Just saw Dr. Kerr for a follow-up appointment. It’s been one week since he operated on my left knee. The drain is still collecting gunk so he is going to leave it on for another week. But before they wrapped everything back up we took a few pictures with the cell phone. They are gross, so don’t expand this message unless you are ready for Franken-Knee!
No-show today. No word from the boss-man Roger Hendricks. Nope, no status update, nothing.
Customer communications skills?
Not so much.
I’m delighted to be able to post a very postitive business review!
I purchased a digital audio system called George, manufactured by Chestnut Hill Sound, from the Apple store in the Woodlands over the 2007 Christmas season.
It was a present for both Mikie and I. This unit sounds GREAT, works with our iPods, has a very cool remote, and has firmware that is upgradeable via a USB connection to my MacBook Pro.
Well this morning our Amazon Parrot, Splat, managed to chew up the USB data cable.
I went to the company web site and sent an email to their support contact, Rob Carey. Keep in mind that today is a Sunday.
Well, I had an email back from Rob within 15 minutes (no kidding)! He wrote:
Never heard that one before! Please provide me with a shipping address and I'd be happy to send you one.
Is that outstanding customer service or what?
Not only do they make a great product, but they have great support as well.
I highly recommend this company and their products.
OK, it’s time for a followup post about this company. Click here to read my first post.
When I originally spoke with Roger Hendricks on the phone, he had told me that the cost for foundation leveling is based upon the square footage of the house plus the cost of additional beams, etc., that they may have to replace or install. I couldn’t remember the exact square footage but I told him I thought the house was about 2000 square feet. He said I was probably looking at about $2500.
When he (eventually) came out to the house I got him to quote me the cost to do the foundation and also finish replacing the bad wood on my garage and also finishing painting the garage. He said $3500 for the foundation and $1500 for the garage for a total of $5000.
Well a week has passed. During that time Mr. Hendricks’ crew — two Spanish guys: Roger (yes, Roger), and Juan (who speaks no English) — have been out here intermittently.
They spent maybe two half-days working on the foundation. I do not think they had to install any new beams. The inside walls have a lot of new cracks. You have to expect some cracking when you level a home, but I feel that, given proper supervision by a competent foundation guy, damage to the interior walls would have been minimized.
They broke a water line, which is no big deal, but didn’t have any tools with them and had to borrow mine. I don’t think that is very professional. When Roger (Hendricks) called to tell me and ask if they could borrow some tools, his excuse was that (the other) Roger had forgotten to bring his tools and that he thought I might like to have running water when I got home from work.
My thoughts are, as the “boss”, it really is his job to (1) supervise his crew, and (2) make sure they have the equipment they need to do their work.
I think most of the bad wood on the garage has been replaced now. Oh, they had to borrow my nice electric drill for this part of the job (and managed to lose one of the bits — thanks guys).
The weather has turned nasty so it will probably be another couple of days before they can come out.
So far I’m not impressed.
Well I’m home from the hospital. Mikie is taking really good care of me and making sure I don’t do anything I’m not supposed to do. Anyway, here is a pic:
When Mikie came back to recovery, she brought me a really cute Curious George in a doctor’s outfit…
I’m pretty woozy in this one:
This was my first real surgery. I’ve stitches before, things like that, but this is the first time I was knocked out for some kind of operation. I have to say that it went really well and was not a bad experience at all.
Everyone I encountered at Kingwood Hospital was just delightful. The whole experience, from my visit a few days ago to fill out paperwork and have a blood test, to the actual procedure, went very smoothly.
The nurses were great. My anesthesiologists were really cool. The first fellow that saw me — and I’m sorry to say I don’t remember his name — was funny and very nice and seemed extremely competent. He is the one that marked out where the injections should go for a femoral nerve block that they administered. He used an ultrasound to verify the location of the vein and did some kind of electrical stimulation of the nerve to check on that part.
Here is a picture I took later (at home) that shows where those shots were given:
Well let me tell you, they did a very effective job at blocking that nerve. It’s almost 4 AM on Saturday morning as I’m updating this post (couldn’t sleep), and that sucker is still numb. Mind you, I’m not complaining as there is absolutely no pain.
The second pain guy that showed up and did the actual injections was Dr. Vela. He’s a young fellow and id a great job.
They wheeled me into the operating room. I set my book down that I had been reading. Next thing I remember is waking up in recovery.
Sweet!
| 7:00 pm | Opening flag burning |
| 7:15 pm | Pledge of Allegiance to the U.N. in Spanish |
| 7:20 pm | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast |
| 7:25 pm | Nonreligious prayer and worship with Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton |
| 7:45 pm | Ceremonial tree hugging |
| 7:55 pm | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast |
| 8:00 pm | How I Invented the Internet – Al Gore |
| 8:15 pm | Gay Wedding – Barney Frank presiding |
| 8:35 pm | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast |
| 8:40 pm | Our Troops are War Criminals – John Kerry |
| 9.00 pm | Saddam Memorial Rally – Cindy Sheehan and Susan Sarandon |
| 11.00 pm | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast |
| 11:05 pm | Collection for the Osama Bin Laden kidney transplant fund – Barbara Streisand |
| 11:15 pm | Free the Freedom Fighters fromGuantanamo Bay – Sean Penn |
| 11:30 pm | Oval Office Affairs – William Jefferson Clinton |
| 11:45 pm | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast |
| 11:50 pm | How George Bush Brought Down theWorld Trade Towers – Howard Dean & Rosie O’Donnell |
| 12:15 am | “Truth in Broadcasting Award” – Presented to Dan Rather by Michael Moore |
| 12:25 am | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast |
| 12:30 am | Satellite address by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad |
| 12:45 am | Nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Nancy Pelosi |
| 12:50 am | Speech and toast by Hugo Chavez to the departure of “the great satan”, ‘W’ Bush |
| 12:55 am | Hillary proposes a toast to our 89 million new Democratic Mexican voters |
| 1:00 am | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast to the extinction of the Republican party. |
| 1:05 am | Coronation of Hillary Rodham Clinton |
| 1:30 am | Ted Kennedy proposes a toast |
| 1:35 am | Bill Clinton asks Ted Kennedy to drive Hillary home |
The following is my interpretation, for what that is worth, of Texas Penal Code.
According to The Texas Statutes, Penal Code, a person who has a CHL and is carrying an authorized handgun can also carry a club or a knife (or a sword) that would otherwise be classified as an illegal knife.
Here are the applicable excerpts from the Penal Code:
(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries on or about his person a handgun, illegal knife, or club...
(1) "Club" means an instrument that is specially
designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting
serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with the
instrument, and includes but is not limited to the
following:
(A) blackjack;
(B) nightstick;
(C) mace;
(D) tomahawk.
(5) "Handgun" means any firearm that is designed, made,
or adapted to be fired with one hand.
(6) "Illegal knife" means a:
(A) knife with a blade over five and one-half inches;
(B) hand instrument designed to cut or stab another by being thrown;
(C) dagger, including but not limited to a dirk, stilletto, and poniard;
(D) bowie knife;
(E) sword; or
(F) spear.
(b) Section 46.02 does not apply to a person who:
(6) is carrying a concealed handgun and a valid
license issued under Subchapter H, Chapter 411,
Government Code, to carry a concealed handgun of the
same category as the handgun the person is carrying;
When you think about it, this makes perfect sense. If you are legally allowed to carry a firearm, and you are in a situation where it is legal to carry, who cares if you are also carrying something else that is classified as a weapon?
On the other hand, if you are not legally allowed to carry a firearm, or if you are in a situation where it is not legal to carry, you probably should not have other weapons on your person.
I’ve decided to start experimenting with Intermittent Fasting as an alternative to Calorie Restriction
As anyone who knows me well, I’ve been a big advocate of Dr Sears and the work he has published over the years in the various Zone Diet books.
Sears has written (I’m paraphrasing) that the benefits of calorie restriction come from:
To me, the major problem with calorie restriction is the complication of managing and monitoring your food intake. The Zone Diet goes a long way towards making that as easy as possible.
But I thought that, as a switch, I would try alternating a period of CR with a period of I.F. to see how my body responds to both techniques.
Now with the I.F., what sort of schedule should one follow? I’ve been doing some searching on the web and have found the following two schedules. I’m sure there are more, but this is a start, at least.
Fast on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Eat on the other days.
I read about this schedule in a great post by Dr. Michael Eades:
Day 1 - Eat food anytime until 6:00PM and stop eating Day 2 - Don't eat until 6:00PM Day 3 - Eat food anytime until 6:00PM and stop eating Day 4 - Don't eat until 6:00PM etc.
I’m going to start with the Monday, Wednesday, Friday way for a bit and then I’ll try the other and see what feels best.
A bit of followup to this post… I saw Dr. Kerr this morning. Left knee still messed up. He is going to operate on Friday (1/18/08). Fun.
Our old house is suffering from a bit of foundation settling and I have been looking for a company that can level out the house and possibly offer a long-term maintenance agreement to keep things level. Being that we live in Humble and have a pier-and-beam foundation, I don’t believe there is any permanent fix. So I’m realistic about that.
Anyway, I was Googling for companies that might be able to do this type of work in the Houston area and came across All Texas Foundation and Home Improvement. I called them at 09:25 on 1/7/2008. I spoke with Jessica. She said that I needed to talk with Roger and that she would have him call me back.
Well Roger called me back on Tuesday (1/8/2008), in the morning. We spoke for a while and he told me he would come out to the house either later that day or sometimes on Wednesday (1/9/2008). I explained to him that I live only a mile away from the office, so he should just give me a call when he is about 10 minutes away and I would meet him at the house.
Well as I write this post it is almost 9:00 PM on Wednesday (1/8/2008). I received no call-back and visit form Roger either yesterday or today.
So far, All Texas Foundation and Home Improvement is not doing so well.