Afro-tastic

When I was 12 years old, my brother got a wherm - a white man's perm. That's right, my 'bro had a 'fro. Like the mullet in the age of heavy metal, you weren't cool unless you had a 'fro in 1979. Lately it's been coming back in vogue. Love it or not, the afro is back in full force.


Fletch had the classic line while daydreaming about playing for the lakers - "He's 6'5", 6'9" with the afro" - and the 'fro as a comedy tool was born. Today the "Jewfro" is sported by Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill, and Big Willie Farrell rocks it, complete with the sweat band, in Semi-pro.

In the 70's the 'fro was all over the music scene. Leo Sayer told the world "You Make Me Feel Like Dancin' (I want to dance the night away)" but he also said he wanted to do it with a curly helmet of hair. Of course the disco peeps - The Commodores, Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind and Fire - all had the 'fro doin' the hustle. However, I think the greatest afro of the era, maybe of all eras, had to belong to Jeff Lynne of ELO, who had the afro-beard combo. The man looked like a sheepdog and didn't care who knew it.

I have to confess as a guy in my late 30's with a receding hairline (I don't have a forehead, I have a sixhead) I'm a little jealous of any one with enough hair to pull off the afro. There's no room in this world for a balding guy with bad hair...or is there? Check out Art Garfunkel!

The next step would be to combine the 'fro with the mullet - the frullet! Bad idea - Kenny G proved that even a total ass clown like him can take things to a new low with a bad 'do. I suppose I should count my blessings and think about all of the money I save on shampoo and "product" by sticking with a simple buzzcut.

Catching up

By way of updates, I won't discuss work...you know that the frequency of my posts is inversely related to the hours I'm logging, and my last post was almost three weeks ago, so that says all you need to know.

It's now been 57 days since I started mini-size me and it hasn't worked out like I had hoped, at least not entirely. I haven't been to any of the fast food places and have stuck to healthier fare at restaurants, but I haven't been dropping much weight. I'm only down a couple of pounds since this started. I guess I had higher expectations. On the other hand I have been sleeping better. I feel better. And I'll find out in another month and a half if my bloodwork looks better. I'll keep after it...I think when I start running again I will see the weight come off.

Speaking of which, I have been in physical therapy for a month now and the hip and knee are coming back into line. They've been taping my patella in place and doing strengthening exercises for it, and for the last two weeks I haven't had it taped. It is bothering me less and less. My hip is still painful in certain positions, but they've narrowed it down to inflammations of the attachment points of a pair of muscles; the psoas (which attaches to the front of the spine and upper portion of the front of the femur)and the piriformis (which passes through the "greater sciatic foramen" and attaches to the sacrum and the back of the upper femur). Through some deep tissue work they've gotten the muscles to release and the hip had full range of motion without pain, but only temporarily. I do have consistent increase in the range of motion though not without pain, and I start back into some light running this weekend, assuming that my knee doesn't start hurting. I'm almost back, baby! I'll get another update out and let you know how it goes.

Shocker! comes to life

Check out this story. It's kinda creepy...a guy gets a heart transplant with the heart coming from a guy who shot himself. The guy meets the widow to thank her for the gift of life, and marries her. A few years go by and he shoots himself. Now I'm really hoping that the person from whom my bone grafts came from was a "normal" individual and not a serial killer or a suicidal personality. Actually, I had two bone grafts...what if they came from two different people - one a serial killer and one an FBI profiler. Would I start stalking myself, only to catch on at the last minute and bust me?