It about time.  I am having a hard time trying to come to terms with the movement of time recently.  It’s been 2 1/2 weeks since I wacked my head on the pavement and sometimes it seems like it has been months and other times just a few days.  Closing upon 3 weeks isn’t a time frame that seems correct.

Last night I set a sleep record since the injury.  I slept for over 5 hours.  It took me taking a valium before going to bed.  I had been avoiding that.  I’m not big into medicine in lots of ways and adding more medicine to the regiment I’m already on doesn’t sit that great with me.  But I did sleep more than I have than the last week total, so I better just take it   All this being said, I feel miserable at the present moment.  I should be better within the next 30 minutes if today is the same as it has been.

It has been a great October temperature-wise.  Yesterday it was pretty cool, hardly into the 60’s, but today it is supposed to be back into the 80’s again.  Pretty weird weather when it is in the 80’s at the first of November.  I don’t go outside that much, so am kind of just soaking it up through all the windows in the house being open.  It feels great.

Trudi is from Chicago, so obviously pretty deep into the World Series.  I can’t watch TV for that long, so I just kind of watch an inning or two, then rest a bit, then watch again.  I don’t think the Cubs are going to win the World Series, but at least they get to play another game this week.   But it is baseball, which does have quirky results many times.

I’m trying to go see a neurologist at KU med sometime today, tomorrow or as soon as possible. I don’t have an appointment until Thursday, so Kansas City is my best chance of moving that up. I need to see a doctor, so hopefully it will work out.  Man, medicine is jacked up.

Just over a week until the presidential election.  I’m pretty much done with it.  As far as I’m concerned, our country has reached a new low for this, so the contentious selection isn’t really that surprising.  It is embarrassing on multiple levels.  It will get worse this week.  Crazy.

Halloween is one of those holidays I try to not think about too much.  When I was a kid, I loved it.  Nothing like getting a stock pile of free candy.  Now, our society has become so scared for our children it has really changed the make-up of the holiday.

I live is a pretty okay neighborhood in Topeka, but we don’t get many trick-or-treaters.  And everyone we do get, their parents are walking with them, usually waiting at the curb.  That wouldn’t have worked so well with me when I was a kid.  Most of the attraction of the night was exploring the surrounding neighborhood with friends, not parents.

I wish society would understand that we really do a pretty good job of looking out for all our children and in reality, we don’t poison kids on Halloween.  Halloween is really for kids, but we’ve become so continually concerned, we’ve ruined it on multiple levels.  We just don’t get it.

Okay, I’m past my time limit of computer time.  Wish me luck today on doctor’s visits.  I think I’m going to need it.  Like I said above, our medical system could use a lot of tender loving care that it’s not getting currently.

The guys at the BT Epic gave some of my local guys at t-shirt from last weekend. I missed doing that race. It is a super event. Next year.

I watched some of the London 6-day yesterday. It was pretty cool seeing my old team mate, Michael Vaartens drive the derny for Wiggins and Cavendish. They won that race, but lost the overall at the very end. I haven’t seen Michael for a long time. I need to fix that.

Tucker likes to rip up most of his toys. I gave him this frisbee yesterday. It is short for this world.

I guess if I was going to hit my head and be down for the count, then the middle of October would be as good of a month to do it as anytime during the year.  But now, nearly 3 weeks later, the progression of healing is going at a snail’s pace, if that, so I can’t be too thrilled about anything that is currently going on.

The last two nights I’ve slept close to 4 hours a night.  Pretty stellar increase in sleep time.  The only problem is that when I wake up, I’m pretty, like really, uncomfortable for at least an hour or more.  That is no matter what medication I take when I wake up.  It kind of makes the longer sleep session seem sort of questionable for improvement.

My doctor’s appointment deal yesterday was a bust.  The people at KU med needed pre-approval from my insurance to see me.  I told them that I had health insurance from two decades earlier and they pay everyone nearly everything they ask for.  They didn’t believe me.  So they called my insurance and my insurance told them that they weren’t in their system, so that they would pay them.  That is total bullshit.

My insurance agent ended up calling my insurance for me and eventually she was told that they would pay.  But by then, I had no appointment scheduled at KU med, so I have another week of my current situation before I can see a real neurologist.  I do have an eye appointment tomorrow and an appointment with a neurosurgeon on Thursday, but those appointments are going to be busts.  I can’t really see very well out of my right eye and I’m hoping I don’t need any neurosurgery, so that should just be a last appointment deal, I hope.  If not, I guess I’ll be checking back into a hospital, which doesn’t really matter as of now.  It isn’t like I’m doing much else that would interrupt.

My hands have been kind of tingling, numb, since I was released from the hospital.  I think, at least from what I have read, that I have a neck issue.  Probably a disc problem in the upper neck.  It doesn’t feel like it, but I’m sort of like a bobble head right now, so my neck could be a lot worse than it feels.  I’m hoping the neurologist is the right person to see for this too.  If not, just another week or two of bullshit scheduling.  LIke I posted before, our healthcare system needs a complete overall.  This is from someone that supposedly has pretty good health insurance.  Maybe not as good as I thought, though.

I’m going to the police station today and get the police report of the “accident”.  I saw that there were a lots of cops standing around when they were loading me into the ambulance, so I figured there must have been a report.  I’m interested in what it says.  My riding buddies didn’t have any interaction with the cops, so I’m guessing it is pretty basic.  Plus I signed up for an electronic medical record to try to get access to the CT scans and such.  Seems like it is hard to access too.  I don’t need it until next Monday now, so I have a few days to try to learn how to use it, which I’m sure it will take.

Okay, there a some cyclocross races to watch just about now.  I guess Trek is making the live streaming available to North America.  That is pretty nice of them.  I haven’t really been able to look at my computer for more than 15 minutes at a time, so maybe I’m not going to enjoy it nearly as much as I’m hoping.

These days are so long, going so slowly, that I’m so happy when I wake up in the morning, no matter whether it is 2 am or 5.  If I could just get a couple more hours sleep during the day, I’m thinking the whole process would be moving more closely to a speed I’d like.

Right now it is nearly the most frustrating injury I’ve ever had.  And I’ve had a ton of cycling related injuries over the years.  This has to change speed pretty soon.  Either that or I need to change my mindset.  Probably a little of both is going to be the end result.

Stacie sent me some gifts from Amazon yesterday.  Some audio books on tape and a full oil color painting set, with canvasses.  I’m not a very good artist.  I can be sometimes, like I get lucky, but in reality, I am not very good at drawing real life scenes.  Maybe that will change.  I need to try something new.  This is going a longer process than I’d ever imagined.

I guess I’m lucky in is only the first of November.  Rabbit, rabbit.

My new painting set. It’s isn’t paint by numbers. It might take a while to get this down. I think I have time.

I decided to carve a pumpkin when everyone went on the gravel night ride. It was a bit primitive.

I put it in the front window and only two trick or treaters showed up all night. That is an all time record low. I’ve lived here since I was in junior high. Seems like Halloween is pretty much over in my neighborhood. Boo on that. It really is a pretty good holiday for kids.