Category: Adventure

Decided to check out 2 homes after work for a potential purchase. Luckily the majority of the homes I’ve checked out thus far have been empty. I just feel more comfortable looking around when the existing owners aren’t around. Suppose I don’t feel like I’m intruding in that case.

Well, the second stop on the day turned out to be quite a memorable experience.

First off, this home was easily the most filthy home I’d ever seen. There was left over food literally everywhere, and I don’t recall being able to see walls in the kitchen to go so much gross clutter. This made for a very easy decision by me, no way.

My realtor felt very embarrassed of the condition, as he has never seen it in person and wasn’t the listing realtor. He suggested we leave right away, but I really wanted to continue to survey the filth. While extremely gross, it was also somewhat of a marvel that people could survive through such conditions.

However the true craziness would ensue when the ex wife made her appearance from upstairs. She came out screaming , “this house is not for sale!”. It was very awkward. She then began to engage the ex husband rather aggressively in argument.

Again, this was very, very awkward. She continued escalating her anger, at times directing it as us now. Claiming that, “I will not sign your papers! I will not sell!”. Darn, I was carry papers that I was going to force her to sign (this is sarcasm).

She finally decided to warn us that she, “am going to start throwing and breaking things!”. I’m not sure exactly what that would of done. But I did decide it was not time to leave. It was getting scary at this point, like she would be getting physical. Was a big concerned that they might have a weapon in the house.

It was truly insane, both in filth and sheer amount of hate in a home.

In one of my stranger recent adventures I found myself riding merrily in a big yellow school bus over the weekend. The occasion was to celebrate some birthdays (only one I was sure of was Fierce’s, but I think a few other’s may’ve had birthdays too) and catch a Phillies game.

The trip was made up of mostly SJSL friends, and while not my typical crew (not that I currently have a crew to speak of), it was a pretty fine bunch. I do enjoy randomly hanging out with people whom I don’t normally hang out with time to time, as I think it keeps things interesting. I think it’s not very creative when it’s the same bunch over and over again.

The ride itself was a bit on the bumpy side. Chip, the all star well aged driver got us to our destination and home ok. He was pretty amazing and while I attempted to converse with him on a few occasions, I was also a bit too much in awe of his amazing presence to get much conversation going. He was the best damn bus driver I’d ever had the pleasure to know (sorry Mrs. Gaskill, you were pretty amazing too).

Hanging out in the parking lot before the game was fun stuff. I think it’s also what is known as tailgating, but I don’t get out that much so please don’t quote me on that. Again, it was some new faces so that made interaction interesting at times. I did want to also act like someone else the entire day and see how that went, but I think while most don’t know me all that well, they do know me just enough for me to not pull off such an entertaining attempt.

Oh, I also brought an apple for my trip. I’m not sure exactly why, but was super glad I did when I realized it was in my pocket as the day wore on. Apples are delicious and serve not only as food to me, but also help me in the hydration department as well. I believe they’re also good for you teeth too, which is always a plus.

One of the stranger sights of what was a very strange day, was the mystery breakdancing kid. I have no idea of where he came from, but this little kids just started breakdancing for everyone and flashing weird hand gestures (gang signs?). While he was entertaining and unique, I wasn’t a big fan. I think we had all been “served”.

The Phillies game itself wasn’t so great. It was super windy and cold! I didn’t stay for the entire game, and wound up walking over the the Xfinity something or other. I did escort some friends back through the mean streets to Philly to the yellow bus and back. While nothing too excited happend on the cold trek, I did feel like a Secret Service agent for a little bit.

All in all it was a pretty unique yet entertaining day. I am truly surprised at just how much smaller a yellow school bus feels inside than when I was in school.

The Honey Badgers franchise had their first every Holiday Party this year. As all things Honey Badger, this would surely have to be a fun event.

First things first, an official committee of planning experts was formed. Ginny, Caitlin and myself answered the call and had several rounds on intense meetings and debates to plan the perfect holiday party. Input from all sides was great, and before we knew it we had a plan in place!

Not only were current Honey Badgers invited, but many past Honey Badgers were invited as well. It was truly an amazing roster.

The group was broken up into teams and we had some intense Honey Badger Trivia. I combed old stats, emails, and blog posts to gather up some amazing Honey Badger history through the years. It was pretty cool, to go back and be reminded of all the fun it’s been the past 2 years. I also printed out big letters for the teams to hold up to show their answers. It was pretty great.

We also had an ugly sweater contest, because that seems to be the thing to do now and who doesn’t like dressing up like a fool from time to time. The participation was pretty solid with Dustin and myself getting the majority of the votes. Dustin edged me out for first with his sweater that had bells on it. The melody of the bells when rung was truly enchanting. We both got some amazing ribbon pins (I think I kinda came out better with the funnier 2nd place ribbon). Turtle necks are not only ugly, but I can now attest they are uncomfortable as well.

A white elephant style gift exchange took place too. Participation was again very solid. Everyone seemed pretty much familiar with the concept and there were some pretty amazing and creative gifts on display. The mini foosball table was highly sought after and swapped several hands throughout the event. I ultimately ended up with some honey and a badge with a taped r on it (get it, honey badger) and a $10 Target gift card. Not too shabby.

All in all a very successful night. Despite having a rather random gathering of teammates over the years, everyone really gets along really well and all events are always a lot of fun. It really amazes me how we end up with such a great bunch. Many of these people were just randomly assigned to our team over the years and I’m very glad that they were.

I would rate this a resounding success and this will truly have to be a tradition for many years to come!

It’s been four long months, but I was officially discharged from the orthopedics the other day!

I had reconstructive elbow surgery on my right elbow back on July 18, and really haven’t been able to use my right arm since then while it’s been healing up. It was a pretty intense and unlucky injury to the joint, and the result was a very long heal and tough rehab to get it back to being able to perform athletic movements. As I told my PT/OT guys, “I don’t want to just be able to brush my teeth, I plan to throw with bad intent again”.

I’m not going to lie, post-surgery was pretty rough. I was hurting for several days afterwards, but the biggest pain was having my arm immobilized in the splint. It was hard to find a comfortable position that lasted more than a few minutes as my arm would quickly stiffen up and fall asleep. This would be the biggest pain when I would try to sleep. I’d get a few minutes here and there, but wasn’t able to get a solid sleep until the splint came off after a few weeks.

From the splint I moved to the post-operative brace which I would later decorate with amazing stickers. This brace and I would be quite close for the next 6+ weeks, so stickers were surely in order.

The brace allowed me some limited movement in my elbow. While the range was very limited, it was great just to have a little movement and functionality as compared to none that I had with the splint. I would continue to work my elbow as much as the brace allowed, hoping to keep as much movement in the joint as possible.

Towards the later stages of wearing the brace it was becoming quite apparent that my elbow had stiffened significantly. It kinda had me spooked out a bit, as I could tell from the doctor’s and just anyone else I would demo my range of motion to’s body language that it wasn’t too good at this stage. I was not pleased by the loss of range of motion one bit, and realistically knew that I had an uphill battle to get it back coming.

Once the brace was finally removed after about 2 months post surgery, I began PT/OT. I was very eager to begin PT/OT, as I finally felt as though I was actually doing something at this point. They were great and gave me stretches that I could do on my own as well. When they suggested I do them 4-5 times a day if possible, I asked it I could do them every hour instead. I was on a mission, and kept thinking of how Adrian Peterson came back from his knee injury ahead of schedule, why can’t I come back from this fast as well.

I showed rapid progress in PT/OT in regaining range of motion. While many of the stretches aren’t the most pleasant of experiences, I was determined to get back so I just dealt with it. Stretching was pretty strange, you could literally hear and fell things stretching and at times tearing up as I performed much of it. There were times where, I knew I had moved things a great deal (it feels warm and different afterwards) and was a little scared wondering if it would be increased range of motion the next day or a stupid setback.

Once I’d gotten a good deal of my range of motion back, I then was allowed to begin gentle strengthening. This was both frustrating and fun at the same time. While I really enjoyed building that arm back up to something functional, it was very frustrating to realize just how weak I had become over three months it it not being used at all really.

I’ve been going to the gym multiple times a week for several weeks now, and generally keep myself in pretty good shape, so this portion of my recovery went great. I breezed through pretty much everything, making big, steady gains. It was pretty great and I had a great PT/OT team working with me to get me where I had to be.

Now, at four months post surgery I passed all my tests. My range of motion is very solid and better than many pitchers that the orthopedist has worked with. My elbow recovery is at around ninety percent with around two more months to a complete recovery.

I have just resumed going back to the gym regularly and it felt great to be able to do things again. While I’m still super weak, it’s still great to be back to my old routine and getting my strength back. I have even resumed throwing in the repaired arm and am slowing building up a throwing program to get me back to dodgeball form.

It’s been a pretty long journey, but it’s pretty great to be back to almost normal and not having to settle for less than what my elbow once was.