Yesterday afternoon was my first visit with the doctors since my hip replacement surgery. Several things came out of the visit--all of them good.

Most importantly, they removed the staples. Quite frankly, that wasn't pleasant but not as bad as I had created in my mind.

The incision looks good. No redness or fever, obviously no infection.

They were very pleased with my progress walking and with my therapy. I'm probably running a little ahead of schedule despite the setback last week with the alergic reaction to the oxycodone. I am to continue with the walking, increasing as I feel like it and follow the therapy plan which increases the exercise intensity and quantity each week.

He wants me to be the judge of when I get rid of the walker and drop back to the cane and eventually with no aides. I'm not ready for that yet but the more I walk, I am to put less and less pressure on my arms. When I can just drag the walker along, it's time to get rid of it.

Two more weeks and I can resume my water therapy. He wants to make sure I am totally healed before I spend a lot of time in water. Something to look forward to as I enjoy that.

Finally, my foot swelling. Since we know it isn't caused by a blood clot, and since there is no infection, it is just the way my body has reacted to the intrusion of the foreign body. The more active I become, the swelling will go.

All in all, a very good appointment and one that helped my feeling of confidence considerably. So now, I shall continue.

For those of you that have mistakenly read these pages in the past know that Ravings posts, which I do a couple of times per year, are a collection of random thoughts and opinions that make very little sense and carry absolutely no socially redeeming value. I try hard to do that.

Also, for those of you that religiously follow my silliness on Facebook and Twitter will know most of this. For that lone individual that niether follows me on either and reads these pages, welcome.

My hip replacement surgery was 10 days ago and as I start into week 2 of my post operative care, several things are worth stating.

One, I have been totally pleased with Lynchburg General Hospital, their services and the way I was treated. Having come from a family that has had major issues with healthcare over the years, Lynchburg General was a surprise. From the pre-surgical joint camp, thru my three days there, I didn't have a single complaint. Plus, I was superimpressed with their food service. I had a menu in my room, called in my order--with no limitations--and it was delivered to my room in less than an hour. With the exception of one sandwich the evening of surgery which was a little dry, all of my meals were equal to what I would expect at any restaurant in town.

My surgery lasted two hours, and following another couple of hours in recovery, I was taken to a private room and was on my feet by mid-afternoon. My only real complaint was that they didn't give you a chance to sleep as someone was in my room hourly for the next 24 hours. Lab work was done around 4AM which I found odd, but that's the way they do it. My surgeon, Dr. Caprise, visited around 6AM and I had a big breakfast ordered each day and delivered by 7. Of course, every time I had to go, I had to ring for assistance which came within a minute from my hitting the call button.

On surgery day, they had me on oxycodone and morphine so I was flying high. I got then to drop the morphine by early evening as it made me too loopy.

Both days, I spent two sessions in the therapy room, a continuation of the joint camp going thru all of the exercises, care of the new hip, getting in and out of bed, and the car, etc. By the time I left at noon on Saturday, I was ready to get home and start my own therapy and recovery program.

I have also been extremely impressed with the Orthopaedic Center of Central Virginia where Dr Caprise and a couple dozen other surgeons do their thing. They have taken patient care to a level I didn't know existed which includes on-line services, phone services and nursing help available 24/7. Not only could I get someone on the phone instantly, I got responses back from my doctor within minutes. I'm used to waiting hours for answers from doctors.

I developed an allergy to oxycodone during my second day home. I started itching like crazy, my foot was swollen to almost double its size, and the right side of my body looked like I'd had sex and lots of it in a field of poisin ivy. First, I was sent straight to the hospital for tests to make sure I hadn't developed blood clots. Then, my meds were adjusted and played with to get me back to comfortable without using the percs. Within 12 hours, I was back to normal, and back to my therapy. We've found that Tramadol with an extra boost of Tylenol when needed works fine and I can function at a reasonable level.

In week 2, I'm doing my full menu of exercises twice a day, plus walking 500 feet. That increases each week for the next couple of months. Wednesday, I get the staples out and still have a target of mid-March getting back to normal and back to work.

I'll keep posts coming every so often especially if there are any major changes. And, for those of you that are following my silliness, I really appreciate your thoughts and comments. Keep it up.

I have promoted the United States Postal Service to the top of my Public Enemy list. Once again they have made another poorly thought out blunder in their efforts to save a few dollars. Only this time, it effects me and plenty like me directly.

I sat back and only scratched my head when the main post office sorting center in Lynchburg was closed and moved to Roanoke eliminating a bunch of jobs and cutting service. As it is now, if I mail a letter or a bill from Forest, VA, approximately 5 miles from the Lynchburg Main Post Office, to an address in Lynchburg, it goes to Roanoke where it is sorted, shipped to Winston Salem, where it is sorted, shipped to Richmond, where it is sorted, and then back to Lynchburg where it is sorted and finally delivered. It now takes 14.2 days to get a letter 5 miles. I could have walked it there in that time.

Nor did I do anything but scratch my head a couple of years ago when the postal rates were raised 2 cents and the Postmaster General was making $800,000 a year, every postal worker got some type of bonus and the service managed to loose 2.8 billion dollars.

But now, I'm mad.

They took out the drive thru mail box at the Forest post office. The savings for this brilliant move is about $0.33 per day or the amount of money it took to pay a postal worker to walk 20 yards from the post office to the box and empty it.

I'm disabled, at least temporarily until my hip replacement next week and the couple of months of rehab following. If I need to mail a letter or a bill, I have to park, get my cane or walker out of my vehicle, cross a busy shopping center access road, up a curb and into the post office and to the box. This morning it was 16 degrees and thankfully not snowing. Then reverse back to my car. That takes me about 10 minutes and requires me to take an extra round of pain pills when I get home.

And what about those with permanent disabillities like my father was, or the elderly that are now forced to do the same. Are they now expected to depend on a friend or family member to do another menial task and diminish what little self respect they have left? 

The post office says that there is a drive thru box at a nearby Kroger Store but it is for a passenger in the vehicle. If I go at it when I am alone in my vehicle, I must go down a one way driveway the wrong way, taking a chance on getting a ticket,  or go thru the same problems of getting out in the weather and struggling around my vehicle to get to the box.

And, you people are saving what it took for one person to walk 20 yards. Nice!!!!!! And you wonder why you continue to loose billions of dollars every year.

Please feel free to comment and add other Post Office nightmares to this post.

When the clock struck midnight last night, one of the most difficult years of Big Red's life came to an end. And, Winterfest followed suit exactly as the whole year had gone.

While it was a good weekend, my Winterfest sales were down 40%. Oddly, my funnel cake and corn dogs sales were both up considerably, plus we added fries to the menu for this year. But, Lemonade sales were down 40% and drink sales down 50%. Several reason for this. One, Chick-Fil-A now has a permanent stand with a hood system and is a major presence giving us strong competition from a name brand. While the value would diminish if we had a lot of repeat customers who knew our quality, service, etc., Winterfest are folks we see only once a year or are totally new to the experience.

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Secondly, last year, there were only three locations selling beverages and we were one. This year, there were about 10 locations in addition to Chick-Fil-A. So, our drink sales suffered.

I was shocked to realize that Chuck and I, and remember because of my hip I was virtually useless, did more food than Tank and I did last year with me healthy. God Bless, Chuck!!!! And Ryan who ran her butt off getting food inside.

For the year, my sales were down 12%. Most of that can be attributed to my basically being unable to do much for  the last 5 months and I was unable to fill in several open weekends that normally I would have worked somewhere. My racing program was up a tick, baseball was up considerably. and football at Liberty showed a nice increase. JMU football was down, my trade shows were down, and I lost the whole basketball season at the Vines Center. So, I was probably lucky for sales to only drop 12%.

Obviously, 2012 will start off way behind as I will most likely be closed until the end of March. With my surgery in 12 days, the doctors tell me I should be ready to go for the spring race at Martinsville which will probably be my next event. And, since Tank now has a full time position, additional changes will probably occur, especially in the area of my working muliple events the same weekend. But, time will tell.

Even though I am not a holiday person, something I've alluded to numerous times in the past, I had a good Christmas season, despite the pain. Jason, Grant and Katie spent several days at the farm before Christmas. One of those days I opted out of my pain pills and visited a bourbon bottle with Jason numerous times. I spent Christmas eve with Peggy, Kagen, Todd, Allison, Will and Todd's girlfriend, and Christmas day with Peggy's family at her sister's. Then, had another Christmas with sis, Gene, and Amanda when I got home.

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With 2011 now gone, I wish each and everyone of you a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012 and I will keep everyone updated on the upcoming hip replacement.

As you know, I rarely correspond with you concerning my wishes for Christmas. Usually, it is a holiday I'd rather ignore since because of the seasonal nature of my business, I never have any money in December, can never do what I'd like to do and would rather forget the whole month. This year is worse than usual as the evil dwellers at the hospital and the turkey that will be yielding the knife on my lower extremities next month, have deleted what funds I had left from my last successful event in Martinsville which seems like months ago.

However, this year I'd like to request one thing. Can you please get my days and nights straightened up?  I've seen 4AM 18 out of the last 19 days and last night, endured a Walker, Texas Ranger Marathon. That was awful.

Santa, if you can do this, I'll make you a deal. As you know, I have recently followed in the path of other great scientific minds, like Louie Pasteur, Jonas Salk and Kermit the Frog and conducted experiments with fresh made donuts. Yesterday culminated those experiments with my successfully producing them from Big Red at a location nearby (Meineke in Forest). While not successful financially, I spent 4 times what I took  in just on supplies, plus no one knew I'd be there or what my donuts were like, I proved that it could be done, and they were fantastic. This time, I only did glazed and sugar donuts, but will add cinnamon and powdered sugar next time out.

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If you can fix the night and day business where I sleep when it's dark and am awake when the sun shines, I'll leave you a plate of donuts under the tree on Christmas Eve. You'll have to find me at Peggy's in Harrisonburg since my sister and niece can't stand me during the holidays, but I'll take care of you and try to curb my Bah Humbugness.

Thanks. Santa

From

The Fat Donut and Funnel Cake Guy, formerlly known as the Fat Funnel Cake Guy

Big Red's venture to the VSHL state championship games was successful but a bit disappointing yesterday at Liberty. And, as expected, the night game was brutally cold.

The first game featured local Brookville High School and a huge crowd. Over the years we've discovered we do far better at lopsided games--fans will keep us busy throughout the entire game. When a game is close, fans tends to stay in their seats. 

Brookville won the game on a field goal with about 30 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter. While pregame and halftime were great, we did very little during the game. Thus, our disappointment.

The second game between Briar Wood and Christiansburg was much smaller crowd. We closed shortly into the 4th quarter when the temperatures were nearing 25.

Still not a bust but nowhere near what we did with Amherst in the finals several years ago.

The important thing from yesterday was the information we gleamed from a fan during the second game. While waiting for a corn dog to cook, he told Peggy, "I wonder if they grow dem corndogs in Virginia. You know dem good hot dogs are growed over in West Virginia."

Hmmmmm. Folks, even I couldn't make that one up.

For the 3rd time in the past five years, Big Red will be doing its thing at the VHSL state championships Saturday at Liberty. And, one of the games will feature a local school so large crowds are expected.

The first game is at noon with the Brookville Bees taking on James Monroe from Fredericksburg. The nightcap will feature Christiansburg vs Brior Woods.

The last time we had a state championship game with a local school was with Amherst in 2007 which set a football game record for Big Red that was just broken this year. So, we are preparing for another big day.

In other Big Red news, I hope to have a local spot to play with fresh made donuts next week, an item I may be adding to our menu. What???? Fresh made donuts???? Hmmmm.

After I found out that my only choices were surgery in January or spend the rest of my days crippled and unable to carry out the most basic chores of my goofy business, I was forced into changing to preoperative therapy. In its most simple form that means that my muscles need to be ready to accept a foreign body and to start doing their basic functions as soon as possible.

That changed my whole exercise program. I spend 30-40 minutes twice a day at a difficulty level that leaves me sweating and ready for a nap. Seriously, much more difficult, with a resulting increase in my pain level. That should level out and start to decrease as my muscles adjust. I just wish it would get there in a hurry.

While I am no longer required to continue with the water therapy, I am still going to the Y on a regular basis. That is the only part of this mess I really enjoy. And the part of it I enjoy the most is realxing in the hot tub and my 20 minutes in the sauna. I'm even sneaking in part of one of my exercise sessions while in the sauna.

I'm also continuing with the magnet therapy. My surgeon found the results fascinating and it does help lower the pain a bit. Realizing it isn't curative, and might be psycholgical, I don't hurt as much when I wear the magnet belt and am taking fewer pain pills. So why not?

Nothing new on the business front. I am hoping to catch a show at Richmond Raceway next weekend but won't know until the show floorplan is finalized. Beyond that, nothing.

Heading for Peggy's tomorrow for the annual fete for 40. I probably won't be as much help as usual, but plan to put Kagen in charge of making dressing and other chores this year. I'll post some pics as we go.

Happy Thaksgiving to all.

Our regular football season came to an end Saturday at JMU with Big Red's best game there this year. Liberty's home season ended two weeks ago. Both schools are still in the hunt for a playoff game Thanksgiving weekend so the outcome of this week's road games are critical to both schools. Possibly, we could have playoff games at both schools which would be a terrific bonus for Big Red.

Even though Saturday's game was our best effort of the year at JMU, our business there was off 23% from last year. I've found that troubling all season and am not sure what the cure is. The stadium is bigger and attendance way up, plus we added fries this year and our sales should have gone up. That, unfortunately, didn't happen.

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Liberty's sales was actually up 3%, a figure that was slmost as surprising to me. If you remember, we had 2 disastorous games out of the six home games. Thankfully, the others were great so that the year ended with an increase.

I was told on Friday that due to construction work and changes in the Vines Center that we wouldn't be used for basketball this year. I'm quite disappointed with that as I had already booked those dates, planned some changes to my menu to make basketball more profitable, and due to my hip situation, had not looked for any other bookings. Now, to try to keep some money coming in and to keep my guys busy, I'm searching for any kind of bookings over the winter months. After 5 years at the Vines Center, Big Red won't be there again.

This week had so many twists and turns, ups and downs, and constant plot changes that it would appear like a great Clint Eastwood script. I'll try to explain and you can decide what is good, what is bad and what is ugly.

It started early Thursday morning when I hauled my equipment, tent and supplies to Liberty for Saturday's game with VMI. Back to the farm, I hooked up Big Red and hauled it to the new State Fairgrounds, Meadow Events Park, for the Equine Extravaganza. This is a show that I'd done 2 and 4 years ago when it was held at Richmond Raceway. After dropping off Big Red, I drove to Woodbridge to pick up Justin, a trip up I95 that surprisingly took less than an hour. Driving back to Doswell was a different story as I95 was it's usual disaster and the trip took over 2 hours.

Early Friday, Justin and I set up in the rain and cold and got open shortly after 9. Peggy joined us about noon after her drive over from Harrisonburg.

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My hip was giving me fits, a combination of the extra hauling and moving equipment for both events, the cold weather, and the result of sitting on my desk chair a couple of days before which collapsed and dumped my fat butt on the floor. I was even uncomfortable sitting and was taking my pain pills like they were M&Ms.

Over the 3 days, we didn't have a very good show. We sold a lot of corn dogs and fries, but not so many funnel cakes and lemonade. The bottom line, I didn't cover my expenses but the show wasn't a complete loss.

On Saturday, Peggy returned from walking around the show to display an ankle bracelot with magnets that she claimed would help relieve her knee pain. I looked at her and replied, "hmmmm."

She went on to explain that the magnets will cause the blood flow to go in circles or some such bunk and that it will help remove inflamation. I thought it a bunch of hooey.

"Why don't you go talk to them. Maybe they have somethng that will help your hip," she offered.

"Yea. Like put a magnet in my pocket and the pain will go away," was my response.

As my hip continued to hurt, I decided why not go check it out.

I explained my situation and was told by the folks from Palmers Global Magnetic Therapy that yes, in the short run the magnets will increase blood flow resulting in increased oxygen delivery which will help remove inflamation and therefore reduce pain. In the long run, the magnets will actually remove calcium ions away from painful arthritic joints.

Still not convinced, and very sceptical, I asked, "How much?"

"Nothing for now", I was told. "You sit in this chair for 15 minutes and see if there is any change in your condition. It's free."

I sat and was packed in a bundle of magnets.

15 minutes later, I stood up and had no pain. I almost passed out!

Since it was lunch time, I had to go back to Big Red and help. Over the next couple of hours, I was completely comfortable. Yes, if I stood a few minutes or walked some, it would still hurt. But, definetly, an improvement.

So, I went back to Palmers and purchased a belt for $89.95 and wrapped it around my waist covering my hip. Back at the motel, I slept with it on. And probably slept better than I had in several months. I've been using it ever since and my pain is much more tolerable than it has been. I even went from Saturday afternoon until Sunday midnight after 6 hours of driving without hitting the pain pills.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't a cure for a deterriorating hip, nor will it get any better. However, if my pain level drops by even 10%, it is well worth it. And it has been better than that.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Tank, Chuck, Ryan and Kimberly had another good outing at the Liberty-VMI football game. While it was nowhere near a record breaker, it was a decent game and helped restore the financial stability from the weekend.

Wednesday was my appointment with the surgeon. After more xrays and considerable pulling and twisting, it was determined that my flexibility and strength has improved (the therapy is working) but that the deterrioration is worse. Not really much choice. Hip replacement surgery scheduled for January 12 with a couple of months of tough rehab to follow. If all goes well, I should be back to work in time for the spring race at Martinsville in late March. Until then, my business will be mostly in the hands of Tank and crew.

This week is the final game at JMU on Saturday plus basketball is starting at Liberty. Due to some minor scheduling conflicts, I might miss the first game Friday night but hope to be up and going at the Vines Center by next week. Reports to follow.