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Happy birthday! Hoping for a fast recovery so you're able to scurry down chimneys this year.

Happy Birthday and sorry to hear about the back! Heal up!

Black Rabbit (Netflix) I'm finding it enjoyable and trying not to binge it too fast...

Happy birthday and I hope the recovery goes smooth. Careful on those stairs!

Happy Birthday, and I hope you're "back" in action soon.

Holy shiznit, Wayne I am so sorry to read about this. Hopefully those nurse spent a little "extra time" on your birthday 😉. Wishing you a speedy recovery, buddy.

Happy Birthday!

It was, yes!! My brother organized a small flashmob visit to my room that included some of my favorite humans including Bill Arkins who is almost 96 years old, a retired pharmacist who said he still has ways to smuggle dope if I need anything good. Also mentioned that my house is still standing and that he hasn't stolen anything yet. He rides by every day like clockwork on his 1960s style Schwinn bike with coaster brakes that looks practically new still. Best bang for the buck ever. Bill's son-in-law Don, one of my high school classmates, walked in behind him and said, "Oops, wrong room. I thought this was a removal call. I get a lot of those here..." He's a funeral director, so naturally followed that up with "We appreciate your business but we're willing to wait..." for probably the 10,000th time with his typical stoic delivery. There was cake... it was an Office Space sort of birthday celebration but in a good way.

I hope that despite the ailments it was a good birthday.

Good one, Brent!! Seems I forget to post in here my news update... let me do a cut and paste... Broke my back a couple of weeks ago, but other than that I'm doing well. Gotta laugh sometimes!! On September 15th at 3:30am, I was at home at the house in Illinois (my parents house which I bought from my siblings after mom died in 2020) where I usually spend my summer months. Lost my footing going down the stairs to the kitchen and broke my back pretty badly. Ended up at St. Francis in Peoria until they transferred me out yesterday to a bounce back place in Peru, IL just 7 minutes from the house in Oglesby. Thankfully (miracle, I think) there is no nerve damage to the spinal cord or anything it controls so everything is still working right. They decided that (just barely) I could avoid surgery so no hardware being put into my back. They made a custom fit TLSO back brace, like a 2 piece turtle shell. Been using it with better and better results since Sunday. Lots of pain but meds are controlling it pretty well. Need to be on my back most of the time for the next 2-3 months but the bones should fuse back together in time and I'll be as good as new. I feel lucky. It's not fun but there is a good path forward and God is watching over me. Kind of tricky doing a lot of things and odd to have to rely on nurses to wipe me up but whatever. It's not their first time! At least I can get up out of bed and sit in a recliner and go for walks with the back brace on, even use the toilet so no bed pans. But can't wipe! Maybe I'll need a garden hose when I get home for the shower!! The L1 (highest up lumbar) and the T12 (lowest down in the mid back part of my spine) both were snapped straight through, including the diec between them. It's a 3 column fracture which is the worst kind possible since all 3 layers of bone broke through so there isn't any one layer of bone still in place to provide stability. Thus its considered an unstable fracture (back won't support itself again until they fuse back together in time). But the good news is there was no horizontal shifting so my spine is still straight and that makes it possible (with my high tolerance for pain) to allow the brace to be an option to avoid surgery and locking 6 vertebrae together with pins and screws for the rest of my life. That would be VERY expensive and risk infection, but mainly I'd be less flexible once healed since the hardware for that kind of surgery is not designed to come out. So it's the right approach we're taking, just kind of a PITA in the short term. But I've got my laptop, phone, and TV. Really just need people to help me get into and out of the turtle shell. After that I can get to my feet and so long as the meds are doing their thing, I can do pretty much anything for myself. When I get home there may be some new challenges but life is never without them. I'm good and getting better already.

Congrats!

Very great, familiar song that I never knew the name of, nor the act that performed it. Was led to it by the comments section in another video short:

I despise and condemn how the current administration and the GOP have emboldened this hate and violence. I read stories like this almost every day, it seems.

Hope you had a good b-day run along the beach!

And three more dead in a North Carolina mass shooting yesterday. Both the NC and Michigan shooters were former US Marines who served in Iraq. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/28/nx-s1-5556033/north-carolina-shooting-southport-american-fish-company

4 people gunned down in a deplorable act of violence in an LDS church in Michigan. https://apnews.com/article/mormon-church-shooting-michigan-dcb79ee701b0b8076bf73e30e10ba2b7?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us I know I'm pro-2A and anti-superstitious, but I also believe in freedom from religious persecution. Fucking rednecks.

Post-rock (of the non-crescendo-core variety) -- very tasty (The F1rst Take is a YouTube channel dedicated to showing (off) musicians performing a song -- live in the studio, or at least the ones on screen -- in its entirety in one take):

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Wayne!

Cheers Wayne - Happy birthday --

Happy Birthday Wayne!!

My musical tastes went in a different direction so I hadn't listened to this CD in years, on my LCD-XC it sounds totally different and way better than I remember from my K340 days. So much more punch & dynamics, and everything sounds tighter & more groovy.

Happy Birthday, Cayman Santa!

Hope you're having a good one Wayne! Cheers!