An Empty LA

The new video by Maynard of Tool, on his side project Puscifer, published Apocalyptical yesterday.  (thanks to my buddy Ryan for the head's up).  It shows a completely empty Los Angeles.  I've been to the Staples Center.  It's in a very busy section of the city.   https://youtu.be/Hj_bTbfAEsc


A skateboarder in a level 4 haz mat suit, drone footage of streets, parking lots, beaches, all devoid of human life in frame after frame.  Granted, these might have been taken near dawn on a cloudy day (so you can't see shadows) but it is eerie how empty the streets are in America's 2nd largest city.

Those Southern states who are opening back up with little or no restrictions, I wish your health care systems and morticians all the best, as your elderly, cancer patients, diabetics, hypertensives, morbidly obese, immuno-compromised, the weakest of "the herd" say their good byes to their families (if they still have any) through FaceTime or panes of glass before they expire.  No, Covid-19 is not a hoax.  It's not some conspiracy created by hospitals to get more Medicare money. It's a global pandemic.

If you read this, and can't help yourself in angrily (or snarkily) responding to me, your comments will be published and mocked.

Correcting Degenerative Spondylosis

When I was unexpectedly let got my my employer of nearly 20 years back in 2017, I threw myself into a physical fitness regimen to occupy my time and work on chronic health issues that had been bugging me for several decades.  I was determined to lower my A1C, try and get ab definition, improve my aerobic capacity, and increase my yoga practice from 2 or 3 times a week to 5 or 6.  For about 9 months of 2017, I was successful in working towards my goals and making significant progress.  A1C lowered by a whole digit.  First time in 1/2 a century I went from Michelin Man torso to almost a semblance of abs and ribs and lats definition.  Practiced yoga so much that I began to name the pelicans who soared over the South Ponto cliffs where I practiced each day.  After 60 to 90 minutes of yoga and crunches and extended plank poses, I ran the 93 stairs from parking lot to top of cliffs, 10 or 12 or 15 times in a row, pushing myself to go as fast as possible, taking 2 to 3 stairs at a time, going both up and down.

This ledge no longer exists, since a fancy coastal hotel has destroyed the bluff over-look which is now apparently private property.

This is where I made a BIG mistake.

An aging guy in his 50s shouldn't be trying to do Parkour (as I had previously in Orange County at the beach on the massive rocks there), or extreme stair running.  All of that IMPACT did not do my hips, knees, or spine any favors, as I thudded down the stairs and sprinted up them at a running pace.  The whole time I was driving down my A1C and helping my muscle groups to develop, I was causing high cycle fatigue to damage my hip joints and spine (L4-l5-S1) with all the cumulative impacts.  In 2018, I found a new job here locally in Carlsbad, and cut my yoga back to twice a week, along with stair running just twice a week.  In 2019 some developers destroyed the South Ponto Beach cliffs with a high end boutique hotel construction project that blocked the top of the stairs and eliminated the pretty spot in all of Carlsbad where anyone could practice yoga, a hundred feet above the ocean with an on-shore breeze.

Also in 2019, I began to limp as my right hip started to show significant signs of wear.  My lower spine felt akin to "a stack of tea cups and saucers" that were ready to tip over and crash, if I did something as "extreme" as reaching 2 or 3 feet diagonally in front of me, my back popped, felt like it was going to collapse, and drove significant chronic sciatica on my right side all the way down my right leg.  In the 2nd 1/2 of 2019, I had a series of X-rays and MRIs that revealed Spondylosis, disc generation, leg nerve impingement, and 4 mm of misalignment on L4-L5-S1.  My orthopedist explained that the minor misalignment was not a huge issue, but the nerve impingement would only continue to get worse.  My right leg would sometimes "go out" for a step or two, as if it was no longer attached.  Then it would come back.  The ortho explained that the frequency and duration of the absentee-right leg would increase over time, as the nerve got further crushed.
The recommended solution, as to do an ALIF, Anterior Lumbar Inter-fusion, where they cut you from belly button down the middle, open up your abs, move over all your sacked intestines in-tact to the right side, scoot over your aorta and vena cava, and access the front of your spine to excavate (medical dremel tool) the front of your disks & vertebrae,  inserting titanium cages that have allograft adult stem cells inside of them to encourage your spine to accept them.  Then they turn you over on a sandwich bed in which you, the patient, are the meat of the sandwich.  Once on your stomach, two Large slits are cut on your left and right lumbar muscles along the muscle fibers, and screws and tie rods are installed on the back side to stabilize all the cage and allograft work that was just done on the front side.  After a 6 to 8 hour surgery, you stay in the hospital 3 to 5 days, and you DON'T BLT (Bend, Lift, Twist) for the next 3 months, minimum, wearing a little back brace that covers the 3 incisions, but which does not Prevent you from Bending, Lifting, or Twisting.  "How will I know if I've gone too far?" I asked the Doctor and his RN.  "The pain will tell you".   This freaked me out before surgery, as I tried on the back brace a week before the operation, having wrongly assumed it would be a confining corset that would not let me move.  I can move a great deal in the back brace. My body screams at me when I've moved too far.

So 16 days ago, on Monday morning at 530am, I had my ALIF surgery with the posterior back hardware reinforcements completed.  At the 6 hour mark (of the 8 hour estimate) the orthopedic surgeon came out to talk to Dr Desert Flower to tell her I was fine and everything went well, while his PA apparently closed up my sutures. An hour later in recovery, I kept complaining that "a giant is kneeling on my back's left side!" (the side that previously had not hurt at all).  The pain meds flowed freely Monday and early Tuesday, and I complained very little. On Wednesday I was weening myself off the pain meds, and feeling good enough to come home.  Thursday DDF brought me home, and I've been rather sedentary since October 25th, as my spine slowly builds bone around the titanium hardware and the 3 separate spinal bones become one longer, strong bone fused together.

I had sought out a 2nd opinion, which took 2 weeks before planning the surgery, since DDF's employer based health insurance has a 2nd opinion consulting service where they get experts from Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic to review the case.  The 2nd opinion concurred with he ALIF.  The 2nd opinion also concurred that fixing the spine has to happen before repairing the damaged right hip joint, or a substantially increased risk of hip joint dislocation could happen if the spinal fusion was attempted after a hip replacement.  I spoke to the VP of Business Development at OrthoFix about the Phoenix NXG system that was going to be installed into my body.  He was a very helpful person who spoke confidently and intelligently about OrthoFix's products, regulatory body approvals, Quality System, FDA approvals and recalls, and fielded hardware installations that number in the 10s of thousands when Gen 2 and Gen 3 (current) are considered together, since Gen 3 is not much different that Gen 2.  As a life long engineer interested in quality aspects of premium products, this comforted me somewhat, and I thanked the VP for his openness and time.

The merciful NSAIDs I'd been taking for my hip were discontinued October 14th, a week before spine surgery, since NSAIDs inhibit new bone growth.  Now I'm just on the Tylenol, but sometimes the Tylenol has hydrocodone or Oxycodone in it, when the pain gets above a 5 on the 1-10 pain scale.  I'm actively trying to not become dependent on the narcotics, so I endure a 1-3 or 1-4 level until I feel it crescendoing towards a 5 or 7 or 8.   The first week at home was relatively pain free, with barely 1 out of a possible 8 pain killers being taken each day.  Then, on Saturday November 2nd, we had friends over, and I over-did it with activity, grilling, refilling hummingbird feeders, going in and out of the house, and Saturday night my left leg - the one that has a good hip and never hurt me previously - was in tremendous pain all night, resistive to any narcotics, and preventing sleeping more than 20 minutes at a time.  Sunday I rested, sedentary, but Sunday night was no better.  Monday I rested again, and finished a good book on the Tulsa 1921 Memorial Day massacre where state sanctioned mob violence destroyed the African American section of Tulsa burning down 1100 buildings and leaving 5000 people homeless (there will be a blog posting on this later, here).  My doctor's office has advised that I Carefully and Cautiously stretch while laying on my back, to bring my knees to my chest and straighten my legs without bending my spine.  I hope it works tonight... zobaczymy.
My cousin and one of my co-workers had this same spinal surgery on their necks, where the wind pipe and throat are moved over and hardware installed on the cervical vertebrae.  Both my cousin and my co-worker told me the importance of stretching after surgery, with reasonable limits... and once all the bones are fully fused in 9 to 12 months, that I'll need to stretch every day to avoid stiffening up and getting sore again.   So I have that to look forward to as well.

Next October (2020) I get to have my right hip joint replaced, since the protective cartilage is completely gone and I'm bone-spur-to-bone-spur grinding whenever I walk and load the right hip.  Getting old is So Much Fun!

November's Last Wine Review

As I spent the afternoon cleaning up my office, I have a pile of bottles that I need to toss out.  Before doing so, I wanted to briefly mention them here.  All of these were drinkable, enjoyable, affordable, and bought at my local Bressi Ranch Trader Joe's grocery store.  None of them were more than $10 a bottle with the exception of the Pinot Noir, which was about $16 a bottle if my recollection is accurate.

The Monique Cellars 2016 Sauvignon Blanc Central Coast white wine was pretty good.  Screw top, not corked, it was fine quality.


The Castle Rock Winery 2015 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino County has a straight-forward label, was less than $6 a bottle, and is shelved right next to the Trader Joe's branded wine bottles I mentioned earlier.  Screw-top also, this wine did not suffer from a poor quality cork, oxidized shelf life, or any skinny or undrinkable aspects.  Recommended as an affordable go-to wine, if you're not near a Trader Joe's.


Kidia Sauvignon Blanc, estate bottled 2016, D.O. Loncomilla Valley Chile.  It had some citrus notes but was not over-powering like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  I tried it, liked it, and thought I'd mention it to you here.

Reserva Orquídea Rosario Estate Sauvignon Blanc, D.O. Valle Central Chile.  Like the Kidia Sauvignon Blanc, this was an enjoyable white wine. Also a screw top, shelved beside the Kidia, it was a delicious dual bottle purchase.


Lastly, Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir Carneros 2015, 1430 cases produced.  Dr Desert Flower really enjoyed this wine, stating it had notes of currant and a smooth follow-through on tasting (as of February 2016 I can't drink red without getting itchy).  I had a sip, and it was yummy.  More pricey near $16 a bottle (or two to three times as much as the other bottles mentioned above in this post) it's not for every-day drinking chez nous, but it is a good recommendation and something we'll enjoy from time to time (while supplies last).



For tasting notes and nuances, it's been too long since I enjoyed these to be very descriptive here.  However, if any of these were bad, I would have either dumped them down the drain, or not mentioned them here... rest assured.

What To Expect After Elbow Surgery

So back in July, I posted here (link here) that I'd screwed up my olecranon bursa on my left elbow by jamming it tween the arm rest and the fuselage of a 4 hour Delta flight to Cincinnati at Just the Wrong angle.  The bursa ruptured, made my arm swell, heat up (infection), and was painful.  If I tried to load it working out with free weights, working in my yard with hedge clippers, or doing yoga (like plank pose) the elbow was painful, wobbly, and no fun.

Bryce Canyon (not how it is not "smooth")

I took methyl prednisone (at the advice and Rx of an Urgent Care doc here in Carlsbad) to make the swelling go do and relieve the pain.  The steroids worked, But, the insidious damage had already begun on the bone itself, following the bursa rupture.  The bursa fluid provided food for naturally occurring bacteria (like staph) to feast upon, and the bones where it spilled (the ulna, for example) provided an Excellent network of a narrow lattice-like maze where the staph could eat, breed, and hide from white blood cells (lymphocytes) whose job it was to envelope and kill the invading bacteria.  Problem is, the white blood cells are larger than the bacteria, and can't get into all the nooks and crannies of the bone lattice work.

The end of each of the arm bones are supposed top be nice, smooth, elliptical shapes, where bursa and synovial fluid sacs keep the hard bone from rubbing against the other hard bone.  The fluid sacs act as cushions, to prevent bone-on-bone damage.  While working out and going to physical therapy with a damaged bursa, the bones were grinding on each other, the bacteria were multiplying and building infected lairs in the bone, and throughout July and August, it kept getting worse.  Bone erosion, bone infection, bursa inflammation... it was a vicious cycle.

So I go to an orthopedist who does an x-ray.  Being versed in radiography, I know how poor the resolution can be on an x-ray, especially when dealing with 3D shapes, since the x-ray is a 2D picture.  X-rays are also notorious for not being able to see much of anything on low density soft tissue and fluids, aka the inflamed bursa and progressing bone infection.  They prescribe more steroids, and tell me to ice my elbow - with a freezing cold ice bath for 15 minutes being the most effective - and continue physical therapy.

As a good patient, I go to PT three times a week, I ice my elbow at least once a day.  It hurts less, but it is still wobbly, and when I try to do heavy lifting (like 180 lbs bench pressing) or heavy curls (like a 65 lbs curl bar) it screams at me in pain, so I stop.  I can do light hedge clipping, but anything requiring significant effort and strength, the left elbow rejects the notion, completely, sends extreme pain signals to the brain, and I halt the activity.

Throughout August I struggle with this troublesome elbow.  It's not getting better, and it seems to progressively becoming slightly worse.  Yoga poses that use my arms become increasingly painful.  Playing drum set is fine for about 5 minutes, but after that, Ouch, Yikes, Stop!  Dancing (with ethanol enhancement) to silly songs like YMCA or Vogue, where hand movements are necessary Truly Aggravate the left elbow and result in pain, swelling, throbbing... driving the infection (that I did not yet know I had) DEEPER into the bone.

Just before Dr Desert Flower and I went to Montpellier France for a work conference at Labor Day that she needed to attend, the elbow started to get red, swollen, and exude puss (yes, very gross).  I go back to my primary care doctor who looks at it, and categorically says "you need dissection, you need packing, you need drainage and vacuum and antibiotics... you Must see an orthopedic surgeon immediately!"  I told her that all orthopedists were booked for at least the next 6 weeks and I had no way of seeing anyone, especially not 2 days before heading to France.  She leapt into action, and made an appointment with Scripps best elbow surgeon that afternoon.  The surgeon re-arranged his schedule, and saw me late that afternoon in his office down in La Jolla.  He took a culture from the oozing elbow, hoping to grow in a lab whatever the infectious agent that was troubling me.  Nothing grew, of course. He also placed me on a massive dose of broad spectrum oral antibiotics (4x a day), to try and kill (or at least subdue / slow the progress) the infection.

He gave me a huge bag of betadine swabs, sterile gauze, ace bandages with velcro, and medical tape to clean and dress the festering elbow while in France.  I dutifully cleaned my elbow with the betadine swabs each day after I showered, and carefully wrapped it in the sterile gauze for the week we were in France.  On the plane ride home, I sat with my arms crossed over my chest, protecting my sensitive elbow from being bumped by other passengers, the passing drink cart, and anything else in the crammed, lemming-like environment that is the coach economy section of international commercial travel, unless you're on Aeroflot.

When I got back to California, I was supposed to have an MRI of my elbow pre-surgery so that the surgeon would know what to expect.  Due to the arcane and byzantine American health care system, the MRI was Still Not approved by United Health care, and I had to waste a day of my life getting an ultrasound of my elbow, instead.  The Scripps elbow ultrasound radiologist took one look at the high resolution image, and said "this is not classical, you'll be getting an MRI".  He pointed to the screen where the contours of Bryce Canyon were showing up on the end of my ulna, instead of the nice smooth egg-shape that was supposed to be there.  Change the angle of the UT probe, and yep, the canyons and valleys and out-cropping were still there, in graphic 3D.  The MRI should confirm it, the radiologist said.  An hour later, United Health Care approved the MRI, and it was schedule for 2 days later, on a Saturday.

The next day (Friday) the Hospital with the MRI machine called, and said they had a last minute opening, am I available?  Unemployed and unable to use my left arm... sure... I was available.  So I got fast-tracked into the MRI the Friday before my surgery on the next Wednesday.  The elbow continued to "weep" out puss over the weekend and right up to the day of surgery.

Holding the vancomycin "hand grenade"

The morning of the surgery, the surgeon's PA (physician's assistant) comes into the pre-op room where I am wearing just a open-backed gown, and asks me "do you know what to expect, what is coming?"  I told her my abbreviated understanding, of surgery, followed by 2 or 3 weeks to let it heal, followed by weeks or months of physical therapy.  "Not quite" was her reply.  She then laid out the whole treatment plan that I had no clue would be so onerous.

It went as follows:
- Wednesday morning surgery to remove the bursa, and pack in antibiotic "beads"
- the infected bone would be removed (picture a medical dremel tool) to 'clean it up'
- stay in the hospital for 2 days, with my arm immobilized in a cast
- go back into surgery on Friday night, and have the beads removed, check on progress of the wound, clean up anything that needs internal clean up
- Saturday, after surgery, if I am stabilized, go home with a fancy portable vacuum pump, that will keep suction on the elbow wound - which they won't stitch closed - to drain fluid and to aid in the healing and closure of the wound over time
- keep the vacuum pump on me for at least 3 weeks, changing the dressing on the elbow with a visiting home health care nurse 3X a week
- install a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) into my right arm, that runs up to my heart's ventricle vestibule, where it will dump out liquid antibiotics that I will infuse at home, twice a day, for 2 hours each dose, for the next 6 weeks
- come back to the doctor's office once a week through this whole process, to check on progress of the wound healing, to take vital signs, and make sure there's no relapse back into infection.

First look at home, after surgery (disgusting, yes)

Ugh!  I had no idea that it would be such a life-halting inconvenience.  If I had been employed at this time, I would have had to take 1/2 days basically EVERY DAY for a month, to deal with this health issue.  Why could they not just stitch up the elbow, like a "normal surgery"?  Then the bursa would not grow back clean and healthy and the bone infection would continue to destroy the ends of my bones.  It needed to heal "from the inside out", and closing the wound before the bursa had fully rebuilt itself from scratch would have a negative prognosis, with re-infection likely.  According to the surgeon, who volunteers much of his time at the local San Diego VA, Afghan and Iraq vets with bone infections from shrapnel fight the infection for months at a time, on and off antibiotics, and the only way to seriously correct the problem is to surgically dissect (dremel tool / bone saw / etc) the infected bone, and then let the body grow it back.

The surgery went fine.  Two hours under general anesthetic.  The final wound was 50 mm long by 20 mm wide by 10 mm deep (or 2" x 1" x 3/8ths of an inch, roughly).  Bursa removed, and 4 mm of ulna dremel tooled off.  Lots of Percocet in the Hospital to deal with the pain.  The re-check 2 days later also went well, beads removed, I was set to leave the hospital on Saturday with my portal vacuum pump... but.. bureaucracy stepped in the way.  Apparently, no one filed the final paper work to get me a pump to take home, send the vancomycin antibiotic to my house, or arrange the home health care nurse visits.  "We're sorry, but you'll need to stay until Monday, or maybe Tuesday, once the paper work is done."  Unacceptable.

The hospital bed was a VERY uncomfortable "smart bed" made by Hill-Rom Versa Care.  It was supposed to "auto adjust" to the patient laying on it.  Instead, all it did, was inflate and deflate, Every Two Minutes, to tilt my pelvis forward and back, legs up slightly, legs down slightly.  It was uncomfortable, disconcerting, disruptive, and impossible to sleep soundly on it.  Whoever the morons at Hill-Rom were who designed this monstrosity obviously never asked for customer feedback.  The nurses Could Not turn off the auto-adjust, or the bed alarmed at the central nurses' station.  Sleeping on this continually moving, hot-and-sweaty, poorly designed, poorly conceived contraption meant that Saturday night in the hospital was a very unhappy & unpleasant & restless experience for me.

Sunday came, and the bureaucrats in "Program Management" continued to drag their feet.  Apparently walking and chewing gum at the same time was a challenge for them.  "We might have a pump delivered after 7pm tonight, but we can't guarantee it... we don't normally discharge patients on weekends".  UGGGHHHH!  And then "Even if you get the pump, we have not gotten any confirmation that you'll get the antibiotics or wound nurse... so it's best to just wait until Monday or Tuesday."  This was not the Riyadh Saudi Arabia Ritz, and I was not enjoying my house arrest.  But my heroic floor nurse "Jose" leapt into action.  Working 7am to 7pm, he forced the system to accept all the discharge paper work, prepped me for going home, and KNEW that if he didn't get me out before the end of his shift, I'd be stuck in the hospital for Sunday night unnecessarily.  Jose's efforts were successful; the pump arrived at 7pm, we left at 730pm, and the antibiotics showed up on our door step via courier at 1030pm.


Then, everyday, from October 16th through November 22nd, twice a day, I had to sit and infuse my IV antibiotics through my right arm, into my heart.  Each infusion took roughly 2 hours.  I watched all of Stranger Things, Luther, F is For Family, the Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me debacle, Dr Whos that I had not seen, and re-read Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, finished JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion, and started Iain M Bank's "Use of Weapons".  I could not sweat during this time, as perspiration caused the adhesives on the PICC line to loosen and come off my skin.  The PICC line ran straight to my heart, and getting a blood or heart infection was not something I wanted to entertain.  So a month of being sedentary was required.  I tried learning basic Spanish in this time too... but without someone to practice and converse with, I made little progress on this front.

Every week I returned to Scripps in La Jolla to have the nurses, PAs, and doctors tell me how "beautiful" my wound looked, and how well it was healing.  Every 2 or 3 or 4 days, I showered with a large plastic sleeve sealed around my left arm, and baggies that looked like a shower cap over the PICC line dressing.  Today (Thanksgiving) was the very first day I could shower and use Two Hands!  Hooray!

First wet to dry dressing, jammed in

During this time, the first 3 weeks, I had to wear the $22,000 portal vacuum pump around my neck (even sleeping with it, and recharging it as I slept).  Every Monday, a nurse came to change out the vacuum sealed dressing.  Every Thursday, I went to doctor's office in La Jolla to have them change it again.  After 3 weeks, the vacuum pump was discontinued, and I had to do a "wet to dry dressing".

What's a "wet to dry dressing" you might ask?  (I had no idea what it was).  Well, using sterile technique with nitrile gloves and sterile gauze and sterile saline, the patient PACKS in sterile gauze that has been wetted in saline, jammed up into the wound, using sterile cotton swabs as well as nitrile gloved fingers.  Yes, this is unpleasant and mildly painful.  Then, the jammed in gauze is covered by a 2x2 gauze pad, which is then covered by a 4x4, which then gets and ace bandage wrapped around it, to hold it all into place.  All of this is done using just one hand, since the left hand is too far away from the let elbow to be of any assistance.  The Next Day, using sterile gloves, all the jammed in gauze is yanked out, and the process started again - approximately every 24 hours.  Each time the nasty used gauze came out, it looked like a little piece of lemon peel.

At my Nov 22nd visit, I was told the "wet to dry dressings" could be discontinued, and "put a bandaid on it" .. a large 2x2 inch bandaid...  but no more dressing changes.  And the PICC line was removed, leaving an irritated upper right arm where all the dressing adhesives were aggravating my fair skin.  Once again, the nurses and doctors admired how "beautiful" the wound was, and how well it was healing, which was a very strange things to experience from the patient's perspective.  I am glad that the whole wound process is NEARLY over.  I go back in 2 weeks for a followup, and THEN likely, physical therapy will begin, and last through MLK day or Valentines day 2018.  I will be happy to begin working out again, able to sweat, and re-building lost muscle mass... as soon as the bursa is re-built.  I Do Not want to re-infect the ulna or any other bones, so I have to take it easy on my arms and lift nothing more than 5 lbs with my left arm until after my next doctor visit in 2 weeks.

My friend Joe M texted me several Spanish curse words, to help me learn the slang of the language (similar to how I first learned French).  If you want to call me up, or text me in Spanish during the next two weeks, I'd appreciate the practice.  In the mean time, I'll be working on legs and core and aerobic exercise, until I get clearance from my doctor to begin rebuilding strength in my left arm.

Yes, this Thanksgiving I am very thankful that my wife has a good job with good health insurance coverage that paid for this 6 digit surgical experience, and I am very thankful I don't have to get my left arm amputated.  One armed drummers are not very good.

Wonderful White Wines from Trader Joe's

I have an enormous collection of wine bottles on my desk, that for months, I've been procrastinating in blogging about.  I've always had something else to do for the last several months that was more pressing, whether it was working out, going to physical therapy, having elbow surgery, going to job interviews, going to France with DDF for her work conference, going to Jackson Hole for vacation, post-op doctor visits, energy consulting on the phone with clients, cleaning out and refilling the 11 humming bird feeders around our yard, getting 6.29 kWHrs of solar PV panels installed on my roof, re-reading old Zelazny books, learning introductory Spanish, or reading a new Iain M Banks book... but I've grown so tired of all the bottles taking up space and getting dusty, that I am going to do a shot-gun blast review of all of them this afternoon, and toss the bottles into the recycling bin this evening.

First off, the Trader Joe's "Petit Reserve" bottles are not bad.  They're sometimes slightly better than the standard fare at Trader Joe's.  Sometimes they are slightly worse / less tasty / off-a-little-bit, but they're never "pour down the drain bad", as some low cost wines and poorly kept high-end wines can be.  Many of them are screw top, and I personally have No Problem with screw top wine bottles, since
1) they are easier & quicker to open
2) the wine never suffers from cork rot & the resulting spoilage
3) they are slightly less expensive to manufacture, and that savings can be passed on to me by responsible grocers
4) they don't deplete the cork rainforests of Portugal and the endangered cork monkeys who live there (Portuguese cork monkeys are a fictional invention from my old friend Todd, from more than 20 years ago)
5) convenience: anyone can open them anywhere, without having to hunt up a sommelier / cork screw (like when you're away from home, traveling, or in a hotel room)

The Petit Reserves from Trader Joe's that I have tried are as follows:
Sauvignon Blanc, Horse Heaven Hills, Washington, 2016 - it was ok, drinkable, not bad for a Washington wine (and I am sure if you're from Washington that you Love your local wine, and that's fine.  I don't hate your local wine, it just didn't WOW me, or impress me, to the point of making a post all about it). For $7 a bottle, it was not bad.

Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma County, 2016 - For $6 a bottle, this was some dern good wine.  I hope the recent fires in Northern California didn't destroy the inventory or the vines, as not drinking this again would be a loss.  This wine has a light citrus note, but NOT anything like a puckering New Zealand grapefruit abortion that completely ruins my palate & meal.

Sémillion, Napa Valley, 2016 - another $6 bottle that was not bad.  It had a nice buttery finish that some sémillions often do, but the long notes on the tongue were not as pleasing to me as the Sauvignon Blanc.

Pinot Grigio, Monterey, 2016 - fine for a $6 pinot grigio. Sweeter than the Sauvignon Blanc mentioned above, bit not riesling sweet.  If you like pinot grigios and don't want to pay $18 Santa Margarita prices, save $12 a bottle and buy this instead.

Other Trader Joe's wines that are not "Petit Reserve" that I've enjoyed, include:

Trader Joe's Coastal Sauvignon Blanc, Central Coast, 2016 -

This $4.49 bottle is the staple that I
keep 6 to 12 bottles on-hand, in the wine fridge, at all times.  This goes with everything.  It's not too sweet, nor is it too dry.  It causes me to have zero hang-over the next morning if I drink the whole bottle (or more) the night before.  My liver likes it.  My tongue likes it.  I like it.  I've given bottles to the neighbors' before, and if DDF and I are invited over to a friend or neighbor in California and we bring wine, one or more of the bottles will likely be this one.  It is my inexpensive & delicious "go to" wine, that I buy by the 1/2 dozen whenever I go to the Bressi Ranch Trader Joe's here in Carlsbad.











Trader Joe's Grower's Reserve, Sauvignon Blanc, made with organically grown grapes, 2016 - this $9 bottle was pretty good.  It had a smooth finish, light citrus notes, not at all overwhelming, and was enjoyable to drink; especially nice for an organic wine at a reasonable price.  If I was hard-core 100% organic all-the-time every-day, I'd probably switch to this, but since I am more than 1/2 century old now, and more than 1/2 of my life span is behind me, my passion for all-things-organic is more reasonable now.  If I can peel it, and I am not eating the skins, then organic is less important to me.  Yes, yes, I know biology experts, that what it is grown in and what it receives as nutrients during its life-cycle determines what its content is going to be.  I get that.  I also get that when I was a very young man (in my teens and 20s) I never thought I'd live past 40 or 50 at best, so now each day is sort of "bonus time" that I originally had not counted on ever reaching.  If this organic sauvignon blanc was AMAZING and Life Changing, I'd proclaim it from the roof tops, but to me, it was a good sauvignon blanc.  Enough to write home about, but not enough to turn into a short story or a novel.

I have several more bottles to write about, but one can only sit inside and blog for so long when it is 65 degrees Fahrenheit outside, with a light breeze, here in Southern California.  I know other parts of the country are experiencing a "normal November" of cold temperatures, cloudy skies, and frost each morning... but I blog today with my windows open, wearing shorts and a tee shirt, and I've not yet picked up my mail from the central mail down the street, so 'nuff for now.

Fresh Fish for Lunch

As long-time readers of JustJoeP are aware, I have an affinity for ospreys (links here and here).  They're the biggest raptors one can find at the beach here in southern California.  They successfully fish in both calm and rough seas, and they are as comfortable in the water as they are in the air, "shaking off" excess sea water after they've snatched an unsuspecting fish from the ocean.  While I've seen the occasional harrier hawk, red tail, and kite hunting at / near the beach and Batiquitos Lagoon, it's the ospreys that capture my attention and fascinate me.

Last April, when I had been notified that I was getting laid off after 20 years of devoted service, just so that Evil Corp could try and appease activist investors who demanded lower fixed over-head costs by letting go all of their experienced remote workers like myself, I had just finished practicing yoga at South Ponto Beach when I spotted this impressive osprey heading from the beach towards a high voltage utility poll near La Costa & the PCH, just next to the South Ponto parking lot.  Camera in hand, I took pictures for a solid 20 minutes as this successful apex predator enjoyed its lunch of fresh fish.  The fish was more than a foot long, and weighted enough that the osprey had to Really Exert Effort to fly with it to the pole.

I slowly walked up to within 100 feet of the base of the pole, snapping digital photos along the way.  A magnificent bird, eating a fresh meal.  Likely a juvenile who has not yet mated and built a nest to raise a family, or the meal would have been at the nest and not on the pole, above a busy intersection.

My hope is to resume yoga practice at the beach once my post-elbow- bursa-dissection surgery wound is fully healed.  That Might be December... but it also might be later in 2018 some time.  I do hope to see my neighbor the osprey again soon.

Torrey Pines Beach Yoga

Back in June, I drove Dr Desert Flower down to Otay Mesa so she could get a Fast Pass Global Entry and bypass the log immigration ICE lines that always exist when crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.  After I dropped her off at work, I stopped off at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, just off the PCH, with my State Park annual parking pass & yoga mat in hand.  It was a sunny day, when I parked at the beachside parking lot, and crossed the steep road that ascends up to the top of the Torrey Pines bluffs, located a mostly-flat spot that over looked the beach, and I rolled out my mat.  It was a new place in which I've never practiced yoga before.  I thought it would be a good morning.


Within about 10 minutes of beginning my practice, a thick marine layer began rolling in.  By "thick" I mean the 50 yards between the water's edge and I became occluded by mist to the point where I could no longer see the sea.  I could hear the waves... and the mist made me pretty damp and sticky, but I could not bask in the warm sun nor see the waves rolling in and crash on the beach.   (These were 3 to 4 foot waves, that made quite a crash, when they rolled in)

After more than 1/2 an hour in the wetting mist of the thick marine layer, I called it quits, rolled up my mat, and headed home.  (the gray backpack pictured here, was the last time it was usable... more on that in a future post).  It was interesting to note that the marine layer marched in from South to North.  Right Behind me, was a steep incline that lead up to the Torrey Pines bluffs, more than a 100 feet above where my mat and I were.  I could visibly see wisps of mist condensing as the wind drove the moist air against the cliffside and spiraled past me, within just a few minutes of taking this photo.

I'll practice there again, as it was scenic, natural, and inspiring... far better than any flatulence or sweat scented yoga studio.  Beach yoga studios are the kind of environment I call "my happy place".
= )

The Allure of Organic Tomatoes

Dr Desert Flower loves fresh tomatoes.  I prefer my tomatoes cooked... but I will tolerate a fresh tomato sliced on a burger if it is an option.  DFF has been trying to grow tomatoes on the East side of our home, where the side yard gets about 3 hours of intense late morning sun after our M class star claims high enough to shine over the 5 foot tall masonry border wall.  The eastern garden was not very fruitful.  Either because of the limited UV window, or the poor soil, and poor drainage... or the legacy of the cornucopia of chemicals (both pesticides and fertilizers) that the previous homeowners left us in the garage's "cabinet of death" we found when we moved in... we were not sure.  But we gave up on the side yard, and moved a large potted tomato plant to the sun drenched court yard at our front door.

The front door court yard BAKES in the mid-day.  The 2 story southern facing house wall reflects a good deal of heat energy, the concrete warms up considerably, and the tomato plant basks in all of this solar radiance.  Tomatoes have been plentiful, producing almost 1 a day (6 to 10 a week) over the last month.  Then... we started seeing little black "rice grains" on the concrete around the base of the plant, and many of the leaves were completely eaten.  Turns out, the "rice grains" were "castings" (not inconel castings... insect larva poop, caterpillar droppings), and DDF identified the perfectly camouflaged caterpillars as cabbage loopers, laid by a moth who loves tomatoes.  These loopers - which look like Sesame Street Inch Worms when they are young and little and cute - can grow to the size of an adult human's pinky.  They are relentless.  They are perfectly hidden on the plant, mimicking the exact same green color, latching on underneath a large leaf, gripping the stems with their multiple caterpillar legs tenaciously, and chomping into the plant viciously with 4 alien-like jaws.

Each day I water the tomato plant as a good unemployed husband, after applying for 3 to 5 jobs.  Each day I look for the tell-tale black "castings" laying around the plant, and if I find any (as I do about 1/2 the days I look), then I closely inspect the plant, looking for the devious little critters who love tomatoes as much as DDF does.  When I find one, I toss it out into the lawn (previously using my fingers, but I've placed a small pair of needle nose pliers out on the table in the court yard, as the loopers put off a green defensive slime when gripped between fingers... and I don't need any more inflammation in my life) and let the birds eat them; peacocks and peahens are frequent visitors to our front lawn.

The interwebs told us to use dish soap solution, sprayed on the plant, to discourage the loopers, as a way to not harm the fruit or plant.  Yes, a bubbly dish soap (we use Dawn) DOES make the little young loopers fall off in distress, and one can easily find them on the concrete.  But the fat, puffy, fully-grown adults completely ignore the dish soap sprayed on them, even when I spray it DIRECTLY on them, leaf inverted, directly impinged, 10 or 20 squirts, all of its little feet tenaciously gripping the poor little tomato plant, undeterred.  All of this caterpillar assault has left the tomato plant undaunted.  In fact, the tomato plant has re-doubled its efforts in producing fruit, as if to raise a big middle finger to the insects who are trying to destroy it.  That's good news; more tasty tomatoes chez nous.

Window Seat Elbow Room

On July 2nd, Dr Desert Flower and I flew from LAX to Covington Kentucky (Cincinnati's deserted airport, across the Ohio River), and Delta upgraded us from economy exit row seats up to row 14A and B in "Delta Comfort", which gives you i) 2 or 3 inches of more leg room ii) free carbohydrate loaded snacks [as many as you want, basket brought around twice during the flight... but sadly, very very little protein], and iii) free alcoholic drinks.  Delta says that it gives you "dedicated over-head bin space" in Delta Comfort, but I've frequently seen people in zones 1, 2, and 3 putting their over-stuffed roller bags in ANY over-head they can desperately find, "Delta Comfort" or otherwise.

I like window seats.  I need a window seat.  Let me lean up against the inside of the fuselage, and escape the morbidly obese traveller in the economy ticketed middle seat who hogs the shared arm rests.  I can look out the window, I can sleep against the cool plastic that lines the aluminum fuselage (I try and pick a seat on the North side of the plane when traveling across the US by air, to avoid the solar heating effect on the South side of the plane, mid-day).  I am a happy camper with a window seat.  DDF prefers an aisle seat to facilitate not having to bother anyone if she gets up to use the facilities.  In middle seats, I typically have to sit with my arms crossed over my chest (known as a "Polish Bra" within my family) because the arm rests have over-flowingly large Umerikun or European travelling passengers spilling over them.  Sitting cross-armed for 3 or 4 hours is uncomfortable, leads to over-heating, armpit perspiration, and makes working on a laptop impossible.  DDF took the middle seat 14B and I took the window seat 14A.

On a Delta 737-800, in row 14, Not Only do you sit directly in-line with the high pressure turbine section of the nearby wing engine (the fastest place to die if a HP turbine disk ruptures, but it would be instantaneous, and spare you the shock and horror of seeing the person in front or behind you being impaled / decapitated / cut-in-half while the pilot tries to quickly get the plane on the ground in one piece with the one surviving engine IF it is still operating... don't worry, less than 2 dozen commercial passenger jets have ever suffered a catastrophic HP turbine wheel burst... so it is more likely you'll be hit by lightning), but the 14A window seat includes a tapered "wedge" where the contoured concave plastic cowling around the window nearly meets the left arm rest in-line with seat 14A's backrest.  This forms a narrow triangle that is easy to jam one's left elbow bursa into, and the plane's vibration in flight then "embeds" your elbow further.  Make it a 4 hour flight, with or without turbulence, but always including a small amount of engine vibration, and you have a recipe for disaster.  I watched The Batman Lego movie, part of Silence (but found 17th Century Jesuit missionaries to Japan not an engrossing topic, sorry Scorsese), all the while with my left elbow wedged against the arm rest and fuselage.

On July 3rd, I self-medicated with whiskey, both Irish and Kentucky varieties, copiously, and my elbow didn't hurt too much.  On July 4th, my elbow was VERY sore, and swollen.  The evening of July 4th, I began to ice it as DDF, my mother-in-law and I watched more Twin Peaks on Netflix in Cincinnati.  July 5th, we flew back to LAX and DDF and I were lucky enough to NOT have a passenger in the middle seat between us so the arm rests went up, and I had nothing to bump my elbow.  July 6th, more ice, and compression, as the elbow was warm, painful and swollen to almost the size of my knee.  July 7th (last Friday), I sat in the outpatient surgery waiting room for 4 hours with a chilled wine sleeve (see below) wrapped around my left arm's elbow (providing both compression and cooling), and I was unable to get an appointment to have my elbow looked at, as it was Not getting any better.  I was able to secure a 3pm appointment for Monday, July 10th, where I hoped that my primary care physician would either inject my elbow with cortisone or aspirate the swollen bursa or both.  Throughout the weekend, I kept icing my elbow, about 50% of the time I was awake.  At night, I'd go to sleep without anything on my elbow, and wake up with the elbow aching, unable to straighten my arm, and in significant pain.

Use a freezer wine "huggie" for both compression and cold! (left arm pictured here)

Naproxen Sodium entera-coated 500 mg was taken 1.5 times a day - I could have taken it 2x a day, but I was not disciplined enough to stick to a schedule.  By the time I went to the 3pm appointment, my elbow was only 1.2X its normal size.  When my primary care physician saw it, she told me to continue to do exactly what I was doing:
- compression
- cold packs
- Naproxen 2x a day
She also told me to keep moving it, do light exercise if it is not painful. "Pain is nature telling you to stop".  I lobbied her for an injection, and after a few dozen seconds of her squeezing and pushing on my elbow, she said "there is a greater risk if infection if I do. Here, I can feel your bone. Continue to apply cold and compression."  OK.  Patience.  "3 weeks is the standard recovery time from an injured bursa" she continued.  Deep inhale...  patience.

So, if you hurt your elbow, and it starts to swell up, and it aches for 2 or 3 days, and you're not sure what to do, certainly go to your doctor.  If you wait too long - as I did - and you go to the doctor after treating yourself with ice, compression, and full-range-of-motion light exercises to keep the joint from locking up, be prepared to just endure it... for 3 weeks.

Les Portes de Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc

Trader Joes has carried the Portes De Bordeaux French wine line for many years.  I've mentioned several of the varietals here in the past, but since my shift to white wines last year I have not had an opportunity to talk about the 2016 Sauvignon Blanc.  It is a "Gran Vin de Bordeaux", the bottles are serialized, and the quality is consistent and good.

If you're looking for a sour, grape-fruity, scrunched-up face New Zealand style Sauvignon Blanc, then you will bot be satisfied here.  If you Are looking for a crisp, slightly citrus, smooth finished, very drinkable white wine that sells great at $6 a bottle, then this is for you!

Much like the red Bordeaux, the Rosé, or the Haute Medoc, this Sauvignon Blanc does not let down the drinker.  We keep several bottles in our wine fridge, across the calendar year.  Come visit DDF and I, and you can enjoy it as well.

Back Drop is our back yard, near sunset.

Breadless Meat Loaf

In my on-going quest to avoid bread, grains, carbs, and everything that drives a weakened pancreas towards being fully diabetic, I began experimenting with ground Bison meat a few months ago.  Costco sells these 2-packs of ground Bison for ~$8 a pound or so, and the meat is good quality, grass fed, hormone free.  If you've ever seen a Bison in the wild, they're not very "manageable" as far as fences and enclosures are concerned.  They're HUGE, and they go where they want to go, knocking down fences at will and wandering wherever they feel the best grass may be.  Basically, they're magnetic, huge, dumb, indigenous walking meat bags.

150 years ago, herds of millions of Bison used to graze across the Great Plains, and their droppings fertilized, their hoof prints created the hard soil, and their appetites kept the grasses at manageable levels.  Then the European settlers came in, and corporate America w=in collusion with he Federal Government intentionally wiped out the herds of indigenous Bison that the native Americans relied upon for their food, clothing, and way-of-life, in order to "open up the West for development".  In the last 30 years or so, Bison herds have healthily bounced back to the point where harvesting them for food production is now viable, practical, and (since the white man developed all of their natural range) necessary to contain the population.  So I feel good about eating Bison once or twice a week.  They've been around since the last ice age, and will probably be around after all of the homo sapiens wipe each other out in the future.

My favorite use of Bison currently, is to make a bread-less meat loaf.  It's easy to make, and delicious.  Ingredients
- about 2 lbs of ground Bison
- 1/2 a head of organic celery, washed and chopped, no longer than your thumb
- At Least a Quart of organic portobello mushrooms (also available at Costo), chopped
- a 1/2 pound of diced, grass-fed "stew meat" (usually Top Sirloin, that the butcher counter has on sale)
- a Large pinch of lemon peel
- a pinch of chili powder
- 3 all spice balls
- a pinch of thyme
- as much home grown oregano as you have or want
- as much home grown rosemary as you have or want
- tons (2 or 3 cups) of ground up dried garlic (we have an old quart container that is [I believe] losing its potency)

In a large non-stick pan, heat up the bison in large "chunks" using a wooden spoon (it's a quality non-stick pan, remember) on the largest burner your stove has, until it is not blood red (but if you brown it, you're ruining it).  Heat up the stew meat until the outsides of it are no longer read.  Add the first round of garlic until the top of all the cooking meat is manilla colored.  Stir / mix the meat and let the seasoning intermingle.  Add in the chopped mushrooms, and stir until the mushrooms are immersed in the meat & juices coming from the meat.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for as long as it takes you to wash and chop the celery.

Note: at this point, you COULD add carrots or onions or cauliflower or other veggies if you want to, but I didn't want this to be high caloric (no carrots) nor highly cruciferous & gas producing.

Add the rest of the seasoning.  Mix it in.  Then add in the celery.  Mix further.

If you want to, you CAN add ground organic flax seed, to "thicken" the mix and soak up the residual juices... and I've done that.  Approximately 1 to 1.5 cups of ground organic flax seed can be added... BUT... it makes the final dish less savory in my opinion, and when making seal-able containers for lunches, the flax-seed laden mix "plops" out more as a solid mass, than a savory, mouth watering meal.

The total meal I described above makes two LARGE dishes the first night, and 2 large lunches for later int he week, as well as a small side-dish for your significant other who doesn't really like mushrooms as much as you, and picks them off her plate.

Bison as large as a 12 person passenger van, in Kelly Wyoming

Trader Joe's Petite Reserve Sauvignon Blanc

Trader Joe's Petite Reserve Sauvignon Blanc was on an end-cap display last week at my local Bressi Ranch Trader's Joe.  It was $7 a bottle, which is 2 dollars more than the regular Trader Joe's Sauvignon Blanc I normally get.  Why not try it?  - I thought.

So I bought a bottle, brought it home, chilled it, and opened it last Friday night.  Dr Desert Flower and I tasted it, and her face immediately crinkled up in a grimace: "Where's this from?"  "Washington"
"Oh, that explains it"

It was not that bad.  I actually like the regular Trader Joe's Sauvignon Blanc better, but the Petite Reserve was ok.  It had more citrus notes to it, and was not quite as buttery as the normal Trader Joe's S.B., but it was very drinkable and not at all unpleasant.

"Horse Heaven Hills" ... though I hope no horses died in the making of the wine.  And is there really an equine heaven, if there is a heaven at all?  Maybe that's where the unicorns live?