16th century german Caspar Huberinus, not Ovid, as it’s frequently attributed to, but I do believe that it fits Ovid’s themes.

From Fasti, VI, lines 771-772:

Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis,

et fugiunt freno non remorante dies.

More colloquially:

The times slip away, and we grow old with the silent years,

and the days flee unchecked by a rein.

Hubernius rendered it as:

Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis;

If there is one difference between my right foot surgery compared to my left foot surgery, it’s been the pain. Or rather, the great deal less pain.

My left foot hurt a lot, and I was taking pain medication fairly regularly for at least the first month. I think I was at taking 1 Percocet every 6 hours that entire month, especially after I started working again. The hours of remaining sitting with my leg propped up did not exactly feel great.

Since the left foot went so darned well (no, seriously, my surgeon was fantastic and recovery went really REALLY easy), it’s time to do the other foot!

Yeah.

Ok, enthusiasm off for a moment–don’t get me wrong, I am most definitely enthusiastic about this. Otherwise, why go through the entire painful process all over again.

I’m not looking forward to months of being completely reliant on other people for transportation. And I don’t mean just having to use the scooter if I want to move from point a to point b, no, I mean more the whole “if someone doesn’t drive me to where I want to go, I’m not going”.

It’s done.

It took living here most of my life for me to actually go through with it, but it’s DONE.

I am a proud citizen of these United States of America.

And, something even more important:

Happy Birthday, Mom!

And the wait is (almost) over.

Well, sort-of. I still have to wait until the 3rd of July. Funny that. I had been hoping I’d be able to take my oath before the 4th of July so that I could celebrate my first Independence Day as a U.S. Citizen. Looks like I got that hope. And, on my mother’s birthday as well!

Exciting!

I am not always the world’s most patient person.

(Yes, yes, I know how silly that sounds. Please do try not to laugh.)

I received a notice that my citizenship application has been approved. Now, I just have to wait until my oath ceremony is scheduled.

waiting… argh.

I hate waiting.

Another really smooth and frictionless visit to Cleveland’s USCIS offices.

Man, I really have to say this: Cleveland USCIS has got to be the smoothest, easiest, and downright friendliest USCIS office in the country. Those folks made the entire process incredibly painless and efficient.

I answered some questions, went over some details on my application, confirmed that I was who I presented myself to be, and then went on to the meat of the appointment: The citizenship test and interview.

That went faster than I expected. Both the waiting and actual biometrics processing took an amazingly short amount of time. I think it actually took longer to drive to Cleveland, find a parking spot, and then walk to the building, than it took waiting for my name to be called and my picture and fingerprints to be recorded.

And that’s including that I didn’t fill out the back of the notice (whoops) like I was supposed to.

I’m turning 46 this year.

No, I have turned 46 this year.

I don’t really know how I feel about that. Well, other than maybe giving in to a little midlife crisis.

So, in the great tradition of middle-aged men who do somewhat crazy things to remind themselves of their youth and virility, I am giving myself two birthday presents this year:

• I’m going back to school (“Uni”, for my European friends)
• I’m applying for U.S. Citizenship

“So long and thanks for all the fish.” –Douglas Addams

With all of the changes at Twitter recently, I’ve been less and less enthused at the platform.

With a lot of the folks I followed on Twitter leaving, I have less and less reason to even use the platform.

With the elimination of 3rd party Twitter clients, is it even a platform any more, or is it just some rich guy’s*¹ web app?