I Learned Something This Evening - Utterly Amazing I know!

Yes - If you can believe it I actually learned something this evening.  That is truly remarkable for me as my brain is mostly full of mush and I am pretty sure I am incapable of learning.  I have to set the expectations of myself pretty low so that when I actually do achieve something like learning I can be really proud of myself.

So what did I learn this evening.  I finally learned how to use my Canon EOS 5D Mark II SLR camera.  I purchased this camera back in the fall of 2009 after I got a bonus from work.  Normally I take any bonuses I get from work and I promptly stash them away in a long-terms savings account.  I had a bee in my bonnet back in October of 2009 and I took some of the bonus and bought a pretty darn expensive camera.  My intention with purchasing this camera was to finally start developing my photographic talents.  (If I have any that is...)

I of course did what all men do and immediately started to use the camera without reading the manual.  I was able to take some OK shots but nothing spectacular.  After about 2 months of using the camera I decided it made more sense if I tried to read the manual.  After a bit of a struggle I did end up reading the whole manual but, I still understood very little about the use of the camera.  Over the last 1.5 years I have gone back to the manual to research various topics about how to use the camera and I picked up a couple of things, but in general I was clueless about 95% of the really good features of this camera.

Early this week I got an e-mail from Mike's camera advertising a camera seminar that was focused on the Canon EOS line of cameras.  "AHA" I said to myself as I realized I might get someone else to teach me about this complex machine called my camera.  So I decided to sign up for the seminar which was this evening.  It only cost $49, but I really feel like I learned a lot this evening.  I am really looking forward to get outside in the light of day and trying to put the camera through it's paces.  Hopefully this is the beginning of new and wonderful relationship between me and my camera.

On to some other topics...  Well - I guess just one other topic for tonight - Zack.  I think, I hope, I pray I might have finally gotten that boy to see the light when it comes to his grades.  It took a lot of persuasion and threats (I ended up taking away his Nintendo DS - I told him I gave it to charity!) but I think he is finally going to take things seriously when it comes to school.  He had such a horrendous punishment because he got 2 F's this week because he didn't turn in assignments.  Also he has to serve detention next Tuesday morning because he has been consistently late to several of his classes.  Needless to say I have not been happy with him!

We hope everyone has a great Easter!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.

What a Break!

In my last post I talked about the Canyonlands Half Marathon and my failure to complete the race.  Since that time I have gained more knowledge about what caused my elimination from the race.  Though the first orthopedic doctor I saw concluded that I had several strained tendons, the doctor I saw last Tuesday came to a different conclusion and was able to back it up with X-Ray film. The fibula in my left leg is fractured.  In all likelihood this is an injury that I have had for quite a while but then I pushed it to the limit on race day and caused the bone to complete fracture.

The fracture seems to be a stress fracture, but is a complete fracture through the bone as opposed to a hairline fracture in which the bone is still intact.  Due to my running schedule, my shoes or some bio-mechanical issue with my running gait the pain that I started to feel 3 weeks before the race was likely the beginning of the fracture.  The first 2 miles of the race were relatively downhill and the constant beating my legs took as I ran caused the bone to come under additional stress.  The "popping" that I felt at mile 1.5 could have actually been the bone finally giving way and completely fracturing. 

The treatment for this injury is pretty much the same as it would be if it were strained tendons - rest and wear a "boot" to keep my leg as stable and as immobile as possible.  Two weeks after the injury it isn't too bad as the pain has mostly diminished and I have gotten used to the boot.  However when I have put a lot of pressure on the leg or I have done a lot of lateral movement my body definitely makes me aware that I have a broken bone!

The most frustrating thing for me is that I am not able to do the things that I normally do.  Walking with the boot is a pain in the butt and the doctor has told me to stay off my leg as much as I can.  The boot definitely made our spring break trip to Orlando much more interesting - but I still did it and pushed myself as hard as I could.  But that is a story for my next blog entry!

I haven't been doing really good in keeping up with my blogging in recent weeks, but I am going to try and do much better in the future.  For whatever reason I just haven't felt the desire to write.  But I kind of feel the desire beginning to return.  Also I have some really good pictures to post that will make my writing fun!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.

FYSRD!