• Breathing easier, for now

    We’ve officially shunned the ortho guy, and the surgery set for this week has been cancelled. Cheryl made the decision after speaking with one of the medical experts in the family, and a local neuro gal.

    The family connection is a neuro guy and not local. I’m not trying to be sexist, just a little cute… and I want to make sure you know I’m talking about two different people… in case you’re still reading.

    Most importantly, the new doctor has prescribed two drugs that have made an immediate improvement in Cheryl’s quality of life. Translation: she can sit up, stand, move around, and most encouraging: she can laugh. It’s a little chilly out on the front porch this evening, but saying that last phrase warmed me right up. Next up on the medical calendar of events is a “selective nerve root injection,” designed to ease the pain in the hope that everything will calm down enough for the disk to heal itself. (At least I think that’s the idea.)

    I’m just happy we’re not jumping straight into surgery and Cheryl’s feeling a little better.

    By the way, isn’t it cute the way I refer to what “we’re” doing?

  • State of mind

    I’m not afraid to admit I’m feeling a little tired right now. First there was the whole holiday that wasn’t, then there’s the first day back at work that feels depressingly like I never left.

    Someone please save me from myself!

    You know how when you’re tired or depressed and every other little setback feels like you’ve dropped off an emotional cliff? This morning I became one of those people that checks his email in the bathroom (pathetic enough all by itself), noticed I wasn’t getting a signal, and felt like crying.

    So what if I was surrounded by rebar and concrete, in the bowels of a government office… this is a fracking iPhone, for the love of Jobs!

    And if it doesn’t stop auto-capitalizing the first word after every stinking one of my il-conceived ellpsis, I’m going to go out of my freaking mind (that or do something completly irrational like turning off the auto-correct “feature”).

  • A warning to the uninitiated, or preaching to the chior

    Syncing my iPhone with two different macs produced disastrous results. It all may have worked out if I hadn’t cancelled the sync on my PowerBook prematurely (having originally done all the sync work on the iMac).

    Chalk number one up to the idiot user.

    The second issue is a serious failing on Apple’s part. NO syncing of tasks from iCal… and no native task organization tool on the iPhone AT ALL! There are plenty of free apps to do the job, many of which don’t sync with a remote server (which is unacceptable to me… I CAN’T lose my tasks). The “enterprise” folks (and no, Kirk ain’t walking through that door) surely have their bases covered with oodles of options to sync with Outlook and Exchange servers. In the mean time, Apple has frakked over the faithful with no support for one of their own apps. (Full disclosure: it syncs iCal calendars really well… just not the tasks, or “to-do” lists.)

    Third one may be a bit controversial (for all I know), but me love the landscape keyboard. It’s nice and wide for my fat fingers. It doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for screen above it, but hell, you only have the keyboard out when you’re entering text, then it disappears. The keyboard in portrait mode (which is the only option in most apps) is usable but frustrating… knowing there’s a landscape keyboard I love with all my heart and soul.

    Don’t get me wrong though. The time I haven’t been in physical contact with the new phone can be counted in minutes (and not very many of them).