"I was sittin' in the car while y'all were in the store."

"And..."

"That was it. It was nice sitting in my car."

That was a conversation between Hannah and I this morning. I was talking about my new car. I picked it up last week and the thing is just wicked. It's the R/T so it has the 5.7L HEMI. Just sweet. I told Hannah if I'm getting the Magnum that I've wanted since they came out in 2005 it was all or nothing. Hence the HEMI. It also has heated leather seats and came with the Boston Acoustics stereo. The (6) speakers are already running off of an amp. But of course I want a little more bass so I picked this up.

I don't have all the stuff I need to hook that sub up in my car yet so I put it in Hannah's Scion to test it. That thing is obnoxious! I can't wait for our tax return because I think Hannah needs one in there permanently. It's like DJ's old stereo where you can feel the hair on top of your head vibrating. I think I smell a road trip in the near future. We've never been to Austin.

Ha Ha, just messing with you. DJ and Justin sound like they are interested in seeing the ride and doing me the favor of installing that sub so I may take them up on the offer. My only concern is if I'm ready for that 6 hour drive. But it'd be nice to let someone else mess with crawling around in there running wires and installing switches. And if I'm gonna take that drive I might as well do it in a 5.7L HEMI with heated leather seats. I'm just sayin'.

Speaking of my hip Physical Therapy is going as well as I can hope for. They have me use a cane while I am there but I am still on a crutch when I'm not there. I notice I'm a little wobbly on the cane. At first I thought it was because I couldn't steady it with my armpit like the crutch but I think it may be the weight of it. They had me on Bariatric crutches (the therapist kept saying it so I had to look it up) and they've gotta weigh about 20 pounds. A piece. Okay, a little exaggeration but them bad boys are heavy. "Same stuff they use in the space shuttle." Then they hand me this 5oz aluminum stick and expect me to walk with it.

But they have me stepping up and down, using a leg machine, walking in between parallel bars, marching in place, and a bunch of stretches. My favorite seems to be the exercise bike. It's a nice 8 minutes of zoning out and pedaling. And it seems to stretch the muscles pretty well.

Speaking of my car, I was doing my step up exercises at Physical Therapy and I guess I was smiling. One of the therapists asked why I was smiling and I told her "Because I can see my new car from here.". And we all had a good chuckle.

After I test drove the car I can tell I was way too excited thinking about it. When I was on the phone with the bank someone knocked on my office door. After I got off the phone I went to see who had knocked and forgot all about the crutch. Just got up and walked towards the door like Jesus had healed me. I say "towards the door" because it only took one step on the bad leg to realize I'm not quite ready to walk yet.

Frustrating or not I do see improvement. I can't say every day it feels better but when I look back at the week before I do notice the progress. Unfortunately I'm impatient. :)

I overanalyze.

I've been seeing a commercial for U-Verse lately and I have a problem with it. It's this commercial here with the cartoon movie theater food in case you haven't seen it.

So basically the food follows a guy to his seat at the DMV so they can watch TV from his phone. No biggie. Although without headphones I'm sure this guy would eventually be told to turn it down or off. After a few seconds they follow a lady walking past them, to the bus stop so they can watch Daytime Drama on her laptop.

Here's where the problem comes in. If she was just at the DMV, why is she heading to the bus stop? Did she have a warrant or maybe a couple of attachments that would not allow her to renew her license? Or was she just getting her State ID renewed?

Here's an idea. How about spend less money on the gadgets and U-Verse subscriptions, and buy yourself a car.

Not trying to be a jerk but lets get some priorities in order and maybe we can drive our own selves to work. I'm just saying!

I just love the snapshots during the credits.

***Let's get physical...

(After putting some thought into it, I edited out the stuff leading to the accident. I didn't enjoy it while it was happening, so I can only assume you don't want to read about it.)

Time slowed down to a crawl and about half way through the roll I thought I was done. That's when I tried to get back up and realized I was still rolling. (I believe this is where the break occurred.) The original plan was to jump up and get on the bike and take off before the cops showed up with my ticket. That's all that was on my mind.

As I tried to get up I realized I must have popped my leg out of the socket. (Still thinking positive.) After the worst ambulance ride ever (I think the driver thought he was at "Camp Jeep") I arrived at the hospital. 7:00 PM on a Wednesday night. No food or drink for me, I may go in any minute for surgery. At about 4:30 AM they brought me from the ER to my room. I was going into surgery around 8:00 AM so no food or drink for me. Around 4:00 PM Thursday I went in for surgery. They put the mask over my nose and after a few seconds I looked up at the guy sitting next to me. He said "Oh, you're awake." and took me back to my room. Where did the time go? Why didn't they tell me to count down from 10 so they could laugh when I didn't make it to 9? Definitely not what I was expecting.

The scar is maybe 2 inches long but it looks gross. I don't really care for it. Physical Therapy is actually not bad. I've gone 3 times a week for about 3 weeks now. My home routine they gave me seems like a lot more stretching, whereas the actual therapy at the hospital seems to be more about working with resistance. They tell me what to do, but I still do a little extra. I have already made the decision that I want to walk normal again. And I think most of the exercises are for little old ladies with hip replacements. And I also realized if I can do more without it hurting, I might as well go for it.

I've had a different therapist each time I've gone in. Which seems to be good because they all seem to go about it a different way. I have the feeling the one last Friday thought I was cute because she kept trying to make sure I was comfortable. And when I would tell her I'm fine she'd still stuff pillows under my knees. I believe she said "If I can't make you more comfortable, I don't feel like I'm doing my job.". Either way I didn't feel I was "pushed" quite as hard as I have been in some sessions.

Monday morning was a different story. With family and the holidays, i didn't really get my home exercises done properly Saturday and Sunday. So of course Monday they decided it was time to use thicker tension straps, and to strap weights to my ankle. Needless to say, I felt it when I got home. But it was a good thing.

I toughed it out and went to work today. It really wasn't bad, but I had to fight the urge of feeling overwhelmed. I haven't been in the office in a month so a few things had gotten backed up. Everyone went out of their way to help me with anything they could. It was a nice feeling. I think I could have made it through the day, but after being off work for that long, all I wanted to do all afternoon was be home with Hannah. So I left an hour early. I figured if I was going to milk it, i might as well do it the first day. If I worked a full day all week, then left early on Friday, someone may catch on.

Quite a few people came by to visit, and most were pretty shocked that I was walking around already (although it was on crutches). I guess it's typical at any workplace. If you're not there to tell the story, by the time you arrive it's blown up. I believe by the time I got there I was hit head on by a train which jumped the track and slid us both off a cliff, landed on top of me, and exploded on impact. Wait, I think that's exactly what happened. My memory is kind of fuzzy.

Okay, it's not really fuzzy. I was totally geared up and don't have a scratch on me. That, and I didn't hit the ground until I was already in the dirt. The main thing I've taken away from this is not to break any more bones. It's embarrassing, takes twice as long to get anywhere on crutches, and every day you think about how you can't wait until you can walk again. But all in all I think I got off light. It could have been a lot worse. Sorry to scare you all.

And for the record, no matter how bummed out you may get, $300 worth of Fireworks will put a smile on your face.

***Olivia Newton John, but I was thinking more of the Revolting Cocks version which is pretty much NSFW. REVCO for the win!