Terry put several quart bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer. (Takes up less space than breads in that form.) She also sliced several yellow squash and froze them. We also have half dozen acorn and butternut squash from four plants Joe gave us. The stringbeans have stopped producing--or we've just stopped picking--and we’ve enjoyed them and snow peas for several months while still putting some into the freezer for the future. I dug up the onions the other day. Virtually every set I put in yielded an onion 3-4 inches in diameter. That means ¼ bushel of yellow and ¼ bushel of white onions for the winter stews and soups. A small number of beet plants are still growing. They're the second planting and, if they survive, we should get a couple of nice meals out of them.

 The surprise this summer has been the tomatoes. Four cherry tomato plants and two Rutgers plants have yielded and yielded and yielded. Right now I can harvest a quart of cherry tomatoes every two days. Terry turned some into spaghetti sauce, we’ve eaten tons in salads and given several quarts away and still they ripen. While they taste like candy, there’s only so many you can eat at a time! And the Rutgers have been almost as prolific. Sliced they make a great BLT sandwich. Quartered, salted and peppered they are a nice side dish or snack. I’ve got to figure a way to preserve some more before I get completely inundated. The output is nice, but I’m about ready to say. “Enough is enough!” The previous two years we got very little out of the tomatoes. The blight took the plants just as the bulk of the fruit was about to ripen. This year I fertilized the plants with Miracle Gro with calcium. That seems to have kept the blight in check.

Two quarts of cherry tomatoes plus a passel of Rutgers. Care to try some?

That's about all for now, but I promise I'll be writing more soon. I've been looking at the upcoming college football schedule and realize it starts this Thursday. I'll be posting more on the Top 25 teams and their games in the next day or two.

Knee update

I've been remiss in documenting what's been going on vis-a-vis my knee replacements. Some of that can beplaced at the altar of pain medication but a good deal has to do with boredom. Not that progress hasn't been made, mind you, but it's slow and incremental at best. Here's what's happened over the last four weeks.

Four weeks ago today I checked into the Corning Hospital and underwent double (“bi-lateral”) knee replacement. I’ve had the procedure described as being more akin to carpentry than fine needlework. Saws, hammers, glue, staples, screws—all come into play with lots of enthusiastic swinging and impact. I wouldn’t know as I was, thankfully, out completely during the four-plus hours.

I do know that the initial recovery was painful. Very painful. Understandable when you think about it. Not only did they cut through the muscle, the pried them far apart inducing sprains and strains from the groin to the ankle. Then they sawed off the ends of both the thigh and shin bones, hammered and glued the prosthesis in place and then brought the knee cap and muscles back into position.

I was standing the first night. Walking a short distance the second day and moved to rehab on the third day. That’s when the physical therapy/torture started.

Stretching, bending the joints and rebuilding the muscle strength under the care of two young ladies at St. Joseph’s went on for a week. I learned to walk, first with a walker and then a cane. I climbed stairs. I picked up objects from the floor. I worked on balance and just standing for a period of time. I learned how to get into and out of a bath tub. (Not as easy as it sounds when you can’t lift your foot more than a few inches off the ground. Hence the bench to slide in and out of the tub. That also helped train me to get in and out of a car.)

The staples came out two weeks after surgery and I was discharged to go home the next day. PT did not stop, however. Three days a week I go to Elite in Mansfield for two-plus hours. I get to ride the stationary bike for 10 minutes to loosen things up. (My bike has a larger pedal radius and forces a bend that my left knee complains about. Riding it will have to wait until I can get a few more degrees of bend in that left knee.) Stretching and bending continue. In addition, I do some stretching and bending and muscle building on my own at home. Twice a day. I also walk the deck. Two hundred yards at a time. My walking gait is pretty close to normal on that flat surface. Not fast, mind you, but steady. I’ll be doubling the distance this week.

The knees are responding differently to the surgery and recovery. The left knee is not bending as well and has sharp, knife-like pain on the inside when I pull my heel toward my butt using the cats’ leash. The right is bending 5 to 10 degrees more and has no real sharp pain just a swelling and tautness that I can feel being stretched as I force the bending.

I’ve already scheduled six more sessions at Elite over the next two weeks and, despite the pain, I really look forward to those sessions and the progress I’m making. I’ve heard predictions regarding recovery from bi-lateral knee surgery that range anywhere from two months to a year of pain. Right know I’d be happy if I was relatively pain free by Halloween.

******

Over the course of the surgery, two weeks in the hospital/rehab, continued physical rehab at home and at Elite, and being on pain meds for the duration, my appetites has changed considerably. This has resulted in the loss of almost 20 pounds. Mornings I get on the scale and see 204 or 205 staring back at me. I haven't weighed that little in quite some time. I'm hoping to drop a few more pounds and get south of the Mendoza line for the first time since...oh...probably 1967/68 when I gained those "freshmen five" at Rutgers.

******

Terry will be flying out to Portland, Oregon the end of the week for our DIL’s baby shower. She’ll leave on Thursday and return Monday. She’s been my chauffeur for hospital and therapy sessions. (I can’t drive until cleared by my surgeon. Hopefully that will happen on Monday, August 19th.)

Tomorrow. Tomorrow. It's only a day away!

Tomorrow I report to Corning Hospital at 8:15 AM to have both my knees replaced. They call it bilateral knee replacement. I'll be bionic!

No food or drink after midnight. Clear liquids (like black coffee, thank God!) are okay.

I'm the second patient for my surgeon tomorrow. He's got a single knee first so he should be warmed up and alert when my time comes. Even so, 4+ hours in the OR is a looooong time. I'm not likely to be worth much in the aftermath. At least not until Tuesday.

I'm told physical therapy will start Monday afternoon. They're kidding, right? Then it's two-a-days for until Thursday or Friday before I'm released to a half-way house for a couple of days of more PT. I hope my drill sergeants go easy on me. (Not really. The tougher the training, the faster the healing.)

I've been exercising my knees--along with the rest of me--pretty hard the last couple of weeks. The knees have let me know I may have pushed too hard. Good! The pain they are experiencing just confirms my decision to have them replaced. I think I've about worn this pair out.

The hospital has wi-fi and I may have Terry bring the laptop Tuesday or Wednesday depending upon my regimen and how doped up I feel with pain killers. Until then it will be crosswords and sudoku and, maybe I'll start rereading Terry Pratchett's Disc World series...again.

Oops! Missing info on my knees.

I just checked my post from 6/21: My New Toy/Tool and Knee Surgery Progress (the last before my rant), and realized I hadn't mentioned my visit to the Corning Hospital Joint Camp and primary care physician which resulted in a visit to a cardiologist.

The folks at Corning were basically doing pre-op tests and orientation. Blood was drawn, and EKG was performed, lessons on the exercises I should do prior to surgery, and a briefing of what to expect was held. It was informative and enjoyable.

BUT...it seems the EKG that they did at Joint Camp on the 21st showed a strong heart beat but just 45 of them a minute*. My primary care doc was concerned my this low heart rate and--after taking more blood samples for testing--declared that I should see a cardiologist. So an appointment was made and I met with the heart doc. He too was a bit worried about the low heart beat (although it was a more normal 58 bpm when I saw him) saying that the anesthesiologist might have concerns. Also, low heart beats can be signs of other problems. (BTW, my BP was around 135/85 for most of my doctors' visits. At the cardiologist's it was 120/72.) He reviewed the results of the blood tests performed by my primary care doc and the EKG from Joint Camp. Then he had his technician run a sonogram of my heart.

That was pretty cool! You could see the valves opening and closing, the chambers contracting and relaxing and the blood moving through the old ticker. And there was sound, too!

At the end of the testing, I was cleared to go. No problems, he said. Go get those new knees!

Who knew that on the way to  getting new knees I'd also have my heart checked so thoroughly? At least they now have a base line in the data bank should anything happen and I've got to see a cardiologist for something a bit more serious than a low heart rate.


*I've always had a low heart beat. When I had back surgery in the early '90s they almost didn't do it because my heart rate was just 48 bpm but I told them I wasn't leaving until they operated (arthroscopic at that) because I couldn't walk with out pain that was somewhere around 11 on a scale of 1-10.
I'm also getting tired of them asking me if I run regularly. HA! Run? Me? No way, Jose! Maybe it's a result of all the bike riding and swimming I did in junior and senior high school...that's the last time I did any real strenuous exercise.
And stop with the "You won't have a leg to stand on" cracks when talking about the days post-op. Once was funny. Twenty to thirty times...not so much.

My Knees and Me.

Okay. I feel a bit better now.

On a personal note....

It's Knee-Day minus two. On Monday morning I'll be going to Corning Hospital to have both my knees replaced. The time in the OR should be around 4+ hours. Then it will be three days in Joint Camp (one floor, private rooms, PT twice a day) before being sent out for another three or four days  at a rehab facility. It will be a week from Monday--minimum--before I get back to the Aerie.

In preparation for my new knees, I've been giving the old ones quite a workout. Over the last month, I spent two weeks up at the Bolt Hole working in the woods trying to repair trail damage and cutting firewood. Twice I cut the lawn up there using the push mower. And at the Aerie, I cut the grass twice, cut some firewood and generally wore the heck out of the originally issued set of knees. The restricted movement and pain I experienced convinced me that the surgery is indeed needed.

There were also two long road trips into New Jersey. One for the celebration of my niece's little Sami's first birthday and the second to celebrate my Mother-in-law's 90th. Stops every two hours or so to get out of the car and walk about were required to ease the stiffness in both knees.

In which I give voice to a(nother) Rant

I've not been posting much here on Compass Points.

So much has been happening in politics that I find vile and disruptive to our freedoms that I can't begin to express my anger without growing frustrated. Between the Gang of 8's immigration push,  the IRS, the EPA, the NSA, the DOJ and the rest of the DC alphabet soup, can see little hope of our survival as a nation remotely resembling that the Founding Fathers established.

Our President picks and chooses the laws he wants to enforce (despite that being one of the prime responsibilities of the Executive Branch) and creates more by decree. Through the creation of czars and a Whitehouse that sets an onerous example of dictatorial aloofness, bureaucrats have taken on roles they were never meant to assume. Rules and regulations promulgated by cabinet level (or lower) appointees have choked our economy and infringed upon our freedoms.

Bengahzi, Fast and Furious, delay after delay on the XL pipeline for naught but political purpose, data gathering on private citizens, stonewalling the applications of Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status--so as to prevent them from participating in the 2012 elections, various actions that will shut down inexpensive power generating stations in the name of Anthropogenic Global Warming (or Climate Change)--in a world that hasn't warmed in 16 years or more, a continued push for gun control headed by men from cities with deplorable illegal gun use.... I could go on and on.

And, instead of reporting the truth and focusing on the scandals embroiling out nation, the main stream press and 24-hour news channels are going all in on one distraction after another in an effort to protect the narratives(read "asses") of the Democrat Party.

All in all, things will be getting worse before they get better. I just hope that mass demonstrations will be the most that will be needed to right the wrongs being done. If it needs to--or is forced to--go beyond that, we are in a world of trouble.