Dawog's Blog

———————————————————————————————————
DISCLAIMER:  I am not a podiatrist, foot doctor, orthotic specialist, etc.  I’m just an average, run-of-the-mill schmuck who thought $400 per pair for custom orthotics was excessive.
———————————————————————————————————

In December, 2008, I woke up unable to walk on my left foot.  I was diagnosed with “Posterior Tibial Tendonitis, Type II.”  The result was a fallen arch.  The ankle specialist (an orthopedic surgeon) prescribed an orthopedic boot ($225) for 6 weeks, followed by physical therapy & custom orthotic insert ($400).

Not knowing what I know now, I paid full price ($225) for the orthopedic boot.  Unfortunately, I could have gotten a used one on eBay for $45; a new one on eBay for $75; and a new one from MedexSupply for $104.  My insurance didn’t cover any portion of the boot.  Didn’t really care as the boot took away all the pain I had been experiencing.

Next came the custom orthotic inserts for $400.  Again, not knowing anything about these, I went ahead and purchased a set.  Of course, my insurance paid nothing for orthotic inserts either.

I wore the orthotic inserts for a week and went back because they were painful, especially on my left foot.  It felt like it needed more arch support.  The orthotic specialist placed a HAPAD, Inc. “Scaphoid Pad” (medial arch pad made of felt) on the left orthotic insert.  Although it didn’t hurt as much, it now felt like it had too much arch support.

I hate wearing shoes when I get home from work.  Inside, I used to always go barefoot in the summer; barefoot w/thick socks in the winter.  Outside, when not at work, I always wore sandals.  Well, now the doctor says NOT to go barefoot or wear sandals.  I tried to place the orthotic inserts in a pair of my sandals, but no go — they just slid out the back.  The orthotic guy sold me a pair of cheap crocs ($36) in which he placed the HAPAD, Inc. scaphoid pads ($25) & said I could wear those.  They felt pretty good, but the crocs pretty much sucked.

I was now anxious to see if I could place these scaphoid pads in my sandals.  I went to the HAPAD, Inc. web site & found that for fallen arches, they recommended the Longitudinal Metatarsal Arch Pads for $5.75 per pair.  Their Scaphoid Pads are only $5.25 per pair (almost 5 times less than the orthotics shop sold them for).

I first placed the scaphoid pads in two pair of my sandals.  They felt great!  I removed them & then installed the Longitudinal Metatarsal Arch Pads.  They felt even better!  In fact, much better than the custom orthotic inserts felt in my regular walking shoes.  I got to wondering if I could use these in all my regular shoes.

Well… that’s primarily what HAPAD manufactures them for — shoes, not necessarily sandals.  HAPAD also sells Comf-Orthotic Sports & Extra Cushioning Insoles ($14.50), and these are perfect for placement on top of the Longitudinal Metatarsal Arch Pads or Scaphoid Pads that are placed in the bottom of each shoe.

Oh… before doing this, you need to remove whatever insole is present in your shoes.  I’ve found some shoes in which the insole is glued in… it’s difficult to use them with these pads unless you can get the original insoles out.

Anywho’s… I’ve been wearing my “custom” orthotics (HAPAD Longitudinal Metatarsal Arch Pads with Comf-Orthotic Sports or Extra Cushioning Insoles) in all my shoes for over a year now & my feet haven’t felt this good in over a decade.  In addition, with either the scaphoid pads or longitudinal metatarsal arch pads, I still get to wear all my sandals whenever I want, including all day, with my feet still feeling great.  Only thing I don’t do anymore is go barefoot.

And the cost?  For shoes, about $20 per pair.  For sandals (pads only), less than $6 per pair.  Sure beats the heck out of $400 custom orthotics!

Note:  If you visit the HAPAD web site via their home page, be sure to enter the “Patient Guide” side vs. the “Physician’s Guide” side, as the prices are slightly less on the Patient side.

I’ve always wondered why it is that I never have to poop when I’m somewhere where it would be either extremely inconvenient to take a dump; extremely difficult to take a dump; or nigh impossible to take a dump.  Even over a 3 day (or more) period!  Why is that?  I certainly didn’t “will” myself to NOT have the urge to poop (although I’d certainly relish that ability!).  Yet when I’m in a “poop-friendly” environment (i.e., my own home), when the urge to poop arrives, I’ve usually got only a minute or two to hit the toilet before all hell breaks loose.  Luckily, over my lifetime, I’ve always been able to reach a toilet in time.  So again I ask — why hasn’t this ever occurred when a toilet isn’t conveniently available or I’m in a “poop-unfriendly” environment?  For example, I never get the urge to poop when driving (unless I have diarrhea, in which case there’s a nasty rumor that I shit my pants on my way to work… unfortunately, it’s true).

In summary:

• I never need or get the urge to poop when I’m somewhere where I can’t poop or it would be extremely difficult or inconvenient to do so (i.e., a “poop-unfriendly” environment) .

• I get the urge to poop & poop often when I’m in a “poop-friendly” environment

Is this normal?  Don’t know.  Is this bad?  Don’t think so.  It’s just that when I get less than a 2-minute warning of imminent poop when I’m in a poop-friendly environment, it makes me wonder (not to mention, worry) what would happen if I was in a “Poop-Unfriendly” environment.  Luckily, it’s never happened over the past 4+ decades.

I’ve never had a ‘regular’ poop schedule except for about a week one summer when I was 20 years old.  At that time I did have a schedule where I went poop every morning around 2:00 AM.  But there were unusual circumstances (i.e., it was a very “poop-unfriendly” environment).  It was the summer after my freshman year in college & I was a 4th Class Navy Midshipman stationed at the San Diego Naval Station for training.  A hundred or so of us were housed in condemned barracks that were slated for destruction.  The only bathroom available to us was approx. 20 ft x 40 ft in size, with a urinal trough running down one side of the long wall (no dividers).  Across from the trough urinal was a row of a dozen or more toilets, approximately 3 ft apart, with NO dividers, NO stalls, NO NOTHING.  Well… I have enough difficulties just taking a leak (when sober) standing 12″ away from someone else with no divider in place.  There is no way in hell I could poop out in the open in a room full of people AND sitting right next to one or two other folks.  Remember–no stalls; no dividers; no NOTHING!  So… without any decision or conscious thinking on my part, I’d wake up around 2 AM every night with the urge to poop, and I had the bathroom ALL to my little self.  Well… almost all to myself.  There were these huge roaches that you could hear walking across the bathroom floor.  The lights went out automatically @ 10PM & we couldn’t turn them on.  I purposely kept my flashlight off just so I couldn’t see how many of the huge buggers were in there with me, tip-tapping across the floor…

OK… enough crap.  I’m pooped.

Yes!  Just what you’ve been waiting for!  Pictures of baby guinea hens!  Guinea hens are native to Africa, but Wikipedia says that their proper name is “Guineafowl.”  I can vouch for the “fowl” part — they can be both loud & obnoxious (not to mention, just plain “fowl”).

These are the remaining two chicks from six live ones that the mothers let the Magpies ravage.  After the Magpie massacre, one chick & a couple eggs remained.  My wife put the eggs in with the chickens & one more guinea hen hatched, giving us the two in these pictures.

My wife has a thing for guinea hens & loves watching them.  I suppose I, too, have a thing for guinea hens… but MY thing involves a shotgun (heh, heh).

Anyway’s… the chicks are cute for the first couple weeks… then they start growing quickly, get ugly, and STINK!  (kinda’ like me, I suspect).

<BEGIN RANT>
Is it just me?  Hasn’t both the length & number of commercials gotten utterly ridiculous over the past few years?  I timed two programs over the past month, one on cable at a friend’s house & one on commercial broadcast TV.  Both averaged nearly 5 minutes of commercials for every 6.5 minutes of content.  If the time & number of commercials isn’t bad enough, add in that they also repeat the SAME crappy commercial numerous times during a 2 hr period.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but too much airing of the same commercial pretty much turns me off on ANYTHING that commercial sponsor offers.

Maybe I’m just oversensitive.  My only source of TV (of which I watch very little) is via over-the-air commercial broadcasts.  When they made the transition from analog to digital last year, as expected I lost more than half of our previous stations (I live in a rural area).  For those stations we lost, I now download from the Internet what we used to watch on those stations.  Uh… gee… uh… OUTSTANDING QUALITY & NO COMMERCIALS!!!  Maybe watching all this high quality, commercial-free content from the Internet over the past year has made me overly sensitive?   Nyah… that’s not it.

Don’t get me wrong — I understand the business model for commercials & free over-the-air broadcast TV.  It’s just that, IMHO, the length & number of commercials has gone way beyond what is reasonable or tolerable.  I, frankly, can no longer tolerate it.  It just amazes me that all the millions of cable subscribers out there continue to tolerate their steadily increasing rates, coupled with increasing quantity of commercials.  When I last had cable (over 14 years ago), all the channels had significantly fewer commercials than broadcast TV (except for the local broadcast channels, TBS & WGN).  Now nearly all the channels on cable appear as dicked up with commercials as regular over-the-air broadcast TV.  SUCH A DEAL!!!

As mentioned previously, I’ve never watched much TV and after 12 yrs of “getting screwed by cable” in Northern Virginia, I vowed I’d never again get cable.  I’m also not interested in satellite TV.  But seeing how many (& how long) commercials are aired, not just on broadcast TV but now even on cable & satellite, well… I’ve pretty much had my fill of it.  I understand that with a DVR I could fast forward through all the commercials.  What I don’t get is how frakking stupid the networks are!  With everybody fast forwarding through the commercials with their DVRs over the past several years, what do the networks do?  Show even more & longer commercials?  AND… they now steal screen real estate & put them on while the program is still airing?  WHAT A BUNCH OF FRAKKING IDIOTS!!!  In my opinion, they’re doing everything within their power to turn people off on broadcast/cable/satellite TV.  And I tell ya… it’s definitely working for me.  About the only channel we watch in our household anymore is PBS.  Granted – their fund raising drives can get a little irritating, but hey… that’s kinda how they survive, and it’s only a few times a year.  My recommendation?  Support your local PBS!

Just my “2-cents” opinion…
<END RANT>

 (RE: Gizmodo article; Wired article “Facebook’s Gone Rogue“; Washington Post article “Facebook meets the ‘Unlike’ Button“)

Yip-pee!  I feel vindicated!  I’ve ignored OODLES of requests to join Facebook over the past few years from family & friends.  Most folks just think I’m unsocial.  Well, they’re right.  Let’s see… let me look up the technical definition of what I am… oh yeah… I’m supposedly an anti- or unsocial turd (& proud of it, I might add), or just call me a “social introvert.”

Whatever… I actually prefer having my own web site and blog, where I have some control over what I release (or don’t release) about myself and that nobody reads except me.  Not so with Facebook.  In my opinion, whatever you put on Facebook… it’s going to get out (if not already out there for all, or at least advertisers, to see).  Of course… whether or not you have a “presence” on the web, there’s still likely info about you on-line.

What kinda’ irritates me about “Facebook Invites” is that you have to create an account just to see what whomever invited you to see.  No thanks.  I’m kind of an “anti-sheep” kind of guy.  Whenever a large # of people think something is really great, then I begin to wonder why & tend to move in an opposite direction.  I detest fads, and avoid them like the plague.

Is social networking like Facebook & MySpace a fad?  Don’t know, don’t care.  I’m just not interested in social networking.  Don’t forget — I’m what you call a “social turd.”

For reasons NOT to delete your Facebook acct, see this.

And for the ultimate reality check & why the blame ultimately rests with “us,” see this.

Here’s what Spring in Colorado looks like this year, 15 miles NE of Colorado Springs.  Received approx. 22″ of snow between midnight Thurs and Saturday afternoon:

We never saw these birds the first several years we lived here, but they arrived one Spring 7-8 years ago.  We quickly constructed some bluebird nest boxes and they have been returning ever since.  These photos were taken April 7, 2010, on or near the bird feeder.

(They kinda’ look fake, eh?  But I assure you, they’re real!  Mighty purdy birds they are.)

Normally I’d just put a link to an interesting article, but in this case I don’t think you can get to it unless you’re a subscriber.  So… I’ve taken the liberty to post a copy (pdf file) of the article — at least until I’m asked to remove it.  It’s an opinion piece from the Feb 18th issue of “The Economist.”

A lot of people, especially my mother who turned 91 on Feb 19th, think our country & political system is in a mess.  Well, I say — it’s ALL relative.  If you read (or watch) only the main stream U.S. news, then “Yes” — we certainly are ‘in a mess.’  I think it’s extremely refreshing to read an article from ‘the outside’ (outside the USA, that is), that expresses an opinion that what we’re experiencing today in America is “American Democracy at Work.”

Personally, I find this article extremely refreshing!

High Country News article “Charles Bowden on The War Next Door“

This isn’t something I planned on writing about, nor referring to, but I found this article disturbing.  As an “Old Fart,” I’ve been observing our so-called “War on Drugs” (WOD) for over 40 years.  I must say… it doesn’t appear that we’ve made much, if any, progress over that time period.  I had primarily noticed that I hadn’t seen much news lately on the WOD (until I saw this article).

I don’t know… seems to me it’s time we try something else… no matter how ‘off the wall’ it is.

Anyway’s… Wikipedia has a nice write-up on the WOD here.  There’s even a “WOD Clock” website.  Amazing…