TomS Words of Wisdom

... however direct quoting is better.

-- Tom Sayles

It's sad but true that there was "Nothing to celebrate on Public Domain Day 2010 in the US".

While most music use for vaulting probably comes under Fair Use because we are fundamentally educating kids, the licensing issues are probably one of our sport's biggest obstacles to long term growth.

Think about all the wonderful computer software and video games from the 80s that would start passing into the public domain this decade it it were not for relatively copyright extensions. As the laws stand now much of that software will likely be lost forever because the copyright holders have gone out of business and the cost of "clearing" the works economically impossible to republish. The only solution is for groups of enthusiasts to quietly pirate copies and hope that no one complains.

It's now been four weeks since Lena crunched me up and rolled me out a stall door. My sprained neck continues to improve a little bit every day. On Friday afternoon I had my first ever chiropractic treatment. After the treatment I went out to my Jeep and when I went to back out of the parking spot, I found that I could turn my neck significantly further then when I had arrived for the appointment. I'm also going longer and longer periods without any pain meds, including the over the counter acetaminophen.

Today I did my first full workout with Lena since the accident. We both worked hard and both have some strength / conditioning to rebuild.

This is one of the x-rays of my neck taken on Nov. 22, 2009. The yellow circle shows where my neck bones have been displaced by a few millimeters.

I saw my primary care physician just after Thanksgiving weekend. Diagnosis was a sprained neck with a four to six week expected recovery time. Since then my recovery has progressed though it has plateaued over the last week or so. Early this week I made my first visit to a chiropractor, Dr. Brown, in Issaquah. But before he can do much for me he needs to see the x-rays. So that's how I ended up with a CD-ROM with my x-rays. I hope to get back in to see him again before I head down to Glendale for x-mass.

I wanted something sweet, so I made cookie dough. First six cookies fresh out of the oven. Rest of dough is in freezer.

I spent Thursday, Friday and most of Saturday, intensely resting and trying to heal from last Sunday's accident. This meant no horse activities, no-computer, no cooking Turkey, very little phone and very little texting. Progress has been slow with a few setbacks along the way. I did make a second trip in to the Group Health urgent care on Saturday morning to get some new pains checked out and meds refilled. But this afternoon I finally felt improved enough to resume an almost normal activity level again. I still have some limits to range of motion in my neck and two or three specific muscles that complain, loudly, when overused. Still have a black eye. While the muscles for driving have recovered, sitting in a low-backed chair and/or typing is very tiring. Walking around is also fine, as long as my right arm/shoulder isn't too tired. I'm hoping to resume a full work schedule tomorrow, though with limits on a number of activities. I have an appointment late Tuesday morning with my Primary Care Physician, Dr. Zeidman at Group Health in Redmond, after which I hope to have a more detailed recovery plan / time-line.

Big thanks to Alison for keeping tabs on me and being a knowledgeable resource. Also thanks to everyone who has offered to help out.

Norval Rhodes (NorvalRhodes) on Twitter:

Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it. -Tori Amos

Lena stone bruise continues to improve. She's putting more weight on her right front hoof today.


However we did have a bit of an accident this morning as I was taking the soaking bag off her foot. While I was hunched over unbuckling the bag, the stall cleaner asked if, when I was done, he could move Lena across the aisle so he could clean her stall. Unfortunately Lena took this an an invitation, proceeded to exit her stall and I got caught in a tuck position between her and the stall wall. While this could have resulted in a catastrophic injury, I was able to tuck and roll enough to not hit my head or break my neck.

After a quick self assessment, it was clear that I injured my neck, but that it was not life threating. However it was painful and that a trip to urgent care to get checked out was in order.

Big thanks to Alison for coming out to PCF, giving me a ride to the Group Health urgent care at the new Bellevue Medical Center and for hanging out in Bellevue until I was discharged. After checking in the triage nurse gave me a hard collar to hold my neck still until they could fully examine it. While I'm sure that this was the safest thing to do, my injured neck mussels really didn't like being immobilized. It took a few hours to progress through the system, get two rounds of x-rays taken, get some pain meds and be discharged with a soft collar and instructions like no lifting, bending or playing tug-a-war with horses. The best moments were when the x-ray tech let me take the hard collar off for the second round of x-rays.

Not sure yet if I'm going to go into work in the morning. Will likely depend on if I still need to that the prescription pain meds which are incompatible with driving.

This evening Becky came out and helped soak Lena's hoof, after which I took her out to the recently renovated Fall City Roadhouse for some dinner. Since I'm out of commission as far as horse care goes for the next week to ten days, we need to reassess how to give Lena her treatment and who will longe for the Tammy Clinics. Please, call or text if you can help out with either of these.

Update 11/29

Update 12/15

Update 12/20