From alpha testing to the QUERCUS 200

Glad your back is feeling better,
Take it easy on those squats though

Cabin sounds great. When Owen is older I can't wait to take the kids camping, I'm no tent person so I will be getting a cabin somewhere
 
I'm actually trying to dampen my enthusiasm a bit. I worry that it is temporary. It' just the third day of feeling better, but every day has been an improvemnet. I am going to take it easy. I'm careful to keep a neutral spine while squatting and it stretches the sciatic nerve when I do it. I believe they are playing a role in the recuperation.

So placeholder for the cabin: I have a room on a simple motel that is sandwiched between a state park and national forest. Floating in a lazy stretch of river and a short lake cruise in the morning to take pics. Even if the back gives me grief again, I can cancel the cruise and just float around all weekend. I like weekend planning on Monday.
 
Happy to hear that the back is feeling better. I'm also glad for the 1 lb loss.

Just be careful with those squats. I wish you a nice weekend! :)
 
Quercus, I'm jealous of your cabin stand-in. :p

Also, I'm so happy that your back is feeling better! I really really hope it continues.
 
Yippee! Another day of improved back.

I worked in the yard VERY carefully yesterday evening.

I'm on day 10 for squats and I have my gym bag packed for this evening.

I have a nice vegan lunch in the breakroom fridge and dehydrated sweet potatoes for snacking. Also, plain dehydrated sweet potatoes made from raw sweet potatoes taste like sweet dirt. I think I will try it again on the jerky temperature so it gets more "cooked" and maybe it will taste better.

Everyone have a great day!
 
Okay, so I skipped my nice vegan lunch for a vegetarian lunch out as I am all dressed up from picture day this morning. I had a slice of carrot cake for dessert.

I'll still be in calories at the end of the day so no worries. I may have to go to bed a bit hungry, but it was worth it. Two sisters run this place and it's like if your Mom cooked different. There carrot cake was on par with the one my Mother made me for my Bday and she was employed as a caterer for 40 years.

I have field work tomorrow. It's the first time since mid-July. It's been over 100 degrees every day lately. It will be a challenge, but hopefully the back will tolerate it. I'll take it as easy as I can. I'll feel better (or worse) once I have project details.
 
Carrot cake is some yummy stuff. Unfortunately, despite the name, it doesn't really count as a vegetable.

"Enjoy" your field work. Stay in the shade, drink water and rest your back when you need to.
 
Just catching up here. :)

I hear what you're saying about wanting to be able to fully enjoy the cabin before taking time off. Was just thinking in terms of rest. I know when I was in my pain from RA I wanted nothing to do with work. Crawling under a rock and staying there all day sounded more appealing. BUT, I'm glad your back is improving. I know exactly what you mean about trying to dampen your enthusiasm about it. I felt the same way when I started medication for RA. Thankfully for me, I'm at about 98% now and have been for a while. Hopefully you'll be the same! :)

Thanks for the nice words on my avatar too. MrVee inspired me to post some before and after pics so I figured it would be a good time to just use one as my avatar. :)
 
You're lunch sounds delicious....particularly that cake. I love me some carrot cake.

I hope your field work goes well. Hopefully you'll see the other side of it both without heat stroke and a sore back.
 
So I ended up not going to the gym and going way over on calories. My brother-in-law found out that one of my twin nephew has cerebral palsy. He's just past 2 years old, so it is too young to know how he is cognitively, but his brother is a bit verbal and he has yet to speak his first word. This is compounded by the fact that my sister-in-law's 3 children are living there with their 3 children because she had them taken away by the state and is in jail. My wife's family is always a seething pit of asinine drama. I will never understand how my wonderful wife came from such a crappy family. The end result is that I ended up over there all evening and ate from the pile of McDonalds that we hauled over for the passel of children. Yuck!

The field work is in limbo as I have not gotten my project information that was supposed to come yesterday. It will either be a late start or start later in the week. This project has a half dozen middle men involved. With the right phone number I could have the info I need in 2 minutes, but that would be bad form. I've learned over the years that even if it is in the client's best interest it doesn't work out well when you bypass the middlemen. So I await the info to be channeled through a series of calls, texts, and emails in hopes that this telephone game will end in me having the correct information.

The back feels rather good once again.

EDIT: Out of context the "crappy family" comment jsut sounds super mean. Obviously I'm not calling them a crappy family because they have a sick baby and I am very sympathetic to their situation. There is a lot of untold backstory that fully justifies that statement beyond her sister's incarceration and loss of kids, but you'll have to take my word on that.
 
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Still keeping up with the squats I see :). Good job! Had a terrible week myself with lack of exercise and bad eating. Getting back on track now. Glad your back is starting to feel better :)
 
Thanks Angel! I haven't done very good with eating either.

The field work was uneventful and the back feels fine so far.
 
Your "crappy family" comment didn't sound awful to me. My boss makes the same sort of remarks about his wife's family, so I got where you were coming from. How do people who were all raised in the same or similar environments all turn out so differently? Just another one of life's mysteries.

I, too, had McDonald's recently. And also multiple pre-packaged dehydrated meals made for backpackers. My body hated me for a few days! Drink lots and lots of water!
 
A sad story is that there are indeed crappy families out there. I'm very lucky in that mine is not one of them, at least not the immediate one...

...I got a couple of cousins and types like that that probably need some straightening out though.
 
Laura, I've eaten like crap most of this week. I will have a gain come Saturday. I'm trying to salvage the rest of the week starting today.

Vee, I'm glad you have a cool family. I regret moving back to Texas as a big part of the decision was driven by the desire to be around our families. Neither of us has done well in establishing relationships with our families.

I'm just going to unload a bit.

I suppose I would have felt guilt for not moving close to my folks as they aged, but in hindsight I should have moved to somewhat rural Oregon and had a mix of solitude and access to cities.

I'm amiable with my parents, but they don't really have an interest in a relationship apparently. They have been to my home twice in 5 years and they are retired and live a half hour away. I've given up on inviting them. I would never speak to them or see them if I didn't call or go over there. My father fishes with my uncle at least once a week in a lake 1 mile from the house and I've gotten the invite once this year and he's never stopped by before or after one of these trips.

I don't live a bad life and I've never asked them for any help since college. I try to help them out however I can. I don't really understand there coldness. My sister is a complete fuckup and they see her all the time. She had 3 kids and my parents have loved being grandparents so that's a big part of it. They've bailed her out countless times to this day.

I played sports and at least passed all my classes through high school. I never got in any serious trouble. Not even a fender bender or speeding ticket as a teen. Without my parents involvement I picked a major and earned an academic scholarship to a junior college. I moved into a dorm 45 minutes away from my parents about a month after turning 18. They never stepped foot on campus. It was the first place I lived away from home and I was there for 2 years. I came home each weekend as I had a job closer to home. After returning home from the 4 day first weekend at school my parents had hauled away my bed. Each summer I came home and worked at least one full time job to help finance the remainder of my college and I had to sleep on the floor. They never offered an explanation and I've never asked. The first trip back to visit from Seattle my parents had put a bed back into my old bedroom.

"Not close" doesn't quite do it justice. My folks are like the aunt and uncle I never had and I feel an obligation to visit and help out, but it doesn't seem to be reciprocal. I can't say that I like them very much.

The birthday visit was nice and the homemade cake was very sweet of my mother. I generally enjoy holidays at my parents when invited. There has been a tendency over the last few holidays to give us a time to show up and we arrive to everyone finishing the holiday meal. It's very insulting. Especially after we have prepared a dish for the meal. We weren't invited to Easter dinner. We weren't included in the family photos at my nephew's wedding nor were we included at the family table despite empty chairs. It's no secret that I hate my sister (whole other story), but I am always civil to her and try to be supportive to her kids. I'm not sure why my parents act the way they do towards me, but there is nothing I've done to deserve it that I'm aware of. Maybe they resent me for moving far away and not giving them grandkids. The moving away was certainly influenced by their treatment of me when I first left for school.

Brawny, I should get me some of those. I seem to have left all mine on the west coast. Aside from my wife and 1 cousin, you fine folks are my cabal of compadres. Maybe it's because I say things like "cabal of compadres".

Okay the pity party is over. Physical therapy in an hour!
 
Physical therapy went well. The PT is nice and her assessment seemed thorough and promising. I'm happy she found weaknesses because if I correct them there may be a chance to get rid of the pain and the need for surgery. It was awkward at times as she was rubbing and grinding on my butt at one point. I hope she is paid well.

I'm on a 2x a day exercise plan plus 2x a week physical therapy. I was told not to ride the spin bike or do any activities that involve being in the forward posture that bike riding creates for now. She said I could walk every other day and work my way up to running if I didn't have problems starting with 10 minute runs every other day and slowly building from there. I'll likely just do the exercises and some walking for at least a week as I'm leery of overdoing it.

1 month of exercises and estim and then I will be reassessed. The estim (electrical stimulation) felt really good.
 
Quercus, your story reminds me of my daddy. His sister/my aunt was basically a complete and total bitch from the day she was born. I don't think she even gave anyone an ounce of respect in her life. She always used my grandparents for money and a place to live, all the while treating them like shit. My dad was always the good kid, but he never got any help with anything. His sister got everything. I guess because my grandparents felt like she needed it more. Fastforward 20 or 30 years and you have my aunt stealing all of my grandma's money from her, hoarding a poor old woman suffering from severe dementia out of her own house, and eventually dying alone with no one in particular mourning her. I don't know. I guess something just resonated with me about your story.

I'm glad you like your physical therapist! Starting physical therapy was what finally set me to getting better and seeing an end to the chronic pain I had been in for two years at that point. I know what you mean about the touching too. Mine adjusted my pelvic bone once. Up close and personal much? :p
 
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