variation

Another weigh-in this morning; I am now at -8 pounds from my starting weight. People are starting to say I look thinner, I'm not sure whether or not to believe that. Perhaps the sad look on my face is what makes people think I am thinner. But not to worry, things are looking up for me now! It's the turning point in my recovery. I had my first meal of solid food last night, and I am happily back to eating some normal foods, albeit at a relatively slow and careful pace. I am chewing on the right side of my mouth, very mindful not to get any sharp or hard pieces of food over into the left side where it could cause some pain and/or damage. I can also feel some strands of the stitches with my tongue which can be annoying. But hey I am just glad to be eating chicken and beef again. I've had just about all the jook, flan and mashed potatoes that I can stand for a while.

People work towards a goal a little faster with the appropriate motivation, so for me it's all about looking forward to a good burger and some fries again. It seems the battle to build the ultimate burger is an ongoing one, and it's not just about bigger, but also better. With that in mind, I submit for your review, a new $100 burger patty created in Florida, crafted from the most expensive beef from the U.S., Japan and Argentina.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/100_burger


It's only a modest 20 ounces in size so it doesn't pose a threat to the size kings from Fuddruckers or Denny's Beer Barrell Pub, but it must be pretty high up there on the flavor scale. It's offered at a country club in Boca Raton where the price of membership tops $40,000. Crap, that's a bit much for me, I just want a taste of the burger. You think if I hung out in the parking lot of the country club, I could wait for a member to pass by and see if he would be willing to bring me out a piece of the burger? "Pssst, hey buddy, give you $50 to let me try some of your burger." Well when I am fully recovered, I'll probably just have a homemade burger party and roll up some nice fat patties myself. That will be tasty enough to tide me over until I find myself on the east coast within range of one of these burger champions.

provision

Before you conclude that my entire vacation is going to be a convalescent one, well that is simply not the case, though so far I have certainly watched my fair share of TV and played a nauseatingly ample amount of Gran Turismo 4 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Not to mention ingesting nearly a whole bottle of Tylenol. My plan for next week which by then hopefully will be pain-free, is to go take some scenic drives around the Bay Area and take some photographs of whatever interesting things I see out there. There are several very wonderful back roads or "twisties" which I have come to know over the last few years of sports car ownership; we're very lucky in the Bay Area to have so many to choose from. I plan to travel down a different one each day, during the middle of the day when traffic is light and I can enjoy the roads to myself. At the end of the week on Friday, I'll be taking my MR2 Spyder up to Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA and doing an open track day with the Sacramento Miata club. It has been probably over a year since I did a track day and I am really looking forward to it.

But first, some preparations are in order. I needed some new sneakers/driving shoes for starters. My old pair of New Balance sneakers are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn, but man they are getting pretty old -- I think they must be at least 3 years old by now. There's barely any tread on them, and they're getting a little dingy. Ideally I'd just get another pair of the same style, but it doesn't look like New Balance makes them anymore. So I settled for a new pair of Skechers sneakers that look somewhat similar, and are very stylish -- nice two-tone shades of grey and black that go well with my black MR2 and my silver IS350. Does that make me metrosexual, that I color coordinate my shoes with my cars?

I also dusted off my racing helmet and started doing some cleaning; I'm also thinking of tinting the visor to help cut down on some glare. I recently tinted the windows on my IS350 (pics coming soon) so I might go back to the same guys and ask if they can help me with the visor.

And to make sure that the Spyder is in tip-top condition for the drives and the track day, I'm going to do some work on it as well. Check the suspension and brakes, do an oil change, make sure everything is working perfectly. I also bought a new set of fat tires, they are Toyo Proxes T1Rs, 205/50-R15 in front, and 225/50-R15 in back. I got them mounted on my spare set of SSR Competition wheels and will install them on my Spyder today ... then the car will be officially pimped and ready to roll next week.

admonishment

Another bloody morning ... and not just in the British sense, but literally. My gums are still bleeding overnight. My morning ritual consists of getting out of bed, rinsing my mouth, and going downstairs to take various medications. 1 of this a day, 1 of these every four hours, another of this one 4 times a day... so this is what old age is like. There sure isn't much going for it, unless you count all the AARP benefits and senior discounts at restaurants. Believe it or not, I've started getting mail from the AARP. (That's the American Association of Retired Persons for you youngsters out there who've never heard of it.) I wouldn't mind getting a few bucks off the Denny's breakfast special but c'mon, they gotta be better at tracking people's ages than that. The government can listen in on our cell phone conversations, read a license plate from outer space, but they can't ensure I'm getting correct mail for my age and demographic?

V. just came back from her first medical checkup in a while ... she only scheduled it after repeated nagging from me. She came back with all sorts of sample pills and an warning to drink less soda, eat less sugar, etc. Our counter is starting to look like the pharmacy counter at Walgreen's. But I take some dark delight in the fact that the tables are turning. At long last she is held to the same standard as me! Let's see how much she enjoys eating broccoli and low carbs for a while.

sanguineous

If you are squeamish I'd skip this entry... you've been warned.
















So I went under the knife yesterday ... before the surgery I had a "last meal" of sorts with V. at the Elephant Bar. What would you want to eat if you knew you weren't going to be eating solid foods for a while? For me the answer was clear. A nice juicy BBQ hamburger with french fries. I savored every bite and with some reluctance, pushed the plate away from me when I was done. So sad.

And so off to the dentist's office we go. The procedure wasn't so bad. The most ominous moment is when they cover your eyes with a towel so you can't see while they work. And yet it's a welcome thing. Not too many people want to see their own blood spraying everywhere while they saw at your gums.

I came home with lips numb, drooling blood like an idiot zombie, and scrambling for the pain killers. Those first few hours were rough, and I could barely eat anything, and even swallowing was a challenge. Fortunately the meds made me drowsy, and I spent most of the evening in front of the TV or napping.

I woke up this morning to find blood on my shirt and pillow cover. The stitches are still bleeding a little but it's probably going to stop by day's end. I tossed the clothes in the hamper for washing, feeling at the moment a little like O.J. Simpson.

The pain is much less severe today, and I was able to eat a little more. In fact I am starving today, and the memories of that burger are haunting me. Instead I have my choice of jook (rice pooridge), vanilla pudding, or apple sauce. Yum. I imagine that in a few more days after I remove the dressings from my mouth I will be able to gingerly eat some solid foods on the opposite side of my mouth, but I'm a long ways away from a burger or steak right now. Somebody shoot me already.

Hey, I guess there's a positive side to all this, I'm bound to lose some weight since I can't eat anything substantial. I weighed myself this morning and I am currently at -3 pounds from where I started. Let's see where I am after a week of semi-liquid diet...

denouement

Well one of Audi's diesel-powered R10 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans as expected, making a little history as it does so by being the first diesel to win the overall race. The French Pescarolo car finished 2nd, and the other Audi R10 managed to take 3rd despite some bad luck early on that dropped it back in the pack.

The more exciting battle was in GT1 class however, where the Aston Martins and Corvettes duked it out over the full 24 hours, trading lead position back and forth. They ran at nearly the same pace the whole time, but when the lead Corvette had to pit for a mechanical problem the 009 Aston took the lead by about a lap, and maintained it through the night. I went to bed thinking that Aston Martin had a win in their hands, but that was not to be ... with only a handful of hours remaining in the race, the 009 car had to pit for clutch problems and the 64 Corvette took the lead, and the eventual win. The 007 Aston finished 2nd in GT1 class. The most impressive part for me was that the 64 Corvette finished 4th overall and the 007 Aston finished 6th -- well ahead of many other cars in the faster LMP1 and LMP2 classes.

All in all a very good race to watch. One of the more spectacular incidents of the race was when a tire exploded on an LMP car, ripping the rear bodywork off the chassis and causing a spin into a barrier, which resulted in more bodywork coming off and a small fire. Check out the footage from SpeedTV here:

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/19/video-paul-belmondo-racing-courage-c65-tire-explosion-at-le-man/