Hey! I thought of that!

So, every once in a while, I think I have a new idea and then - lo and behold, it's already out there.

For example, I invented...ahem, women's sanitary products with "wings" before they were out on the market. At least, I did in my head. Seemed so obvious to me, so why did it take the marketplace so long to come up with them? I mean, I thought of it when I was still in high school for crying out loud. You're telling me the sanitary engineers of the world couldn't come up with an idea that a 16-year-old thought of before, what? The late 80s-early 90s?

I also thought of goggles for dogs to wear so they can stick their heads out of car windows without their owners worrying about them losing an eye to flying debris. I even had a great name for them...Doggles. Turns out, they exist - name and all.

Today I found another one. See, I've been suffering with plantar fasciitis for about four months now. If you are unfamiliar with the condition, it's heel pain - worse first thing in the morning and common to runners. Guess what I had just started doing again after my knee surgery when the pain in my heel started? You got it - running.

This happened to me once before, about ten years ago. Seems that when my orthotics wear out, my main indicator is this ailment. So, I went to a podiatrist, got cortisone shots (ouch), new orthotics and a set of exercises/stretches to do at home. Plus, I have been wearing this brace at night, that I still have from my first bout with PF. It's like half a boot that goes down the back of the calf and along the bottom of the foot, and holds the foot in a flexed position, so that the ligament doesn't heal in a shortened position while sleeping. But this brace I have is problematic - it has these big soft straps that go across the front of my foot, shin and ankle to hold everything in place. But if I pull the straps tight enough to disallow movement, they're uncomfortable. If I wear them comfortably, my foot has some wiggle room - so when I'm asleep, I'm not really getting as much stretch as I could otherwise.

I was thinking that a better approach would be to somehow tether the foot in a flexed position from the front, rather than bracing it from behind. Today, I was annoyed enough with my lack of progress on the healing front that I started doing some research and low and behold, I found these: http://www.thesock.com/ and http://www.target.com/Futuro-Plantar-Fasciitis-Sleep-Support/dp/B0015Q2YAM/ref=br_1_1?ie=UTF8&id=Futuro%20Plantar%20Fasciitis%20Sleep%20Support&node=1242799011&searchSize=30&searchView=list&searchPage=1&sr=1-1&qid=1296781263&rh=&searchBinNameList=subjectbin,price,target_com_primary_color-bin,target_com_size-bin,target_com_brand-bin&searchRank=salesrank&frombrowse=1

The sock thing is more like what I was imagining, but the Futuro thing seems like it would be more comfy, too.

Now I just have to get one...

So, what's up with you lately? Any thoughts on what I should write about next?