Wow, I have really slacked on the robot updates. We have so many new arrivals. I will try to feature at least one new robot a day while I am off.

I tore my achilles!!!

Well, let's catch up on a few things. First, 9 days ago, on April 24, 2009 I was playing in the third game of a semifinal volleyball match and heard a loud snap. Not much pain followed, but fast forward one week and I just had surgery to repair a 95% torn achilles. For those of you that don't know much about me, I am 38 years old and relatively active. The first night after surgery was horrible, but lucky for me I have a wife that was very sympathetic to my situation. Neither of us got much sleep that first night as that was the most pain I have ever experienced. The pain block was the worst part. They actually stuck me 3 times with pain block (guess I have stubborn nerves) so it took a LONG time for it to wear off. As it wears off, parts of my foot were numb and other parts were in pain. It is very uncomfortable and for me hard to deal with. I was much happier once the block completely wore off and there was just pain (about 24 hours for me, but I would think less in most cases.) Another thing that did not help was that they wrote out my prescription for one 5mg percoset every six hours. A nurse from the surgery center called to check up on me the next day and informed me that I could take 1 or 2 tablets every 4 hours as needed. Needless to say I feel better now... Sunday night (about 30 hours post op) I started to feel even better. I actually discovered that the least painful way for me to get any sleep was to stick a pillow or two between my legs and sleep on my side. I wouldn't recommend this for long periods of time as I don't know that it provides the best drainage, but I was actually able to sleep for two+ hours at time. (I have never really been able to sleep on my back even when healthy.)
By the way, my doctor took the route of an open cast with ace bandages to hold it on instead of a full cast. He says this will be on for two weeks and then it will be booted up.

This brings us up to date on the whole achilles thing. I will continue to post more about my rehab here as well as talk about new robots and upcoming events.

Speaking of upcoming events. The Manayunk arts festival in Philadelphia is just around the corner! Of course with my achilles situation I don't know how things will play out, but it provides a stong incentive for me to get better quickly. Also helping to provide some incentive is the ticket I purchased to Costa Rica 2-3 days before the achilles snap. I leave the day after Manayunk on my trip. My original hope was to be bodyboarding and playing volleyball all week. Now, I am just hoping that I can walk without my boot! We will see, but 8 weeks seems doable. I will probably wear it on the flight to try to keep swelling down. Of course seeing my friends do all this stuff without me will be pure torture, but maybe I can channel those thoughts into warming up properly in the future.

Metro is your man when it comes to the complete home makeover! Jackhammer legs let him make short work on demolition day. Installing the electrical system is a breeze when you have a built in voltmeter. His oil can head ensures that doors will not squeak for a long time.
Metro recently had his arms converted from screw drivers to wrenches to help him in his quest to build the first convertible homes. His latest line of homes are built on rollers and can be modified by simply unbolting rooms to rearrange them. Hungry? Slide the kitchen over so you can just roll out of bed to satisfy that craving for a midnight snack. Kids too noisy? Move their room to the other side of the house.

E.E. is an emotional little guy. When he cries you had better watch out. Since being fitted with sprinkler eyes, he can pump up to 30 gallons of tears a minute when he is really upset.
It has gotten better though. Now you can easily see when he is ready to break down by reading his pressure gauge implant.

Say hello to Ace! Ace is the current world champion frisbee catching dog. He has an amazing 99.97 catch completion percentage. This translates into 3 missed catches in the last 10,000! One was his fault as he overestimated his leaping ability when he tried to catch a frisbee while jumping from one train to another train going in the opposite direction. The second miss came as a result of competitor jealousy when he attempted to catch a frisbee while recreating Homer Simpson's gorge jump on a skateboard. They never did catch the mutt that loosened his wheels. The last miss occured when he was distracted by the newly crowned Miss American Puppy, so we really can't fault him for that.

Below are the four members of the hottest up and coming Nascar support team on the circuit. Indy, Chester, Dorman, and Argus, have the lowest average pit stop times ever recorded. This is partially due to their recent conversions from legs to wheels by the now famous Dr. Koch. Argus is the fluid specialist. His amazing sight provided by a state of the art lens (also customized by Dr. Koch) allows him to spot even the smallest oil leak. Chester and Dorman handle the fuel and tire issues. As small as they are, they have Herculean strength and lightning fast speed. Indy is the leader of the group. Constantly monitoring the car's vital statistics, Indy wirelessly transmits detailed instructions to the group so that not one movement is wasted. This is one team to watch closely in the future.

A skater who is a little past his prime, Van got his name when he over shot a rail slide and crashed through the window of a van parked nearby. As you can tell by the dents in his head, this kind of thing was not unusual for him. After many visits to Dr. Koch for replacement parts, Van has put away the skateboard and picked up a saw and drill to build new parks for kids.