The Avenger

HyperBills was the D&C page (oooohhh...so modern and technical sounding with this new HTML technology!) whose failure directly resulted in the birth of The Wall here. I remember Sue as a poster and the homework thread - she certainly wasn't afraid to take on all comers - so tragic to hear of her passing at such an early age - it's certainly been a week for us to reflect on the fragility of life....

Just heartbreaking to see the people in Paris standing in stunned silence or crying or singing hymns together. I am deeply saddened by this and I have only visited Paris once - I can't imagine what it would feel like if I considered it a central part of my home and a national source of pride.

Wow - this is terrible. The beauty of this place is hard to express. I was there about 15 years ago and had the opportunity to sit inside and listen to a concert played on the pipe organ - something that is only played a few times a year - it was fantastic hearing those acoustics and looking at the stained glass.......

Seems like a really good guy. Reminds me of when I go to see the local single-A level baseball team here - the first stop for a lot of the guys in their quest to play MLB - the kids are all asking for autographs at batting practice before the game and you're not sure who is more excited - the kid who got an autograph or the young player who was asked for an autograph - it's really cool to watch. Living near Boston this has been my issue with Tom Brady - for as great as he is as a player, he's just not that type of community guy. He's never out with the fans, he's never around - he's either holed up in his huge house here or off to California whenever he can. I get it - he's a pretty private guy and I'm not saying he's a bad guy at all, he's just not as friendly and outgoing as someone I would want as the face of the franchise - I really like what I see from Allen and when he has performance accolade under his belt (personal stats, playoff wins) it's only going to get better....

Bills 2002 3rd round draft pick Coy Wire in the news - kind of glad he's not wearing anything with a Bills logo: It's Not that Peter Pan Guy, But Close....

This all happened fast as soon as Earl Campbell refused suit up for the Bills.... Brilliant marketing by the team - appeal to an older demographic with more established disposable income...a lock to do cross-promotions for Geritol and a whole host of prescription/OTC medications...

Damn - that's almost 112 million quickies....

Oh - almost forgot a Danish film I caught last year that was excellent - Land of Mine. Was nominated for an Academy award in 2017 for best foreign language film. The story of how Denmark conscripted defeated German soldiers in the immediate aftermath of WWII and made them clear the beaches of the millions of mines German forces had laid expecting the allied invasion in Denmark. Most were just boys of 17 or 18 and only about 50% of those forced to do the work survived without being killed or maimed. Really an excellent film - highly recommend of you can catch it and don't mind subtitles (or speak German - Danish movie but dialog is German).

One thing to note is that when you get the replacement the bone on bone pain ends and you're able to spend a lot more time on your feet, but range of motion generally does not improve. Once you start to lose range of motion in the joint you should seriously consider having the surgery because waiting isn't going to help. I really wanted to wait as long as I could because I was so young but eventually had no choice - it got to the point where I could have the surgery or suck it up as long as I could and then do it - my quality of life and ability to spend a day doing anything with my kids that involved me being on my feet all day convinced me that it was time - sucking it up was not an option. You'll know when you need to make your move.

Glory - one of my favorites.....

I had mine done a year apart and I'm not sure that I'd recommend doing both so closely together unless there is a real reason to do so. It seems that the total knee replacement experience varies wildly from person to person. I was very young to have mine done - at ages 41 and 42. I did a lot of PT BEFORE the surgeries to make my recovery go as smoothly as possible - something I cannot recommend enough! My recovery and pain management were very good - I can't say that I was without discomfort afterwords but I never had any major pain problems (i didn't try and be a hero and swear off pain meds - I used them as needed, but got off of them as soon as I could). I know other people that really struggled with pain and rehab PT but that was not me. I'd be concerned that if for some reason you were one of those folks who had more difficulty with pain/recovery it would be pretty bad to have to deal with both knees at the same time - if you knew how you would recover it would be a much easier decision. I don't mean to scare you - I'm sure there are good reasons to go one way over the other and you have to make the best decision for yourself. That said, give some good thought to your post surgical recovery and what you are willing to tolerate if you had to. PM me if you have any questions I can help you with - I had tons of questions going into my first replacement.

That was really cool. I always wonder why some guys get into so much trouble when they are in the NFL - you don't have to be someone who does the community things like we see Josh do in this video, just don't do anything that is illegal and/or get your name in the newspaper - it's a pretty low bar. OTOH, it's great when you get someone who is a good person to be the face of your franchise - a guy that's going to do the community and charity events, the guy who really wants to do good beyond football. Josh looks like he's a good guy with his head on straight - it'll be tremendous for the organization of he's a Walter Payton Man of the Year kind of guy....

Who is Mike Hetfield? Is that James' brother?

Read "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande - excellent book on the subject. Doctors are trained to fix the problem, but unfortunately some things cannot be "fixed". People have really started to think very hard about how they want the end of their lives to be and whether they want to take all sorts of extraordinary and expensive measures to gain only slightly more time - a quality vs. quantity argument. Many people are discontinuing expensive and grueling experimental cancer treatments if they have late stage cancer in favor of maximizing the quality of time they have left. People are opting to die in hospice care rather than hooked up to lots of machines in an ICU. I don't think the doctors are operating on a financial motive. I think many realize that people are being robbed of quality of life in many cases just to increase their length of life by a short amount - is that in someone'e best interests? Is the desire to keep someone living as long as possible no matter the quality of life the true wish of the patient or is it for the patient's family who doesn't want to see them go? It's a mighty complicated topic, but "Being Mortal" is a fantastic read on a fascinating topic.

Damn - I hate that the game is on local TV here in Boston rather than on Sunday Ticket. When the game is on ST you know you are getting the whole game from start to finish. On local TV you get blacked out on ST and if the local TV wants to go to another game (maybe due to a blowout), you lose the game. If the game goes long on Sunday I won't get to see the end because they won't miss the start of the NE game to show you the end of Buf-Mia.

If you live in an area with field mice trying to seal up your house will drive you crazy because there's almost no way to do it. Those critters can squeeze through a hole smaller than a dime and can chew through just about anything, including metal. The sooner you realize it's almost impossible to "mouse-proof" your house and focus on just catching/killing what gets in the better off you'll be. My wife freaks out over mice and always wants to make sure none get into the house - I told her that was impossible but I would do what I could to take care of any that get in - 2 cats and lots of spring traps do the trick.

Smooth Criminal - also really like the cover by Alien Ant Farm

I have a K cup which is a great solution for me because I am the only coffee drinker in the house and if I had to make it a pot at a time I'd end up like Tweak on South Park.... Anyway, I was not a big fan of the plastic waste, nor of the cost for pods and solved both by getting the reusable k-cup - great solution. I have no waste except for the grounds and even a pricier bag of beans is less expensive per cup than most pods. BTW - I love stronger dark roast and will also recommend Peet's Italian or French roast. Trader Joe's also has some decent dark roasts - the Bay Blend is listed as "ultra dark" is pretty good and affordable.

I had gout once - toe got sore and then I could barely walk - didn't know what happened until I was diagnosed - it was pretty painful. Never heard of the tart cherry for gout, although it is touted for all sorts of health benefits. Best place to get tart cherry juice is Trader Joe's - big bottle is like $3.99 which is much better than any other place I have seen it.

I had a kidney stone and I felt something coming on - I just could not get comfortable no matter how I sat. I called my buddy who is prone to kidney stones and gave him my symptoms - he said that it sounded like a kidney stone based on his numerous experiences so I started on the way to the hospital. The bad thing about kidney stones is while they are extremely painful, they aren't going to kill you - so when you're sitting in the emergency room in agony (enough pain to make you puke), lots of people get seen before you do. When I finally got to see doc he put in an IV, said he would send me for scans to see how big the stone was and left. About an hour later a nurse came by and asked how i was doing - I said I could really use something for the pain and he answer was "well, even though you're big guy, I'm not sure we can give much more morphine" to which I exclaimed "I'm already ON MORPHINE???!!!" Damn - if that's how I felt being on a large dose of morphine I can't imagine what it would have been with no drugs - probably just would have run off the parking garage roof to end it all. Never get a kidney stone,

Pancho looks good - hope he's doing well (he's traveled to MN so that's good). Not sure this is the best game to to - it could get really ugly but I'm glad Pancho made it.

WNY's best asset is its people and sense of community - you're not going to find that in many places. My parents ended up in Buffalo because my father got his PhD at UB and then found work locally, as did my mother. It was never their plan to stay in Buffalo, but guess what - it was a fantastic place to live especially if you want to raise a family and live affordably and they never left. The people and the community sealed the deal - they were all-in on Buffalo. Jim Kelly's story reminds me of my parents' story - someone who didn't really want to be in WNY ends up there and ends up loving it and being all-in on the place.

I live a couple of towns away and kept hearing sirens - at first I thought it must have been an accident on the highway, but as I sat and ate dinner we kept hearing sirens race pass on the highway and knew something was up - so many other towns sent fire crews to help - even the city of Boston sent crews and they are 20-25 minutes away (as someone pointed out, this area is really more NH than Boston). Terrible the a kid died - just sitting in his driveway in the car when the house blew up and the chimney landed on him - just awful.

Nice to see this as a positive for all involved - good sportsmanship and appreciative fans doing good for kids in multiple communities - this is the type of NFL story people should hear about rather than all the controversy and politics we hear so much about now.