Top 10 Thanksgiving Thanks

Thanksgiving is all about giving THANKS and I have much to be thankful.  Although very hard as you will see by the many add-ins and qualifiers, I have narrowed it down to the Top 10 things I am thankful for at the present time.   Without anymore rambling, here we go. 

 

10.  VERY LARGE SCREEN TVs (preferably 60+ inches)

        9.   “PETER” MY COMPUTER SCREEN READER (there are other voices but    he seems to have the best phonics)

  8.  A VERY FAST METABOLISM (this also implies I am thankful for ice cream, cookies, lasagna, Great Harvest Bread, home cooked meals, restaurants with Lg portions, etc)

  7.   THE SUN (When you live in Hawaii you may not be as thankful for the sun but in Seattle you are thankful for sun.  Its like the entire city had a revelation when the sun comes out in the winter here)

  6.   TWO ARMS AND TWO LEGS THAT WORK (They arms are good for swimming and giving big hugs.  The legs also have a few miles on them.  May be due for a new set here soon)

  5.    AN ALMOST SCARY MEMORY (I even wonder how I can remember things.  I definitely want to clarify that this does not speak at all towards having good organization or timeliness)

  4.    OPTIMISTIC PEOPLE (the droopy pessimists bring me down)

  3.    EVERYONE THAT HELPS ME KEEP MY LIFE TOGETHER (you all know who you are because you have seen it almost fall apart)

  2.    SMILES AND LAUGHS (frowns are ugly)         

1.      A GREAT FAMILY (they can be difficult at times but they are always there when you need them.  My extended family, great friends, guides and teammates are also family. 

 

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. 

Until next time,

GOBBLE GOBBLE 

                        

A New PT Test

Recently I have been studying hour after hour for the upcoming physical therapy licensure exam.  I have been cramming as much knowledge into my head as I can before Dec 19th.  I am finding out is that I don’t necessarily need to know the physiologic response to Beta Blockers and Calcium channel blockers or what a patient presenting with a middle cerebral artery infarct would look like.  Rather, I am finding it is more beneficial to know the founder of diagnostic tests that were created a hundred years ago.  To fully understand what I am referring to here is an example from practice tests.

Q: A patient presents to the clinic with loss of sensation and pain in her left wrist.  She sits at a computer all day as a secretary.  You as the PT believe she may have carpal tunnel syndrome.  Which test would use to confirm this?

a. Finklestein Test

b.  Ely’s Test

c.  Falon’s Test

d.  Thomas Test

Hmmmm.   Let me throw out the definite wrong answers and see how many I have left.  Darn, I still have four answers left.  I guess I will just guess which name sounds the coolest.  Finkelstein is cool I will guess Finkelstein.  WRONG!!

Since anyone can make up a random test I have decided to invent my own test and creatively call it the Scheidies Test.  The Scheidies Test is a test to measure jaw expansion and development.  To perform the test have the test subject take as large of bite from a double qtr pounder hamburger animal style from In and Out Burger.  After the examiner checks to see if the subject got his mouth fully around the burger and if the bite made it to the center of the sandwich the test is scored.  If the subject achieved these two standards than they are considered to have Normal jaw expansion.  If no, it is recommended that they go practice. 

Again, this test is called the Scheidies Test.  Remember the name or you will get it wrong on your next Pathology exam on trigeminal nerve pathology. 

WARNING: The Scheidies Test is contraindicated for children under 10yrs of age as well as people with heart problem or those with high cholesterol. 

A Wet Day All Around

So today was an all around wet day.  I didn’t say an all around bad day, just pretty wet.  After studying for about 3hrs it was time for me to get out of the house and get some exercise.  The public pool has very skimpy hours for lap swimming.  You pretty much go from 11am-1pm or you don’t go at all.  My mode of transport to the pool is my bike.  Again, we aren’t going to talk about why Aaron should or should not be riding a bike.  If you want to, you can write-in.  Maybe I will have a contest on the best reason and/or explanation.  So at 10:15am I got on my bike and it was raining.  Luckily I recently souped up my hybrid cruiser with sleek black fenders so I would avoid the constant splatter and dousing as I hit every puddle.  This bike ride is no stroll in the park either.  To get to the pool I must cross from east to west of a major valley and then climb a very very (approx 15% grade) steep mile long hill before cruising into the Mount Rainier pool. 

A little wet from my ride over I then changed into my swimsuit and jumped in the water to get wet once again.  I swam a distance workout with a main set of 5 X 500yd and a total of 3,500yd.  After the workout I had a little swim lesson for my cousin who is an aspiring swimmer (recreationally) herself. After helping her achieve greatness in the pool I got out, took a shower and jumped back on my bike.  A reminder that I live in Seattle so it was still raining as I peddled my bike back towards home.  I had to make a stop at my storage unit for a while, as it is that time of year to put the shorts and tank tops in boxes and get out the winter stuff. 

About 30min later I arrived at my storage unit and the rain began to come down harder.  I opened my unit and looked at my personal jungle gym that I would be climbing on for the next hour or so to find all of my winter clothes.  As I threw boxes out of the unit trying to keep them under the cover of the overhang I must have overshot because by the time I was done the boxes were pretty much boxes no longer.  I called my uncle Merrill who is the greatest guy ever to pick me up. 

When he arrived with his red Chevy pick up there were gigantic puddles covering the entire path.  While packing the truck up I attempted to miss the puddles but this led to getting more wet and by that time it didn’t matter so I had a little fun.  On the way home we made a stop at the local Albertson’s for some dinner items.  I walked around the aisles in my cold wet clothes and my biking shoes tapping like high heels every step I made.  Grocery shopping is a little difficult for me so I normally just tell the store worker my list and play follow-the-leader   Ironically enough I was buying the goods for my famous wet burritos. 

Upon returning home I began slicing and dicing ingredients and then began creating a huge mess.  The good thing about making wet burritos is you don’t have to “try to not make a mess.”  There is no way to not make a mess when you are making wet burritos.  I am one of the best at getting messy and my hands in everything.  I think I must have rinsed them off at least 20 times because they were so messy I couldn’t grip the knife and other utensils.  Sure enough though, my wet burritos turned out better than ever and aunt Midge and uncle Merrill gave high marks.  They are tough ones to impress when it comes to making a quality meal.  Most of the time when I ask how the meal is Merrill responds with, “it’s edible.” This time I got a much better response, “well Aaron you’ve done a mighty fine job.”  

After the meal has settled and I am writing this blog, it is still raining outside.   It sure was a wet day.  It was a wet day but a good day.  Not all wet days are bad days.  It’s all about how you look at it.  Next time just make wet burritos and it will make your wet day a whole lot better. 

 

Great Day to Be a SPARTAN But evidently not a DAWG

Well, those that know me know that rain or shine, win or lose, hitting a parked car on your bike or not, every day on this Earth is a GREAT DAY TO BE A SPARTAN!!!  There is something about that school that changes you as a person.  Something about the school that engrains lifelong passion and school spirit.  I don’t know why some school have it and some school’s well, they just don’t.  I think some people could care less where they go to school.  I think others don’t want to take the hardships with the glory days so they just stay in their little comfort box.   

The fact is that in everything in life there’s going to be hard times and there’s going to be glorious times.  If we don’t get passionate about what we are doing and what we choose to do with our life than we are basically playing “just trying not to lose.”  We are playing with our guard always up.  I see this in every aspect of life but since I have such a strong passion for my alma matar I tend to notice when I am not seeing very much energy and spirit amongst college students around the country. 

Over the last 3yrs I have been living in Seattle, WA and have been attending the University of Washington (Dawgs) for Physical Therapy school.  Since arriving I have not seen enough Dawg barking as I expected.  I know the school colors are purple and gold and those may not be the most intimidating colors ever but if a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater was flying at me I would be a little nervous.

I have been frustrated with the “lack of passion and floating through life” attitude I see since I moved out to Seattle.  While at UW I never got into the school spirit myself.  I thought it would be such an uphill battle to change things around.  The last two weeks I have been helping the Husky Triathlon Club raise money to get to Collegiate Nationals by spinning on bikes for 4hrs before football games.  At these spins I have seen glimmers of hope in the Dawg bark.  The triathlon team showed some good spirit with purple and gold skin suits and bumble bee socks.  The bark is still that of a baby chiwawa but since I saw hope this Saturday I decided to try to get the Dawgs going at the last tailgate of the year.  I went from tailgate to tailgate yelling out “the Dawgs are gonna win this game, you all have to get some school spirit and get excited.” 

The response?  One girl asked if I was on Meth and I am sure most gave me weird looks and thought I was the most intoxicated student ever (even though I wasn’t at all).  A few people said “I like this kid,” but most said “yeah right the Dawgs don’t have a chance against UCLA.”  “  I believe there is hope for the Dawgs but right now they are severely wounded and need to get some training from other schools that I can name a few.  I think a university wide field trip to the Big Ten, SEC or even the Big 12 would do the trick. 

If you aren’t passionate about your school sports that is totally fine but if your paying over $100,000 and 4+ yrs of your life to a cause you might as well do everything in your power to enjoy it the best you can.  No matter your situation, happiness is always an option and true happiness always involves passion and emotion.  

With that said, GO SPARTANS AND GO DAWGS!!!!!!

 

Seattle Transportation Frustrations Ch 1

Well, I hate to start off my blogingcareer witha post about how confusing and passenger unfriendly the Seattle transportation is but it is pretty frustrating when everyday you ride the bus you learn a new rule about the bus.  This is actually a subject that gets my bubbles boiling so if you notice me going into depth about this just understand that I spend about as much time on the bus as many people spend at their job.  

So Seattle is really trying to provide good public transporation and I can definitely say they are doing a better job than other towns like Mindon, NE or Ellensburg, WA but they are lacking in the areas that seem intuitive to me.  Here is an example of a typical day  for me on the Seattle Metro. 

So I am downtown Seattle and need to catch a bus to go to the University Distract and I know taht there are three routes (71,72 and 73) that will get me there.  I have my bike and I know the buses have bike racks on the front.  The internet said that I could pick up the bus at 3rd and Pine so I headed over there.  Upon arriving there was nobody waiting for the bus.  I asked around and they told me that the buses were running in the bus tunnel.  Bus Tunnel?  There were no signs for the bus tunnel or at least none that were BIG ENOUGH and BRIGHT enough for me to see.  A nearby homeless man that was playing his coffee can drums told me that I could get in the bus tunnel a few block away by Nordsroms so I headed over there but still did not see anything big or flashing saying bus tunnel.  I asked another person and they said that they ride the bus pretty frequently and they didn’t know anything about a bus tunnel.  Finally I find the entrance to this unkown cave and come to find out the entrance is just an escalator that seems to be going in to Nordstroms from the outside.   Now, I konwI don’t see very well and it was probably written in 10pt font somewhere but if your promoting public transportation you don’t advertise in 10pt font.  

So I thew my bike on my back and went down the escalator into this untraveled tunnel.  Now I know you are all wondering why I am questioning the city’s dicision on transportation and here I am a blind kid riding my bike around the city.  Well, we are going to leave that for another time but I will say that practice makes perfect and I let my senses take over.  Now back to my bus trip.  

After getting othe escalator there were a number of signs overhead that I couldn’t read that had arrows on where to catch each bus.  I again asked someone and they showed me where the 71-73 buses pick up.  I stood waiting and a 71 came.  I told the bus driver I was going to put my bike on the front and he said, “no your not.  You can’t put your bus on in the tunnel.  You have to go to the south or north end of the city to the end of the tunnel.”  What?  That doesn’t make sense?  I stood there for a second pondering the reason for this and then just behind the 71 was the 72 bus followed by a 73 bus.  These buses travel every 30min and go the same route for half their route but they pick up one right after the other.   In my head, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to spread these buses 10min apart so people missing the bus by minutes would wait less than 10min rather than 30. 

I went up to the street and out the bus tunnel.  I was in the middle of the city and would have to bike or probably safer, walk my bike to the south end through the not so safe Pioneer Ssquare or to the northend of the city which was much more appealing.  This wasn’t as easy for me as they thought because I can’t se the street signs and didn’t know exactly where I was going so I again just randomly asked the homeless guys where the convention center was located.  I finally arrived at the bus tunnel and it was just about 6:30pm.  I was finally going to get on the bus, or so I thought.  As I went down the escalator  to the loading deck a security man came up and said, “bus tunnel’s closed after 6pm.  The buses are back on the street.”  I said, What?   I thought the bus tunnel was to take the buses off the city streets to reduce the traffic?  The man said, “the bus tunnel is closed after 6pm on weekdays and closed on weekends.”   Hmmm….  “You have to catch the bus at 9th adn Stewart,” said the security guard.  Again, I never saw any signs for the bus tunnel or for hours of operation of the bus tunnel.   I can also speak for others that were franticlly running the streets trying to find their bus. 

So I found 9th and Stewart and walked up to the bus stop sign.  I pulled out my 10X magnifier and looked really close at the sign.  With my 10X magnifier I could normally just barely read some of the times on the time tables.  As I went to look at the time schedule it wasn’t there.  There was no time table to know when the buses were coming and I didn’t even know if  they would let me put my bike on the bus at this stop anyways. 

After waiting 25minutes and becoming freinds withone of the locals waiting at the stop with me the number 71 came by and I put my bike on the front and go on the bus.  When getting on the bus and pulling out my money the bus driver said, “pay when you get off sir.”  I rode the bus the day before in a different area and paid when I got on the bus.  It seemed like the right thing to do and I got no hastles then.  Come to find out there was a sign at his pay stand that did say Pay When you Leave.   Ooops didn’t see that one!  

So, that is Ch 1 in I am sure many Seattle Transportation Frustrations.  Stayed tuned for more stories.  There are many more rules for me to learn about the Seattle Metro I am sure.