Halloween, courtesy of Stephan Pastis

 

Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

That made me cackle loudly . . .

Peter

On the road again

 

My wife and I are heading to Arkansas to join friends for the celebration of a significant wedding anniversary.  It's a day to get there, a day to celebrate, and a day to get home again.

Blogging will resume on Monday, God willing and the crick don't rise.

Peter

Exercise assistance - but could they help pain management, too?

 

Apparently exoskeletons (frame sort of things with an electric motor that one wears to augment muscle power) are becoming more and more popular in the fitness culture.  The New York Post reports:

 E-bikes gave cyclists a major boost. Now, a wearable robot wants to do the same for your legs.

Meet the exoskeleton, a battery-powered gadget that straps onto your body and promises to make running, hiking and everyday movement feel like less — or more — of a workout.

Robotic exoskeletons have been used in medical rehabilitation for decades, helping people practice walking following illness or injury.

Now, companies are bringing lighter-weight versions to the consumer fitness market, with ambitions that go beyond restoring mobility: They’re helping healthy, active people move farther, faster and with less effort.

There's more at the link, including closer examination of various models.

I think it's a given by now that exoskeletons help recovery from injury, allowing one's muscles to get back into training without over-exerting themselves.  However, what about someone like me with ongoing, permanent pain issues?

A particular problem for me is that if I start walking, I'm already at a baseline level of pain.  The further I walk, the greater the pain becomes, forcing me to walk ever more slowly until eventually I have to stop - and, if possible, sit down - until the pain reduces to a manageable level.  At that point I can start walking again, but inevitably the pain comes back, and the cycle repeats.  I can't walk for more than 5-10 minutes before I have to stop.  I doubt I could cover half a mile, even including frequent breaks, without having to quit, or use a mobility scooter or wheelchair.

Does any reader with a "pain problem" like that use an exoskeleton to help?  Could they extend the period one can walk until the pain increases to an unbearable level?  I've been looking for feedback on that, but so far haven't found any.  If you, dear reader, can provide information from your own experience, or know where to find it, I'd love to hear from you in Comments.

Thanks in advance.

Peter

Skippy, renewed

 

I'm sure all of my veteran readers know of Skippy's List:  "The 213 things Skippy is no longer allowed to do in the U.S. Army".  Some examples for those who haven't encountered it:

7. Not allowed to add “In accordance with the prophesy” to the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me.

10. Not allowed to purchase anyone’s soul on government time.

18. May no longer perform my now (in)famous “Barbie Girl Dance” while on duty.

29. The Irish MPs are not after “Me frosted lucky charms”.

33. Not allowed to chew gum at formation, unless I brought enough for everybody.

34. (Next day) Not allowed to chew gum at formation even if I *did* bring enough for everybody.

Go read all the rest at the link.

Friend in cyberspace and meatspace, fellow author and blogger, Tom Rogneby, has now added his own extensions to Skippy's List.  Examples:

3. Tom is not allowed to tell the Bundeswehr liaison officer that he has moral issues with doing gas chamber training at a German base in Bavaria.

8. Tom is not allowed to whistle the James Bond theme while walking across Red Square.

15. Tom is not allowed to sign a flag-rank officer’s government BMW sportscar out of the motor pool for a nighttime run across Stuttgart and back.

I giggled all the way through, remembering some of the "war stories" Tom has exchanged with the other vets of the North Texas Troublemakers (and honorary members from elsewhere) during LibertyCon.  Go read them all for yourself.

Those veterans' story-telling sessions at LibertyCon have gone on for years at each annual gathering.  You could see in the faces of some listeners that they thought we were making up most of them;  but then, one of us would say something to totally jar them out of their disbelief, and make them realize that "Holy s***, these guys are for real!"  It's a lot of fun to see that reaction.  For example, I served in the South African armed forces way back when.  I once told the tale of tracking a Soviet submarine across the South Atlantic.  This produced visible skepticism from my audience . . . until a former US Naval Flight Officer among our number took up the tale.  He described getting orders from Norfolk, VA to take off at once if not sooner, fly to point X, and drop a sonobuoy pattern.  He landed it right on top of the same submarine we'd earlier advised Norfolk was on its way there.  Neither the US officer nor I even knew the other existed until a couple of decades ago, when I began telling the story and he exploded, "So it was you who dragged us off our scheduled assignment that day!"  We both still laugh about it.  Small world, small transatlantic war skirmish unpleasantness . . .

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 333

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.