...and in pain. I've been having problems with my neck and shoulder for about a week now, and it didn't clear up for the weekend, so it marred our trip up the coast. I'm going to see an orthopedic sports specialist about it this morning, but blogging will likely be light until I get it under control.

In the meantime, go read Rick Tumlinson's latest rant about NASA dropping methane from its CEV requirements. I find little with which to disagree.

[Update in the afternoon, after a trip to the doctor's office]

They X-rayed my head, and found nothing. But that's not important now.

The key thing is, when they X-rayed my neck, it revealed a slightly compressed disk, but the sawbones recommended a course of oral cortisone, and expected that to clear it up in a few days.

If the sports specialist doesn't help, Rand, try therapeutic massage. (The normal kind, not the racy kind.) That's assuming it's a muscle and not a bone problem.

It's really helped me more than once.

Rand, try therapeutic massage. (The normal kind, not the racy kind.)

And if a spouse is involved, sometimes this can lead to a two-for-one situation. ;-)

For the non-spousal situation, I have no information on which to base an opinion.

Rand, I hope you feel better.

Your really must be hurting, because you wrote this:

They X-rayed my head, and found nothing.

:-)

My brother is a 220lb strong man. 6' tall, a pip squeak next to me, but a lot more POWERFUL.

I say this for this reason concerning your current statement about your neck.

I'm a hardware guy, troubleshooting and removing tiny little chips, sometimes under a microscope.

But my brother, the big brawn mans man, who is not just large, but fit, has had 2 major medical maladies. the first was his appendix, which he ignored until the last minute, and it nearly burst.

The second is that he pinched a nerve in his shoulders, and he would routinely have spasms that would leave him incapable of doing a damn thing. The WAY he pinched that nerve?

He always had a desktop, and he learned how to touch type, and about a year before his second significant injury, he became an AIX admin, so he had to keep a laptop with him at all times. One day, while typing on his laptop? he had to compress his large, very large, healthy shoulders into a small area, to allow for his ability to touch type on a laptop.

In otherwise, My Very large, powerful, and muscular brother didn't pinch a nerve and have spasms that wracked his body because he strained himself at the gym, but rather because my brother with very broad shoulders, and a large chest, and to force his body into a small position so that he could type on a laptop.

Thats right, typing, can cause relatively debilitating maladies.

That was a joke, Fred (and an old one).

Actually, if it were true, I'd literally be feeling no pain. Or anything else...

you are a smart guy, Find another host for your comments.

the filter is stupid. they filtered out W......n....y

I don't know why. but iti did.