Goals

I've really started noticing the improvements I've been making in my recovery since December. I have a follow-up scheduled with my physiotherapist in about two weeks, which is three months from the last time I saw her. She's going to be impressed.

There are many things I want to do right now but just can't because of my condition. I thought I'd make a list with some realistic timelines.

• I've already started swimming.
• I should be able to do some bicycling this summer on relatively flat terrain, like the Stanley Park seawall.
• I may be able to start some ice skating at the end of this year.
• Inline skating will probably have to wait until summer 2008.
• I don't think I'll be able to do ice hockey until the winter of 2008/2009.
• Dodgeball and aikido will also have to wait at least another year to early 2008 at the soonest.

Photo Gallery

I started playing with Picasa and discovered how easy it is to use compared to creating Photoshop albums and FTPing them to my web site. I've moved all my photos to Picassa, and I will start posting older photos from the past as time permits.

One year

Today marks one year since my first symptom of what I've been going through.

I was at SFU, running down the sidewalk to get to the transportation centre to catch the bus back home. My legs gave on me, and I went down on my knees.

Love Songs

In twenty years, night-time infomercials will be advertising Akon's Smack That a love song of the 2000s, along with others such as 50 Cent's Just a Lil Bit and the Pussycat Dolls' Don't Cha.

45

I'm now up to 11 minutes on the stairclimber, and at a higher resistance than when I was first able to use it back in December. I have no idea what the unit of measure is, but it varies between zero and 100 with a default of 15. My setting is now 25.

Ascending stairs in general has also become much easier, and I can get up less steep stairs without someone helping. At this rate, I think within 3-4 months I may be able to ascend stairs without putting any weight on a crutch, using it just for balance.

People Watching

I went out for dinner last night with my family to a Mexican restaurant. Near the end of dinner, a couple was seated at the table next to us, in my line of site. They must have just met. I could see by the lines under the guy's eyes that he was older, perhaps in his early thirties. He was freshly shaven, his hair was styled without a hair out of place, and he was wearing a polo shirt that looked like it had just been ironed. It was quite obvious that he put a lot of time and preparation into his appearance. The girl had a Thandie Newton kind of look. For about the first 30 seconds after being seated, they seemed to be having a good conversation, and then it just ended. He started looking out the window; she crossed her legs and faced her body away from him and out toward the side of the table. It looked very awkward. They must both have been thinking, "when's that food going to arrive?"

I left before their food was brought out, but it would have been interesting to see if he grabbed the bill at the end or if he split it with her.