On November 18th, Dr.  McInnes took out my stitches; but he made a new cast for me.  The idea is that my lengthened Achilles tendon needs to heal with my ankle at a 90 degree angle (anatomically neutral) to prevent post-surgical tendon shortening.  The cast is supposed to be replaced by a "boot" this Wednesday morning, December 2nd. 

Tom and I were Comcast cable subscribers for 20 years.  Two months ago in frustration with the way Comcast was handling their switch to High Def (not friendly to folks who watch TV through a computer), we canceled our cable.  Since then we have been enjoying almost all the same shows, (plus more) on Internet TV, especially Hulu.  We are now happy Hulu subscribers. 

Comcast was stupid.  We were perfectly happy with our TV setup before they started messing with it.  Through their own business decisions and incompetence they targeted our loss of service for October, coerced us into using their equipment which was not compatible with our TV set-up and provided zero help for restoring the functionality we had prior to their "upgrade". 

Now that we are off cable, it is going to be harder for them to entice us back if they ever fix their screw-ups.  We have discovered that most of what we like to watch is available either for free or for much less money than what we were paying Comcast. 

I've done pretty much what I'm going to do on Alwanza for a while.  I've got other projects to work on.

I'm doing some PHP work on garage-store.com

In addition to Hulu; I'm also checking out the "authors@google" series on YouTube. 

I'm being very careful with my diet, concentrating on over-all health improvement.  I'm meditating some and this week I'm going to begin an exercise routine that I can do without having to stand on my left ankle. 

I want to be employed soon - I'll be able to walk on 2 feet again within this month, so I've ramped-up my job search.

We've had at least 3 hummingbirds in the backyard at the same time.  They are regular visitors, feeding at the apple-sage flowers.  I planted them specifically for the hummingbirds because they bloom late in the season (although I didn't expect them to still be blooming now) and are long red flutes.  I have a hummingbird feeder, too, but it is important for the hummingbirds to have the flowers.  Many of the plants I selected for my shade garden are specifically winter-blooming for feeding the hummingbirds. 

Our other abundant regular visitors are chickadees, junkos, bushtits.  I have 4 spotted towhees who are regular visitors, and a couple of pileated woodpeckers.  The squirrels are also regular visitors, always.