Send in the Clowns...

I woke up with the alarm (set to 6:30 AM) on Tuesday. I got dressed in my work clothes and assembled the garbage. I took two bags and some cardboard out to the road in the frosty air.

Back inside, I shaved and showered and got ready for therapy. It took a little longer than I thought to post the Blog (while drinking some coffee) so I had to race to PT. I got there two minutes late.

Maureen checked me out. She mentioned Dr. Pop's suggestion that I have bursitis in my hip that is shooting down my leg. I told her my hip has NEVER hurt, it's just my damn thigh bone.

She said, "Well, I think it's your back!" So, she had me turn around and started rubbing her thumbs on the small of my back. YEOUCH! She said I had a huge knot on the right side at the base of my spine (and, believe me, when she pressed on it, I felt it!) Then she put her hands on my hip bones and had me bend over a few times. She said my right hip bone was significantly higher than my left and when I bend over, my left hip moves much sooner than my right.

We tossed that idea around for a bit. It could be my left leg is shorter than my right from the initial injury and the two knee replacements (my theory) or that I started to walk funny when I had to give up my cane (her theory and probably right, as I never had this damn pain before).

So, first and foremost, came a heating pack. She wired me up and used interferential current around the area as I laid down and let the heat soak in. Afterwards, she showed me some exercises I could do at work and the session was over. Since nobody was using it, she let me do the few shoulder exercises on the big machine that I cannot duplicate at home. I stopped at the front desk (they asked me to) and found that, under our company's new insurance, I now have to pay a co-pay on each therapy treatment (Gee, Merry Christmas to you too, Mr. Scrooge!) Then I headed home.

I did stop at Westborn and picked up a loaf of French bread, two big tomatoes and some lettuce.

Back home, I treated the cats and took a call from Jeremy. I cleaned up the kitchen from last night's dinner and mostly putzed around (I'm not supposed to over-do it today). I had the rest of the Spaghetti alla Carbonara for lunch. I took an hour nap in the afternoon (first time in a long time). When I went out to get the mail, I did coil up some extension cords and hung up the step ladder and my bike (I've given up on cleaning those other gutters this year).

I was checking out the TV schedule for tonight when I came across "Sinatra at Carnegie Hall" (from 1980) on the PBS station at 8:00 PM. So, I made my dinner and then settled in for an hour and a half of my kind of music.

I sliced up some of the French bread and toasted it. I should give a shout out to "Breadsmith," a local Livonia bakery who makes this and many others of my favorite artesian breads I buy at Westborn.

I sliced a tomato, stripped off some of the lettuce leaves and heated two strips of thick-sliced bacon in the microwave (I like warm bacon on my BLTs). I added some mayo, assembled the ingredients (salting as I went), cut the sandwich diagonally and went in to watch the show.

A few observations: I loved it when someone handed him a Jack Daniels and he lit a cigarette before singing the next song (smoking it throughout the song). It reminded me of the old Dean Martin TV show, where he drank and smoked while performing. God, I miss those politically incorrect times!

And, I think it was his phrasing and timing that made him great, not necessarily his voice. They did say he was the only singer ever to have an album in the top ten for seven decades!

Also, for some reason, I kept thinking of my old neighbor, now deceased, John Plesz. He played sax and did a lot of those old tunes.

Finally, I thought Sinatra's rendition of "Send in the Clowns" was damn near perfect! I actually clapped at the end (scaring the crap out of Scruffy!)

Finally, since it was PBS, I had time during one of their pitches for donations to make another BLT! Nice!!

Speaking of pitches, am I the only one who's bothered that Wikepedia is now soliciting donations? WTF?

I went to bed at 10:30 PM. When I woke up a midnight for a bathroom break I was amazed when I looked outside. Other than deep under the trees, my entire lawn was covered with white snow!