November 19, 2009
Dear Everyone:
My shoulder is much better.
Not great, but definitely better.
I'm still shampooing my hair with just the left hand, but when I
reach up or out, it doesn't hurt much, just enough to remind me not to
do that.
The biggest challenge was figuring out a way to
keep a bag of ice on my shoulder for more than three seconds. At first,
I just held it there with my left hand.
The problem with that was that I couldn't do much of anything
else. So I could only do it
when I was sitting still, like when watching television or in a meeting.
But there isn't much time for watching television and I was
usually running to a meeting and didn't have time to grab a bag of ice.
Plus my fingers got cold.
I tried tying it in place with an
ace bandage.
In a word: Laughable.
Especially the part where, by pulling too tightly, the zipper
opening on the bag split and ice cascaded down my front, along with the
melted water.
But then I got an idea.
I took a shirt that's too big these days, so I won't be wearing
it much. This is the kind of
shirt that buttons down the front.
I cut some fabric into a square, about six inches across.
Then I turned the shirt inside out and laid it out on an ironing
board that was made for sleeves and things.
I turned the raw edges under and, using
safety pins, proceeded to
pin the fabric over the shoulder seam on three sides, leaving an opening
at the neckline.
Then I filled a small plastic zipper bag with ice,
folded it in half and slipped it into the "pocket" inside the shoulder.
I turned the shirt right side out, tried it on and it worked!
Except for the part where I had pinned the "pocket" to the left
shoulder instead of the right one.
Once I had that fixed, I could hold a bag of ice on my right
shoulder with the shirt buttoned and it would stay there as long as I
didn't make any sudden moves.
I brought the shirt into work the next day and
could work at my computer, with the bag of ice on my shoulder, for
hours. Or, at least until
the ice melted enough to start leaking out of the bag.
I look like half-a-football-player with a very large shoulder pad
on one side, but it's not a fashion statement, it's a tool to make my
shoulder get better. And
it's working. In fact, I’m
typing with a bag of ice on my shoulder right now.
My supervisor told me to sell the idea.
She also suggested replacing the safety pins with
Velcro.
I’m hoping by the end of next week, I won’t be needing it
anymore.
In other news…
A few weeks ago we all got an email announcing that
Fire Drills would be taking place this month.
I figured it would take place on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or
Thursday because so many people are out of the office on Monday and
Friday. Then I forgot about
it until this morning when the alarm went off.
I was at my desk so it was easy to grab my security
badge and coat (yes, it’s getting cold enough to need a coat in the
morning) before hobbling quickly to the exit at the end of the hallway.
Does anyone know why they always schedule Fire Drills in November
to February? In other words,
during the coldest, wettest time of the year.
Maybe it’s because they figure a certain percentage
of the population is gone in the warmer months and they want the maximum
number of people to “benefit” from the drills.
The other news is that the Director of the IM
Academy asked me to “ballpark” how much money we made during the year
with the various classes and Computer-Based Training (CBT) that we
offer. It didn’t take too
long because I could quickly get the totals from the billing file that I
add to every month.
So total number of people who took
SharePoint for
Power Users multiplied by $1250; number of Foundations classes times
$250. The IM Fundamentals
was trickier because so many people got various discounts.
In all, it came to a little over $500,000.
I didn’t think too much of this until I realized that it meant we
had earned over half a million dollars.
Cool!
Programming Note:
I’m taking three days of vacation next week, together with the
two days we get for
Thanksgiving.
So no Letter next week.
Everyone have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.
Love, as always,
Pete
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