Fargin' Gremlins!

Last night, on our way home from Joe M's, Mark mentioned to me that our desktop computer started acting up the day after I left. I haven't tried it yet, as we were out all day today, but the long and the short of it is that the thing won't boot.

Mark spent the past few days on the phone with Microsoft, hashing out the error messages, and it appears that we're having a problem with the hard disk.

Fortunately, we back up the machine regularly, but good luck reloading a backup onto a machine that won't boot.

Mark found an authorized SONY dealer that he'd like to bring the computer to. FWIW, my suggestion was that if we have to have the drive replaced, we should see about getting a larger drive this time.

Oh, and I plan to INSIST on getting the old drive back, if they have to replace the drive. I don't want the drive to be refurbed and resold with our info still detectable. That's not supposed to happen, but it does. I don't plan to have it happen to us.

Fargin' Gremlins.

In other news, the Cote Carnival to fight MS was this afternoon, and it was great. It was nice to wish a couple of our recently-traded guys well (RJ Umberger and Triston Grant). I also got to congratulate Chris Therien (former Flyer and TV studio analyst) on his new job as the Flyers' radio color guy, and Flyers coach John Stevens (former Phantoms player and coach) on his recent contract extension. I'd call it a productive day. :o)

Oh, and as a bonus, who was on hand but former Phantom Dave MacIsaac! That was a pleasant surprise. That man has a *phenomenal* memory -- he hasn't played here in a good 9 or 10 years, but he still remembers Mark and me. I got to congratulate him, too, as he recently retired from playing and will be the head coach of a team in Danbury this season.

And, of course, Riley Cote was there. We wound up talking about arthroscopic knee surgery, since he's had both knees done and I'll be having my own knee done in about ten days. I have a little better idea of what to expect. Unfortunately, the recuperation period might entail a bunch of aggravation, but then again, I have no shortage of aggravation NOW. So my hope is that post-surgery, the end result will at least lessen the aggravation, even if it doesn't remove it entirely.

On the other hand, Riley has had both knees scoped and he's not only able to play professional hockey at the NHL level, he's able to maintain about as physical of a style of play as there is. He'll hit anything that moves. I won't be asking anywhere near as much from of my knee as he asks of his. My theory is that if his TWO scoped knees can perform that well for him, my one scoped knee will be able to withstand the demands of my very ordinary daily life.

I actually took a look through my blog, and to my surprise, I didn't post the results of the orthopedist's visit yet. I mentioned them on my twitter feed (see the upper left hand corner of the blog page), but somehow I didn't add a blog post with the info. So here it is: I have a busy couple of weeks coming up. Besides my rescheduled jury duty on Tuesday, I also have some pre-op blood testing on Thursday. On the same day, I have an appointment with my primary care doc so he can fill out a medical clearance form saying I'm healthy enough for surgery.

This is all because on August 28, I'll have arthroscopic surgery on my knee. The orthopedist will either repair the damaged cartilage, if it's the part of the meniscus that has a blood supply, or remove the damaged cartilage if it's the part of the meniscus that has no blood supply (and therefore cannot be repaired or heal). It's not obvious from the MRI where exactly the damage is, but he'll be able to tell once he goes in with the arthroscope.

He'll also take a look at the cartilage that's on the back of the patella (kneecap). If that needs to be smoothed out, he'll do that as well, which will extend the amount of time I'll need physical therapy. Given the symptoms I'm dealing with -- the specific situations that cause pain and the collection of sound effects that accompany my knee's movements -- I suspect it's extremely likely that the back of the kneecap will need some treatment.

I can't say I'm looking forward to surgery, but I *am* looking forward to putting these constant, annoying-as-bleep symptoms in the past. The past few weeks have been a downright pain in the nether end.

I keep getting distracted by the gymnastics on TV. I'd better hit "send" on this post. If I'm posting with only half my attention, I'm afraid I'll end up writing gibberish. Good night!