Geezer

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Sinus surgery healing nicely

I am now on day eight of my septoplasty (a.k.a. surgery to fix my deviated septum). The swelling is gone now, my nose is running but there is only the faintest tinge of blood. We’ve had a few cold days here, though, and the chilly, dry air has been stinging my nose. On our family dog walk last night the pain got pretty bad until I thought to bury my face in the scarf I was wearing. Also, my nose gets tender when I stretch my mouth open (to floss my teeth, for instance). I’m thinking that all these little issues will eventually go away as nose heals.

On the plus side, I am quite able to breathe exclusively through my nose, which is nice, though I haven’t engaged in vigorous physical activity for the requested week after surgery. I have noted an improved sense of smell, which is nice. Also, I have not caught myself snoring so far, which is also good.

Bottom line: I’m doing much better than I thought I would. The pain was not nearly as bad as it could have been. My nose is obviously working better than it was and it will only get better. So far, so good!

Highlights of 2015: CERT lives again

Oakwood CERT members learn basic firefighting

Oakwood CERT members learn basic firefighting


I’ve blogged here before about how much fun I’ve had participating in the CERT program, the Community Emergency Response Team training. I think it is important to get people trained to help themselves when the need arises. In cases of trauma, every minute counts. Medical experts talk about the Golden Hour, when the odds of saving a victim of traumatic injury are greatest. One doesn’t have to be a doctor, but anything that can patch a person up until medical professionals can get there will go a long way towards saving them.

As you know, the first CERT program folded. I had heard rumblings of a new program being bootstrapped in the Oakwood neighborhood. A year passed and I wondered if the effort would succeed. Then in August I got an invite to the training class for the Oakwood CERT team – it was actually happening! About twenty of my neighbors took the training with me and we had great support from Samantha Royster from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS). Everyone left that weekend with some hands-on emergency training as well as a full CERT kit paid for through a generous federal grant.

What’s more, my classmates immediately elected me … president. While I wasn’t in the room, of course. Heh.

Fast forward to mid-December. My company’s foundation looks for non-profits that attract the passion of its employees and those employees are invited to submit grant requests. On the last day of the grant program, I put in a request to fund the Oakwood CERT team and was pleased to learn it was fully granted! It’s a modest grant but it’s one I hope to build on.
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Highlights of 2015: Dix Park, part II

Dix Park proponents at Council of State meeting. L-R, Mayor Nancy McFarlane, City Manager Ruffin Hall, Councilor Kay Crowder, Dix Visionaries member Jay Spain, Councilor Russ Stephenson

Dix Park proponents at May 2015 Council of State meeting. L-R, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane, City Manager Ruffin Hall, City Councilor Kay Crowder, Friends of Dix Park member Jay Spain, City Councilor Russ Stephenson


2015 was the year that the City of Raleigh finally got the prize it had long sought from the state: the deed to the Dorothea Dix property. In February, the city and state worked out a deal for Raleigh to purchase the property for $53 million dollars. This is far more than the original lease terms (under the first deal that was subsequently torn up by a spiteful General Assembly) and also far more than most state property that gets transferred to local entities. Apparently, Republican leaders in the Gereral Assembly have no problem with burdening people with taxes as long as the urban folk who have to pay.

Anyway, this time the deal got negotiated and signed behind the scenes. The group on whose board I sit, Friends of Dorothea Dix Park (FDDP), was largely kept in the dark about negotiations (though I knew talks were underway). It’s all the same now that the park has been secured, though. I did get to attend the following Council of State meeting on May 5th where the rest of state leaders signed off on the deal. This is my photo of city and Dix Visionaries leaders after the historic event.
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Highlights of 2015: RPD Ridealong

Another highlight was my second ridealong with the Raleigh Police Department, this time with Internet superstar Officer Boyd. I had so much to share about that that waited until I had the time to do it justice with a blog post. Turns out that it took seven months for me to get time, but I finally did it yesterday!

Highlights of 2015: Google Fiber

fiber_house
Also around February, Raleigh got the official word from Google that Google Fiber was coming to the Triangle.

This announcement was really exciting to me after doing what I could over the years to promote broadband competition in North Carolina. For years I maintained the “Bring Google Fiber to Raleigh” Facebook page, posting updates when I got them. I met with city and state officials to keep up with their broadband plans (NC NGN). I took time off of work to attend the Google Fiber announcement and schmoozed with Google Fiber executives at an invitation-only community meet-and-greet.

I was hoping to become a part of the Google Fiber team here but it was not to be. It would’ve been one hell of a gig, so to speak: promoting something I am passionate about and putting to use all the people and political skills I’ve honed over the years. Google had their own ideas of what they wanted, though, and I was super bummed to miss out on the opportunity. It’s probably for the better, in hindsight. I can honestly say that Google hit a home run with the hire of Tia MacLauren as its Raleigh Community Manager, and I am getting crankier in my old age and thus more apt to say what I’m thinking!

Google Fiber trucks haven’t begun rolling in earnest around Raleigh yet but they soon will. No matter what, though, broadband competition has finally come to North Carolina’s cities, and this in itself is a beautiful thing.

Highlights of 2015 – Snowball fight video goes viral


The early months of 2015 were filled with plenty of cold and wet days, with an occasional few snowfalls. Tuesday, February 24th was one of those snow days. Our neighborhood beat officer, the Internet-famous Raleigh Police officer J.D. Boyd, posted in the neighborhood Facebook Page (East CAC), challenging the neighborhood to a snowball fight at nearby Lions Park. Kelly took the kids over to the park to defend the neighborhood honor while I stayed home and worked. Sure wish I had gone, too, because everyone had a great time!

Taunting the neighborhood

Taunting the neighborhood


News and Observer photojournalist Travis Long learned of the snowball fight. He and N&O colleague Jill Knight brought cameras along for the fun. The resulting photos and Jill Knight’s delightful video soon attracted attention from over a million amused citizens from around the world. It was a fun story that lightened up a bleak, cold, seemingly-unending winter.

Hallie and Travis and our neighbor Hannah Frelke were three kids sharing screen time with Officers Boyd and Martucci (who were sledding down the hill on our sleds). The video kept popping up months later. It was fun seeing how far and wide it went.

The video made Officer Boyd a bona fide Internet star and Hallie and Travis enjoyed some fame amongst their friends. In its N&O’s recent end-of-year recap, the paper featured the video again, probably not even knowing that the girl in their screenshot was the same girl also featured in their second most popular story of the year, Hallie’s climate change story. That, my friends, is the topic of its own Highlights post.

The Rise and Fall of AIM, the Breakthrough AOL Never Wanted

This is a fascinating interview with the founders of AOL Instant Messenger, a trailblazing messaging tool that had its spectacular rise and fall under the largely-clueless leadership of AOL.

When we think about the spectacular collapses of once untouchable Internet properties, companies like MySpace and Pets.com come to mind. The rise and fall of AOL Instant Messenger rivals them all. Once the dominant force in digital messaging and a source of innovations other companies spun off into billions of dollars of businesses, AIM is now mostly dormant. Mashable sat down with three of the early engineers of the program to learn about its origins, why AOL never quite embraced the concept of a free messaging service, getting hacked by Microsoft and the features that never quite made it to users.

Source: The Rise and Fall of AIM, the Breakthrough AOL Never Wanted

Happy New Year

Today is the first day of 2016 and it finds the Turners doing very well. Twenty-fifteen was a very good year for us with plenty of notable events, some sad but most happy. I will be posting my usual highlights over the next few days in an effort to capture the moment.

Astute readers might also notice that I am testing out new WordPress themes for MarkTurner dot Net. Your reader experience might change a bit here and there but the content and links will remain the same. If you like or don’t like a particular theme choice, please let me know in a comment.

At the time of this writing I am using the Gateway theme.

Mostly-smooth night of sleep

I had a mostly-smooth night of sleep last night, my first since my sinus surgery. I kept my head propped up on three pillows and cranked the humidifier in my bedroom to help keep my throat from getting dry. Largely it worked. I managed to sleep by breathing sometimes through my mouth, sometimes through my nose.

My Zeo sleep tracker says my sleep score last night was about 60 and normally it scores me above 80 (and sometimes in the 100s). It also shows I didn’t get but about 2 minutes of REM sleep opposed to my typical 60-90 minutes. So I slept lightly but I did sleep.

My nose still is bleeding a bit today but the heavier bleeding of yesterday is no more. A drip or two is all I’ve had. I’ve also been flushing my sinuses every few hours with saltwater applied by bulb syringe.

Right now, my nose is congested and I’m mostly breathing through my mouth. My oxycodone is keeping the pain at bay and the wet weather outside is keeping humidity levels high all by itself. I’m happy to be eating and drinking again and have lots to keep me from being bored. Overall things are going better than I expected.

Septoplasty at 5 hours, so far so good!

Well, five hours after sinus surgery I’m pleased to say the most annoying thing at this point is my dry throat from all the breathing though my mouth. My nose is still bleeding but that seems to be tapering off. The Percocet is working, I’ve got a humidifier cranked and a small hill of pillows to keep my head up tonight. I’m moving around normally, thinking clearly, and looking forward tonight to digging into the excellent bio of the Wright Brothers, The Bishop’s Sons. Very happy with how things are going so far!

The surgery began about 30 minutes past schedule due to the previous patient being a little long in shaking off his or her anesthesia but once they got me in it all happened so quickly. I will blog more about the process as I’ve been recording some thoughts as I go but for now I need to get some rest.