So, to settle any bets that may have been made, none of limbs dropped off, and my knee now feels substantially better. Not good, mind you, just much better.

denizsarikaya mentioned in one of her comments that she hoped I wasn't actually giving myself frostbite, or words to that effect. No, I'm using an actual icebag (like they show on sitcoms for folks with hangovers) and it is made of fabric over rubber. I also used it on the knee through a pair of sweatpants, so there were two (thin) layers of cloth between me and the ice. I didn't attach the icebag with bandages or rope or bungee cords or anything, since I really wasn't sure what the best position for it was. After all, the pain seemed to coming from under the kneecap, and it took several tries before I found a good position for maximal effect.

All that said, I only managed to do good for my knee. The tender spot on my side is directly beneath my right pectoral, after several attempts with and without an extra towel for insulation, all I did was make one of my nipples rather unhappy with me. I just don't think that the cold was able to penetrate far enough to affect the bruise (which, much to my surprise, still doesn't show on the surface). Then again, the knee was hot and throbbing which was a good indicator that ice might help, while my side only hurts when I move, pick anything up, stand, sit, lay down, stretch, belch, or god forbid, hiccup. Luckily coughing doesn't much bother it. Go figure.

So, not being at my most active (as if I'm usually a frenetically careening non-stop kinda guy) I sat in front of the computer all day. Did I do anything useful, like update my resume on all of the job sites, like I should if I ever wanna get a job? No. Did I at least start work on a list of science discussion topics for the next worldcon, which I promised to have ready by Saturday? No. Did I even manage to advance one of my non-urgent non-important background tasks, like sorting my extensive e-book and porn collections by topic? Nope. All I did was update my livejournal bio so that it includes pointers to wishlists in case anyone is feeling sorry enough for me to buy me a book or something. That wasn't a small task, since I had something like 130 links to books that... oops, I just remembered another list of wanted books I have that I haven't entered yet... Anyway, I had about 130 links to books at various bookstores, and it was only the amazon.com links that still worked after all of this time (some of the links were 10 years old). It took quite a few attempts to find some things, and in at least one case an hour at the library of congress site to find the ISBN for a book that amazon carries, but doesn't know it carries. (They have typos in both the authors name and the title, so I couldn't find it without the ISBN).

But, here I am, 7 hours later, with a feeling of second-level accomplishment mixed with 4th-degree thank-god-thats-done, and a book wishlist that everyone should check out. There are items on there that can be obtained as low as 94¢ and as high as $3000 so I think everyone should find something to match their budgets. Now all I have to do is lay back and wait for the presents to pour in.

I went for a walk today with SPS, as we are wont to do during the summer months, and I managed to trip and fall, damaging my left knee and right side. I somehow managed to unexpectedly step with half of one foot off the sidewalk, and then lost my balance. In the moment before I hit, I had a choice of:

1. Aiming for the hard sidewalk


2. Aiming for a metal lamp post


3. Aiming for the hard packed earth

I chose option number 3, but since the only earth was in a tiny spot between the lamp and the sidewalk, I had to twist to land there, and ended up elbowing myself in the right side, and hitting my left knee on the sidewalk anyway. The knee seemed fine, and didn't even bleed, but I've discovered since getting home that I don't want to try deep knee bends if I want to avoid agony. The worst part is the large bruise on my right side. I was afraid for a bit that I had cracked a rib, but now I think I just bruised the bone. In any event, I can't sleep on my right side, like I normally do, since that ends up with all of my (not inconsiderable) weight on my bruised ribs. If I try to lay on the other side, the mere pressure of my arm lying on my ribs is very painful. That pretty much leaves me trying to sleep on either my stomach or my back, two positions in which I don't sleep well. And if I move, I wake up. As a result, here I am at just past 5:00 am typing here, rather than catching my Zzzzs.

All of which is a roundabout explanation of why I've been playing around with the colors, fonts and emoticons of my journal. I have no idea what the final esthetic results will be, since I am not only brain-dead from lack of sleep, I'm red-green color blind to boot.