Photo: darkmatterIt's not yet time for our road trip back to the west coast (nor the Big-Ass Road Trip Giveaway that goes with it) but I'm headed out of town for a few days with the Lobster. The Lobster has a businessy thing to attend off-Cape, and we thought we'd take advantage of the travel opportunity and do a little hiking and camping and see some New England fall colors.
So this is one of those disorganized posts with a bit of this and a bit of that. Thank goodness Cranky Fitness has other more reliable co-bloggers besides Crabby McSlacker!
Wait, cobloggers? Plural?
Yes indeed. Plural!
Which leads me to one of today's blog announcements. So just who is the mysterious second co-blogger and when does she arrive?
New Co-blogger News!
Remember that very amusing review of the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD that I linked to a while back? Well, the author of that post, Gigi of Chunky Monkey Mama, will be joining the Cranky Team as a contributor, along with Jo from Head Nurse (whom you've already met).
Gigi starts this week, in fact, if all goes as planned. But we have a temperamental template, and I'll be out of town, so if somehow nothing pops up from Gigi? Blame the Crab and I swear I'll fix it when I get back.
If the Shoe Fits... It's Probably Being Worn by a Dude or a Lesbian:
Okay, the study did not say anything about sexual orientation, but from personal experience... I've noticed that many of you straight gals (not all, certainly) have this weird thing about footwear. As in, the more painful and impossible to walk in a pair of shoes appears to be, the more likely many of you are to want to stuff your feet in those babies and pay dearly for the privilege.
Well, according to a study reported by the New York Times:
"Researchers found that women who had mainly worn supportive footwear like sneakers or athletic shoes in their early years cut their risk of foot pain later by more than half, compared with women who had worn shoes that gave average support, like hard-soled or rubber-soled ones.
"But both of those groups were in a minority. More than 60 percent said that in the past they generally wore high heels, pumps, sandals and slippers, all of which researchers rated as higher risk. Women who wore those were at the most risk of hindfoot, ankle and Achilles’ tendon pain."
Don't say I didn't warn ya!
So What Was That About Endangered Penises?
I know it's quite adolescent of me to find this amusing, but the headline said "Rescue Team Uses Saw to Free Trapped Penis!" and I couldn't help but click on the report.
It seems that in an attempt to increase the size of his penis, a man put it "through the hole of a steel, ring-shaped dumbbell weight fastener." After two or three days, his penis had swollen a lot (more gross details here) and a fire department Urban Search and Rescue team had to come in and saw it off. (The weight fastener, not the penis).
The Department Battalion Chief carefully explained the procedure: "They slid a little piece of metal between the collar and his thing, so if it slipped past it wouldn’t hit his thing.”
Crabby No Longer Juiced Every Week:
So my contract is up at The Juice and this is my last week posting there. Thanks, all, for patiently putting up with all those sponsored plugs I was throwing at you this summer!
However, if you were ever going to wander over and actually watch one of the videos, this week's interview with Terri Tate would be a good one to check out.
If you are shallow like me, you might notice that while Terri is very articulate, she has a slight speech impediment. Then, a short while later, you hear her story and you find out why this is, and then feel like a total asshole for noticing.
Yep, she had oral cancer; went through drastic surgeries; lost half her tongue and lower jaw and a bunch of other body parts. She was given only a 2% chance to live. And yet she fought back and survived and put her life back together again. She's a nurse, stand-up comedian, speaker, and an award-winning performer of her own one woman show, which is on available on dvd if you're curious.
Watching these sort of interviews, or hearing similar stories of people who face unimaginably scary, painful, horrible and life-altering situations with optimism and good humor, I always think: Holy crap. How the hell do people do that? If you've been through something tough yourself, maybe you can tell me, because I just don't know how I'd ever cope.
But it does make me want to take a moment to remember that if something awful happens, suddenly the best-case prognosis might be to get only part of the workings of my old life back. And to somehow learn to be happy with that. I might have to fight like hell just to be able to speak or walk or read or eat, and I could be living with pain the entire time. The "happy ending" that so many brave survivors hope and pray and fight for? That's the very life I have now!
What great good fortune I have to be healthy! It would be such a waste to take that for granted, even for a moment. (Not that I promise to stop whining... but it's good every now and then to try to get some perspective.)
Stay tuned for Gigi and Jo, and have a great week!
