Stephen Kennedy's Rants

Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

Man has the time flown. It was one year ago that the Mrs. and I took our first real trip on our own and went on a Caribbean Cruise. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago! With my back the way it was this summer, I am looking at finally taking some time off! Who knows maybe we’ll even take the kids this time!

From now on I will have way more sympathy when I hear that anyone is suffering from sciatica! I never really thought much about it till I was struck with it in mid-June. Actually the symptoms started months earlier but being a typical guy and former athlete that lives with constant pain, I ignored it figuring it would go away. Instead the slight bit of back pain that started in late April early May has become a nightmare for me! By the third week of June the pain became more intense and spread all the way down my right leg to my ankle.

I have been undergoing Physio treatments, including spinal decompression since the 22^nd of June, which helps a little bit. This week I got a cortisone shot, but that made it worse for a couple of daysand then when I thought it felt better yesterday, took a short trip to Edmonton to see a show and that knocked me down again.

The problem is that I have a bulging disk that is pressing on the sciatic nerve and causing me all the pain. I am unable to sit or stand for more than a few minutes (and I pay the price if I do more) and have spent most of the last month lying on my side. I have been taking Tylenol 3s for the pain, but they only give me relief for 2 1/2 to 3 ½ hours and I don’t like the side effects.

This summer has been absolutely miserable for me. I have been robbed of spending time with my family, I missed Stampede for the first time in 29 years, have had to pass on numerous invitations to events, can’t golf or do anything. I have been able to work since I can do that from home with my fulltime job, but my own business has been suffering as I can’t do much. When I have tried to do things, I am afraid that I am a bear due to the pain. For example we went to a show in Edmonton last night, (Walking with Dinosaurs Live), and the pain from the drive caused me to be short tempered with the kids, in addition having to walk through Northlands Park, take the stairs to the top of Rexall Place and try to sit in a tiny seat with no leg room didn’t do good things. I ended up finding an open supply room door and spent 30 minutes of the show + the 15 minute intermission lying on the floor. I choose the store room because when I did lay on the floor in the hallway for a few minutes everyone that walked by asked if I needed help.

Now the rest of my family has made their annual drive to Winnipeg for their summer visit. I usually tag along for the drives and fly back but this year I can’t even do that and am here at home while my wife makes the long drive on her own!

I really wish that this pain would just go away and I can go back to a normal life. Right now it is unfair to my family as I have not been able to help with anyone around the house, and can barely take care of myself. I have been told that these things usually go away on their own but can last several months to a year. I can live with a little poain as I have done this for the last 20 or so years, but I don’t think I can handle even another two months of this. It has been a real mental test for me as well and am hoping I can continue to get through. So if you meet me on the street in the next little while and I seem a little short, it is probably the intense pain talking and not me!

Stephen

You may have heard the term Net Neutrality recently on the Internet. Here is the definition posted on the www.neutrality.ca website:

While the definition of net neutrality is open to some debate, at the core is the commitment to ensuring that Internet service providers treat all content and applications equally with no privileges, degrading of service or prioritization based on the content’s source, ownership or destination.– Michael Geist
Most Internet Service Providers in Canada will throttle back the bandwidth you are paying for if you are using applications like Bit Torrent to download files or visit some sites other than their own. I feel that there is no problem with them capping my allowed bandwidth based on what I am paying for, but they should not have the right to throttle back my connection simply because I am using an application or visiting a site that is not their own.

I encourage all clients, friends and your friends to visit the site, read up on it and sign the petition. In fairness you can only sign the petition once from you IP address so you may only be able to add one signature from your home account. Visit Net Neutrality in Canada at www.neutrality.ca or click on the link in the right hand column.

Stephen

I think my cabin fever will start to dissipate now! My golf club (Elbow Springs) opened yesterday for play at 9:00 AM on regular greens! For the first time in a couple of years, I didn’t have a chance to play opening day, but I did head out yesterday, put my things in my locker and hit the range! Two buckets of balls and I feel good today. Got a chance to try the Nike Driver I purchased but had considered taking back. Hmmm looks like this new Sasquatch Sumo is staying in the bag regardless of how ugly it is! I will write a fuller review later.

Hopefully I will get my 5^th round for 2007 in this coming Sunday, the forecast is calling for nice weather all weekend. 5^th because I got four rounds in during our trip to Maui in January!

Stephen

Many of you may know that I now work from home most of the time. There are some advantages to this but as I am finding out there are some disadvantages! Most recently I think I have been suffering from Cabin Fever! The weather has been crappy here (clouds and snow for the last several weeks) and I find that I while I work from home I don’t go out very often. I am hoping that this will change soon with my golf club opening, but even that has been late this year due to weather!

This past weekend I decided that I didn’t want to spend a whole bunch of time sitting at my computer and basically avoided it for most of the weekend. But with the long weekend and the bad weather, I found myself complaining that there was nothing to do. I istened to all of my podcasts, watched the Masters and finally found myself playing on the Xbox 360 for about 8 hours!

Hopefully things will change soon. The weather appears to be getting a little better and Elbow Springs may open tomorrow morning! Hopefully today’s warm weather will dry it out a little. At least it looks positive for the weekend. I am going stir crazy as I have a new driver to test out and decide if I want to keep or return it to the store.

Soccer season will soon be upon us too and I’ll be able to get out and coach a little and be in the sun. Maybe the long cold winter is finally over!

S