A new day and a new column. There’s no reason for both of us to be buried in email – check out your daily dose of Spam on my blog and start your day with a clear head and empty inbox!
I’m trying something a little different. I’m sharing my Spam.
Okay, the truth is that I’m not actually sharing my spam with you. But I am sharing some of the dozens of articles I read each day that are sent to me by a variety of people, publications, organizations, and more. It’s a mish-mash of content that – while it all makes sense to me – might overwhelm a lot of people (after all, it’s taken nearly 30 years to curate this odd assortment of sources and fonts of inspiration).
But dang it. It’s interesting.
I get overwhelmed with email so you don’t have to
No kidding. I get 300 – 400 emails a day. A lot of it is junk, but there’s plenty of golden nuggets. And those are what I share in this column.
I intend to make these columns a quick read (one cup of coffee or less) and hope you will, from time to time, find something interesting or inspirational in the pile I leave for you each day.
With that little gem, I also leave you with this … the inspiration for the use of the word “spam” to represent unsolicited, junk email.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
It turns out that the mind-body connection works both ways. Sometimes the biggest barrier keeping you from your success is located between your ears – which is why its important to understand how physical trauma can bring on depression and how your mental health affects your recovery.
I have to admit, this post has been exceptionally difficult to write. When I started blogging about my recovery from the fall I experienced last October, I thought I could keep things fairly upbeat and positive. You know, like me.
But after six or seven months of rigorous physical therapy, dealing with pain, allowing my body to heal, and then going a long-awaited vacation to Thailand and Singapore, I came home to a stark realization.
I was depressed.
Maybe it was that “after vacation letdown” that some people experience after they finally take that trip they’ve dreamed about for a lifetime. (In fact, nearly 1 in 5 travelers experience a short depression after they return from vacation.)
Maybe it was the fact that my wife and I both came down with a cold after 30+ hours of travel back (too much time in airports and the desert air in Qatar may have contributed to that – but at least it wasn’t Camel Flu).
All I know is that I was overwhelmed. Completely burned out.
Call me “Extra Crispy” …
For the first time in a long time (since my father’s passing in 1992, actually), I was experiencing a near-constant feeling of dread and insufficiency. I would sit and stare off into space for who knows how long only to snap out of it and feel even worse for wasting away so much time.
It’s times like these that make working for yourself – from a quiet corner of your home – even more isolating and crushing.
I didn’t know how to explain it to people. I couldn’t find the words. And for a guy who writes for a living, the inability to express how I feel or what I see is frightening.
Could it be the largest obstacle to my recovery might be between my ears?
The short answer to that question is, “yes.” But it’s the longer answer to that question that I found to be most interesting.
There’s more to breaking bones than breaking bones
It turns out that physical trauma – either accidental or on purpose – changes you. All of you. Not just the physical part, but also the emotional, intellectual, and in some cases, spiritual parts, too. Looking back on the posts I’ve made about my “trail back” hints at those changes (and I’ll probably dive deeper into them as time goes on). But in this post, I want to share what I’ve learned about my own mental health and how it’s affected by my physical well-being (and vice versa).
In my case, I’m pretty sure my accident was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” and once the exciting distraction of my first vacation in nearly a decade had passed, I found myself overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and indecisiveness. I was swinging wildly from anger to malaise to anxiety and a whole host of emotions and then back again.
It was very hard for me to concentrate on anything, let alone my PT.
I eventually came to the realization that my physical trauma had brought some friends to my “recovery party.” The injury to my body manifested itself in a number of ways beyond the broken bones and pain.
I was in trouble and knew it, but it was very difficult to explain or talk about. For a person who writes for a living, that’s just all the more confounding.
I knew something was wrong. I’m usually an optimistic person. But my emotions were spiraling in a way I hadn’t experienced before. In fact, I was depressed.
Fortunately, I had a previously scheduled check up with my general practice doctor and so I brought the problem to him. He referred me to a counselor who, over time, has helped guide me on the recovery between my ears and put words to the pain and confusion I’ve experienced while Kathryn has continued to work on my physical rehabilitation.
Understanding the connection between mental and physical health
As it turns out, depression is more than just “feeling blue” and it can be brought on by trauma – either emotional or physical. In my case, I’m fairly certain that the sudden change in my body’s condition helped set the stage for depression to take hold of me.
And seeking help for the depression from outside is definitely the right thing to do.
This isn’t something to try and work out on your own. In fact, if you’re experiencing depression, anxiety, PTSD or other manifestations of mental distress after an injury (or surgery), you need to get help to address it. Your mental health definitely affects your recovery in both the immediate and long-term.
What changes over time
Once you think about it, it makes sense. There’s a clear connection between trauma brought on by events that are outside of your control and how you handle that stress psychologically. No two people handle those circumstances the same way.
And when that trauma is the result of a physical event, like falling off a ladder or having surgery, your body is going to do what it can to heal and protect itself from experiencing that trauma again.
Your body chemistry changes to facilitate the healing process. And sometimes, those changes come with unexpected consequences.
I talked to Kathryn Ellsworth, my physical therapist, about this to see what she thought.
In my case, the depression I faced, while emotionally distressing, Wasn’t so severe that I faced life-or-death decisions like others might. But as one who describes himself as “happy-go-lucky, “ it was upsetting to find myself to be so irritable and, at times, inconsolable.
Kathryn told me that physical therapists aren’t necessarily trained to look for signs of depression in the patients they treat; she is accustomed to seeing patients dealing with stress outside of the physical restrictions and limitations that they’re experiencing during therapy.
Therapy – both for your body and your psychological well-being – is the tool I’ve used to address the limitations I’ve faced as a result of my accident. But success in therapy comes in little (sometimes undistinguishable) steps.
The fact is, when you’re in therapy, you’re physically not able to do the things you used to do (or the things you think you should be able to do). And no matter how hard you try, the going is slow, and there are setbacks you have to overcome.
But it’s the small steps you make toward your eventual goal that matters. Celebrating small victories along the way provides positive reinforcement that, over time, can make that big goal an achievable one.
I heard the same thing from the mental health counselor I’ve been working with for the past four months.
And it’s paying off. Slowly.
Sometimes, you wonder if you’ll ever get past them at all.
Clearly, there’s a mind–body connection that is worth understanding. I’d highly recommend anyone who has to go through physical therapy improve their understanding of how physical limitations from an injury can affect your demeanor and the way you see the world.
I don’t like being depressed. I’m used to seeing my glass as always being half full. But for once, that wasn’t going to be enough. Thank goodness I have a team of people like Kathryn, my doctors and counselors, and a strong network of family and friends to support me.
It’s good to know you have a team to fall back on during recovery. A team who is there to help pick yourself up and get back on the trail to the things that matter most.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
While on vacation to Singapore and Thailand, I learned how to manage travel, touring foreign countries, chasing grandchildren, and rehabbing an injured shoulder simultaneously. Now I need a vacation from my vacation.
I’ve recently returned from a 2-1/2 week vacation to Singapore and Thailand. It was the trip of a lifetime. But frankly, I’m exhausted.
Even when you intentionally “get away from it all” you don’t get away from it ALL.
My wife, Caroline, and I have been looking forward to this trip for some months as planning had actually begun during the summer of 2022. And here’s a fun fact: planning your vacation in advance can actually be good for your health. (Don’t believe me, fine. But don’t disagree with the folks at National Geographic … that’s bad karma.)
We took the time to confirm the details of our trip with our second-oldest son and his wife when I visited them in Almaty, Kazakhstan this last September. You see, Tim teaches third graders at an English-language school there and our trip coincided with his school’s spring break.
Vacation bonus: Tim and his family (including our two little grandsons) were able to join us in Thailand the second week of our trip.
The best laid plans … youch!
Then I had my little accident in October. But Caroline and I were not about to let a shattered scapula and broken ribs derail our vacation plans. In fact, Caroline asked my orthopedist (ORA Orthopedic’s Dr. Myles Luszczyk) if I’d still be able to go on our trip in March. He said that if I was serious about my therapy and recovery, he didn’t see why not.
Sometimes making the intra-airport transition from one gate to another can be a little hard on the shoulder.
Caroline assured him I would be.
Even after several months of therapy, I still had some concerns about the amount of time I would be spending on airplanes and in airports during our travel to and home from Asia. International travel can be a real drag and toting baggage from plane to bus to cab can be physically stressful, even for the non-injured.
Of course, I was careful to discuss those concerns with my “team” including my general practice physician, my main contact at ORA (John Tryon, PA), and my therapist, Kathryn Ellsworth.
Together, we came up with a strategy for managing my shoulder injury, plans for recovery, and any other health-related issues to take into consideration considering the distance and change in environment.
A successful trip abroad depends on planning.
Over the years, I’ve found that tourists and travel planners usually fall into one of two categories: there are those who like to take their time and really investigate a destination, and then there are those who want to go-go-go from location to location in order to make sure nothing gets missed. I am definitely the former. My wife is definitely the latter.
It makes for an interesting “travel dynamic.”
To accommodate our different “styles” I’ve decided to share some of the things I learned about the places we visited on our trip in a new, “destination investigation“ section of my blog. If you’re thinking of going to Singapore or Thailand, at some point in the future, you might want to check it out. Look for those posts starting in May.
We wound up making a compromise: We’d go-go-go the first ten days of vacation. That included getting up early, eating on the run, going on lots of guided tours, and taking lots (and lots) of pictures. But once we reached the sandy beaches of Phuket, Thailand, where we would be joined by Tim, Sarah, Oliver and Elliott, we’d slow down the pace a bit.
That sounded like a winning deal to me and Caroline agreed.
But I had other plans to make … with a little help from my therapist
Before we left for Asia, I had to make sure I spent some time planning out my PT routine for the three weeks I’d be out of town. The last thing I wanted to do was backslide on my progress.
Kathryn Ellsworth, ORA Physical Therapy
So I met with my physical therapist from ORA Physical Therapy, Kathryn Ellsworth. Her background in PT and time spent in the workplace as a therapist gave her some great experience to draw from as she worked out a realistic and achievable PT program I could maintain on the road.
Of course, I had to break the bad news to her that she would not be able to join us on our trip, but she got over it. Instead, she walked right over to the weight machines and wheeled out a device that contained reels of rubber bands and tubes.
Her recommended PT program was pretty straightforward. Kathryn was able to focus my therapy-on-the-go around building strength in my shoulder and injured joint. The strategy developed jointly between the surgical/medical team and my therapist was pretty straight-forward: try to build strength in the joint and see if we could stabilize the injured shoulder so surgery wouldn’t be needed.
I needed an exercise routine I could travel with me and equipment that would fit inside my suitcase and not exceed the limitations from Airlines. So that meant traveling with ORA’s weight machines was out.
It’s okay, I was with the bands …
My bands of many colors
The solution to my exercise dilemma came in the form of rubber bands. Kathryn was quick to provide me with, a virtual rainbow of exercise equipment. Each band was a different color which indicated the relative resistance of each band.
She also gave me five exercises to do using the resistance bands which were designed to help build up strength in my shoulder over time.
Kathryn also reminded me that I needed to do plenty of walking. I assured her that my go-go-go travel partner would make sure “getting steps in” wouldn’t be a problem. And there was no way I was going to tell Caroline she needed to make sure we did plenty of walking or, you know, I’d be walking back from Thailand right now.
I offered that I planned on doing lots of swimming – either in the pools at our hotels or on the beach. I figured that would be easy, since one full week was going to be spent in Phuket.
Some days were better than others, but all days were interesting,
Caroline and I made a new friend at the elephant sanctuary in Phuket. I’m the one in the blue shirt.
I’d be lying if I said every day was a physical therapy success while I was on vacation. In fact there were a few days where I did very little PT, but Caroline did not disappoint by putting me through the paces. That included everything from mountain hikes to see the natural wonders of Thailand, a day-long trek through The Golden Triangle (the conjunction of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand), an elephant sanctuary, and an oddly-named tourist destination known as “monkey mountain.“
According to my iPhone, we walked over 200,000 steps during our vacation (in excess of 10,000 steps a day).
Time spent in the pool started off as a chance to relax and cool down after a solid day of walking and eventually led to swimming laps and giving my shoulder a really good workout. On Day One, I was barely able to get my arm over my head and swim a full stroke, but by the end of the vacation, my shoulder strength had improved to the point of being able to do labs of both breaststroke and front crawl.
I was pretty pleased with myself, but I knew I still had a long way to go to get back to full use of my arm and shoulder.
The voyage home and getting back on the trail.
The trip back was grueling. Our original return flight (through London) was cancelled and we had to re-route through Doha, Qatar. The trip back took nearly 36 hours straight and my first PT appointment was scheduled for the next morning at 6:15 am.
Or so I thought.
When I arrived at the clinic for my appointment, I checked my text messages to see a note from Kathryn sent the night before informing me that she was under the weather had to cancel our appointment. I wasn’t really inconvenienced since I was still jet lagged and my body clock thought it was about one in the afternoon.
To be honest, I’m not sure how productive I would have been at that first appointment, anyway.
In fact, by the end of the week, I was the one who was sick (from exhaustion and too much airport time, I suppose), and had to cancel my physical therapy appointment. I finally made it back to the Northwest Davenport Clinic and climbed back into the PT routine the following week.
That week I also had an appointment with a new doctor at ORA Orthopedics, Dr. Andrew Bries, who took a closer look at my shoulder’s mobility and gave me a diagnosis I was not expecting.
But that’s a story for another blog.
I hope you’ll stay with me on this trail to recovery as we go to new places and on new adventures.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
… in the shoulder. What I mean to say is that sometimes physical therapy can be a little painful.
Before I get into too much trouble, let me explain.
My trail back runs through the gym.
The scapula (also called the “shoulder blade”) is paper-thin and can break. But shattering it is fairly rare.
I knew that at some point, I would have to start exercising my shoulder if I wanted to recover fully. The way it was explained to me, I’d need to give my body time to heal first. Then, I would have to strengthen my shoulder and get as much motion and flexibility back into the joint as possible. Once that was accomplished, my orthopedic surgeon would take a closer look at the remaining damage resulting from my accident.
Getting better can be tough work.
My fall last October shattered my scapula. And even though that paper-thin bone would eventually grow back together, I needed to keep working on the joint to ensure I regained most of my arm’s motion.
Of course, that has meant lots of exercising and stretching. Three days a week, I’m at ORA’s clinic in Northwest Davenport, doing my best to push weight around, stretch elastic bands, bounce balls off walls, and a host of other exercises meant to test, tweak, and build up the muscles in my right shoulder as they attempt to resume the job they were performing before they were so rudely interrupted.
As rehabilitation gyms go, the facilities on Northwest Boulevard seem to be well-supplied and maintained, with a variety of machines and equipment. To the untrained eye, like mine, it looks like your regular hotel gym with just one or two pieces of the same equipment and plenty of television monitors. But on closer inspection, you find every piece of equipment – from brightly-colored stretchy band to steel-grey treadmill – has a specific purpose.
Getting back to life takes perseverance (and a little perspiration).
Therapists use these tools of their trade to help patients regain strength and flexibility. The focus is not on building beach bodies but rather on making it possible for people to move again and get back to the things that matter most in their lives.
Achieving that means you have to rediscover muscles that may have lost their tone while immobilized in a cast or sling. Sometimes it means re-learning basic motions and physical tasks – like putting on a winter jacket – that accommodates your limited mobility or weakened condition.
I often see folks working on re-gaining their balance, teaching their body how to stabilize itself again. It can be hard work and failure is a common occurrence. Most folks might get discouraged and give up, resigning themselves to a “new normal” of limited mobility, pain, and frustration.
But these patients are not doing this alone.
Physical therapists are there by their side, doing what they do best: coaching, collecting, and encouraging.
And in my case, gratefully inflicting a little bit of pain.
Yes, there is such a thing as “good” pain.
Yes, a little bit of pain can be a good thing.
If you think about it, pain serves a purpose. It’s how your body tells your brain that something is wrong and that it needs to find some relief. Pain, and your body‘s reaction to it, are some of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
Kathryn Ellsworth, ORA Physical Therapy
When I asked my therapist, ORA Orthopedics’ PT, Kathryn Ellsworth, about my pain signals, and how she used them in my therapy, she explained it this way:
“I monitor both non-verbal and verbal reports of pain and adjust my therapy accordingly. I know that what we do is going to produce some discomfort because we’re trying to address the damage to the joint and surrounding soft tissue. But I’m careful because causing too much pain can be counter-productive and could be hard to relieve.”
So … it could be worse. I guess I should stop complaining about being so sore all the time.
“Some people confuse the two. There is actually a big difference between soreness resulting from muscle fatigue after a rehab session and pain caused by some kind of trauma a person has suffered – like falling ten feet onto a cement stone.” Okay, I kind of deserved that.
My therapist can read me like a book … and it’s probably Dr. Seuss.
So, apparently, my reactions to the aches and pains I suffer through during my therapy (usually consisting of grimaces and bad Dad-jokes) are just part of what Kathryn takes into consideration as she’s guiding my recovery. She observes how these verbal and nonverbal cues compare to what she’s feeling inside my shoulder as she works it through a series of motions.
As the shoulder begins to resist the pressure to move, Kathryn looks to see if I’m expressing some level of pain. And I usually am. An eye roll might mean one thing. A wince or a muffled scream might mean something else.
Actually, I rarely scream during physical therapy because 6:15 am is far too early in the morning for that kind of behavior – and I’ve only had one cup of coffee, so I’m only half awake.
In reality, the pain isn’t usually too severe. Kathryn will push or pull on my arm and my shoulder will sometimes tweak or twinge. It can be a sudden snapping sensation, like someone shooting my shoulder with a rubber band. If not that, I’ll experience a dull, throbbing sensation – like when my arm feels it isn’t fully back in the shoulder socket – which it isn’t.
Kathryn compares her knowledge of physiology with my description of how things feel and creates a new data point to track my recovery.
My trail back will be a long one. And I knew that at times it would be painful as well. But it’s good to know all the pain serves a purpose.
The trail doesn’t end in pain … at least it doesn’t have to.
It’s also good to know that there are ways to deal with the pain that goes beyond taking a dose of “Vitamin I“ (that’s how ORA PA, John Tyron, referred to ibuprofen during my last visit).
But that’s a story for another day. I hope you’ll stay with me on this trail as we go down it together.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
From time to time, I get questions from folks who want to know what the title of my blog actually means. After all, on the face of it, “The Trail Back” is kind of a generic, feel-good title for a blog about physical recovery. I get that.
But for me, it means so much more.
Camping is my sport.
A loon looks right at the camera from his spot on one of the hundreds of lakes you’ll find in the Quetico Provincial Park (Ontario, Canada).
At my age, some people are golfers while others play tennis (or, more recently, pickleball). For those of us reaching retirement age – not something I readily admit – those seem to be sports of preference for most.
There are the occasional bikers and hikers. And for those of us who don’t like to admit we’re aging, you’ll even find the occasional boomer seriously working out in the gym.
That’s never been my style. And, quite frankly, I’m so bad at regular “sports” that I’ve never defined myself by any of them.
But I do enjoy camping and canoeing. Backpacking is fun, too. But the thing that separates me from many folks who enjoy going for a hike down a trail or a paddle down a river with a bunch of friends, is that I really enjoy the solitude and the beauty of those places hard-core campers refer to as “the Back Country.”
And you won’t find a more beautifully perfect spot than the Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario.
I have a history with the Quetico
Located adjacent to The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern Minnesota, you’ll find a park consisting of nearly 5,000 square kilometers (over 1,800 square miles) of wilderness accessible only by paddle. The park is over 100 years old but its history stretches back much further.
Ancient Native American people lived in the region nearly 10,000 years ago (you can still see some of the rock art on Lake Agnes which depicts Indians in canoes from that period).
Not all of the portages in the Quetico end with a little wooden walkway into the lake – but when they do, you take it.
But my fascination with this place extends beyond the natural history and Native American history of the region. This is a place I’ve been before – as an adult and as a teenager. I’ve come with friends and fellow Scouters. These adventures are among my most cherished memories.
My first trip to The Quetico was with my dad, Tim. My last trip to the park was with my son. His namesake.
All of the trips have been memorable – and for all the right reasons.
Whether it was the shower we took in a waterfall or the bear we found in our campsite when we returned, I’m not sure. But that first trip to the Quetico was filled with adventure, laughs and memories.
Those memories flooded back to me on my most recent trip (with my son, Tim), when I was sitting on a rock one morning, listening to the loons sing as the haze burned off the lake and I realized we had stumbled across the same campsite I’d visited with my dad nearly thirty years before.
There’s a rhythm to it all. And your heart just kind of syncs up with it.
I feel whole and connected when I’m there. And I have to go back.
I will go back.
At least, that’s the plan. I’m not even sure where it came from, to be honest.
I remember laying in my bed the day after my accident. The trauma doctor and anesthesiologist were discussing my upcoming surgery. I was listening as best I could, given the pain killers. And then the orthopedic member of the trauma team, Dr. Myles Luszczyk mentioned something to the effect that after the surgery and healing process, we’d start working on rehabilitating my arm so I could get back to doing what I loved to do.
What was that “thing” I loved to do? Before I could think about it, I said I needed to be able to paddle and pick up a canoe because I was going back to The Quetico.
Once the doctors left, my wife said that my plans for a back country canoe trip were news to her. To be honest, they were news to me, too.
But after thinking about it some more, I thought they sounded like a grand plan and a great goal.
I’m glad you’re able to come along on this adventure with me.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
I’ve selected some fun short subjects that all involve the “Man of Steel”, “Man of Tomorrow”, or “The Kryptonian.” We know him by other names: Clark Kent, Kal-El, or Superman. Have a “super” Tuesday!
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch.
Productions can range from studio-quality to something that more resembles a community theater production. But they’re all alike in one way – they wouldn’t exist without the abundant love fans have for the stories, characters and franchises that inspire them.
I’ve had the good fortune to meet some industry pros through my involvement in fan films. I’ve also met some interesting … um … “characters” (that might be the best way to put it. I may share those stories down the road, but not today.
Today, we go up, up and away with Superman
This Superman short just appeared online in December of 2022. Made with Real Engine 5, it’s not like any other Superman fan film I’ve seen.
I’ve selected some fun Superman-related fan films to share today. The first (featured at the top of this post) is a really impressive short film made with Real Engine 5. It’s very lifelike and works like a video game cutscene.
Other than Supes, there’s very little human figure-work in the video – which is probably for the best. It’s hard work animating humans and making them look like they’re not computer-generated figures. (The guys at Corrider Crew do a great job of explaining the “Uncanny Valley” affect in this video.)
One way around that problem is to use actual humans in your short film – and the Bat-In-The-Sun guys do an amazing job with the superhero/sci-fi genres in this regard. Check out this video that imagines what would happen if the dark lord of the Sith (Darth Vader) met the World’s Finest (Superman and Batman).
By taking Superman and Batman to a galaxy far, far away, the filmmakers have an opportunity to make something special that doesn’t have to adhere too closely to the established rules of the universe where DC’s heroes are currently living. The costumes, acting, casting, sets … all of it is first-rate in this short.
And if you don’t like the way this one ends, the folks at Bat-in-the-Sun made a second version where the other “team” wins the contest.
But let’s bring things back to Earth.
Throwing back to an earlier day
One way to make the story of superheroes work – and not date themselves in the process – is to put those heroes in another time. Since the superhero comics burst onto the scene at the end of the Great Depression (1938), I tend to prefer an early 20th Century feel to superhero dramas I see on the screen. That’s why, for my money, my favorite MCU and DCU films are CAPTAIN AMERICA; THE FIRST AVENGER and WONDER WOMAN, respectively.
Fans can use that trick as well – and sometimes they really go all-in on the nostalgia of it all. I love what this fan did with Supergirl by casting back in the 1920s.
Of course, as cool and nostalgic as the images are, the method of story telling allows the filmmakers to focus on producing authentic-looking visuals and just share bits and pieces of a larger story. Is there a larger story that backs up this short film? In my experience, the answer is “probably not.”
Fans are, for the most part, okay with that though. If you read the comments on the video, you’ll see fans encouraging the filmmaker to keep making more videos and pining for Hollywood to make these fan-creations come to life. Of course, there are a host of legal problems with that suggestion – but that’s a post for another day.
Filmmakers can continue to play the nostalgia card, however, by falling back on a different media that works really well with superhero stories – and Superman stories, in particular (imho). Check out this 2D animated short from Robb Pratt …
Now, I particularly love this one and his Bizarro short films – as far as Superman projects go. But these films are old projects and it looks like Robb eventually pursued a more ambitious project around Flash Gordon (another personal favorite of mine) about seven years ago, and then his own series, Carman. Robb now works for Disney (at least according to his website) as an animator.
The animation adventure doesn’t end there, folks
Think that 2D animation was pretty amazing – you’re going to love this work by animator Paul B. Frieling at Lazy Droid Studio. If you’re at all familiar with the Tim Burton version of Superman that never got made (Jon Schnepp produced a documentary about Superman Lives), you need to check this trailer out.
This trailer dropped on YouTube on December 20, 2022. I so hope Paul is able to make this happen.
After all these years, I’m still all-in on Nic Cage as Superman. It’s weird, I know, but then again, I don’t take comic book movies too seriously.
Sometimes, the passion just wins out
Remember how I said that sometimes, these fan projects more closely resemble community theater than studio-quality entertainment? JUSTICE LEAGUE: SILVER is an example of that. It’s cringe-worthy. Sometimes really cringe-worthy. But the love of the heroes and the stories the fans want to tell make it possible to sit through thirteen minutes of what we have here.
It’s honest and it’s heartfelt. It might not be very good, but you have to respect the passion.
And Starro. Everyone has to respect Starro.
Just remember, forty years ago, this is what passed for a live, Justice League adventure produced by Hollywood. Yikes …
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
It was early in the morning, during the black darkness right before sunrise, and Edge hadn’t slept well at all. Something had kept him up all night. Running through scenarios. Trying to envision how things would go down.
He felt something outside. A low rumble. Walking out of the mercantile, the Rider stood on the edge of the wooden walkway and looked toward the rising sun.
In the far-off distance were small dots of lights. Headlights of bikes and what appeared to be three flatbeds. And they were headed toward town.
This was it.
The sound from the approaching vehicles grew, waking the people of Pine Bluff to the low growl of raw horsepower and grinding gears. Edge had already issued instructions for most of the people to take cover and stay out of the town square.
If any killing was to happen, this is where it would take place.
Edge double-checked his revolver. It was loaded, and he had plenty of ammunition. It’s just too bad he no longer had his other gun, but he’d make do.
The first two rigs, each driven by a man in a long coat, rolled into the town square and pulled up to a stop next to the Pine Bluff Trust and Savings Bank. Five Hollow Men followed close behind on motorcycles. One of them with a sidecar.
In the sidecar, the Rider noticed the greasy outlaw from the Randolph Ranch. Edge found it to be equally amusing and annoying. Behind the bikes followed one last pickup with two men in the cab. The cargo in the back of the vehicle was covered with a tarp. The driver pulled up under a huge Pine in the square between the bank and Edge’s location.
Each truck parked near the bank was loaded to nearly overflowing with boxes sporting a huge MMS logo on the side. Edge knew the logo belonged to The Midlands Mining Services Corporation. The company – one of the few multi-regional enterprises in the Wasted Lands – was owned by Cyrus Vanderbilt, a ruthless entrepreneur and one of the last remaining rail barons.
Edge recalled that Jim Murphy, one of the men who had gone missing just a few weeks ago, worked for the Midlands Corporation managing lumber operations outside of Pine Bluff. He would have had control over the company’s explosives.
Edge now held a pair of interesting clues that provided insight into the entire situation. A grin crossed his face as he guessed how old Cyrus Vanderbilt might react if he found out what had happened to his munitions. The old man would not be happy.
So that was their plan? To draw out Edge with a simple bank robbery? It was a little disappointing, but Edge knew he’d have to oblige them if things would end in a way that kept Pine Bluff in one piece. So, Edge opened the store door and walked out onto the porch and down the street.
Alone.
The Rider called out to the assembled mob: “Just what do you boys think you’re doing here at this hour of the morning?” he shouted over the dying motorcycle engines. The Hollow Men, who were making their way to the loaded flatbeds, stopped at the sound of Edge’s voice, their heads craning around and mouths open.
Their handlers turned to see what was happening. The one from the ranch recognized Edge immediately and tried to slink down inside the sidecar, making a poor attempt to disappear.
“You boys aren’t welcome here,” Edge continued. “My name is Edgar Wallace. I’m a deputy marshal with the Riders of the Outland Plains, and I’m authorized by the Governing Council to take you boys in.”
One of the men leaned out of the window of a truck and laughed a weak, wheezy laugh. “Yeah, you and what army?”
Edge gave a little whistle, and two men with shotguns walked around the corner of the mercantile. They were the town councilmen Edge had met at Gunderson’s store the day before. The Rider looked back at them with a bit of surprise. Gunderson was supposed to be with them. Edge thought Eli was a little shifty but never would have considered him to be a coward.
Oh well, he’d have to make do with this turn of events, too.
At least the two men who were left were well-armed. Edge had told them that shotguns would be their best hope against a charging Hollow Man. “Aim for the head and make every shot count,” he instructed. “And once they’re down, give them one more shell for good luck.”
Edge didn’t go into details about how Hollow Men have a bad habit of not staying down after they’ve been shot. A safety shot to the skull seemed to be the only thing that really made sure their departure was permanent.
“Ed and Lenny, here are the Pine Bluff Militia,” Edge said to the man in the vehicle.
The threat was underwhelming. The handler’s smile turned into a toothy grin. His over-confidence didn’t worry the Rider; it was the beasts near the bank that concerned Edge more. They just kept getting more and more restless. Tongues flashing and flicking as if in reaction to the palpable fear in the air.
Edge made a quick glance to his left and caught the glint of gunmetal off the roof of the sheriff’s office. He had his own card up his sleeve. Albert was in position. Once Edge had learned that Pine Bluff’s last remaining deputy was also a crack shot with a large-bore hunting rifle, he knew exactly what kind of role the boy would play for the morning’s inevitable standoff.
All the cards were on the table. Now was the time to see what Lady Luck had in store for him. But sometimes the unexpected happens.
Not everybody plays fair.
Edge couldn’t remember the last time he was truly surprised by someone or something – but it happened just then. One of the two overseers in the flatbed parked under the Pine climbed out of his vehicle and approached the Rider with a self-important sense of authority. In his hand was a rope with a poorly tied noose at its end that he unconsciously moved through his hand as if it were some kind of pet snake.
The Boss smiled coyly.
“Mr. Wallace,” he started, looking directly into Edge’s eyes. “Seems we have a little misunderstanding here. We don’t much care if we’re welcome here or not – you see, we agree with you that we’ve spent far too much time and effort on this hellhole of a backwater.”
Ed, the larger of the two town council members, cleared his throat as if to raise an objection, but Lenny put his hand on the man’s arm in a gesture meant to silence him. Neither of them seemed ready for a conflict – especially one that would probably involve gunplay.
The Boss ignored the bluff and continued without missing a beat.
“We’re here to take what we need and to celebrate a little anniversary of sorts,” he sneered. He let the end of the rope drop; the noose dangled by his side.
“I hear this town has a history of hanging uppity Riders. We figured it’s time for another Rider to swing in Pine Bluff.”
And with that, the two other drivers rousted the Hollow Men back to unloading the boxes off the vehicles and setting them against the bank wall. The chicken-necked outlaw came out of hiding in the sidecar and climbed on top of one of the trucks, yelling at Hollow Men and avoiding any actual work in the process.
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” Edge said through clenched teeth. “What makes you think I will come along with this?”
The Boss chuckled a bit. “Oh, you’ll come along all right, Mr. Wallace. Because if you don’t, we’ll hang the mayor of Pine Bluff.” And with that, he pulled the tarp away, revealing a hog-tied and gagged Eli Gunderson in the truck bed.
“Seems he thought he could meet with us as we came into town,” he continued. As if he was showing off his handiwork, the Boss motioned to the remaining Hollow Men and their managers behind him. “He tried to reason us out of all this.”
The other man in the vehicle was out now and pulled Gunderson to his feet on the truck. He pulled his pistol and held it to Gunderson’s head.
“Better put down those shotguns, boys,” the Boss said to Ed and Lenny. They complied. Edge grimaced. The Pine Bluff militia had folded and turned on him faster than a bad hand at Murphy’s Saloon back in Bordertown.
The Boss stepped forward with confidence. When he was close to the Rider, he reached forward and put his hand on the handle of Edge’s revolver. Edge flinched as if he’d been shocked.
The outlaw smiled and pulled the gun out of its holster. He told Edge to turn around to bind the Rider’s hands behind his back where he couldn’t deal any more damage. The Boss leaned into Edge’s ear and spoke in a low, threatening tone: “You’re gonna get on the flatbed, and we’re gonna throw the rope over the lowest branch of this tree. Now you swap places with the mayor so we can finish this thing.”
Edge had very few options.
With a little help from the outlaw, he climbed onto the truck bed. The rope was over a low, gray branch that, while thick, looked dead. Edge put his head through the noose. The man holding Gunderson let the mayor go and tightened the noose around the Rider’s neck while the Boss pulled the rope taut and tied it off to the tree.
Gunderson scurried away to stand beside the disarmed town council members who stood by resolutely. He seemed relieved to be spared.
Next, the Rider looked in the opposite direction and saw the Hollow Men had nearly emptied the first rig by taking the boxes of explosives and placing them near the south side of the bank. On the other side of the wall were the safe and safety deposit boxes. By blowing a hole in the bank wall, they would have unrestricted access to money, jewels, important documents, and family heirlooms.
Edge thought for a moment and then recalled a small piece of information about M.A. Stephens – the assistant to the bank manager. Gunderson had told Edge that Stephens was among those feared abducted by the Hollow Men like Big Murph and the Ashe girl. Stephens would know what was in the vault.
The beasts and their operators had shown their hand. Now it was Edge’s turn to play.
When the Boss was finally satisfied that everything was in place for the impromptu lynching of the lawman, he gave a shout for the greasy dirtbag to come and take the wheel of the pickup. “Weasel,” he yelled. “Get over here and drive the wagon. It’s time to hang us a high-and-mighty lawman.”
“Weasel – an appropriate nickname if there ever was one,” Edge said. The Boss heard him and laughed in response. And, true to his name, he had an excuse for not helping.
“Be there in a minute,” replied Weasel. He was leaning against the second truck, which was still packed with boxes of munitions and explosives. Hollow Men were standing nearby, pulling boxes off the trailer. Weasel seemed unaware, expending much more interest and effort with the lighter he held in one hand and the thin smoke he had just rolled in the other.
The sun had steadily grown during the morning, and it now seemed to burn off the haze not just on the horizon but in Edge’s mind as well.
He had called their bet. Now it was time for Edge to play his hand.
He took two giant steps forward and jumped off the flatbed. In mid-air, Edge felt a familiar sensation. Everything came into focus, and the passage of time seemed to slow down.
A shot rang out, and a bullet ripped through the morning air, shattering the pine branch at its base. “Albert’s not a bad shot,” Edge thought to himself as he landed on the ground and rolled to his right, pulling his arms around his backside and past his feet, bringing his hands in front of him.
Springing to his feet in an instant, the Rider pulled the gun from the Boss’s holster and, in three shots, dropped the man who had been standing next to him on the truck and killed the Boss. The final look on his face was an unmistakable surprise.
Another shot rang out from Albert’s perch atop the sheriff’s office, and a third overseer dropped to the ground. The Hollow Men were confused, many of them still holding boxes they were tasked with moving just moments before.
That’s when Edge saw Weasel. The buck-toothed dirt bag still held the lighter in one hand and his smoke in the other – but he was looking Edge’s direction and yelling something, the Rider couldn’t make it out. He emptied the Boss’s gun in Weasel’s direction.
The first bullet hit Weasel’s lighter, shattering it and sending lighter fluid all over the remaining boxes in the bed of the truck. The second and third bullets hit the outlaw sending his body into a twist and making the lit smoke fly from his hand and onto the fuel-soaked boxes behind him.
Edge reacted in a moment – diving under the nearest truck in an attempt to avoid the unavoidable. A few seconds later, the dynamite went off in a massive explosion that flattened everything nearby. The Rider could feel the heat of the blast, and then suddenly, everything went pitch black.
To be continued in chapter 6: Picking Up the Pieces (stay tuned)
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
By the time Edge and the girl had arrived back in Pine Bluff, the word was circulating that Hollow Men had been seen nearby. People were afraid. Edge could feel it in the air.
They walked into Gunderson’s store. The shop owner was standing in the middle of the mercantile, talking to three members of the town council. Together, they met the Rider with frowns and a foul mood. With his reinforcements at his back, Gunderson strode up to Edge, and poked his finger into the lawman’s chest.
“When we called for you, Mr. Wallace,” Gunderson sputtered, “we expected you to handle this situation with a little more professionalism. Instead, we get even more destruction, dead bodies, and those unholy nightmares terrorizing our town. There are questions, sir, and you need to have answers.” He was clearly angry at Edge, blaming him for the mass murder at the Randolph Ranch and the town’s most recent unsettling visitors.
“Now wait just one second, Eli,” Edge objected. Using the mayor’s familiar name caught him off guard and gave Edge the opportunity he needed to complete his rebuttal.
“What gives you the idea that the Hollow Men were with me? They were here before I ever arrived.
“Those beasts and their operators appear to be part of an authorized search and seizure action – but I have my doubts. Nobody uses monsters like that to do legal reclamation work. The question we should be asking is ‘Why are they here?’ and ‘What are they looking for?’”
Gunderson didn’t say anything. His pointed finger had curled back into his fist. He just stood there; his anger had turned to stony silence.
“What does this farm family have in common with Purdy Wilson or that girl that went missing or that lumber foreman … what’s his name?”
“Jim Murphy – everyone knows him as Big Murphy,” Gunderson interjected.
“Yeah, that’s it. Whatever happened to Big Murphy, and how are he and that girl connected to all this?” Edge asked. “And what about those bodies? Or the vagrants? We don’t actually know how many people are missing or what’s behind it all.
“There are quite a few unanswered questions, and we need to keep asking them if we want to find any answers and make sense of all this.”
“Are you sure they’re all connected?” Gunderson’s voice had taken on a curious pitch as he looked over the top of his spectacles.
Edge could sense Gunderson’s consternation and tried to explain: “Look, these Hollow Men don’t act on their own. They’re killing machines, that’s about all. Nobody really knows what drives them, who controls them, or why they even exist. It’s a mystery I’ve been working on for years.”
Of all the Riders of the Outland Plain, Edge probably had the most experience in dealing with the unexplained – and that included the Hollow Men. Assessing their current situation, though, he shared a theory that caught Gunderson by surprise.
“Quite frankly, this bunch of overseers didn’t impress me as criminal masterminds in the slightest. I think there must be someone else controlling them. Directing them.”
“If we can determine who’s behind what these savages are doing in Pine Bluff and what they hope to achieve, we’ll be able to confront them and bring this to an end.”
Edge’s reasoning seemed to break the tension and offer some hope to the community elders. They looked at each other with a sense of relief. Even though it was just the slightest sliver, Gunderson and his cronies could breathe again.
The mayor looked at the little girl. She was in shock – which would be understandable. “Come with me, Sarah, let’s have Mrs. Gunderson look at you,” he said to her. Taking her by the hand, the pair walked to the back of the store.
Before the two of them left the room, Edge mentioned one last thing: “Eli, it’s important to know that if these Hollow Men and their masters haven’t found what they’ve come looking for, they’re going to keep terrorizing parts of Pine Bluff and the surrounding area. It’s likely they’ll be here again tonight to keep searching – and that means more people will go missing or get killed.
“I’m here to help put an end to this problem, but we’re stronger if we work together.”
Gunderson locked his gaze on the Rider.
“Understood.”
He had no choice in the matter. Eli Gunderson had worked too hard to lose it all now. It appeared there was only one way to stop the killing and to get the Rider back on his bike and out of town.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
If it wasn’t for a lesson I learned from Mr. Rogers (channeled via Tom Hanks), I’m not sure I would have survived my fall and physical trauma. Explore with me how unrestricted kindness can lead to gratitude and healing.
The evening of October 23, 2022, I landed in a room on the sixth floor of Genesis East (by way of the Emergency Department) as a result of my fall. I had broken a bunch of ribs (four, as it turns out), punctured my lung, and shattered my scapula.
I was pretty banged up.
This limestone edging at the base of the fence served as the landing “spot” for my fall.
Between the painkillers and attention of the caregivers on the floor, I was managing to get by. Other than a close call when the first responders were extricating me from the briar patch of brambles and burrs I’d crashed through on my way to colliding with a big, block of limestone that served as my landing pad, I hadn’t lost consciousness. I’d tried to remain alert, responsive and helpful – no word as to whether or not that was actually the case.
A mind too busy to think about the pain
Now in my room after what seemed like an eternity in the ER (in fact, I think it was only a couple of hours), I needed something to occupy my mind and keep from lingering on the damage I had done and expected pain to come. A mindless diversion was desperately needed because I wasn’t really in the mood (or condition) to be thinking too deeply about my situation.
Fortunately, my night nurse, Brenda, came to the rescue. The first of many times that night.
She tried to walk me through the room’s entertainment system. You know the drill: “If you want it louder, you push this button. If you want to change channels, you push this button. If you want to watch medical videos, you push these buttons. Don’t forget to take the survey by pushing these buttons …”
You get the idea.
It was “one remote to control them all.” which sounded vaguely familiar, but I’d lost interest (and attention) after Brenda showed me how to punch up the on-demand movies. I just needed something to watch.
That’s entertainment?
Brenda left me to my own devices … or, rather, device … and I started punching buttons. I really should have taken notes, but I couldn’t use my arm, so I had to rely on my memory which, to be honest, isn’t even that great if I’m NOT on painkillers.
The more buttons I punched, the farther down the electronic rabbit hole I fell. It seemed like I’d found the dark corner of the Genesis movie library where there were literally hundreds of movies and TV programs available on-demand and, I was sure, they’d all been edited for content. The whole situation reminded me of being stuck on an overnight, intercontinental flight – only with more legroom.
I was pretty sure these movies would be as numb as I was. So, I picked something to watch that I figured wouldn’t be too hard to follow. I selected THE ETERNALS from Marvel Studios and settled in. Ready to be entertained.
I managed to get through the studio graphic at the start of the movie and then woke up about twenty minutes later. Honestly, I don’t even remember the opening sequence of the film.
Kit Harrington (left) plays Dane Whitman (aka The Black Knight) in THE ETERNALS from Marvel Studios.
In fact, all I really remember is that when I woke up, Jon Snow from Game of Thrones (actor Kit Harrington) was nearly run over by a bus. Then I remembered that the actor had been cast in THE ETERNALS movie (as the Black Knight) and judging by the level action, it looked like I’d missed about a third of the film.
I re-started the movie and settled in to watch again.
When I woke up again, Jon Snow was once again getting run down by the bus, but it was magically turned into flowers, and …. wait. What was going on here?
At that time, Brenda reappeared in my room, bringing me some chocolate pudding and warm Sprite. Apparently, I had arrived in my room too late to order dinner (and I wasn’t all that hungry, anyway). More importantly, Brenda freshened up the painkillers and I started ETERNALS over for a third time.
I don’t remember waking up and turning off the movie – but the room was dark and it was hard to move without my ribs protesting when I returned to consciousness. Brenda returned once again – this time with more warm blankets and new pain meds. I managed to get through the rest of the night in 1-1/2 to 2-hour fits of sleep.
This was going to get old fast.
The challenge
My first full day in the hospital was not, as I had expected, my first day of recovery. My trauma team stopped by my room in the morning and I was told my surgery would be scheduled for the following day (due to a variety of chronic health issues). I would have to rest as well as possible in advance of a procedure planned to reassemble four broken ribs, check my lung for any other damage, and insert a drain to help take away the fluids accumulating inside my body from the trauma and medical procedures.
The ribs would take time to heal and my lung would require breathing therapy. But my shoulder … well, that was a mixed bag. Dr. Myles Luszczyk, from ORA Orthopedics explained that although it didn’t appear I’d broken my collar bone or injured my spine, my scapula had shattered. And that would take some time to heal and rehabilitate.
I would regain some use of my arm and shoulder. How much, we weren’t sure. I got the distinct impression I wouldn’t be doing pull-ups anytime soon – which was good since I’ve never been able to do a pull-up, anyway. But I did mention that I really enjoyed camping and canoeing. Would it be possible to get my shoulder back into good enough shape I could paddle a canoe and carry it over a portage?
“Possibly.” Dr. Myles said. “But it will take a lot of time and therapy to get there.”
That sounded like a challenge to me. And I had no alternative but to accept it.
Changing my attitude by changing the channel
A little while later, my wife, Caroline, came up to my room to visit. I was restless and in pain – and she was patient with me. We talked about the surgery and the prognosis for recovery. None of it was unexpected, but it sounded like a lot of hard work.
Seeing I was down, Caroline asked if I wanted to watch a movie with her. I told her I’d been trying to watch THE ETERNALS the night before, but that I kept falling asleep. I offered to watch it with her from the beginning since I didn’t really remember much, if any, of it. She laughed and said she watched it on a trip a few months ago and found it a bit boring and convoluted – and that was without the benefit of painkillers.
She said I definitely had the better viewing experience.
So we decided to watch something else. That’s when I stumbled across IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD – a film based on the story of the relationship between an investigative reporter for Esquire Magazine and children’s’ television show host, Fred Rogers.
Caroline and I watched the film – without interruption – in my hospital room. It was a beautiful film. Not for its acting performances (which were fine) or cinematography or dialog. But because it successfully conveyed a radically subversive idea baked into every episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: If you treat everyone with compassion and kindness, you can make the world a better place.
But to call the acting performances “fine” doesn’t really do justice to Tom Hank’s performance. To me, the outstanding thing about Tom Hank’s in the Mr. Rogers role is how he took Fred Rogers’ subversive message and brought it into every interview, news article and appearance made to promote the film. Whether it’s explaining the visceral connection he felt to Fred Rogers’ mission and message in this article in Vanity Fair or sharing the fact that he and Fred Rogers shared a common ancestor once the film hat been released (like he did in this NPR interview with Scott Simon), Tom Hanks showed that living into Mr. Rogers’ mission was not a job only Mr. Rogers could do.
Tom Hanks shared a little bit of his Mr. Rogers wisdom on the Graham Norton Show – but the real meat of what he learned about Fred Rogers’ approach to kindness is summed up at the very end of this bit.
And that all comes out in the film.
I stewed in that – after wiping away the tears of nostalgia and emotions which were, undoubtedly, dialed up a bit thanks to the pain meds. But at that point in my life – the day after a fall that nearly killed me – I decided I could be much more kind in the way I treated and interacted with people.
Here’s the crazy thing (or not so crazy thing) … it works.
Taking kindness to the next level
I started trying to be intentionally kind to folks in the hospital and the response was noteworthy. Whether it was showing a little more interest in the day-to-day activities so often taken for granted or being careful to thank every person who came into my room to spend some time, I tried to make sure folks knew how much I appreciated and valued what they did.
Would you accept a compliment from this man? (Waiting for my date in the OR the day after my fall.)
A little positive reinforcement can go a long way. Unbridled kindness can work wonders.
Whether it was the nurses, techs and interns who provided daily care or the cleaning crew, I found that the more I sincerely shared my appreciation for the work they did and the time they spent taking care of me, the more smiles and help I received. I wasn’t doing this to get “more” attention or service – but people like helping people who like them. It’s a symbiotic thing.
And that’s when I realized, I was getting as much joy and satisfaction out of sharing that kindness with others as they were receiving my thanks and gratitude.
I’ve already written about how important it is to have a positive attitude as you heal and recover from trauma. Unbridled kindness and a willingness to accept help from the most unusual places may be a key to achieving that.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
Randolph Ranch was a sprawling estate – built by an enterprising young cattleman with long-term designs for his family. The home itself had four bedrooms and two guest rooms, a full kitchen, and a formal dining room. The bunkhouse next to the corral out back had just been completed and was being made ready for its first occupants – young men William Randolph was planning to hire on his next trip into Paradise, the region’s capital and largest city.
But none of that was going to happen now.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. Where the bottom half had gone, Edge had a hunch, but the grisly reality of it didn’t bear repeating.
It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
No. This time it was a crew of Hollow Men. How many? He wasn’t sure. They usually worked in small gangs and had a “superintendent” who kept an eye on where they were and whom they terrorized. They were feared – and rightly so – throughout the Outlands and in the Midlands, too, although Edge had heard that attacks in the Midlands had come to an end. How or why was anyone’s guess.
Today. Right here. It was Edge’s job to stop these monsters by any means necessary.
Hollow Men were part man, part something not even remotely like a man. Nobody understood where they came from – but Edge knew from first-hand experience that killing one wasn’t as easy as you might initially think.
Edge climbed off his bike and pulled down the bandanna. He was met with a stench he’d smelled before. Even when you had experienced it, the smell verged on, overpowering even the toughest Rider.
Hollow Men stank of decay, and when they fed, the odor grew more intense. Edge knew it was the sense of smell that the revenants relied on the most – and if they were in the middle of a euphoric feast, it was unlikely they’d sense him coming.
He heard a high-pitched scream. Edge felt a cold shiver run up his back, and a pit started to form in his gut. It was time to act.
He pulled his guns from his holster and walked onto the porch of the house. He hesitated. Something just didn’t feel right. He had done this job long enough to know he should trust his gut instincts at times like this, so he held off.
Edge started toward the corner of the house when, suddenly, the front door flew open. A hulking beast staggered through, pulling a woman behind him by her hair. She was still alive, although from what Edge could make out in the tangle of hair, blood, and torn clothes, she didn’t look to be that way for long.
She was no longer struggling. Blood had clotted her hair over her face, and there were dozens of other wounds on her body. It was clear to Edge that her blood loss and the struggle against her captor had exhausted her.
Similarly, the freak who had a hold of her was covered in blood. Her blood, Edge guessed.
He’d seen enough.
Without saying a word, Edge raised one of his revolvers and fired. The blast echoed down the plains surrounding the farmhouse. And even though the shot hit the Hollow Man squarely in the back, the shell only buried itself in the thick muscle and tendons under the canvas duster, causing the beast to stagger forward just a step or two.
The horror turned to face Edge, opening its maw – the space where most men might have a mouth. Like something from a fever-induced nightmare, Edge found himself staring at the rows and rows of gnashing, needle-sharp teeth. While it looked like the beast was smiling at him, Edge knew it was the beast using his keen sense of taste to get his bearings.
People use their eyes and their sense of sight to quickly understand where they are and, more importantly, where their foes might be. For Hollow Men, since they have no eyes to speak of, they make their way through their sense of taste. Edge had learned that lesson many years ago.
He had also learned that if a beast took the time to show you his teeth, you didn’t have long to take advantage of the opportunity. Edge leveled both revolvers at the Hollow Man and fired. Two rounds ripped into the beast’s mouth and exited through its skull, blasting its brains onto the wall behind it.
The hulking mass of muscle, scaly skin, and teeth dropped to the porch next to the injured woman. Edge wanted to go to her but hesitated for just a moment longer.
Something still wasn’t right.
He heard footsteps from inside the house. Running.
Edge ducked around the corner, keeping out of sight.
A man burst through the door and flew past where Edge was standing, then nearly tripped over the woman and the body of the abomination. The sight stopped him cold for a moment. He looked at the woman and then again at the beast. “Oh no, no, no, no …” he murmured. He was visibly troubled.
The man wore a long, tan duster and dungarees, just like the dead brute. He was thin and wiry, with long, greasy, jet-black hair, buck teeth, and a thin neck that featured a prominent Adam’s apple.
His hair hung next to his face, obscuring his vision – allowing Edge to step up and clock him with the butt of his gun. The cretin went down with a single blow.
There was another scream. This time the scream was more intense and clearly that of a child.
Edge moved to the entrance of the house, giving the unconscious man on the porch a kick for good measure on the way. The Rider approached the parlor window and cautiously peeked through it to see what was happening inside.
Edgar “Edge” Wallace takes on two more Hollow Men at the Randolph Ranch.
There were two more Hollow Men in the room near a bookcase, and above them, cowering on a high shelf in a built-in was a young girl. Edge guessed she could be no more than seven or eight.
Another man stood behind them, apparently amused by the situation. He carried a shotgun and had it resting on his shoulder and would occasionally look toward the kitchen area where there were frequent crashes of dishes breaking as someone – presumably more “search party” rummaged through the pantry and cupboards.
Wrapping his coat around his elbow, Edge broke through the parlor window and stuck his gun through the hole. “Stop what you’re doing and put down your weapons,” he shouted. “Come out with your hands up.”
The freaks barely noticed; they were in a frenzy about the young girl. The man who was with them, though, recognized trouble when he saw it – or, more precisely, when it broke out a window and pointed a gun at him. He turned and brought his shotgun to bear just as Edge fired his pistol.
The shot hit the man in the chest and sent him backward. The shotgun went off, hitting the chandelier and bringing it crashing to the floor right behind the Hollow Men.
That got their attention.
They turned toward the commotion, and Edge took aim. He emptied his first revolver with shots to their head, neck, and chest. They were as dead as they could be when he heard more noise coming from the kitchen.
He motioned to the girl to stay where she was – out of reach – and put his finger to his lips to remain calm and quiet. She seemed to understand and nodded in compliance. Setting his jaw, Edge moved farther down the porch until he was outside the kitchen door.
Inside were three more Hollow Men busily rooting around the kitchen of the Randolph place, feverishly searching the room – tearing apart cupboards, ripping holes in walls, and digging through the pantry. Edge burst through the back door of the house and into the kitchen, his guns blazing.
Edge wondered to himself: “What could be at the farm that would be of any value to these freaks and their handlers?”
But this wasn’t a time for contemplation.
Edge’s pistols found their first two targets easily enough, dropping them quickly. But the third managed to avoid getting shot and came after Edge with a meat cleaver. It was big, strong, and fast. Anyone facing it for the first time would not likely survive the encounter. Unfortunately, Edge knew better than to try and out-punch a Hollow Man – they had unnatural strength and, by all accounts, couldn’t feel pain.
Edge’s rule was to deal death to Hollow Men from a distance whenever possible, but it just wasn’t possible this time.
The monster grabbed Edge by the collar of his duster and brought the meat cleaver down fast. The Rider dropped his empty revolver and used his free hand to grab the brute by the neck. He attempted to block the descending cleaver with his gun hand.
Metal hit metal. The gun blocked the cleaver, but between the Hollow Man’s strength and the hard metal edge of the cleaver, the gun was ruined.
Man and beast tried desperately to throw the other off balance and gain the advantage. The brute grinned just inches away from Edge, and from its mouth swelled an odor of death and decayed flesh. Its tongue reached out to Edge’s face to sense a weakness in the Rider.
Edge’s stomach churned. The smell was overwhelming. He had to think of something else and take his mind off the madness.
He heard the girl’s scream again. Whether it was real or imagined, he wasn’t sure – but the fear it evoked went through him like a shock.
Edge used his free hand to grab the beast’s riding coat by the lapel. Then, in a move that called back to years of wrestling with his older brothers while he was growing up, Edge fell to his back, planted his foot into the waist of the Hollow Man, and launched him overhead and onto the large, potbellied stove in the corner of the kitchen.
There was a clatter of pots and pans, and broken dishware followed immediately by the satisfying shriek of the fiend as he burned on the glowing stove top.
Edge rolled to his feet and picked up a cast iron skillet from the kitchen table. He swung it at the head of the Hollow Man, catching the monstrosity in the forehead with the edge of the pan. The blow sent the creature reeling backward one more time, the skillet still lodged in his storm cloud-grey skull – but this time, he didn’t get up again.
Edge picked up the empty revolver and re-loaded it. He looked at the other gun. It was ruined. Both guns had been with him since he mustered out of the High Plains Militia following the Iron Wars. Losing one here was like losing an old friend.
He put two quick shots into the skull of the monster he had subdued with the skillet served as insurance.
Losing one gun left him a little light on firepower should there be more of the savage creatures to face down. Edge listened. He could hear something, but it wasn’t a sound you’d find coming from a Hollow Man.
It was crying.
He went back into the parlor. The girl was still cowering in the bookcase. Edge looked at her. She looked back through blood and tears and snot. Her small features and upturned nose were common for young girls in the Outlands, but there was something about this one that reminded the Rider of the stories he used to hear as a child about the fey and the good witches of the North.
She had stopped crying and was staring intently at Edge. Maybe there was something about his face and the look in his eyes that seemed to reassure her.
“Everything will be okay,” he told her. “Promise.”
She sniffled a reply.
“You stay here right now, okay? I’m going to finish looking around.”
She nodded this time. That was good. It wasn’t much progress, but it was progress.
The lawman walked over to the body of the man with the shotgun. Edge looked more intently for clues as to who he was and what he was doing with a crew of Hollow Men.
Edge searched the pockets of the man’s duster, pants, and finally, his shirt, which held a paper authorizing a search and seizure action at the Randolph Ranch. The order had been signed by a district judge back in Paradise, but the Rider didn’t recognize the name.
Edge had been a Rider for a long time. Long enough to know most of the judges in Paradise. Some were friends – or at least friendly. Others weren’t. As in most matters of the law, personal relationships mattered greatly whether they were supposed to or not.
He folded the paper and stuck it in his pocket. He’d never heard of a reclamation agent using Hollow Men to do his dirty work. This entire thing seemed queer. He needed more information before any sense could be made of it.
Edge continued his search through the house and found the sheriff’s body in the stairway leading to the second floor. In one of the bedrooms were the bodies of a man and his teenage daughter. From the upstairs window, he could see there weren’t any more Hollow Men on the grounds of the ranch. And he’d personally made sure there weren’t any more in the house.
He’d seen enough.
There was still one last, best source of information about all of this – the Hollow Men, the abductions, the carnage – Edge holstered his gun and walked downstairs and back out onto the porch to roust the man he’d subdued earlier.
But to the Rider’s surprise, the man was gone.
“How is that possible?” Edge wondered. He’d hit that scrawny bastard with everything he had and knocked him cold, but now he was in the wind.
The man’s disappearance was a loose end – and loose ends almost always lead to trouble.
He thought again about the girl. All alone and now in more danger than before.
Edge walked back into the parlor of the home. She was still in her safe place in the bookcase. The house was a mess filled with carnage and destruction. It was no place for a child.
Edge looked at her and smiled. He tried as hard as he could to be reassuring and kind.
“Why don’t you come back to town with me?” he asked her.
She shook her head side-to-side “No.”
“You should see a doctor.”
She still refused.
Edge was uncertain of where to go from here. How do you tell a child that her family is gone and that everything she had known to this point in her life would be different now? How do you convince a child they must leave their home to be safe?
Then it dawned on him. Edge brushed back her hair, revealing a sweet face behind the tears, dirt, scrapes, and bloodshot eyes.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
The ancient Mayans were the first to chew the sap of the sapodilla tree nearly nine thousand years ago. They called the gum-like substance “chicle” which is what Spanish-speaking people in Meixco call gum today. It took nearly 8,900 years for the recipe to change into what we now think of as chewing gum.
That invention was created by a dentist, William Finley Semple, who patented the softer version of chewing gum (suitable for blowing bubbles) with the thought that it would clean the teeth for those who didn’t like to brush. The gum industry then added enough sugar to the product to make it a major cause of cavities and dental problems. And it was an accountant, Walter Diemer, who cooked up the recipe for the world’s first bubble gum, Double Bubble.
Ahhhh … apparently the road to poor dental hygiene is paved with good intentions … and Bubblicious.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
They say “attitude is everything.” Here’s why a positive attitude can make all the difference in how you recover from an injury.
You know what they say … “attitude is everything.” I’m not exactly sure who says that, but it seems legit to me. But don’t take my word for it, I’ve found honest-to-goodness research that backs up the claim.
An attitude of gratitude
Research conducted in 1999 suggested that a positive mental attitude (and traits associated with that outlook) were related to a shorter rehabilitation. According to researchers, those people with a positive attitude going into rehab healed faster and were less anxious about re-aggravating their injury once they returned to their everyday life.
From my personal experience, I can tell you that coming at my recovery from a positive point-of-view has helped me make lemonade out of some very real lemons. I’ve reconnected with people I haven’t seen or heard from in years. I’ve made some new friends along the way, too.
But most of all, I’ve developed a real sense of what’s important.
This realignment of personal priorities is, I suppose, not atypical for people who suffer some kind of major trauma. Physical limitations and constant pain are two reminders of your injury that never go away – so staying focused on the future and positive about the present is essential to your recovery.
Setbacks are normal. That’s why attitude matters.
Time for PT! I’m an early-riser, so a 6:15 appointment is no problem. Well, not without a cup of coffee on a cold winter’s morning.
Focusing on the positive things in your life over the trauma you’ve just experienced makes you realize your life isn’t just one big disaster. Those positive things can pull you out of that feeling of isolation and makes it easier for you to make good choices when it comes to your healthful recovery.
It’s easy for those recovering from significant injuries to feel like their lives are over. The grind of therapy mixed with daily experiences of improvements and setbacks can make you feel like your life has changed forever and you’ll never be healed again.
But those feelings are often the result of our own ignorance about how our bodies heal and how long the recovery process actually takes. This is where having a supportive family, uplifting friends, and wise caregivers can really make a difference.
“A positive attitude definitely helps keep my patients headed in the right direction,” says Kathryn Ellsworth, PT, DPT, OCS (and who also happens to be my therapist). “I’ve seen a lot of situations where the motivation to do something – a big goal beyond the home exercise program we might develop for a patient as part of their therapy – helps keeps them motivated and focused. And that means progress in the long-run.”
Every day isn’t going to be sunshine and rainbows.
Kathryn Ellsworth, ORA Physical Therapy
If anything, Katherine is a realist. As important as an “attitude of gratitude” is to getting healthy, she’s seen me when I’ve been in pain (and been the cause of it a time or two, to be honest), and she has a bit of wisdom to share with patients when they’re experiencing a setback or feel down.
“It’s easy to get discouraged,” explains Kathryn. “In therapy, we often take two steps forward and then one step back, but we can’t let that stand in the way of long-term progress.”
“I usually break big, aspirational goals a patient brings to therapy down into smaller, achievable goals. We try to achieve something every week, because that helps keep people motivated to get better and get back to the things they love about their lives. But you can’t get there right away. It takes time.”
The healing process takes time and a little help from others.
Maybe the biggest perspective shift an injured person needs to make is coming to terms with just how long their “recovery” is going to take. Body parts that have been severely injured can take 9-12 months (or longer) to recover. And even after recovery, you may not ever be “as good as new.”
The body’s ability to heal is nothing short of remarkable. Bones, soft tissues, and nerves can repair themselves in a matter of weeks or months (sometimes with a little surgical assistance). But that healing process takes its own toll.
Allowing your body the time to heal often means you have to also limit movement and restrict mobility so it can repair itself.
Kathryn doesn’t always buy it when I try to share a little of that “motivation” that keeps bringing me back to PT.
Once you’re out of the cast, boot, or sling, you begin the long process of recovery and rehabilitation. This is where your outlook, desire, and the experience of the team you have assembled around you to help makes a huge difference. And while the work your therapist focuses on the part of your body that’s broken, the work that needs to be done between your ears is up to you.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Whether it comes from a friend, a faith leader, a mental health professional, or your family, you don’t have to go through it alone. It’s work. Sometimes harder than the bands or balls or machines your PT will put you on as you try to rebuild what’s been broken.
I learned the hard way that pain, and my reaction to it, is one of the useful signals a therapist uses to evaluate the progress of your rehabilitation.
People ask me about the title for this blog. “The Trail Back” isn’t just a metaphor. At least not when you understand that I won’t consider my recovery complete until I’ve spent two weeks and completed about two dozen portages in the Quetico Provincial Park.
Fans show their love of their favorite things in a variety of ways – and, arguably, one of the most impressive ways is by producing “fan films” that tell a story about the heroes and villains they love to watch. Here are a few Superman films I thought I’d share.
Edge Wallace puts everything on the line when he tries to rescue a small, frontier town from an invasion of flesh-eating zombies set on them by forces they can’t even begin to understand.
Returning to Pine Bluff after the shootout at the Randolph Ranch, Edge Wallace finds he’s not welcome in the town anymore. But all that seems a little too convenient to the frontier lawman.
While recovering in the hospital, I learned and important lesson about the power of kindness from Mr. Rogers, thanks to Tom Hanks. Turns out, I wasn’t alone.
As Edge approached the Randolph place, he saw the problem immediately. The sheriff’s vehicle was torn in half. On the ground beside it lay the top half of the other deputy. It was clear to Edge now that Pine Bluff was under siege. And the adversary wasn’t just your usual gang of thugs or gunslingers-for-hire employed by someone who fancied himself a “rail baron.”
Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, making bubble gum’s invention almost 100 years ago a relatively new development. Find out more about gum, how to chew it and when to spit it out when we blow up gum in today’s article!
It’s likely you’ve celebrated this day before – and before that, and before that. Over a century isn’t a bad run for a rodent-themed, weather-prediction tradition that traces its German roots back to the middle of the 19th century.
Go out the “In” door. Say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello.” Confuse your friends and confound your rivals (or visa versa). It’s National Backwards Day today!
The recipe for a successful championship run is often dependent upon missed opportunities and mistakes as it is hard work, perseverance, and talent. You can look no further than the January 29th AFC Championship game to find a perfect example.
Originally intended to be sold as wallpaper when it was invented in the 1950s, bubble wrap is now both a popular packing material and annoying habit enabler for people who are perpetually fidgety.
Years after the lynching of a local lawman, Pine Bluff is once again the site of terror on a supernatural scale. And once again, a Rider arrives to set things straight – and possibly settle an old score.
