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Three months

 Is enough. It has been three months since the surgeon put that rack on my neck.  Today, a trip back to Corpus to see if we can get this neck helmet off. A stop along the way at the Falfurrias Rest Stop. Awesome morning light through the oaks. Continuing to Corpus for a Whataburger lunch, a quick stop at Blucher Park for a hermit thrush, and a wait at the surgeon’s office. Fresh x-rays.  Some people have junk in their trunk.  Mine’s all in my neck. Dr. Indresano went over the x-rays with us.  He pointed out where the bone was healing in all three fusions.  The x-rays revealed that nothing has moved since he screwed it all into place in November!  He pronounced me totally healed.  (Once he figured out that we were just messing with him when he walked in the exam room and it was Judy sitting on the table with the neck brace on, while I was off to the side in the spectator’s chair.) Totally healed.  No restrictions.  I had a list of activities for clearance: Driving?                                                          Yes.Walking for 5 or 10 miles?                            Yes.Light jogging?                                                Yes.Carry the groceries?                                     Yes.Carry the heavy trash to the dumpster?     Yes.Do pushups?                                                   Yes.Get a neck massage?                                      Yes.Go to the chiropractor?                                No.  Never.  J I get to take the training wheels off and go back to my life! We hopped in the car, drove over to the beach by the Bob Hall Pier and looked for the northern gannets that had been reported there by Jon this morning.  No luck.  Didn’t matter though. I drove home! 
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Even when he’s bad he’s good

 We love watching Alex do his gymnastics routines, even when he’s not having his best day.  He thinks he had a terrible meet.  We continue to be amazed by what he does. The first event on Friday was the rings.  He did a good routine and scored a 12.0, his best score on the rings ever. Rings  The next skill was the vault.  The vault happens pretty fast.  The whole thing only lasts a few seconds.  He got wrong-footed on the approach; so right as he hit the vault (he told us later), he changed what he was going to do and did a vault that better fit the approach.  How do you do that in microseconds?  He took a side step on the landing, but still scored a respectable 12.2. Vault  The first big mistake of the day was on the parallel bars.  He got just off-center and fell out of a skill that he never falls on. Parallel Bars Still scored an 11.3.  He missed two moves on the high bar.  The first one happened right after the start and he ended up briefly right up against the bar with no momentum.  At this level there shouldn’t be any hesitations.  A short while later, he didn’t get all the way around on a giant and had to bail while he was still upside down, but still somehow landed on his feet.  I asked him later how he had the presence to do that and he answered “I fall a lot in practice.” High Bar He scored a 10, his lowest score of the day.  He did well on the floor.  Took a couple extra steps on landings, but did some wonderfully difficult maneuvers. Floor 12.4.  His final event, the pommel.  That fall looked tough.  We head the thud from across the gym.  The skills were difficult enough that he still scored an 11.8. Pommel  His target at this level is to score 75 points total in a meet.  That’s what he needs to be doing to be around the podium at the end, but he hasn’t done that yet.  He has scored in the low 70s, but hasn’t hit 75.  In this meet, with the falls, he scored 69.7.  Each fall is a one point deduction.  When he can do these routines without the falls, he’s right in there. In sports, it’s all about winning.  That’s what you’re there for.  I think there are important lessons in losing too though.  We watch him fall, brush it off, get back up there, and finish. We’re so proud of him. 
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You don’t always get what you want

 We got a super visit to Houston.  Lots of time with Matt and Lindsay.  Hung out with the team.  Watched a competition.  We didn’t get to watch Alex win anything though.  He did well his first two events.  He scored a 12 on the rings, his best score ever on that apparatus.  Then he scored a 12.2 on the vault, even with a step-out at the end.  Good start.  But then he had his worst meet ever.  He fell on the parallel bars.  He never falls on the parallel bars.  Then he fell on the high bar.  Then he had a good floor exercise.  Then he fell on the pommel.  Even with the falls, the lowest score on any of his events was a 10.  Everything else was still in the 11s.  He didn’t do well enough to get any recognition, but things didn’t go nearly as far wrong as they could have.  We saw two kids in a row score in the low 6s on the high bar. A fall doesn’t necessarily hurt, it can just be a step-aside in the middle of a routine and you have to pause, regroup, get back up and finish the routine.  It’s always a full point deduction.  In some cases it has to hurt.  The fall from the pommel made a thud.  He got back up and finished the routine though.  That’s what you do. I guess every athlete has to have a “worst meet ever”.  Now Alex has that out of the way.