By Grabthar’s Hammer, My Head is Lumpy
You can’t see it, but I can see it - my head is lumpy now.
I hope that every one of my readers has seen one of the top ten greatest movies ever, Galaxy Quest. This 1999 film was both a brilliant satire of Star Trek and simultaneously one of the sweetest and hilarious movies ever. So good, it even makes me like Tim Allen for a moment. The rest of the cast is outstanding, and includes Enrico Colantoni, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, Sigourney Weaver, and finally, the late, great Alan Rickman.
Rickman, no surprise, is completely brilliant. Playing Sir Alexander Dane, a ‘serious’ Shakespearean theater actor, doomed to be remembered only as the alien Dr. Lazarus from the long-since cancelled hit TV series, Galaxy Quest. Rickman’s trademark sneer of self loathing over the fact that as an actor, he is trapped in this character from a show he believes beneath him is perfectly combined with his anger at being continually overshadowed by Tim Allens’ continual scenery chewing and one-upmanship.
The basic storyline is that aliens have discovered the TV transmission of “Galaxy Quest” and believe it’s real, and come calling for the actors to help them fight off a warlike would-be conquerer. Needless to say, hijinks ensue as the actors are all forced into their old roles only with much higher stakes. The ensemble cast manage to perfectly balance the line between melodramatic scenery chewing and incredibly nuanced performances.
Which is a meandering way of getting to the notion that my head is lumpy now - it feels to me like Dr. Lazarus’s head. I know it doesn’t really look like that, but it is far lumpier than I thought it would be. Everyone’s head is already a tad lumpy - I’ve always had a slight ridge along the top of my skull that makes my hair want to part only in the center. I now have the addition of two bumps on the top of my head where the leads to the actual DBS device are, and then a two inch long lump on the right side of my head sort of above and behind my ear where the wires come together and run down to the battery in my chest.
My hair is growing out and soon I will be at 100% hedgehog mode. I find myself starting to think about what to do with my hair over the long term. Odds are that I’ll keep it extremely to very short in the coming months and years, occasionally venturing into the realm of short. At age 59+, I’m throwing in the towel on learning to blow dry my hair.
As I enter week three of “DBS on” things continue to go fairly well across the board, and I’m restlessly waiting for my tuning update on Tuesday, February 5. I did a demo of DBS on vs off for my kids over the weekend - jaws were dropped at the difference. My sense is that when I go back to the PT guy for post-surgery evaluation, we may find that my balance is not as good as it once was. But I’ve always had good balance and I know how to work on it, so I am not deeply concerned.
Like Dr. Lazarus, I’m coming to grips with who I am now, and like the fictional tagline for the fictional TV show, I can say “never give up, and never surrender.” Unless it’s giving up on long hair and a smooth skull.