Here’s your weekly gross-out. It’s getting better, but still can’t fully bend my knee. There’s a doctor appointment next Monday so maybe I’ll get some anti-inflammatory pills. And hopefully an xray on my right hand, which I really think is broken now because it stills hurts so much.

Obtaining groceries without a car can be somewhat cumbersome. Thankfully there are now (within the last few years) online services that will deliver groceries to you, just like on those ’50s television shows. But then when you lose your job those convenient online services tell you that they don’t take the EBT Card as a form of payment. That means I’ve been walking (or biking, or evening Zipcarring) to the local Safeway to get my groceries for the past 18 months. Ah, I do miss that EBT Card though…

So now that I am working 55 hours/week in order to make up for all that moola I didn’t make in ’09, and I’ll mention The Crash which has put the bike out of commish, it’s a little difficult to get to the grocery store. I decided to pull up my Peapod account and take a look at what they’re offering now that I’ve been shelf-shopping for the past 18 months. I found that I had an unplaced order already tallied up that I hadn’t set for its delivery schedule when I got the pink slip back in December ’08. Oddly enough, it seems pretty much in par for what I’d be ordering today. I’d have to add a couple of items to get that additional $1 off on the delivery fee though (on orders over $100)—like frozen entrees that I could take to work instead of spending $8 a day on lunch! I’ve still got a pretty well-stocked pantry, due to the EBT system providing much more purchasing power than I would use in a month, $200. So I’ve got boxed goods and canned goods for a while. Bomb shelter!

Item	Size	Qty	Item Price*		Total Price*
Produce Stand
Apples Granny Smith	1 EA	2	.99		1.98
Banana Green	1 EA	3	.39		1.17
Banana Yellow	1 EA	3	.39		1.17
Carrots Baby Peeled Organic	16 OZ BAG	1	1.99		1.99
Lettuce Red Leaf	1 EA	1	1.99		1.99
Lettuce Romaine	1 EA	1	1.99		1.99
Onions Yellow Organic	3 LB BAG	1	3.79		3.79
Meat & Seafood
Ground Beef 85% Lean Big Buy	APX 2.5 LB	1	11.22		11.22
Deli
Cabot Cheese Cheddar Sharp 50% Reduced Fat	8 OZ BAR	1	3.39		3.39
Deli Ham Virginia Style Cooked (Thin Sliced)	APX 1/2 LB	1	2.99		2.99
Beverages
Deer Park Spring Water - 24 pk	16.9 OZ BTL	1	6.49		6.49
Bread & Bakeshop
Nature’s Promise Naturals Bread 100% Whole Grain	24 OZ PKG	1	1.99		1.99
Nature’s Promise Naturals Bread Multigrain	24 OZ PKG	1	1.99		1.99
Cereal & Breakfast Foods
Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts Frosted Strawberry - 12 ct	22 OZ BOX	1	3.00		3.00
Snacks, Cookies & Candy
Doritos Tortilla Chips Nacho Cheese Family Size	17 OZ BAG	1	4.89		4.89
Giant Saltines Fat Free	15 OZ BOX	1	1.50		1.50
Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzels Sourdough Hard Fat Free	16 OZ BAG	1	2.50		2.50
Grains, Pasta & Side Dishes
Barilla Pasta Rigatoni	16 OZ BOX	1	1.79		1.79
Barilla Pasta Spaghetti Thin	16 OZ BOX	2	1.79		3.58
Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada	7.5 OZ BOX	1	2.19		2.19
Baking Goods
Guaranteed Value Sugar Cane Granulated	4 LB BAG	1	2.29		2.29
Condiments, Oils & Dressings
Giant Olive Oil Spanish Olives Extra Virgin	17 OZ BTL	1	6.29		6.29
Ken’s Steak House Dressing Fat Free Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette	8 OZ BTL	1	1.00		1.00
Ken’s Steak House Dressing Healthy Options Parmesan & Peppercorn	8 OZ BTL	1	1.00		1.00
Sauces, Spices & Seasonings
McCormick Oregano Leaves	1.37 OZ BTL	1	3.49		3.49
Laundry, Paper & Cleaning
Brawny Paper Towels Big Roll 2-Ply Prints	6 CT PKG	1	8.99		8.99
Health & Beauty
Softsoap Liquid Hand Soap Antibacterial with Light Moisture Pump	7.5 OZ BTL	1	1.50		1.50

I guess not a lot has happened in the last week. Sleep, bus, train, train, work, train, train, walk, work, eat, repeat. It’s difficult trying to make up for all that money I didn’t make last year. But both jobs payroll have taken to my direct deposit which is really convenient so there’s fewer bank trips depositing actual checks.

To check progress and possibly still have a grossout, here’s some pix of the crash burns, two weeks out. The arm’s coming along fine but the knee is still problematic. The skin is still not very pliable and the flexibility of my knee joint is very limited. So even though there’s not a lot of pain, it’s still a nuisance to hobble around with one non-bending leg.

Today I walked by the scene of last week’s bicycle crash-up on Maryland Ave NE. Repeating the sequence, I was headed to the p/t from the f/t.

Here are pix of the worst of the bang-ups, and also the huge (from bicycle standards) bump in the road that took me down. The only part that really hurts much is the knee, and that’s pretty much because I can’t bend it due to the tautness of the skin that is there while the wound heals. Needless to say, it’s taking the longest to make it to the healing point of scabbing over and closing the flesh wound. Gross, I know, but the facts.

But on the flipside, I now have health insurance! I received my membership card in the mail today, and apparently it’s a pretty good healthcare system from what I’ve been hearing the folks at work say: very little co-pays and I can see any doctor I want at any time. Time to schedule an appointment and get these wounds (and still a hand that can’t grasp well) looked at. Maybe get some meds too. I think the fun painkiller meds are out of the realm now but perhaps I can get something that will help me heal quicker.

And I love that my medical card has The Logo on it.

I know I haven’t written anything in a while, what with working 55-hours a week and all (gotta make up for all that $ I didn’t make last year). And while exciting things have been happening at The Orchard, I didn’t want to bore you with that or turn this into a fanboy-obsessed blog. So I was thinking that tonight when I got home after both work shifts that I would possibly write about

Last Saturday. I caught a whiff on Twitter that Rana Sobhany, the world’s first iPad DJ, was going to be “spinning” a set at Bluebrain, a special night at The Fridge, which is a new (to me at least) little art gallery on Capitol Hill. I was working last that night but I tweeted her and she said she wasn’t going on until 11 or so and that worked with my timetable of getting back on The Hill. The show included a downloadable iPhone app where the audience could twist the knobs and affect the sound output of the DJ, but unfortunately I missed that portion of the art show. But on the good side, I got in without paying the $5 cover. Rana was on when I got there and I listened and grooved to the rest of her set. It was pretty poppy but still fun. I talked with her afterwards and she seems like a nice person, really warm and conversational. There was some other fun art showing there too, and a live painting in process that anyone could add to. Fun.

Or I could have written about

Last Sunday. Eric H, sky mattress extraordinaire, art curator and sometimes blogger, was celebrating his 40th birthday. And what better way to do that than to get 30 friends together, start them drinking mimosas at 11:00 am and then throw them into a disco bus and take them out to the Virginia wine country for the afternoon? Some bottles of champagne made it onto the bus and there was a wide selection of yummy nibblies being passed around. We stopped at two wineries, sampled some wine, bought some wine and sat out in the hot sun. The 2nd winery had lawn bowling setup under some shady trees and that provided some recreation as well as relief from the sun. Needless to say, knowing this crowd, we all had a good wine buzz going by the time we rolled back into DC. Then topping the evening off with La Lomita? Perfect.

Or I could have written about

Today. I’ve been thinking about Mom all day, as this would have been her 73rd birthday. I miss you Mom, not only today but everyday.

And then this happened:

I’m biking down Maryland Avenue, on my way from the full-time to the part-time. Apparently I am not paying too much attention to the road as I hit a major bump and am sent flailing head-first over the bike, at 20 mph. I crash down on the pavement in a twisted heap with the bike twisting up my legs so that when I realized I’ve stopped on the street I’m not sure which way I’m facing and I cannot move. I remember at that moment being in extreme pain, yelling out “Fuck! Fuuuuuck!” and having visions of dropping florescent lighting tubes from four-story buildings, tomatoes and what it would feel like when you think you’re standing in your life and all of a sudden the walls, ceiling and floor get stripped away and you’re then standing on nothing in darkness wondering where the fuck everything went.

Luckily the kind folk who live on Maryland Ave came to my rescue. An older gentleman from across the street, who had seen the whole crash happen, came over and helped me untangle myself from the bike and get me to stand up and get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. A woman came out of her house asking if I was okay and went back in to get me a bottle of water and a wet towel. After realizing I was basically okay with only flesh wounds (no broken bones, no head injuries) and telling them I was only going one more block down the street they reluctantly left but took many thanks with them.

I hobbled on down to The School and immediately looked for a first aid kit, finding supplies and getting into the shower to rinse the blood (and hopefully the gravel too) off and clean my wounds. My left elbow and left knee took the worst of the fall, which is weird because I think I remember the wheel turning left as I fell, meaning I would have fallen on my right side. I guess it all happened so quickly those details might not be clear.

So I’m pretty beat up but at least no broken bones in this old body and thankfully there were no cars directly behind me that might have run me over. As the man from across the street said “It may hurt now but you’ll really feel it in the morning”. That’s what I’m afraid of.

Remembering back to the mid/late 80s, 15th St SE on Cap Hill was the cutoff line, the red line if you will, for a “good” neighborhood. I know this because I had friends that lived on the 1400 block. I even stayed with them one summer while I worked in town.

The local Metro stop was & is Potomac Avenue Station. I would use this stop 20 years ago, and even though the stop is only two or three blocks away from my friends’ house it was a still a little leery at night and you had to watch yourself. This was when violent crime in DC (and America for that matter) was starting to get a little out of control. I remember lots of carjackings happening that summer, which was a new phenomenon at least in DC.

Come to think of it, I had my car stolen around the corner from Po-Ave Station that summer too. It was found and returned, busted steering column and all. At least they didn’t wreck the thing or drive it into the river.

Fast forward to today, and my favorite Mexican restaurant is a block away from the Station, there’s a fun local bar where you can play dominoes a block away and for Christ’s sake there’s a new Harris Teeter right across Pennsylvania Ave.

Neighborhood on the upswing, right? Maybe not so much.

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• sleep in
• complete Easy setting of Space Case level in Super Monkey Ball
• read blogs
• download latest Mad Men ep
• repair bike on sidewalk off of Lincoln Park
• turn around and go home, look for tools to repair bike
• have lunch outside at Good Stuff Eatery
• take bike to Capitol Hill Bikes to let the pros do their thing
• ride bike on CapHill streets I’d never been on before
• watch cooking shows for two hours
• place Peapod order
 

I like to sleep in on Sundays. Hell, I’d like to sleep in every day, but necessities like shelter, food and that unlucky lottery ticket prevent that from happening.

My alarm was set for 8:00 this morning and after two snooze hits I finally got into gear. I’m out on the bike at 8:50, on time to meet my brother and his family for a DC Ducks tourist tour. While the DC Ducks is the quirkiest of all the traditional DC tourist tours, I was still excited about doing it, and especially with my niece and nephew. While Will is too young to remember our excursion (he’s only 18 mos) Sarah Jane probably will keep this in memory, especially when we bus dipped into the river for the boat part of the trip. She even got to steer the boat for a while! Apparently, she likes going in circles, but I think that’s because she wasn’t big enough to see over the bus/boat’s dashboard.

After a quick lunch at Union Station, I left to get some things done before the evening and took an extended bike tour throughout Capitol Hill, just because the weather was so pleasant.

Tonight I met up with EFP and his new beau, and friend Justin whom I hadn’t seen in about six years. It’s EFPs 40th birthday which we all know is the new 30th. We met up for some meet-n-greet cocktails and then headed over to Rice for dinner. Our evening was filled with wine, plenty of food for the four of us and lots and lots of loud laughter. All in all it was a pretty fun evening, EFP had a great b-day, and I was able to catch a not too late bus back across town.

I don’t have any pix of the evening since the restaurant was so dark and the iPhone doens’t have a flash. That’s one thing that I’m regretting about not lugging around my actual camera anymore, is that there aren’t a lot of nighttime pix anymore. We’ll have to look into that. The old camera I have is pretty bulky, maybe it’s time to get a new, slimmer one?