News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

We’ve been on 3 ferries in the past 48 hours, a Papa, a Mama, and a Baby ferry.

The Papa lasted about 7 hours, and brought us from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia. The Mama lasted a little over an hour and took us from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island. And the Baby just took us on a short cut across a strait on Nova Scotia, and lasted less than 5 minutes.

We’ve decided to include a piece of New Brunswick in our tour. The Bay of Fundy National Park is in New Brunswick and could be the best place to see the tides. It’s only a couple of hours out of our way anyway.

Canadian geese honking in the distance as I write this. Nova Scotia is about 10 degrees F warmer than Newfoundland. 77, rainy and cloudy today, supposed to clear tomorrow.

We spent the past two nights in Gros Morne National Park, though in retrospect we should have set aside an extra day or two. It’s quite spectacular, comparable I think to Yosemite.

There are two main features. In the south where we stayed there’s an area where the earth’s mantle has pushed up through the crust, creating a barren brown rocky mountain called the Tablelands. The chemical composition of the mantle is not conducive to plant growth, so there are only a few small adapted plants growing through the brown rocks. As you drive into the valley the contrast between the brown mountain on one side, and the lush green on the other is striking. Unfortunately it was too foggy for me to get a good picture of both sides. I’ll try again on my way out and if successful I will post it here.

We went on a ranger-guided walk into the Tablelands and were told that the rocks here are around 500 million years old, much older than most rocks on the surface of the earth. Geologists come from all over the world to study the rocks here.

The other striking feature of Gros Morne is the fjords, or sounds. Again, it was too foggy to get a good picture, and we didn’t have time to get closer. With an extra day we could have taken a boat ride deep into the fjord that you can see in the distance, covered here by fog. Of course, even in a boat the fog would have been a real damper on the views.

Today we leave Gros Morne and drive down to take the Ferry to Nova Scotia. Our ferry leaves at 11:45 this evening and arrives in Nova Scotia around 8:00am. We got a room with a couple of beds and hope to get some sleep.

We’re also hoping that tropical storm Henri waits until we are safe on land before arriving.

One province, with a compound name. Established in 1949 as simply “Newfoundland”, the name was changed in 2001. In general conversation Canadians refer to the province as Newfoundland, but in all official discussion the full name is used. Practically, the island is always “Newfoundland”, while the mainland portion is often just “Labrador”.

I had always pronounced the island “New-Fund-Lund”, but I hear locals say “New-Fund-Land”, saying “Land” like we would in isolation. So that’s how I’m trying to say it.

Talking with some Torontons last night, they said that “Newfies” are often the brunt of jokes in metropolitan Canada, I think like the old Polack jokes we used to tell, or blonde jokes. “How many Newfies does it take to screw in a light bulb?” I’m sorry to say that I don’t know the answer.

We left Phoenix this morning at 7:00am, after an Uber ride to the airport (which I can recommend, by the way).

Almost 4 hours to Toronto, then another 3 to St Johns on West Jet airline.

West Jet is Air Canada’s budget airline. We upgraded to “Plus” service, which gives you a little more legroom, early boarding, free meals (cold sandwiches) and free checked luggage. Costs about the same as coach on a “real” airline, but was more comfortable.

St. John’s is colder than it has been the past couple of weeks that I have been watching it; 46 Fahrenheit this evening.

For some strange reason, Newfoundland sets their clocks on a half-hour rather than the even hours that most countries in the world use. It’s 1.5 hours later than EDT, so that’s 4.5 hours later than Tempe. Free breakfast at the Comfort Inn is served only until 9:00am, which is 4:30am Tempe time. We might not make it down for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we are going to explore the town. There is a hop-on/hop-off trolley through town that passes most of the interesting tourist stops, so we’ll do that. Friday we pick up our RV.

I finally received my invitation to sign up for Google’s Project Fi. I applied back in June when they first announced it, but they are issuing invitations a few at a time as they work out the kinks. I should have my SIM by the end of the week.

Project Fi is Google’s foray into cell phone service. The plan uses two different cell phone companies, T-Mobile and Sprint, along with WiFi connections. Phone calls and data can be accessed through whichever of the three gives the best connection.

The basic service is $20/month for unlimited talk and text, and then a $1/100-megabyte of data (one dollar per hundred megabytes), which works out to $10/GB. Of course, you are only charged for data over cellular, not WiFi.

A nice feature is that if you don’t use all the data you paid for, the unused cost is credited to your next bill, in $1 increments.

I know some people are grandfathered into unlimited data, and they make use of this (Richard, Dale, …), so for them this is not a good plan. If you use 50 GB in a month, this would cost you $520. But I checked back the past few months and I have averaged about 500-700 MB/month of cellular data, so my total monthly bill should come out around $27 + tax. I get most of my data through WiFi.

Another feature, important to me, is that the plan is good in over 120 countries, including every country I have visited or plan to visit except maybe Vietnam. Calls from those countries to the US are included in the unlimited plan, though calls to those countries do cost typically 20 cents/minute. Data in those countries is included in the data allocation that you pay for.

Before you jump in and try to switch your service, there is a big caveat. Right now the only phone this will work with is the Nexus 6 phone, which I happen to have. That’s because it can handle both kinds of networks: CDMA (Sprint) and GSM (T-Mobile), whereas almost all other phones will only connect to one or the other. Google is rumored to be preparing two new phones to release this fall that should also have this capability, but right now there is only one.

And admittedly T-Mobile and Sprint don’t have as good of coverage as, say, Verizon; even together — their coverage overlaps in most places — but it won’t be any worse than the T-Mobile plan I have now which I’ve found adequate.

Yesterday morning we woke up to find a dense fog covering the “Valley of the Sun”. Les and I had already planned a hike, so I picked him up and we drove out to the south side of South Mountain. We had to drive slowly in places because of poor visibility.

To you folks who live in rainier climates, fog is a common occurrence, but it is rare here in the Sonoran desert.

As we started up the trail we couldn’t see even the outline of the sun, but as we climbed higher and higher the fog began to thin and the sun became visible, though still not too bright to look directly at. Finally, as we reached about 1000 feet above the desert floor we broke out of the fog into clear blue sky.

Just above the fog, looking northeast towards the TV towers on the peak of South Mountain. Tempe is somewhere to the right of the towers under the white blanket.

Looking west towards the Sierra Estrellas, over a sea of cloud.

The little valley we had come up through was filled with fog.

Went back to see the physician (actually the PA) after my surgery.

Looks good. I can start to use my arm outside the sling for very light activities (nothing heavier than a remote control, mouse or fork). That’s a big improvement! He still recommends that I sleep in a recliner, though I can try a bed if I want.

He showed on the original x-ray how one broken end of the bone was very near, and almost punctured, my lung. I’m glad that didn’t happen!

No pain anymore, just an occasional little ache that acetaminophen easily covers.

Come back in two weeks, and then start some physical therapy. 7 weeks till near normalcy, 11 or so to sports.

Surgery went well yesterday, though about two hours behind schedule. We got home about 5:00pm.

I had a total nerve block on the right shoulder from neck to finger tips. My arm was literally like a numb, wet noodle, just lying there in the sling. The greatest force of concentration could not get the slightest motion from finger, wrist or elbow.

I slept pretty well in a recliner. The doctor warned me to take pain pills before I went to bed in case the block wore off in the night. It didn’t. This morning when I got up it was still numb, but I was able to move the fingers slightly.

By mid-day full feeling was pretty much back, and it hurt. Two 7.5 Percocets cut the edge, but it was still there.

Now this evening it feels quite a bit better, but I think it’s about time for another pain pill.

Here’s an x-ray taken while I was still in the OR.

Doc says about 4 weeks in the sling and about 12 weeks to resume sports. There may be some physical therapy in there to ensure I maintain full range of motion and don’t lose strength.

I asked him if the plate on top of my collarbone is going to bother me when backpacking. He said for some it does, for others not. But if it does it’s a simple procedure to remove the plate once the bone has set. We’ll see.

I’m all set for Tuesday mid-day surgery. How come it’s always nothing to eat or drink after midnight, whether your surgery is at 6:00am or 4:00pm? They are obviously trying to have one simple set of instructions instead of trusting people to be able to calculate time differences.

So here’s what’s going to happen. First, a sample xray of a similar break to mine (I don’t have my own xrays for any of these so I found some similar ones on the web)

You have to imagine that you’re seeing this from behind, since it’s my right shoulder. This is similar to the xray I saw in the surgeon’s office. There is no way these bones are going to grow back together, and even if they did it would be a strange non-functional arrangement!

Here’s a picture of a similar plate that gets screwed into the bones after they are lined up:

And here’s an xray taken after someone has had the procedure done, and I hope what mine looks like in a few days:

There is an alternative procedure that is sometimes done that involves drilling out the center of the bones and inserting a metal rod, similar to what Dale has in his leg. It can sometimes be done arthroscopically, which is a lot less invasive and leaves much smaller scars. My procedure will involve an incision longer than the plate, but fortunately there are no muscles and very little tissue to be cut, as you can tell by feeling of your own collar bone — it is right under the skin. One problem with the “intermedullary” rod approach is that the round rod does not prevent the bones from rotating before they set. Also, the rod is usually removed after the bone has set, involving more surgery. All things considered the plate approach is still the predominant method and the one my doctor chose for me. The doctor did tell me that the plate is not made of adamantium, so I won’t be like the Wolverine.

I’m still hurting much more from the broken rib than the shoulder. Since they are on opposite sides, I’m feeling pretty crippled. Two nights ago Gisele had to help me out of bed so I could go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I’ve discovered a method of sliding out of bed onto my butt on the floor and standing up from there, so at least I am able to get up by myself. But it hurts and I’ll be glad when the rib heals. I’m probably going to go through a very unpleasant few days right after surgery when both sides will be very painful. I hope I don’t get addicted to the pain pills…

I just bought a pair of glasses on the internet. It was a good experience.

My situation was the simplest possible. I sent them a pair of old scratched-up glasses and said, “Replace the lenses with identical new lenses but make them photo-active.”

There was a little more to it than that, but not much. They cost less than half as much as they would have at a “normal” optician, and even cost less than they would at Costco.

I opted for the Transitions XTRActive lenses, which darken with exposure to light. They are a new version that gets darker with less light than before– they darken a little even while driving in the car, and darken quite a bit even when I wear a hat that shades them. Regular Transition lenses are a lot less active in those circumstances. The downside is that they take longer to clear up and never become completely clear, but close enough. I tried Transitions before and was disappointed on the limited darkness in many situations. So far I am very happy with these.

After some research, I used ReplaceALens. There are a lot of other reputable companies, but they had the best set of options and had very good BBB and user reviews. I sent them a question by email before I bought and they were very responsive. And while making my glasses they called me with a question to clarify something. All in all I liked working with them and the glasses they sent me were perfect.