My Dad recently had shoulder surgery and my brother has had both done over the past few years. On January 16th, I finally did it. I'm the biggest chicken, so I had to just schedule it and block out the anxiety. It's done and it wasn't so bad.

I'm doing ok. The pain is still an issue but that will go away and I control it with meds and constant icing. Prior to the surgery I actually worked myself up to watching my to-be surgery on Youtube. At first I couldn't watch but I was able to desensitize myself over time. Some thought that was stupid, but it actually helped my learn exactly what I was going to have done. In the process I learned the anatomy terms and saw the procedure inside and out.

Cheers the Dr. Shepley and the Northfield Hospital staff. They were very helpful, thorough, kind & patient with my apprehension.

Here are shots from the inside of my shoulder. I've annotated areas of interest.

No, this wasn't me, but found it very amusing. Wish I had the guts to do something like this.

Now, this IS me. Click to enlarge for easy reading.

This is a video of the bone grinding process (nice terminology).  They use this spinning tool to grind away the problem bone areas. 

minnesota tatoo

Originally uploaded by timfreeland

How do you like my new tattoo? I'm one dedicated Minnesotan!

Naaa. I'm too big of a chicken to get a tattoo, but someone did. Over the years, I've been infatuated with the map shape of Minnesota. Probably since I was in grade school and did a project on what defines it's boarders.

Over the years I've seen various companies use the shape of the state in their logos. I've decided to start keeping track of them. Click here to see my collection so far. More to come.

If you have any ideas or unique images, please send a post and attach your file.

1937

Originally uploaded by timfreeland

A few months ago, I sought to find every St Paul Winter Carnival Pinback button ever made. I quickly found out that there were many many sets out there. There is the official pin-set, but every group of royalty has their own, each "wind", the Vulcan's, the sponsors, past royalty, etc. I don't know if you could actually collect everything that exists. But, at least I have almost all of the "official" ones. I must disclose that I do not have the 1916, and the 3 from the last 1890, nor do I expect to ever have them. They are too expensive for my blood. I have made "place holder" replica's of them to sit in my collection and I am ok with that.

With this 1937 purchase, I feel complete. I feel peace in my heart, knowing that I need not hover over ever eBay listing or call any more antique shops in the cities.

Click here to view photos of the entire set.