I vividly remember the stunning, clear blue September sky that day. I drove in to the office like I had done many other times before, listening to my favorite FM radio show to get me laughing before work.
Then the laughter stopped. And the unimaginable happened.
The images on television cut us to the core. We stood transfixed as we watched our collective national innocence end right before our very eyes.
It's been hard to find our way forward since that tragic day.
There is always a certain degree of excitement at this time of year. It's the start of a new semester of teaching, which is always an adventure regardless of how many years you have taught the course. Ten years into teaching functional anatomy and I can say it is still a fresh slate on the first day of class.
It is also the start of college football season. With college football comes the thought - admittedly faint right now - that fall weather will soon be here. Call me an optimist I guess - and a sweating-profusely-in-August one at that.
This episode of the Rhubarb Report takes us back in history, and looks ahead to something that hopefully won't create it.
For many people, New Year's Eve rings in the start of a new year, new goals, and a rejuvenated existence. The new year is filled with the prospects of growth and new experiences that lie ahead.
To me, New Year's is just another arbitrary day. Your birthday, however, is truly the start of a new year. I have always found my birthday to be a time for reflection, a time to learn from the past and present and embrace the growth of the future.
My birthday this year was no different. With that in mind, here are a few not-so-random thoughts from my day of reflection this year. Maybe some will resonate with you.
August is always a month of anniversaries and times of reflection. I am not quite sure why, but August seems to have accumulated a lot of life events, seemingly more so than any other month.
This year has been no different. It has been a nostalgic couple of weeks since my last installment of the Report. As a matter of fact, this week marks my 23rd anniversary of moving to Austin, inching me ever closer to having lived as many years here as I did in Canada. Just for the record, the day of the 50/50 split will be July 29, 2015, assuming that Austin is still home. I don't see that changing any time soon.
In this episode of the Rhubarb Report, I go back in the time machine for a few of those August moments in time. Gretzky, Erving, and Peralta - any of those names ring a bell?
It's amazing how connected we are these days. We update our friends online. We share our photos and videos online. We get our news online.
So imagine my disconnectedness after being in Denver for five days at a conference. It's not that the Internet doesn't exist in Colorado - it just exists in the hotel at about $12 per day. A little fiscal demand, combined with a busy schedule, countless face-to-face interactions, and some sleep wedged in there somewhere, and you are suddenly unplugged from the universe. Or so it seemed at times.
For 5 days, news from the outside world didn't really exist. It was, admittedly, quite nice.
But a few things did make it to my attention over the past couple of weeks. With that in mind, here is the next episode of the Rhubarb Report.
It was another example of truth being stranger than fiction: rain, in Austin, in July. As I looked out the window, I had a double-take. I had to pause to realize that no, Chicken Little, the sky was not falling, and yes, it was actually real, honest-to-goodness rain. And buckets of it.
While the northeastern part of the country bakes, we have actually experienced the wet stuff and a (fingers crossed) only-modestly-blazing summer thus far. I am not sure what you call all of these strange weather patterns, although some might actually call it "global warming" - but I digress.
So while the sky is falling, grab an umbrella, enjoy the rain, and dive right in to the next episode of the Rhubarb Report.
Our lives are chock full of beautiful memories. Some of the simplest things can trigger them off. Add some live blues music last week to some photos I found while rummaging around, and voila - an incredible trip down memory lane.
In those fleeting moments, I went back to places I haven't seen in decades. But it was more than just memories. These were some epic moments of growth and discovery.
Those were the times when life was really as simple as an open mic, a blues jam, a guitar, a glass slide on my finger, and, yes, some barbeque chicken.
Up to 60% of runners will sustain an injury within any given year. Poor running mechanics, in conjunction with poor, ineffective and outdated training methods, can pose a significant injury risk. "RunSmart" was written to address these issues in the running community.
"Running Injuries: Etiology And Recovery- Based Treatment" (co-author Bridget Clark, PT) appears in the third edition and fourth editions of "Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: A Team Approach" by Charles Giangarra, MD and Robert C. Manske, PT.
Allan Besselink, PT, DPT, Ph.D., Dip.MDT has a unique voice in the world of sports, education, and health care. Read more about Allan here.
Top 5 finalist in three categories: "Best Overall Blog", "Best PT Blog" and "Best Advocacy Blog".
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