November 2019 Monthly Entry
Vancouver Men in Leather is celebrating their 15th Anniversary and it'll be in conjunction with the Knights' 39th Anniversary on November 22-24. The full schedule and links are currently on the Knights website. If you're in Vancouver or interested in coming, I encourage you to join us for the fun! The Knights will be hosting a "Salute to VML's 15th Years" leather formal dinner at Moxie's (1160 Davie) that Saturday at 6:30pm. We can take up to 30 people and overflow will be seated near us on a first come, first served basis. I don't think we'll be getting any Seattle Knights as no one has gotten back to me yet.
November 28 to December 1 I will return to Madison and New Glarus, Wisconsin to visit my leather family for American Thanksgiving weekend. From December 1-3, I will return to Washington, DC for one last chance to visit bear buddies I couldn't see earlier this year. It's their last chance since I probably won't be returning until 2021.
The weather has been a mix of sunny and cloudy. While there has been rain, it hasn't been that much - much to my surprise given the time of year. It is rainy now though. There are still leaves falling and some decent autumn scenery but it has become less and less. I'm glad to be able to drive and see some of it compared to staying home for the majority of time. I forgot to mention last month that since late-September, we have had road crews on our street getting in the way. I'm not sure what they are replacing, maybe gas lines and what not. Even the nearby trail my folks have been taking me to is cut off as they are updating that too! We think some major property is going to be made near us and they are preparing for it. It could be a bunch of new large houses or (please God no!) some condo property. Dealing with it all hasn't been fun and currently, they are in front of our gate. They started at the corner of 32nd Ave and are now near 28th after over a month of work. It sucks having to deal with it as our street is single lane each way, but they should be out of our way soon.
As for my recovery, here have things been the last 4 weeks: It seems I graduated from physiotherapy to kinesiology. It's about 5 or 6 different exercises to do, concentrating on my shoulder blades and maintaining proper posture. I now have to do these same exercises at home every two days. The kinesiologist sends me an email with a link to a website that has the program, so I don’t forget what we did. It has videos of each exercise, a timer for the entire program, and rating how difficult each was. I’ve done them numerous times but I feel one or two of them I may not be doing right. I got a call from WCB and they wanted me to go to Montecito the following Wednesday, Oct.23 before noon to see him and my coordinator about what a “Return to Work” program could look like. I kind of thought that I may be returning to work sometime in November from the looks of it. I’ve also gone back on pain killers but not because of my arm, it’s the left side of my upper left leg feeling pins and needles at night. I think my sitting down a lot has made things worse. If I lie down on my bed, it gets worse for awhile but if I turn onto my left side, it’s not bad. I should really see my doctor again about this. The pain meds keep some it down until I’m able to sleep and not feel it much in the morning. Still, I only took the pain meds for awhile but haven't taken them for a few weeks now. As for driving, some of my skill and motion are coming back and it feels more normal. There is a still some slowness to my arm but definitely better than last month. My second appointment with my kinesiologist on Oct.22 was pretty much the same as the first. I went on the treadmill for about 10 minutes, choosing my speed and incline. It wasn’t overall that bad. On Wednesday, I drove to Montecito and met up with my co-worker, Dean. I was then in the library with the occupational therapist, the work & disability coordinator, my manager, my supervisor, and the health and safety guy. I’d say the meeting lasted about 15 minutes though we had to wait for the OT to arrive. I found out from my manager that booking vacation time has changed due to the new collective agreement and they will be phasing out time cards soon. At the end of our meeting, I walked around the school (around lunch time) with the OT, looking at typical rooms and my custodial closets. As expected, I saw differences around, it kind of surprised me. In one of my closets, the backpack vacuum from the kindergarten portable was moved into the building and put in the closet that has my cannister vacuum. WTF? Why would the Temp custodian do that? Groan… Anyways, the OT had an idea of a work plan and would get back to me later as to when I would start work within limitations. After talking to Dean and the principal, I drove home. I then had my trip to Palm Springs that weekend on my own. I could handle my bags okay and everything seemed to be fine. But when it came to my latex uniform, that was a major problem. Taking it off on Saturday night was definitely frustrating, especially the shirt as the sweat made it sticky and I couldn’t use my right hand to grab it from behind. It was a foolish decision on my part to wear it. The trip was confirmation that I’m well enough for future travel and can handle my luggage. When I got back home, it was my final week of sick time before retuning to work but not much happened. I did my kinesiology appointment that Tuesday and added a new exercise. I tend to not be in the mood to do the exercises at home. I usually do the regiment about 2 times a week though it should be 3 or 4 times a week. As for my arm itself, I haven’t had any recurring pain or anything though there is some stiffness at times. I’ve been sleeping very good too, so there is some normalcy coming back. I can't remember when I had to get out of bed a few times a night like in August and September.
November 4th was my first day back at work. It was for 4 hours and was obviously tiring, but thought I did a decent job all things considered. I did all the jobs in the kindergarten portable in just under an hour. This included garbage, dusting, disinfecting the washroom, sweeping, wiping down desks, using the back pack vacuum (which was returned to the proper custodial closet, thank God!), and mopping the floors. I noticed some tiredness and difficulty in wiping the desks so had to note that. As I was working upstairs, the woman who was the Temp custodian came just before 5pm. She came from Rosser and would finish off whatever was left off here at Montecito. She did the majority of the sweeping and vacuuming while I did the garbage and dusting. I didn’t sit down until just before 7pm and while my legs felt tired, I wasn’t that sore. This was a good sign as it meant I haven’t fully lost my stamina after nearly 3 months of mostly sitting on my ass. On Tuesday I had my next kinesiology appointment and we added another exercise to the regiment. I booked for next Tuesday but added physio for Thursday that week too since my kinesiologist recommended it. I was glad I wasn’t working on Tuesday as I needed that day off to recover from work. Wednesday and Friday at work were a little better. I still have decent stamina but trying to manage things considering the classroom changes since September is my biggest challenge. Some classroom rugs, for example, have changed around, making it difficult to get to or find electric outlets to vacuum them. Two rooms downstairs have been converted into full classrooms (one of them pretty much is given there is more activity in it now, but the other at the very least has removed a rug) so that takes extra time to clean. I still have some stiffness at times but even my left arm is getting a little stressed too. This week, I only get Tuesday off.
We had a full BLUF Vancouver weekend here from Nov.8-10, but I only attended the gatherings on the 9th. It began with me packing my leathers in a suitcase, driving to Burnaby, and parking my car on Burlington Avenue. I met up with Wayne T. and Pat outside of MasterG's apartment and we transited to downtown Vancouver as we had two Knights meetings back-to-back. Wayne M. was already at Norman's and we began the regular November meeting at 4pm. We then did the Knights AGM about 5pm and it went pretty quickly as we didn't change any executive positions. Wayne M. left shortly after to go to Denny's on Davie instead of joining us for the BLUF dinner and VML social afterwards. We knew he would do this. Oh well, his loss. I changed into my BLUF uniform and before 7pm, walked with Wayne T. and Pat to the Italian Tomato on Davie. As we walked past Denny's on the Thurlow side, I saw Wayne M. inside but not sure if he noticed it was us. There were already a few BLUF members inside the Italian Tomato across the street and as time went by there were about 12 of us in uniform plus Wayne T. and Pat. Even Patrick from Bellingham came up plus Ian from Surrey (Patrick was staying with him). It was an overall nice turnout. On the large TV screen behind us, the classic 1960 movie Spartacus was playing on Silver Screen Classics (kind of like the Canadian version of TCM). Couldn't be any better timing (get the joke? a bunch of leathermen together while a movie about a slave revolt that includes the late-gay actor Charles Laughton, just happened to be on), which amused us. I ordered a pasta dish with spicy sausage and chicken. We noticed the pasta portions of our dishes was very generous and in fact, a few guys couldn't finish theirs. I wolfed mine down. Doug raised a toast for the recently passed Cal Rider, who was the founder of Gear 365. I had Wayne take some group shots of us outside the restaurant before we walked to the Pumpjack Pub after 9pm.
We spent nearly 2 hours at the bar. Daddy David Benton was there, looking woofy. During the VML social, I mentioned to a few guys about the Knights formal leather dinner at Moxie's scheduled for Nov. 23 to try and drum up interest. I texted slavebear Michael and asked if he was free that night for a visit and he said he was. After saying goodbye to some guys, the three of us returned to Norman's to pick up my luggage with my clothes inside. Instead of taking transit back, I got us a taxi because I didn't want to take off by uniform. It cost over $30 to go from Norman's to MasterG's. After saying goodbye to Wayne and Pat, I drove all the way to Michael's place in Vancouver and arrived just before midnight. He was definitely surprised to see me in my leather uniform! We did some chatting until we eventually sat together on the couch where he started to grope me, and then proceeded to orally service me for a while. He gives damn good head! I also nuzzled his beard with my gloved hand and he sucked on my fingers. After we were done, I had him help me out of my boots and I changed out of my gear and into my regular clothes. We spent the next two hours chatting about movies and my rantings about today's Disney movies in general. I didn't get home until just after 4pm. It was a fun night and accomplished a bit.
Last week I watched the Justice League movie on Netflix. It wasn't a bad movie, just pretty much forgettable. The CGI effects weren't very good and seems like a lot of DCU movies from Warner Bros. tend to have this problem at times compare to Disney's MCU. Good in some scenes, painfully obvious in others. As for Ben Affleck as Batman, I prefer him in Batman v. Superman as he seemed kind of silly in this movie. His chemistry with Wonder Woman -played again by Gal Gadot- was still better than Henry Cavill and Amy Adams as Superman and Lois Lane respectively. Jason Momoa as Aquaman gave us some bearded eye candy. Outside of that, the other superhero actors were... okay. In general, the movie didn't leave as much an impact.
To see Nostalgia Critic's recent review of Justice League, go here or below:
Click to viewFor his First Viewing video, go here or below:
I'm still early in Season 6 of Star Trek: Voyager and perhaps I'll catch up on some episodes during my travels. As for Dragon Ball I am almost done as I'm currently on the final season 5 DVD set and will write my review of this series in the near future. While I've done the main game of Ni no Kuni, I'm trying to get some last PS3 trophies in the post-game. I don't think I can get them all given how much time it can take so my review should be up relatively soon. I may start The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX while I travel or continue reading The Screwtape Letters as a review is long overdue.
Last Movie: Avengers: Endgame (Theatrical), Justice League (Netflix)
Last Book: The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - Mere Christianity
Last Game: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)
Current Book: The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - The Screwtape Letters
Current Games: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3) & The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (3DS Virtual Console - GBC)