Dangers of an Idle Mind

As I described in 2 Green Dots and 28 Green Bars my car has a little green clock. Well those cunning South Korean Hyundai engineers also put in a calendar. On the 12th of March my wife and I were driving back from dinner and she happened to notice the date that was being displayed on the calendar. Seems the Hyundai engineers may have missed something … Feb 29 + 12 = 41 so at least it is right! <Enter stunningly witty and clever tagline here> Bazza

When I first told my eldest son about Speedy and Sparky, the Chipmunks who live on the grass bank outside my kitchen, he said I should be careful as all Chipmunks are evil (the cuteness is just a cover) and they are all plotting to take over the world. The then 12 year old said that Chipmunk's borrows are full clever machines and computers with lots of flashing lights, some of those tape reel things that go round for no reason. I thought he was joking until recently. Three weeks ago I wrote about not having seen either Speedy or Sparky all winter in 'Missing Speedy and Sparky' . I surmised it was too cold and harsh for them and I even expressed concern about whether they had enough food. Just after the posting one of those machines, deep below the muddy grass bank, must have whirred into life. Speedy wobbles up to the screen and reads a blog in increasing rage: 'Too harsh? Not enough food?" He screams in a Chipmunk, "I'll show the humans!" He waits hi...

It might be illegal but this morning, using my phone, I snapped this shot of the three X-rays of my wife's ankle. The doctor wasn’t around at the time. The X-rays clearly show the plate and various screws needed to get her ankle back together again. In image one and two the plate and seven screws holding together the fibula are obvious. Apparently the damage was somewhat greater than the original X-ray showed and so a further screw had to be added between screws 3 & 4 of the plate (counting from the top). That screw is holding the bone together horizontally. Lastly, all of the images show the two large screws keeping the pieces of the tibia together. This all stays in place forever now - so wish us luck when we next get to go through an airport. <Enter stunningly witty and clever tagline here> Bazza

The ankle is a joint where the foot meets the leg. It consists of the bones of the leg - the fibula and its larger neighbour the tibia - and the top foot bone part called the talus. The fibula and tibia run between the knee and the ankle. If you were to cause a fracture to the one of these bones anywhere from the knee to about three quarters down, you would be considered as having broken a leg. If the break, in either or both of these fine bones, happens in the general area of the top of the foot then you have broken your ankle. To break either the fibula or tibia is bad, to break both is worse. This is a picture of a clearly broken fibula and, less obviously broken tibia (it is two images of the same foot). The bones in the X-ray belong to my wife and that is why I now know more about the bone structure of the lower extremities than I did last Friday morning. Those same bones are also the reason I did not post a blog last week. We were attending the wedding of some good friends out at...

This morning I sat by the big kitchen window half heartedly picking at a crossword, eating breakfast and looking out at the large grassy bank that runs down to the road. The bank (like so many US banks) is in a poor state. The locals tell me the snow was early this year, then it froze and there have been two or three very heavy rain storms inbewteen it all; so the the bank has taken on a a worn, muddy, threadbare look. As I gazed out the morning frost was being erased by the bright wintry sun and there was a small grey/blue bird perched on the brittle black twigs of a bush but no other sign of life. I felt like a sailor’s spouse who is constantly drawn to the oceans edge, hopelessly scanning the horizon but knowing it will be weeks before they do catch sight of what they need most. Last time I saw Speedy and Sparky was towards the end of October. Activity on the grass bank had increased to manic proportions. They seemed to have thrown off the debilitating cloak of caution and could be...

My car has a little Green digital clock. My wife’s car has also got a little green digital clock. Both the clocks in both our cars are simple four digit displays and both of our clocks in both of our cars have an additional little green dot to indicate whether is am or pm. So what? I hear you ask. Well it occurred to me some time ago that while I did spend a lot of my years, prior to this year, whooping it up, partying and carrying on etc., I don't think I ever looked at a clock that showed four O'clock and thought to myself "Wait! Is it four in the morning or four in the afternoon?” More to the point, anyone so confused as to not know whether it is eight O'clock in the evening or eight O'clock in the morning probably shouldn't be driving a car. <Enter stunningly witty and clever tagline here> Bazza

We have dog years (about 7 human years), we have cat years (about 5.5 human years) and now we have Connecticut years (5 Connecticut years equals 100 human years) I’ll explain. About a month after we arrived in Connecticut a huge storm, referred to as a Nor’easter , swept through. With it came 12 hours of incredibly heavy rain. The intensity of the rain was equivalent to the short sharp tropical downbursts that happen in Florida but whereas they typically last an hour this lasted half a day and was pretty cold too. The local rivers all flooded and there was a great concern over the high tide, which coincided with the storms height as well. When all was over many, many properties were damaged or flooded and lakes existed where previously there had just been meadows. Luckily we escaped without any bad things happening to our house and we were greatly relieved, when walking around the housing complex we live in, to notice no significant ill effects for anyone (even Speedy and Sparky surv...