Of kitchens and commutes

[cjsmith]

The kitchen curse has passed. Not only did I get a few good brownies out of the partially-burned batch, but my pizzelles came out fine last night. My recipe needs just a little tweaking. Mmmmm, my taste buds love it when I'm futzing with a recipe. In fact, I think all my favorite baking recipes need some fine-tuning. Definitely.

This morning I went for my third physical therapy appointment. I have learned that the best time to do physical therapy in downtown San Jose, if I work in Mountain View and have some odd notion of actually appearing at my job for most of the workday, would be early morning. I can get down there in nothing flat. Getting out again afterwards is the tough part. You gotta wonder about a city for which inbound, to downtown, in the morning, is REVERSE COMMUTE. Astute readers will note that this is contrary to the Official Definition of "City", which I learned as a child: a city is a place you cannot get to in the morning. At that age I accepted with equanimity the fact that such diverse places as my parents' room, the island in the lake, and the local park were also cities. (Hey, *I* couldn't get to the park, I had school.) The definition of downtown is, of course, "a place where all the streets are one way and it is technically impossible to reach the place you need to go without driving illegally". But all the downtowns I've met before were in cities. I'm not sure how to apply the definition if it's inconsistent with the mass of commuters. Downtown San Jose is, going by the movement of bodies, a bedroom community. I think I will call it Simi Valley for a while and see who objects.

But back to physical therapy. When I get there I sit with my feet attached to an Anodyne Therapy machine for 45 minutes (which the physical therapist calls "about a half hour"). This thing emits infrared (which the physical therapist calls "invisible light") into my feet in order to stimulate circulation. So far, this has resulted in increased pain. No surprise. They were inflamed to start with! Hopefully this will either start working soon, or obviously fail to work soon so that I can move on. In the meantime I think I'll have a cookie. Mmm.

Comments

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

I think I will call it Simi Valley for a while and see who objects.

Um... "Harrumph!"

;-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

So noted! :-)

[apparentparadox]

I used to love working in downtown SJ for that very reason -- no problems with the commute. On the other hand, walking out for lunch at mid-day in a "big city" and not seeing anyone on the sidewalks is a bit "there's been a nuclear bomb and only a few of us are still alive" kind of thing.

I think of SJ as a suburb -- some people actually work there, but most drive to someplace else. Palo Alto is also a suburb: some people actually live & work there, but most drive elsewhere, and almost everyone goes "someplace else" when they want to do something cultural.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There are sections of San Jose that act more citylike in terms of commute. North San Jose, the area of North First Street just south of 237, for example. I had that commute for a while and it was vile.

San Jose isn't all that suburban in terms of culture. By that measure, SJ, SF, and Stanford are cities. By commute, Mountain View is a city and SJ is a suburb. Looking at how big the lawns are and how many trees there are, and comparing with (say) New York City's borough of Queens, the entire 101 corridor is one city briefly interrupted by the suburb of Atherton. Measuring the effectiveness of public transportation, most of the peninsula is farmland.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

I think you deserve a cookie!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

COOKIE!!

I hear there's an opening for a ravenous cookie-eating beast, now that the Cookie Monster is reaching middle age and going all healthy fiber on us. Perhaps I shall apply for this job.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Yay pizzelles! I noticed on the recipe page something that looks like a cannoli. Mmmmmm...

I noticed the reverse commute whenever I would come out there to work out of $FormerEmployer's Mountain View office, especially if I had to go visit the Sausalito office on a particular day. I usually stayed in Mountain View or Sunnyvale, and could tell not only everyone else seemed to be heading away from San Jose, but about mid-penninsula it lightened up and I could also tell everyone was heading away from San Francisco, too. Even on 280, which was much prettier and pleasant to deal with than 101.

Is anodyne therapy supposed to push past some threshold eventually, in order to stop the pain, or is the increased circulation supposed to lead to something indirectly?

*hugs*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

My random theory of the day: feet were inflamed because they were trying to heal something, it wasn't happening, increased circulation may enable that long-overdue healing. I made that all up though. Time for a call to the doc.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Anodyne therapy is currently used in over a thousand hospitals, universities, clinics, home health agencies, physical therapy centers, long term care facilities, physician offices and by the U.S. Military.

That seems like an extremely small proportion. Must be something very new -- you're lucky they have it! It sounds like it was designed primarily for peripheral neuropathy, but increasing circulation is good for lots of different problems so I hope it works for you!

Downtown San Jose is, going by the movement of bodies, a bedroom community. I think I will call it Simi Valley for a while.

It's an edge city (http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa020700a.htm). We have them all around the beltway here. It's weird. The suburbs are cities now. I have the same cognitive disconnect you do about that. But I loved your wonderful riff on "cities"!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I suspect it is indeed very new. I got sent to this place precisely because they have it -- my doc wanted me on that particular thing.

I can hope. It's *all* I can do, so I do it. Some days I do it better than on other days.

The article says that for an edge city "The population must rise every morning and drop every afternoon (i.e., there are more jobs than homes)". Of course, I may be unclear on the whole point of the term. The only thing I see to distinguish an "edge city" from what I think of as a city is that an edge city is younger.

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

I bought my mom a Pizzelle maker for the holidays. She LOVES it! I bet your were yummy. Did you use anise?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I sure did! Mmm, yum. My pizzelle maker was a gift from my sister, and just like your mom I love it! Do you get a percentage of all her pizzelle cookies in perpetuity? Now that would be a good deal. :-) I've sent my sister a few samples. I might send her some out of this batch.

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

Nope, sending cookies by mail has never been something we've done. I'm sure if we were together though we'd make a ton of them.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's a fun chatty activity - you have to stand next to the thing, opening it and refilling it every 45 seconds, but this action requires no brain. Perfect for spending a while just shooting the breeze!

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

It's a Sim City. ;)

ah, the Peninsula. 35 miles of suburbs in search of a city.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's basically it! (On both counts.)

[rlcarr.livejournal.com]

What's someone named "Smith" doing making pizzelles? :)

But seriously, they're soooo good. I remember when I was a kid
and my various Italian relatives would bring over home-made ones
for no particular reason...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Heh, if my great-grandfather hadn't changed his name upon arrival in the US ("Okay, what's a good American name then?") I'd be Kovac, with the thingy over the c. I think. That doesn't go any better with pizzelles, I know.

They are delicious. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmyummy. I ate them all rather quickly, of course, and now I need to make more.