Why I bother

Six o'clock, my dog followed me to the front door, hopeful of an early walk. No such luck. I raced off to the gym and got in an hour workout on the bicycle and leg weights. Sweaty as a 14 year old on his first date, I zoomed home in my still warm car.

The dog was in luck. I think he had just gotten back to sleep when I walked in, snapped on his collar, and jogged him out the door. I had him walked and filled with treats before the clock struck eight.
I jumped on the computer and did some writing before whipping up some waffles to wake the kids up with. Despite calls for my head due to a lack of whipped cream, the army was fed and ready to march. I washed the dishes and vacuumed the house.

My water heater broke on Friday night and I am without hot water until Monday when my plumber will replace the heater. Therefore, I cringed and gasped through a 65 degree shower. I actually felt better afterwards, like I, the world's feeblest public speaker, had just given a speech and was greeted with slaps on back.

After that, I worked with the kids on their homework, put some things away in the garage, folded clothes and scrubbed the walls. The obnoxious "have to" part of my day was over. The job of being a homeowner and father gave way to the leisure of a Sunday afternoon with nothing to do.

By 12:30, all I had to do was heat up some bean dip, microwave some chips and cheese, and settle in for the Laker game. I am all about simple pleasures, and the Lakers at playoff time is one of the most satisfying. With Kobe going for 31, Bynum rocking a mind-blowing triple-double, and no sign of a Peace induced brawl breaking out, it was great.

Here's to the Lakers and being together many more Sunday afternoons through June.

Hesitant, but Off and Running with Glucosamine

All right! My shipment MRM Glucosamine/Chondroitin arrived yesterday. There was no problem with the safety seal this time (I had to send the last bottle back because the seal wasn't secured), so I was ready to begin my cartilage and synovial fluid replenishment.

Having a strong aversion to medication and supplements, I was initially very hesitant. I don't get the feeling that most people can relate to this feeling. Most people who I have talked to have related their experiences with vitamins and supplements that they use for health and beauty. I get the feeling that medicine cabinets are more like giant medicine pantries filled with the ingredients that, if added and sprinkled properly, will make the dish of your body into a perfectly flavored entree.

For me, though, I had always been the plain dish. Meat and potatoes. I never looked down on others who took vitamins and supplements, I just felt they were fighting a battle against Father Time, which I wasn't interested in doing. Furthermore, I thought pills were unnecessary if you ate right and exercised. Many people want the psychological edge/confidence that supplements, energy drinks, and other products give, but I never needed it.

This knee problem, though, had me flustered. I hate the thought of my body not being able to run properly without some medication. When I tore my ACL about 12 years ago, I had it replaced, got cortisone injections and rehabbed everyday. No medicine required. But the commitment I have here means that I will have to take Glucosamine for years. That was the toughest pill to swallow, knowing that this was the best option for being able to continue competing at sports. As I am sure many have said before me, I told myself, "Such is life," and hoped for the best.

Although the Arthritis & Glucosamine Center say there is no chance of overdosing from this product even if taking "many times the daily dose," I decided I would break the manufacturer's recommended three pills a day into dosages of two in the evening and one in the morning. The LiveStrong site advises that people should take the pills three times a day, but I would rather take them all at home rather than bring one to work and risk forgetting to take it or having it splatter in my bag.

The reason I started with two in the evening is because I believe that your body does most of its rejuvenating at night, when you're asleep. It seems logical that if I am trying to build up cartilage in my knee, I should do it when I am only using the joint for rubbing my feet together. If there is any factual evidence on whether this is true, I would love to know, but I did not come across any research into this.

So I have started my treatment. At present, I can walk up and down stairs with very minor pain. I can sit on a regular chair with minor pain. I can not sit on a low chair without strong pain. I can lift my foot high enough for my hand to grab it when stretching my quads, but straightening my leg from that position is very painful.

I will report back in two weeks. I hope to see some measurable improvement in those areas, although I realize it will take much more time to re-build what has taken me 43 years to wear down. With the timeline I create, others can get an idea of what their progress might be taking Glucosamine/Chondroitin supplements. Wish me luck!



http://www.glucosamine-arthritis.org/glucosamine/glucosamine-side-effects.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/205738-what-are-the-benefits-of-chondroitin-glucosamine-msm/

A Gluc Setback: What would you do?

Right on schedule, I received my shipment of Glucosamine from Amazon yesterday.

I had asked some questions at my local natural foods store, done some research and decided on the MRM brand of Glucosamine/Chondroitin. I wanted the Gluc Sulfate, as recommended by the Mayo Clinic tests and the chondroitin manufactured from shellfish and the MRM brand fit the description. In addition, my fountain of information clerk at the natural foods store had good things to say about MRM (as well as  one other brand), with processing of the supplement ingredients, reputation, and customer trends being the main points I keyed in on.

That same day I ordered the supplements on Amazon (at $9 cheaper than the store). Unfortunately, as I was getting ready to take my first plunge into the unspoiled body pool, I twisted open the cap and down floated the safety seal. It was a big white, decomposing moth floating on the surface of my pool. Excited as I was, I couldn't go in the water thinking that the pills I would be taking might be filled with sugar, salt, or some other ballast.

I wonder if I am being too cautious, but I figure that I can wait a few more days. I also wonder how many other people have had this type of experience from online distributors, not being sure if what you received was the real supplement or actually was not what you ordered. My wife says it happens all the time and that was one of the reasons I ordered from Amazon. I thought they would be foolproof.

I have to push back the start date, but I must commend Amazon on their return policy. While I am sending back the compromised bottle tomorrow, they will be sending me a replacement (which is set to arrive on the 27th). In a vision of the perfect exchange program for consumers, the return and the replacement may arrive with simultaneous, across-country doorbells. Pretty cool.

Therefore, my less than perfect knee will have to wait another two days before it takes the rest of its body on this adventure. Let the countdown begin....again.

The Glucosamine Experiment

Middle aged. In good shape. Keeping up on the court with the young guys at age 41. Invincible. Old man time, meet the new generation.

Playing tag with my kids. At he boundary I juke right, cut left. Instead of smoothly slipping away, though, my foot slips on the slick cement and my kneecap hits flush on the surface with much of my body weight and all the power I had pushed off with. Nothing broken, but my leg is a rubber band for the next 15 minutes. Seasoned veteran, I ice it for the next few days.

Although the leg feels good, I can't bend my knee without pain. There is still power in the joint, but the pain steals a lot of it. Even after a month, I grab the rail going down stairs and wince when I go up them. (In one comical event, I try to stretch my quads by pulling my foot up and end up doing a poor imitation of a medicine man dance. This happens because my right side cramps up from the combination of the effort of raising my foot back and up as far as I can and trying to reach down and back to grab my foot.)

I see my doctor. She tells me there's nothing I can do, it is just something I'll have to deal with, but also that I can try this supplement called glucosamine. It works for some people but not for others. I ask her if I'll have to take it my whole life if it does work. "Probably." Since I refuse to take anything that I will have to rely on for more than a week, I ask her about surgery. She says she can refer me to the orthopedist and they will recommend surgery "because that is what they do." We share a sarcastic sense of humor and we both laugh.

So I feel stuck with these options. Nagging pain when I bend my leg or glucosamine and possible, not guaranteed, salvation with the downside of a lifetime commitment. But I am not without hope. I work out on the exercise bike, the elliptical, and strengthen my leg. It feels better. Not great, but very bearable.

The middle aged athlete's problem. The heart vs. the mind. I know I can stay this way and be fine. I can't sit in a crouch and start a campfire, but I can do most everything else. But I can't be satisfied. From talking to my friends, it seems that most of us need that one life-changing injury that puts us on the straight and narrow, puts family before fun or career before competition. And apparently that wasn't my wake up call. My heart still wants to compete.

I played basketball for the first time in about 7 months on Monday. It was great. Ear to ear smile up and down the court. A little pain afterwards, but nothing a day of rest couldn't cure. I know I can go three-quarter speed and hold my own in tennis, hoops or softball, but when the game gets close, I worry that I'll overcompensate because of the pain.

And that is why we are at the threshold of the great glucosamine experiment. I am able to continue without it, but I feel I have to give it a try. I did some research on the supplement and it seems that glucosamine works best in its sulfate form, taken with chondroitin. The information about its effectiveness, dosage, etc... was on the Mayo Clinic's website:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/glucosamine/NS_patient-glucosamine/DSECTION=evidence

I also found contradictory testimonies which said that glucosamine gives no measurable relief at:
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/glucosamine.html

Deciding that I would trust the Mayo Clinic and my own doctor's observation that it works for some, I am going to follow the Mayo Clinic guidelines and start taking it today. By this time next week, I hope to report that I am pain free. Invincible I am no more. But I hope to show that, as Ulysses said, "age hath yet his honor."

Getting Rid of the "D" Grade

Finally, the Los Angeles Unified School District is considering doing away with the "D" grade. Probably due to our inexplicabe love for draconian customs, it has lasted far too long. It should have been run out of our school systems long ago.

Your average apathetic student only wants to do the minimum to graduate, and the "D" grade assures them that they can be "below average" (which is the explanation given for what a "D" represents) to do so. While this does have some relevance to the real world, such as in jobs that are protected where workers are able to get by with doing the minimum work required, in diy projects your spouse wants you to do but you have little interest in, or in bachelor cooking/health maintenance, it is not a recipe for a society's success.

Schools are telling kids that below average is good enough. The places where students are expected to learn coddles them with lowered expectations. Furthermore, their parents are often relieved that their children are passing, not caring that they are doing so at a hopelessly low level. It is not a great mental leap to think that students with "below average" but passing grades are going to be below average workers who take away from productivity and are the foundation of a below average society.

If the best we can expect from many of our students is to just do enough to get their diploma, accompanied by a warm feeling of accomplishment, make them at least earn it with a "C," a grade that says they are "average." To do otherwise is to admit that we care more about a student's promotion than production. In a system that has been more prone to disgrace than earning respect, disposing of the "D" grade would be a good start to showing the public that LAUSD has faith in student success.

A trip up the coast to Santa Barbara

The word Santa Barbara brings visions of beautiful beaches, great shopping and a fine lifestyle. Visiting there last weekend showed me that the city hates to disappoint.

To start with, I visited the Santa Barbara website.
http://www.santabarbaraca.com/things-to-do/calendar-of-events/ 

I decided to check out the waterfront first. Although it was a blustery Saturday, people were out enjoying the morning on bikes, roller-blades, and any other form of people mover when I arrived. The artistry on display at the art flea market was as fun as the weekenders who were selling their pieces.

The attitude was so relaxed and easy I felt bad heading over to Stearn's Wharf. This is an old wooden pier with shops and restaurants. It not only takes you out over the ocean, it gives you a magnificent view of the harbor. I had a nice slice of grilled halibut as I watched surfers ride the long jetty break and yachts glide out into open water.

With an entire afternoon still available, I headed to Solvang, just 30 minutes up the highway into the mountains. Solvang is a city with a Danish theme. They have antique, gift and art shops that are truly worth the drive. It was dog friendly, so it was an extra bonus having furry friends wagging their tails in shops.

The food there is also Danish/Euro themed and it is pretty good. What really set the standard were the desserts. There were bread shops that had mouthwatering pastries. The cookies and chocolate shops had samples that almost brought me to tears. After my dinner, I had an apple strudel that will be the measure of all other fruit dishes for as long as I live.

Apparently, there are many wineries in those mountains, and I have every intention of visiting each one next time I visit there. I'll also see those art exhibits Santa Barbara has to offer or the wonders of State Street. I had no regrets about how I spent my day there. I'll be back again soon!

Bubble Gum Boy- A children's story

These are the first pages of a story I wrote. It is called Bubble Gum Boy. I read a story called Skippy John Jones to my kids and loved the rhyming dialogue. I used that style and created the story after visiting a Skechers shoe store.

School was starting in 3 days.  Edgar P. Coe and his dad headed for

Maxwell's Shoe Store to get some new treads.  Starting the school

year, E.C. wanted to look his best.

Maxwell's Shoe Store was the place to find the best.

It is a marvel.  Mr. Max, the owner, loves his shoes.

He has Spring Shoes for springing, Moon Shoes for moonwalking and

Flip-Flops for flopping.

They even grill your name onto the sole of your shoe so you can

stomp your name in the sand.

But Edgar never got that far.  Not to the moonshoes and not to the

griller.

You see...right at the entrance, next to the door at Maxwell's is a

gumball machine.  It is shiny and has a crazy corkscrew gumball slide.

Best of all, it's free!

Edgar asked his dad if he could have some.

"Dad, I do know

That fine shoes await,

    But having some gumballs 

 Sure would be great."

His Dad replied, "Edgar, my boy, 

A gumball or two,

    Are yours for the chewing, 

 I'll be in "moon shoes."

Cycle of Street Violence

In the cycle of modern life, it seems that most things do not disappear.  They are merely shelved for a spell.  A comical example might be bell bottoms, which seemed to have met their swishy end in the early 70's only to make a comeback around 2000.  A strange example would be cars with a rounded shape which started with the Porsches and Volkswagons of the 50's and 60's and made their return in the late 90's in the new Bug and PT Cruiser.  A wonderful example is the pleasant cashier, who seemed to have disappeared from large chain stores for a decade or so, only to return and take the fear out of shoppers' eyes.

What concerns me now is that the economy is bad and people are suffering.  So far, it had seemed that people had been keeping themselves on the positive side, but the dam was holding too much boiling water.  One thing I recently see more often on the streets are people getting more flustered in their cars and willing to lay on the horn or flip the bird.  Another is people losing it in the check out line at stores.

The main concern I have is with crime, though.  With our consumer culture and my memory of the freewheeling, gotta get that money, 80's, I feel that street violence is going to come back in fashion.  Young people's frustration with the lack of opportunity will lead to more drive-by's, accosting of common citizens, and the return of the car-jack.

I agree that the police have done a wonderful job of keeping the streets more protected.  Their use of high street presence and overwhelming response are very effective.  I wonder that some of that effectiveness, though, has been a concentrated effort on the part of the people to be more civil to one another and teach their children the same.  I would also attribute some of it to a better economy and more opportunity.

With the country collectively holding its breath for the past 4 years as unemployment has hovered around 10%, I feel the cycle of street violence's time is coming.  Be warned, keep your composure, and be safe out there.

On Vin Scully Missing Opening Days 1 & 2

As another Dodger game goes by without the comforting sound of Vin Scully's voice, I feel the unease of a mother with a child in a war zone.  I do not know if I will hear it again.  Scully's words are local lore, and even in Monday's paper there was a quote, as if funneled through a sports lover's wormhole, about Sandy Koufax's 9/9/65 no hitter:

"On the scoreboard in right field it is 9:46 p.m. in the City of the Angels, Los Angeles, California. And a crowd of twenty-nine  thousand one-hundred thirty nine just sitting in to see the only pitcher in baseball history to hurl four no-hit, no-run games.  He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter he made it a perfect game. And Sandy Koufax,  whose name will always remind you of strikeouts, did it with a flurry. He struck out the last six consecutive batters. So when  he wrote his name in capital letters in the record books, that `K' stands out even more than the O-U-F-A-X." Poetry. Thanks to my daughter, who was a Jr. Dodger announcer, I had the privilege of meeting Vin twice.  The first time I had wanted to tell him about the time when I lived in Japan and was giggling like a maniac on a train at his commentary of Game 7 between Toronto and I don't even remember who.  What I soon realized was that every parent and a lot of kids each had their piece of Dodger lore to thank him for.  Not because he did anything on the field, but because he poured the wine of the field into our glasses and brought out all of its flavors with his love of each vine and vintage.  I passed on trying him with another "I remember when..." story.  I said I was glad to meet him and let him lead my daughter to the press cafeteria where they ate Dodger Dogs together.  He was as down to earth as a pair of suspenders and my daughter was momentarily fooled into thinking that all adults are given the gift of eloquence when talking to a 9 year old. The second time my daughter called a game for the Jr. Dodgers was the final day of the British Open and Tom Watson was leading.  I walked into Vin's press box and he was watching it with 3 other staff members. Vin was spinning golden yarn about his own round at St. Andrews while waiting between players' shots.  I foolishly broke the spell by commenting on a Watson shot from a previous Open and was deservedly ushered out by one his assistants. For all of you people who look down on those who adore sports icons, here is what you have been waiting to hear and loathe: I don't regret a moment of it. It was a brush with eloquence and grace that I treasure to this day. There is more I wish I had said, but, like many moments in life, I was glad to just be there. As the calendar turns and tomorrow is the last game of this home stand, I look forward to hearing Vin back at his post.  I know the tree does not have many leaves left on it, but I will enjoy its color and majesty until winter finally strips it bare.  With the chill in the air and the brightly colored leaves growing fewer, I know that I appreciate each call more and await the warmth of Vin's return.  As I watch each leaf fall, I see more and more each vein and drop of color. Such is the magic of master craftsmen that, while we soon tire of other people's work, theirs makes us stare and study. We look closely at each leaf after we have made a pile and jumped, laughing into it. Tomorrow, if all is right with the world, I will take a long walk through spring gardens and when I get home, I will hear Vin and wonder that I ever thought winter would come at all.

An "A" for Customer Service at Apple

Inexplicably, the "A" key on my laptop left its comfy housing yesterday and stayed stuck to my finger for a split second before falling onto the numbers row of my keyboard.  Although my Space bar had stopped working on a previous Mac, this is the first time I had anything like a key dislodging itself happen to me.  My keyboard was a perfect surface with a gaping hole, a baseball field with an open grave between first and second.  It was disconcerting.

Further, it was impossible to replace the piece because it looked as if some tiny plastic latches had broken off. All that was in the open square was a tiny, and rather pleasant feeling, rubber nub that I had to press to make an "A."

I went to the Apple store yesterday filled with uncertainty.  I was sure I was going to get taken to the cleaners.  When my aforementioned Space bar gave up its ghost, I had to buy a whole new keyboard and my imagination was thinking how much worse this would be for a laptop.

It had been over a year since I had been to the store and I was surprised to find that now there is a concierge/matre d at the door and what seemed to be the same number of staff as the rest of the entire mall combined working there.  A beehive serving its fruit queen by zooming to get people's questions answered quickly.  It was a very cool experience and brought a tear to the eye of this been kicked around by poor service customer.

Still, I was wary.  The guy who looked at the keyboard went in the back room and came back a few minutes later.  He said he couldn't find the piece, but he'd make me an appointment for later.  I went back to the store at my appointment time and was called within 4 minutes by a tech who sincerely apologized for making me wait and literally zoomed to find an "A." (more tears) She found one and replaced it.  As I held my breath, she informed me that it was free of charge.

Not only was I happy with the price, I was completely comforted in the thought that I had staked a winner.  Not just that I had trusted this company for a long time for my computer needs, but that it rose to the occasion for the service part as well.  When I talk to my parents about "the old days" they get nostalgic about the way stores used to SERVE customers and make them feel wanted.  As I walked away, I couldn't have agreed more.

Finding a Tutor

Have you had trouble finding a tutor for your child?  I have been through an exhaustive search for tutors and would like to pass on some tips.

My goal was to find a tutor to help my son get a high score on the CST/STAR Test so that he could secure a spot in the honors classes when he moves to middle school.  I have used workbooks to help him, but my time is limited and I did not feel we were progressing at a sufficient rate. It is very competitive in my area and students must score Advanced on the state test to get into the honors class, or else be put into the much more unruly and slow paced regular classes.

To find a tutor, I started by asking friends for recommendations. A few had tutors that came to their houses and some went to tutoring centers.

I visited the tutoring centers, but the cost of $50-70 per hour for one on one lessons put me off.  Despite there being centers that seemed more interested in my money than my son's future, there were some centers that had very good programs that included pre-lesson assessments and fully credentialed teachers who would have a lesson plan to show you for EVERY lesson.  If I had the money, I would have chosen those centers. As a high school teacher, I know a lot about the basics of education in California and a teacher that is able to build up a child's fundamentals while breaking down the questions on the test.  Unfortunately, they did not fit my budget.

My second option was through my network of friends, but it seemed that their good tutors were not unknown to the community.  They were all too busy now and by the time they had free time, the test season would be over.

I wanted to look at my nearby university job boards, but I have an inherent distrust of the patience of college students and their ability to break down complex materials to the level a child can understand.

Finally, I hit the internet.  It is no picnic looking for a tutor through the search engine.  I tried Tutor Doctor, Care.com, WyzAnt, and many others that popped up on Google.  I do recommend this method if you can't afford the tutoring centers.  The services basically act as the middle man to introducing you to tutors.  Besides telling you what the tutors are able to teach, there is a lot of background information and reviews from other people.  The prices for most tutors were reasonable and they come to your house.  To find a good tutor, follow these steps:
review their credentials,
read their introduction,
check the subjects they specialize in,
look at other customer's comments,
e-mail them to find out their availability, experience, and teaching methods,
also ask them how they follow-up, re-teach, and review materials,
set up a trial lesson (for half price, if possible)
if you like them, buy 3 lessons at a time,
get a progress review after the 3 lessons,
if your child is working hard with them (they don't HAVE to like the tutor) and the tutor is still working hard, continue the lessons,
if they are not working hard or your child is getting complacent, find a new tutor.

As to my story, after a few inquisitive e-mails and then meetings, I found a tutor who is the perfect match for  my son.  It took more leg-work than I thought it would, but I am very happy.

I hope you have as much good luck in your search!