Well, do ya?

Returned to see the new orthopedic surgeon today after our first meeting two weeks ago and the bone scan last week. The first good news remains that I did not grow wings or a third eye or gain a mutant power from the radiology. Not that I expected I would. The radiologist said that rarely happens. One assumes that we’re in the clear there, especially since it didn’t come up when the doctor today discussed the results of the scan.

So he’s looking at the collarbone area, the purpose of the scan being to rule out any bone problems. He said there are none. He probably said some other things, but I stopped listening. It is one thing to see your own bones. It is another to see your own skull.

At the end of the day we can say the bone is fine. And your own skull is creepy.

Now we’ve ruled out nerves, rotator cuff and the bones. We’re down to the hardware and muscular problems. The hardware is an issue, but as I told the doctor, if your magic wand only works once I’d say let’s use it on the shoulder.

So he’s sending me to more physical therapy, a different set of therapists. The phrase I get to use now is scapular stabilization dysfunction. The doctor keeps saying that an accident such as mine involved a great deal of physical trauma.

Because, 14 months later, you want more therapy and a three-word title attached to your problem. (I don’t mean to complain, but … ) We agreed that my shoulder and its recovery have not reached their optimal condition. The good news is that, being muscular, there is improvement to be had. So we’re pleased with that.

Conveniently the new therapy center is close by the doctor’s office, so we set that up. I get to start next week.

How unusual has this summer been?

Alabama’s 2013 summer went into the books as one of the coolest summers in the 131-year record, with an average high temperature that was almost 2° cooler than seasonal norms.

How cool was it?

For the three months of “meteorological” summer no station in Alabama hit 100 degrees. If that holds up (we won’t have all of the temperature data for a few days and the folks at the Southeastern Regional Climate Center are keeping an eye out), this summer will be only the fourth time that has happened since 1883. The others were 1965, 1994 and 2001.

Three times in the last 20 years. Most unusual.

And now, all you need to know about foreign policy as it relates to Syria in four videos:

He didn’t …

Except when he did …

The guy that works for him says so …

And this, the most egregious of it all:

Someone approached our top diplomat and said “We’ll pay for it.” And he said, “OK.”

As opposed to kicking them out of the room or hanging up on them or pointing out that this would make us mercenaries.

Shameful.

Oh, and it sounds less and less like that piece of adventurism would simply be cruise missiles from the sea:

Securing Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and the facilities that produced them would likely require the U.S. to send more than 75,000 ground troops into the Middle Eastern country, MailOnline learned Wednesday.

That estimate comes from a secret memorandum the U.S. Department of Defense prepared for President Obama in early 2012.

U.S. Central Command arrived at the figure of 75,000 ground troops as part of a written series of military options for dealing with Bashar al-Assad more than 18 months ago, long before the U.S. confirmed internally that the Syrian dictator was using the weapons against rebel factions within his borders.

Tim Siedell has the final word:

Scarlett Johansson is engaged. And just like that I'm fine with bombing Syria. Bomb everywhere. I don't care anymore.

— Tim Siedell (@badbanana) September 4, 2013