Our desktop computer died last night. Turned it off to reboot it as a MythTV front-end and it just didn’t come back. Won’t POST, doesn’t give any indication of what’s wrong. All lights on the HD, DVD, and on our RF sensor for the keyboard and mouse stay stuck on. It’s getting power, but nothing’s happening. Lovely. It did this once before, just before we left on vacation, and it just magically came back to life. This time it hasn’t.
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OK, so we arrive in Halifax International, intact, with full use of our faculties, and with all our bags. A wonderous start!

The weekend was filled with getting used to the new timezone and to the new (to Aidan, again) surroundings. Sunday was a family drop-in party day: busy, busy.

The first week was filled with visits and outings. Among the places we went were the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park, and to Peggy’s Cove.

There was lots of time spent at home, too, playing and interacting with Grandma Kathy, and Grandpa John, and everyone else who dropped by to see us. We didn’t keep him in the cage the whole time…

You can see more pictures from the trip on the Photo Barn.

Well, this isn’t a post I wanted to make. I haven’t written about the flight back from Halifax yet, but I need to talk about it briefly, here. Most of the flight was in the last row of seats, which, believe it or not, are more uncomfortable than the rest of the seats. Anyway, the relevance to this post is that by the time I got off the last leg in Vancouver, my hips and back were in quite a bit of pain. I didn’t think too much about it, but I probably should have taken extreme care moving our luggage around. But, it was the equivalent of 3:30 in the morning and thinking wasn’t the clearest.

Anyhow, the back pain was quite a bit better on Saturday, but things slowly went downhill. By Monday, I was pretty sore again, but I biked into work. For those about to say “That was stupid”, cycling is actually pretty easy on the back and joints in general.

Tuesday morning was Not Good. I got up, got myself upstairs, and promptly laid down on the couch. Over the next two hours, I got the cats fed and my email checked, but not much else. After considering my options, I couldn’t see how I could get myself to work. Sitting down was quite painful. Walking was difficult, and after walking from the kitchen to the living room, I needed to lay down again in order to relieve the pain.

Accepting the situation, I asked Gwen to make an appointment with the doctor, which was scheduled for the afternoon. I recognized the symptoms as quite similar to the sciatica I had in February of 2000 (and a small flair-up a year later). By the middle of the afternoon, however, I couldn’t stand without quite severe pain. Getting to the doctor’s (only a block away) was going to be a problem. Given the situation, I decided the ER was probably more appropriate — at least they’d be able to give me something for the pain.

So, Gwen loaded me into the truck (T’s mother, who works at the hospital came over to mind T and Aidan) and we drove the two blocks to the ER. I registered with Triage, and Gwen returned home to deal with T and Aidan. There were no strechers available, so I had to prop myself up against the security counter while waiting. After 10 or 15 minutes, Admitting called me over and I registered, more or less. After taking some details, my bloodpressure (160/100!), heart rate (99 bpm!) and temperature (37.9 C) the nurse took me (well, she lead, I shuffled. slowly.) down to Treatment, where they were able to let me lie on a gurney. Over the next 3 hours, a med student took my history and poked and prodded me. A brief visit from the “real” doctor resulted in what I already knew. Sciatica was back. He prescribed me some anti-inflammitories, pain killers, and another sort of drug that supposedly deals with inflammation of the nerve directly.

Note, that I was never actually given anything for the pain at the hospital.

Released, I shuffled back outside and Gwen came and picked me up (T had been picked up already).

So now I lie on my back, with a numb foot and no strength in my ankle in the left leg. Also, no ankle reflex. Pain down my left leg, and seemingly random muscle spasms in the leg. The back is mostly pain free, unless I do some bending. Walking is possible, but I’m not doing any hikes anytime soon. Sitting is still quite uncomfortable.

Past experience tells me that the meds will make things more comfortable over the next few days. The numbness and leg pains will resolve slowly over the next few weeks. The first time it took something like 5 or 6 weeks before I went back to “work” (grad school). I hope that things will be quicker this time. In the meantime, I’m setting myself up to be a telecommuter — work has backed up over the 2 week vacation, and there’s tonnes of things that need to be done. Fortunately, most things can be done either remotely or on the computer here.

Helping deal with Aidan, however, is going to be a challenge. Given I can’t pick him up, my usefulness is pretty low.

More updates to come.

A>

Two weeks ago, we took Aidan on his fifth transcontinental flight. By the age of two, he will have logged well over 36 000 km in the air. The circumference of the Earth at the equator is about 40 000 km, so he’s almost completely around the world.

We arrived at the airport around 7am, Pacific time. Check-in was relatively straightforward, other than the lady who was tagging our bags was a little snippy when I asked for a bag to put around the car seat as it went into special luggage. Something about how they were an airline and not a baggage service. She suggested I save the bag and use it next time. Um, hello? Are you kidding me?

Anyway, off to the security clearance. Know what? When you’re travelling with a baby, you get special treatment!!! We were fast tracked into the security area, bypassing the queue! We had dutifully packed our little 3 oz bottles of liquids and gels into a clear 1 quart bag (welcome to Canada, huh? The metric system is alive and kicking.) I piled all the bags into the trays and onto the conveyor, while Gwen went through the metal detector with Aidan. *BEEP* Gwen set the machine off, so the stern looking security person took her aside and gave her more special treatment. A full body pat down. One for the boy too. Shoes off and “sniffed”. Hand-held metal detector. About the only thing they didn’t do was swab her mouth to grab some DNA. Me on the otherhand, I went through without setting off the alarm (Gwen figures it was the bobby pins in her hair that she forgot), I gathered up our bags without being asked to turn on any electronics, without being asked about any liquids or gels, and generally without being paid any attention whatsoever. In fact, it was the quickest and easiest trip through security that I’d ever had! Of course, I had to wait in a pile of baggage while Gwen and the boy were getting their special treatment, but at least it was just waiting.

Making our way to the gate, it was apparent that things were going to go wrong. First of all, the check-in machine (who needs check-in agents anymore, huh?) indicated that our seat assignment would have to be dealt with by the gate agent. This was odd, since we had confirmed seats. When we arrive to the gate, and I dutifully took our boarding passes to the gate agent, I saw that our plane had one of the engine cowlings open. I went over to Gwen, and was about to say that I didn’t think we were going to get on that plane when an announcement was made, cancelling our flight. Fortunately, the announcement also called Halifax-bound passengers (us and a few others) to the gate agent, who promptly told us to see the customer services rep back near the security check point.

We trundled back down the terminal, and the nice CSR put us on a different, later-leaving but earlier-arriving “direct” flight to Halifax. In different rows.

We made our way to the new gate, and once again I presented our boarding passes to the new gate agent, explaining that myself and my wife, and my 18 month old son, were sitting in different rows on the flight, and perhaps this might be inconvenient for all parties involved. Seats were shuffled and we were seated together.

I’d like to tell you that the flight to Calgary, and then to Halifax was blissful, but it wasn’t quite. It also wasn’t so bad. The boy fell asleep as we were taxiing out of Calgary, and stayed asleep for an hour-and-a-half. This would have been most excellent if it weren’t for the fact that I needed to go to the head from … oh just about the point we started our descent into Calgary. And the fact that I missed the drink cart after we took off. Of course, in the state I was in, a drink wouldn’t have been good. Not good at all.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. The boy was excellent, not complaining at all. The Magna Doodle was a smashing success. We pulled out the video iPod only once, about 90 minutes outside of Halifax, and when we all arrived in Halifax, everybody was in high spirits.

To top things off, all our bags arrived! Together! Not too long after we did! Undamaged! Nothing stolen missing!

Finally, my parents drove us to their place, where we arrived around 11:30pm Atlantic time, or about 7:30 pm Pacific time. Somewhat around 13 hours after we started our trip. Ugh. And yet, the boy was still up and happy.

It went better than I ever could have expected.

Too bad the flight back didn’t go the same way…