Hi to all the friends I never knew I had and particularly the three who inspired me to keep going through the bad times.

The arm has been operated on again to remove most of the ironmongery that was holding it together, The Titanium ball & socket joint is there for good but the rest of the plates & rivets are gone. The result is about 90% function in the fingers though with a lot of numbness and resultant lack of feeling, The wrist is average - I can't hold out that hand to ask for a dollar as it woulsd slide off. And the elbow is good in vertical motion - I can scratch my head, adjust glasses and even hold on to an overhead handle on a train. But where it is bad is the extended vertical angle where it refuses to go vertical and worse still complains bitterly by the end of the day about lack of support,

So where am I know. The surgeon reluctantly cleared me to return to work at the end of Feb and I was fortunate enough to pick up the overall Test Manager role for one of the main players in the huge Telstra Transformation Project.This should keep me out of MOST mischief for 5+ years whle I try to co-ordinate & manage up to 8 test teams. It is very much "curates egg" right now. It is so good to be back practicing my specialty and so bad still needing the drugs to sleep (I am strapped into a metal rack to extend the arm, each night) and paying the mental price for using them each morning. But I can type with two hands again, and the week before Easter I was cleared to drive again. Sorry to all NRA catters, the true independance is to be able to drive even if it is only to pick up your 91 year old Mum & take her for lunch after an absense of 5 months.

The overall prognosis is not good. I appear to have already exceded the level of recovery they though possible. But, think it through:
      1/    I can write
      2/    I can use the dreaded PC
      3/    I have a full time job at a rate of pay that has    astounded me
      4/    The kids are well & the grandkid is thriving
      5/    And hell, I give a really good impersonation of Napoleon with my arm tucked into my shirt.

So, this a reprieve - albeit a painful one. It could have been my head rather than my wrist and I could have blacked out for much longer than I did, So I was lucky.

And very lucky to have found the friends in Mudcat who gave me the courage to face the extra ops and now the impaired mobility that will be left.

But it is all about expectations, I never thought last year that I would be able to regain so much of the functionality I had lost. So I keep my expectations reasonable.

Unlike the guy who went drinking one night & hit on a 57 year old lady -showing her age but still very presentable, They had several drinks, a bit of a cuddle and then several more drinks. Then she looked at him & said I really like you. What say we do the Sportsmans Delight.
Well he was willing but had no idea as to what that meant. So she told him it was a threesome beteen a guy and a mother & daughter.
Well, he was stoked and so after 2 more double Malts, they headed for her place, and the action began.

She opened the door, turned on the lights and telled:
    Hey Mum, are you still up??

Expectations can kill you - I am keeping mine under control

Now, some more music threads please. For instance, I found a copy of the Highwaymen (and no, I don't mean the willie Nelson ensemble) and sat listening to the original commercial sounds of Michael Row the Boat Ashore etc and wondered how they got away with strummed guitars, muted banjos and a bass that sounded like a tea chest. Yet it was soothing and peaceful. And just remember how many of us (if we are honest) have that song at the early heart of our folk experiemce. But was it really folk or just a preppy college group trying to earn a buck.

My two cents worth says the latter but histoty has consigned them to the Folk Locker

Enough... I've paid my dues, thanked my colleagues and even managed a rant and a joke. Time to go.

But I'll be back

Dave