unfurled

another Sunday Seven entry, this one brief

Since the election I’ve been trying to think of a way to indicate this household’s opposition to the regime. I’ve seen arguments that we should just fly the US flag as an effort to reclaim it, though I think that’s too easily misinterpreted. I considered flying it upside-down, since that is (or was) a signal of actual distress, but then I learned that they co-opted that symbol during the Biden years. And then it struck me all at once that there was an obvious answer, with the benefit of communicating allyship as well. Looks good out there.

I got a second opinion about The Neck Issue, and that surgeon agreed 100% with the first. So I’m going ahead with an Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) at C5/C6/C7 in late April. It’s daunting and a bit frightening, but it’s necessary. There’s not much to do in terms of preparation except to get my mind around it.

My surgeon did say that it was fine for me to “live my life” between now and the operation, including running if I feel like it. (He did advise me not to take up boxing or gymnastics; so noted.) Since I’ll be quite stationary for a couple of months after the procedure, I’m trying now to get back into shape to run the Shamrock Shuffle and maybe another 5k or 10k before going under the knife. I haven’t done much running since the marathon, as I was first recovering from a hip injury, and then Covid, and then the flu, and then some other weird virus, and then a major depressive episode, and then finally the gripping fear of what was happening in my neck. I’ve been on a real cold streak. Maybe now is where it starts to turn around.

I’ve long been plagued by having ear canals roughly the diameter of the Great Blue Hole. Both of my AirPods fell out during the marathon. The pair of AirPods Pro I bought to replace them were worse, falling out while sitting perfectly still at my desk. I returned those. A friend recommended a brand called Raycons, which are better but still not quite there, especially in my left ear which is stupidly larger than the right. I finally bought a set of Shokz which solve the cavernous ear problem by not going in the ear at all. They hook over the top of the outer ear, and rest just in front of the ear hole, conducting the sound directly into the bone there. They don’t sound anywhere near as good, especially the low end, but I’ll never have to worry about losing them. As a bonus, with my ears unblocked, I can better hear all the cars that are enthusiastically trying to murder me and every other runner.

Tying the last two points together, I went for a run at my gym’s indoor track¹ yesterday and it was as relaxing a run as I’ve had in ages. I think it was because I wasn’t constantly fussing with and worrying about my earbuds falling out. Even though I’m completely out of shape, it was an easy three miles, and I didn’t find myself glancing at my watch every 30 seconds to check my progress. I just listened to the music (Townshend’s Empty Glass, a masterpiece which I’ll someday write a whole essay about)² and felt…free? Have I been doing it wrong with bad hardware for all these years?

I finally made progress on moving this website off of Bezos’ hardware. I know most people read this scintillating content via email, but ultimately the thing is a blog and those need a host. I cut the hosting over to Digital Ocean this past week and I’m quite happy with the results so far. In addition to the obvious ethical benefit of getting away from an enthusiastic regime supporter, it’s a fair bit cheaper, too. I’m still using AWS for some supporting services (DNS, object storage, monitoring, sending email) which I’ll work to move elsewhere over time, but moving the virtual machine reduced my monthly spend there by about 90%. Feels good.

Thanks for the responses about alternate baseball fandoms I should consider besides the team I grew up with. You had a few votes for the Brewers, and some love for the Orioles, Cardinals, and Phillies, too. All fine choices. I did see this week that a local billionaire is looking to grow his existing minority stake in my former team. Intriguing, but he’s not going to get a controlling stake, so it doesn’t change my stance. Plus, all billionaires are bastards. Even if he did take over, he’d have to prove he doesn’t hate us like the current owner does before I’d consider coming back.