On Surfing, Joint Replacement and Vampires

I watched True Blood last night even though, in its second season, I'm beginning to lose interest. I watched this series from its inception last year not because I'm fascinated by vampires or humans who have sex with vampires or humans who use vampire blood as their illicit drug of choice. All of that is kind of weird. I actually appreciated the writing and the characters who are surprisingly three-dimensional. The men in the cast aren't exactly hard on the eyes either. However, that is not my point.

My point is that last night's episode prompted me to wonder why people find this vampire thing so appealing. Those pale, blood drinking stiffs can't even show their faces during the day. Are you kidding me? What fun is that if you can't even surf while the sun is out? Then I remembered that the vampires on the show easily find their way everywhere in the dark. I suppose that means they can see in the dark. That's when I decided that the vampire thing might not be as bad as I first thought, aside from the bloodlust problem. Think about it, if you can see in the dark, you can surf in the dark!! In a place like L.A., that's the only way you're going to get a wave to yourself. Imagine surfing Malibu with everyone politely pulling back and out of your way when you have priority. I know! I can't imagine that either. But that must be what it would be like were you to surf in the dark. Malibu. Peeling nicely. You. In the dark. Alone. Taking any wave you want. The only problem with the night time surfing would be if your friends were all human. Although I love surfing alone, I also enjoy surfing with my friends. If I'm a vampire and my friends are all still human, I'd never get to surf with them. I'd end up only surfing with other vampires. With my luck, some damn greedy vampire would start selling pop-out boards that sported resin made from blood. Then the night time lineups would be choked with a bunch of vampire kooks who are as bad as the human kooks. If that's the case, and I'm sure it would be, I'd rather take my chances with the human lineups.

Last night's episode also showed the aftermath of the hurtin' a vampire put on one of the humans who tried to get slick and attack him (the vampire, a hot one) with silver. When I say "hurtin'," I mean literally ripped to shreds. Long story short, the dead guy's limbs were scattered all over the place. The audience at home and one of the humans can see some metal sticking out of a body part. It turns out it was part of the dead guy's bionic hip. I knew what it was immediately. And I was amused. The vampire tore this guy to pieces . . . but that bionic joint was still intact. Right! I've lost my mind. I agree. Just remember that I'm in the midst of this joint replacement battle. (Fuck this "journey" stuff that people like to say. This is a battle!) I'm back to being hardly amused by this long, painful recovery. The fact that bionic body parts easily withstood the wrath of a vampire gave me a nice laugh.

What to say about this knee? It hurts. And it doesn't. The pain is related to how hard I push myself in my workouts. That's where it starts. Then my physical therapist ups the ante. I'm fighting what I often feel is a losing battle against my existing scar tissue. I know I'm improving. I'm simply tired of being in pain. I've finally decided to pursue the medical marijuana avenue. Much to my surprise, I easily qualify for it. And I need something for the pain. I don't intend to slow down my workouts. The physical therapist and the doctor do not feel I'm doing too much. I don't either. However, my knee is not happy, especially after a day like today; I swam this morning and then went to physical therapy in the afternoon. Apparently, many people at this stage are almost pain-free. Those are the people who don't have scar tissue issues. They have surgery. They regain range of motion. They're done. It's not that easy for those of us who've had surgery before. Your fitness and youth aren't going to make you heal faster than other people who have relatively little scar tissue. Now that I understand this, I recognize what I have to do to keep improving. Since I refuse to take prescription meds or OTC meds, I'm recognizing that cannabis is effective for medical issues. I always believed it was, but never thought I'd learn firsthand that this was the case. Now that I have, I must admit that I've developed some damn fine joint-rolling skills.

I hope everyone got some of the south swell. This is the second June in a row that I've missed a decent swell. Last year, while I was taking a break from the blog, I was out with an injury to my other knee. That's my first and only injury to that knee. Somehow, I believe it was fate's way of preparing me for this knee replacement battle. I was surprisingly patient last year when I couldn't surf. I stayed in the pool as I let the knee heal. That knee injury allowed me to see how patient I am when I'm injured. I don't rush my return to the water. I paddled out when I thought the knee could handle it. I will do the same with the bionic knee. I won't be back on a board until I know this knee is ready to party.