Last night the itchiness/numbness eased enough that I had a relatively normal sleep again after the one-night hiccup. Hooray for that.
The reason for the change, at least in my trying-to-be-logical mind, is: healing! The surgery area is reaching a point where everything is starting to stitch back together, and this is making the area feel tight. Not in a painful way or anything, but it feels different, less surgery-y and more like sore muscles?
Dreaded sneezes: Sneezing still lights up the whole area like an atomic bomb and I hate sneezing. I sneezed once today, that was enough. I should add the discomfort from the sneeze fades after a few seconds. The knowledge that a sneeze is imminent is, in a way, worse than the actual sneeze itself.
I have an appointment now with my surgeon for a follow-up on June 18th, just one day short of four weeks post-surgery and when I may potentially be on the cusp of full recovery.
In that spirit, here is an energetic cat, plus a potato:
Last night, something made me start researching Static Site Generators. It was likely a combination of things:
Seeing them mentioned here and there on Mastodon and some tech sites
Encountering a few SSGs being used on blogs I come across
That feeling of wanting to move on from the bloated and now AI-enabled WordPress resurfacing again (any Matt Mullenweg post is bound to trigger this)
So last night I started looking into them as a possible new way forward on my olde blog. I came across a few I’d heard of before:
Hugo
Jekyll
Eleventy
And a lot more I’d never heard of. There are a lot of SSGs out there.
It got late, I went to bed. And dreamed.
Of Static Site Generators.
In the dream I was somehow using an SSG that was a physical thing, a kind of vinyl (?) curtain with code on it. There was a programmer with me to my left and I remember having to lift the corner of the curtain for him to see the code written there. He was apparently operating three animated figures, one of which was a famous character I cannot recall now. He was directing them to three small windows on the site or whatever it was. The code behind the curtain, maybe.
He then did a lifting gesture with his right hand, which opened the sashes on all three windows. He next did a hand-forward gesture, to tell the characters to go through the windows, which they did. I noted that they went through the windows before he started the second gesture and thought that was good or efficient. Or something.
Then I woke up.
And I’ve been doing more research on SSGs tonight. Part of me thinks they won’t fit my needs, but another part is excited to dive into some new and different. I guess I still like learning.
And yes, I plan on doing daily updates post-surgery until I feel what passes for “normal.” I’m actually hoping this will be soon!
But it will not be today.
Three things:
I had my post-surgery CT scan today. I showed up early, the got me in early, and I was done before my actual appointment time. Nice! The process was pretty much the same as the other CT scans I’ve had. The IV went in on the first try, always a nice bonus. Hopefully everything in my chest looks OK and the scan doesn’t reveal an incubating alien or something.
My sleep score went from 76 to 43 last night. Yoinks! I think this was related to the itchiness/new sensation (not to be confused with the INXS song) in my chest/surgery area. Basically I kept flipping the covers on and off, because when they were on, I was cozy, but the fabric also felt weird and slightly uncomfortable against my chest. Maybe it’ll go better tonight.
I am probably back to about 95% of my usual walking pace. There was something else that feels mostly normal now, but it’s so normal I can’t remember it.
No cat today, but enjoy my right arm, post-CT scan:
Good news: My Garmin watch gave me a decent sleep score last night (76/100) and all stats were rated fair or better. More importantly, I felt I slept better.
Not as good news but also not bad news, really: Today I started feeling off and at first it was hard to determine why. Fatigued from yesterday’s birding? Maybe? But as the day went on, I realized that it’s probably just my body continuing to heal and the unexpected consequences of it. After the surgery, an area of my chest has been numb, due likely to some never damage, but in the past few days the healing has progressed to where some of these areas are starting to get more sensation back. Combine this with moving almost completely off all pain relief, and I am suddenly feeling more pain again. Over the next few days I’ll moderately increase the Tylenol, mostly to help with sleep.
Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Cloudy with some sun, 15-16°C
This was my first birding since the surgery and it went fine. The only thing I noticed is getting a tiny bit tired holding the camera up for an extended period of time. But that can also happen without surgery.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Looking west, with a Wood Duck photobombing the shot.
We were a bit boxed in by weather (showers in the morning) and fabulousness (Nic had to help with a VMC show in the early evening) so we dropped our initial plan to check the heron rookery in Port Moody and went with the Piper Spit/Tlahutum split.
We didn’t see anyone feeding birds at Piper Spit–in fact, there were few people there, likely because of the earlier showers–but the ground and pier were absolutely festooned with seed. Perhaps the Bird Police had been occupied eating artisanal organic donuts.
The recent showers meant the water level was quite a bit higher, with the island completely submerged and no chance of shorebirds. Initially, it was mostly just Goosetown, with geese arrayed across where the island would normally be. The geese were disturbingly well-behaved, perhaps because their dominance was unchallenged.
Some other waterfowl did show up, and the wood ducks and mallards are both starting to look quite scruffy, now that spring fever/mating/babby-making is largely over. I did not observe any migrant waterfowl, it’s just the locals for now.
One blackbird was acting weird, fanning its wings in a show of…something. Most of the other birbs were indulging in the plentiful seed.
We did not stay too long, because there really wasn’t much activity.
Tlahutum Regional Park
For a change of pace, the creek adjacent to the Coquitlam River.
We started at the community garden, wary of the showers creating mini-lakes here, but it was fine and we saw collections of cowbirds, swallows posing, robins acting rascally and what appears to be a Willow Flycatcher, which I’ll have to check if it’s a lifer or not (I can never keep my flycatchers straight). As usual, I kept my eye out for kitschy decorations in the plots.
The trails netted us a pair of Eastern Kingbirds and a guy claimed to see a seal in the river, though maybe it was an otter, which would make more sense. A lot of pigeons were flying overhead–in both directions. No idea what was going on there.
Bonus shot: The mostly empty big pond, with patchy blue sky overhead.
The big pond had a few ducks and a number of swallows darting overhead, but it seemed quieter than usual, a recurring theme through the afternoon. Still, by this time the weather was pretty decent, it was pleasantly mild, and it was one of the first “normal” activities I’ve engaged in since the surgery, so overall, a perfectly cromulent bit of birding.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto. Some scenery captured on a Samsung Galaxy S26.
Zen goose.
Canada Goose contemplating drama.
Male Brown-headed Cowbird, up close.
Fluffed out female Cowbird looking for seed.
Female Red-winged Blackbird vamping or…something.
A scruffy-looking male Wood Duck, losing his breeding plumage.
A male Wood Duck with mullet intact.
Female Wood Duck cruising along.
Female Wood Duck, posing.
Song Sparrow preparing to belt it out.
Song Sparrow belting it out.
A different Song Sparrow doing its thing.
Coquitlam River running high.
A ruffled crow atop a bench at Tlahutum Regional Park.
A fly on a daisy.
A ladybug checking things out.
Big-eyed fly of some kind.
Eastern Kingbird perched.
On the same tree, another Eastern Kingbird, with a freshly-caught bumblebee.
Not the itch to do things I can’t quite do yet (like running), but an actual physical itch. Specifically, my chest is starting to get itchy. At first, I thought it might be the chest hair growing back on the left side that was shaved, but the itchiness of that already came and went–though it could be back. I don’t shave my chest often enough to know how this goes.
Rather, this just seems to be the chest generally feeling itchy and I think it’s a sign of recovery, actually, with sensation returning in areas that were numb following the surgery. It also seems to kick in more when I’m moving about.
Today, I went birding and didn’t feel particularly limited, except when holding my camera up for an extended period with the telephoto lens. Then I’d get a little tired. Overall, it was fine.
I also had more improved sleep last night after a bit of a tactical error–I hadn’t taken into account the removal of the sutures leading to some temporary discomfort in bed, so it was back to DRUGS for one more night (one Extra-Strength Tylenol, plus the heated beanbag).
In all, a good evening and day as I officially pass the halfway mark of the shorter full recovery window (four weeks)1The longer one is six weeks. I like to think I’m not going to require six weeks..
The procedure was mostly straightforward. I doffed my shirt and sat on the table in the doctor’s exam room, where a nurse would perform the actual suture removal. There were two sutures, one of which was green and quite long, so super conspicuous. That one was removed without issue.
The second one was a bit more complicated because after two weeks, my body had healed so efficiently it had started to cover over the suture, subsuming it like the Borg. In this case, resistance was only fleeting. Noting that she could not “dig around” she called in my doctor, and he finished the job by indeed digging around (no pain, just a little tugging) and got the second suture out. The other sutures, which were dissolvable, were both confirmed already out, so I am now suture-free, and all three incisions were declared to be healing normally.
I was advised to apply a little Vaseline to the chest tube area to help the healing and to not scrub any incision site for at least another week.
My sleep score last night was 70/100, the highest since surgery, so woo for that. I felt I slept pretty adequately. I hope the sleep continues to improve and get back to normal.
I am ready for normal again.
A cat I found snoozing on some steps down the street a few years ago.
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost two weeks since I had my surgery. The time has–no, wait, it really is hard to believe, but not because the time has flown by, since it actually feels like it’s slowed down, where each day is an entire adventure unto itself, like I was eight years old again (but without the bouncy, elastic eight-year-old body).
Still, there have been tangible signs of progress and for these I am glad:
Sign #1: I adjusted my side of the bed so that the Head was at 35 (of 100). This allowed me to sleep on my back and my right side, while still providing a bit more elevation than usual. And I actually slept! The best part, possibly but not definitely related to the bed, was that my chest no longer had that horrible gravelly feeling each time I woke up and had to breathe in and breathe out, as one does. In other words, my lungs were no longer requiring a cough every hour to keep clear. They are starting to keep clear unaided!
Sign #2: SPIRO-BALL success. I’ve been using the spiro-ball daily, watching my lung capacity improve from 1,000 ml, then to 2,000 and the other day to 3,000. This morning, I got the ball all the way to the top at 4,000 ml. Not for long, but it got there. Woo.
Sign #3: After walking around Lafarge Lake this afternoon (photo below), my watch gave me a Recovery Time Delayed advisory–something it normally only does after a run. But I’ll take it, because it means I’m being active and healthy and stuff.
Sign #4: Another day free of pain relievers.
The 10 pound lifting limit still makes buying groceries a challenge, though. Food is heavy, man.
Lafarge Lake, this afternoon:
Lafarge Lake, looking to the north.
And here is a cat that I met on the sidewalk a few years back. She would plop in front of me until I gave her sufficient skritches.
You shall not pass (without providing a belly rub).
My site here runs on WordPress, but I started it back in 2005 when WP was at version 1.2 (it just hit version 7.0 a few weeks ago). To say it was a simpler system then would be correct.
Reading through PoT’s post, I found myself nodding in agreement and considering myself lucky that my site has pretty much been in maintenance mode for years now (backend-wise–I still churn out nonsense regularly), running the same theme (GeneratePress) and a handful of plugins. Things generally just work.
Except recently, I had a plugin update go haywire for the first time in ages. This led me to disabling all plugins until I (relatively quickly) found the rogue one. But instead of re-enabling all the plugins I’d been using, I only re-enabled the ones I considered essential, even if they were fairly frivolous 1Like Modern Footnotes, which allows me to place pop-up style notes to offer witty little bits as I see fit.. It made me think again about my failed search for a WordPress alternative. My needs seem simple on the surface:
A space to write, with the usual formatting options
A space to post photos, including galleries
Something that doesn’t require a lot of coding, as I’m not a programmer (I can handle some CSS and the like)
But I am also a bit of a weirdo, as I like having more precise control over the text and photos than most blogging platforms allow. WP, as awful as it is, gives me that flexibility, and I’ve grown familiar with it and accustomed to its general awfulness. But now I wonder if I should again renew my search?
If anyone happens to read this and has a suggestion, hit me up on Mastodon, email me or otherwise reach out as outlined here.
Last night I removed the bandages covering my two incisions after getting the OK from my doctor. They still have the “dissolving” sutures in place, but maybe they will more readily move on to suture heaven now that they are unencumbered.
Today I have not taken any Tylenol for the first time since release from the hospital on May 23. So far, things are OK, though the incision and surgery areas are both…sensitive? If I sit still, it’s fine, if I move, it becomes more noticeable. Not enough to reach for the Tylenol, just enough to note.
I slept a wee bit better last night and my chest did not feel as congested by morning. I’m still probably 5 or 6 days away from something passing for a normal sleep if this rate of improvement continues.
Anyway, I am recovering, but I think I’m hitting that point where you just want the recovery part to be done, not ongoing. I will consult my inner Zen to centre myself and accept that I must be patient.
Fedora did not last long. It was fine. I may try it again.
So I got wacky and installed CachyOS with GNOME. It’s the #1 distro on DistroWatch because it’s fast and modern and such.
The install was easy. The software manager looks a little rudimentary, but it works.
I’ll probably switch again, even if just the Desktop Environment (DE) to KDE Plasma, because GNOME just doesn’t appeal to me. I think it’s because it spreads its UI elements all over the place, which is fine on an old 19″ monitor but maybe not so much on a widescreen 32″ one. And yes, I could just try installing Plasma onto the current CachyOS by reciting the proper incantations, but I’m fine with just wiping and starting over.
I am beginning to get a good feel for what I want in a Linux distro by constantly switching, though.
Things I like in a Linux distro:
Hassle-free installer and support for dual boot setups
FUNNY NOTE: After writing this post, I recalled I'd seen this blogging question challenge last year and couldn't remember if I'd answered the questions back then. It turns out I did, so I have now answered the questions twice, which makes me a bit of a dope, but also provides an interesting comparison between what I wrote on January 26, 2025 and today, June 3, 2026.
It's worth reading the older version, some of the answers are more fleshed out than in this post. But read both and enjoy the blogginess of it all!
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?
When do you feel most inspired to write?
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
What’s your favourite post on your blog?
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
Answers:
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I like to write and I’ve always enjoyed journaling and noodling around writing my thoughts down. When blogs started to become a thing, I was just technically capable enough to slap together a blog of my own in February 2005.
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
I am using WordPress and creolened.com has been using WP for over 21 years now. When the WP CEO started getting, er, a bit eccentric a few years ago, I started looking at alternative platforms, but none had all the things I wanted. And 20 years of inertia is hard to fight. In 2005 WordPress struck me as having the right balance of features and ease of use that worked for me. Admittedly, I didn’t really try anything else, because WP clicked pretty quickly.
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I have dabbled and experimented with the following:
Ghost
Posthaven
Bear
Pika
Write.as
Probably more I’m forgetting
The only ones that survive today are Write.as as a free account and Pika, which I subbed to for a year, then never really used (not a reflection on the platform).
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?
I used the built-in editor in WordPress. And yes, I use blocks, I’ve tried fighting them before, but for the most part have adapted to them. But I have also used other programs to write and save blog posts before posting them here, with Obsidian, iA Writer and Ulysses (Mac) being the most common. If there’s a program that lets me export to WP, I’ll usually try it at least once, but most of the time I’m typing in the built-in editor.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
It varies, but it tends to be on the extremes, either early morning or late evening, probably because of the quiet (sometimes in the morning because I’m feeling zesty).
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
Drafts are where posts go to die. I rarely come back to a draft, so I write “live” and post immediately. This is also reflected in that most of my posts are not planned, just whatever flits through my mind at the moment.
My viewpoint tends to be a bit jaded, but ultimately hopeful and a bit sarcastic. I realize it may not work for everyone.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
My blog is pretty much done as far as features and whatnot. I’ve actually been trying to prune back the number of plugins I use, though it’s hard to resist some 1Like these pop-up footnotes, for example. I do occasionally tweak the layout and design of the blog and assorted elements and will continue to do so. I need a new logo as of writing this (June 2026) but haven’t had anything really speak to me yet.
