The day started off with me wrecking my knee somehow. That was bad.
I spent most of the day lying down with an icepack. Swelling greatly reduced! That’s good.
Missed my chance to explore my old neighborhoods. Bad.
Recovered enough to hobble around campus before my talk. That was good.
Gave my talk, got a standing O (they’re desperate for atheists in Salt Lake City), and even better, got lots of sharp questions. Yay good!
Went out to the Red Iguana, a favorite old restaurant. It’s still there! It hasn’t changed, mostly! The food was delicious! All good!
I’m back in my hotel, leg propped up and iced again. Oh, well. Good to end on a calm and quiet note.
Even though this will fall on deaf ears – doctor!
Yes, I will try to get in to one on Monday. I can’t tomorrow — I leave early in the morning and don’t get home until 9. But I will be taking it easy.
Okay, that’s good. I don’t like to think what that long flight will do to your knee.
The flight to GAC, I mean.
I was about to say… airline flight + bad knee = yech
I hope you’re in first class.
I once badly wrenched my knee while climbing over a row of seats after an on-campus showing of “Thunderball.” When I hobbled in to work the next day with a swollen knee, I explained that I twisted it right after the hydrofoil exploded. Perhaps you can tell the folks bad home that you twisted yours while fleeing hordes of pike-wielding theists.
That would be tough. This was a very friendly crowd.
It’s after midnight, and I just had to google Red Iguana. The menu looks great!
And get your knee checked ASAP. Random swelling has happened to me once in a while, but I never had any pain, movement or not. It just felt and looked odd. Yours sounds like something far more serious.
I hope your knee gets to feeling better before somebody sells this information to the fundamentalists. “Git the torches and the dogs, boys, we got us a crippled atheist!”
Um, so where are you exactly? Just curious.
Your speech was great! You’ve got a good sense of humor too!
We are desperate for atheists in Salt Lake. The white steeples on every street corner get a little old!
Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. (dusting off my old first aid certification card) Hope it heals up soon PZ.
Cipher horror story time!
When one of my joints swelled up and started hurting for no reason, it turned out to be the start of an unusual attack of an inflammatory arthritis that left me bedridden, unable to move many of my joints, and in a great deal of pain for several months while the doctors tried treatments that didn’t work and my body parts swelled up like there were balloons in there or something. I had to be carried around, dressed, and fed by my family members, and even turning over in bed required help and often a lot of crying from pain. When they finally found a treatment that did work, it was an expensive series of injections, to be given every two weeks. They caused the swelling to go down and eventually I just went off the injections because they were too expensive, even with my parents’ decent health insurance. I was very lucky to have access to them at all, and I often think of what would have happened if my parents hadn’t had such good insurance, because it is probably happening to other people right now. My joints still like to fuck with me, but I think we have an uneasy truce.
The first ER trip with the first inexplicably swollen joint, they blew it off as a sprain that I must have forgotten about. (It was heavily implied that I was drunk at the time, which would have been quite a trick as I was still an obnoxious moralizing teetotaller then.)
I hope your random joint swelling turns out to be both easily explained and easily treated. But take it seriously! And make the doctors take it seriously too, or I will kick them in the shins!
Ditto to what lifewasted said.
It was great to have you here in Salt Lake. I can think of no better way to spend time on an Easter weekend! I brought someone with me who has been reluctant to call herself an Atheist or even meet with other Atheists. She was very ‘enthusiastic’ after hearing your presentation and wants to know when there is another meeting in the area. Mission accomplished!
I hope you get to visit Utah again soon. I also hope your knee feels better and you have a great trip to Australia. Please get someone to record your presentation and post it to YouTube for us.
Thanks again!!!
Does this mean I can’t take you on a walking tour of my home town? Good, because
1. I have a buggered foot myself, and
2. There’s not much to see.
I can find us a pub or two, though…
Here’s the SL Trib account o0f PZ’s talk:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53872835-78/atheist-myers-science-utah.html.csp
PZ aspirin.
It’s quite a strong anti-inflammatory.
Or ibuprofen or naprosyn. Cortisone can work wonders short term.
PZ, did you take an arrow in the knee? That can wreck your adventuring career if you’re not careful.
Darn, neXus, I wanted to use the “arrow in the knee” meme.
<pouts>
It’s not what I think, right?
Right?
PZ – do you have an urgent care center in Morris? That might be a good alternative to trying to get in for a regular appointment – they generally operate in the realm that’s less than life-threatening ER and get you seen more quickly than normal doctor’s offices.
‘Tis and neXus,
I would have used the “arrow to the knew meme” like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
Louis
PZ:
Again, sympathy for you and your knee. Been there, done that, still doing that.
The knee is one of my best arguments when someone starts trying to sell intelligent design to me. Pedestal over a pedestal held together with rubber bands. What about that is intelligent?
I read this after the “selling papers on easter sunday” post, and I cannot help but see each “that was bad” and “that was good” illustrated with fist-shaking PZ and thumbs-up PZ.
PZ:
Okay, I’m glad to hear that.
Good luck traveling today, PZ. You know that we worry about you, right?
God’s wrath!
Pity it’ll hurt too much to fall down on your knees and pray for mercy.
I just don’t get why the Bible says that “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart”, when clearly He locked up his knee.
Yeah, I can feel your pain with the knee – I tore my meniscus last year. Hope its nothing that serious. That said, at least you got to go to the Red Iguana – that is in my top 5 favorite restaurants I’ve been to. Their mole is spectacular!