TechyDad

Fantastic Blog Post Sidelined By Cubital Tunnel Syndrome

July 7, 2011 TechyDad Blogging, Medical

There should have been a nice, long post here about Niagara Falls. One with lots of photos and stories and stuff. So, what happened? Monday night happened. For some reason, I began experiencing pains in my elbow on Monday night. At first, I thought nothing of it. I figured it would go away on its own.

That night, I worked a bit on My Upcoming Twitter Application and a blog post. Every press of the key brought pain and I found I needed to take frequent breaks. I finally finished and got to bed at about 1:30am, hoping that some sleep would help my elbow feel better.

Sadly, the next day didn’t see any improvement. And the 5-6 hour drive home (actually longer, but at least 5 hours of actual driving) didn’t help. Even holding onto and moving the steering wheel hurt. To make matters worse, the pain is in my left elbow and I’m a leftie. Can you guess what arm I instinctively use for everything? Yup, my left one.

Yesterday, I went back to work. Now, I work as a web programmer. So my entire job involves typing out code. Hitting keys on a keyboard. Exactly the kind of thing that elicits pain from my elbow. The pain has continued into today. Every time I think it is getting better, I move a finger or turn my arm and the pain returns.

I’ve had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome before so I know how that feels. This feels just like that, only in my elbow instead of my wrist. It turns out that there is a name for this: Cubital Tunnel Syndrome. I’m going to try to cut down on using my arm as much as possible. That means you get a short, all-text blog post instead of one chock-full of photos and detailed stories. For now, you can read about some of our Niagara Falls trip over on B’s blog. Here’s hoping my elbow gets better quickly. I need it for my livelihood!

Wordless Wednesday: And The Marshmallow’s Red Glare…

July 6, 2011 TechyDad Cooking, Food, Outside, Photos, Wordless Wednesday

A Cherry Filled Adventure

July 5, 2011 TechyDad Food, Fun, Outside, Photos

Three years ago, on a visit to B’s brother, we decided to go cherry picking. While I love picking fruits and vegetables, I’ll admit that I was skeptical. After all, I don’t like cherries. Never have.

Still, I went and had a blast. We picked a ton of cherries. One great thing about cherry picking was that the trees were so short that we could easily reach the top branches and NHL (then 4) could easily reach the bottom branches. Meanwhile, JSL and Cousin S (then 1 and almost-1 respectfully) sat in their strollers holding hands. We collected 22 pounds of cherries. Enough for everyone to split and feast. I wound up trying a few and, for the first time ever, found that I loved cherries. Especially the rainier variety which tastes like peaches.

Last year, we went with B’s brother, his wife, Cousin S, and B’s parents. Between all of us, we collected 33 pounds.

So how did we do when we went cherry picking yesterday?

We arrived at the cherry fields, got some buckets and hopped on the wagon.

We could have walked, but the kids loved this. It was like a ride before the cherry picking fun. Once we got off the wagon, we headed to the trees.

As you can see, there were cherries everywhere. We immediately got to picking. NHL went on a quest to find the perfect cherry. Meanwhile, JSL and Cousin S formed a team to work together. Cousin B just was happy having room to move and big buckets to try to tip over. (He didn’t manage to, but he was having a blast once we let him loose.)

One big challenge was keeping them from eating too many cherries. Ok, let’s admit it… We ate a lot of cherries too. They were just too tasty! Still, most of the cherries wound up in the buckets until they were filled.

So how many cherries was this?

Yup, we picked 45.2 pounds of cherries. Even after we split it with B’s brother, give some to B’s parents and perhaps to some others, that’s a LOT of cherries to eat. Luckily, they’re healthy as well as tasty.

Hmm…. I wonder if there are any cherry peppermint recipes.