Category: Uncategorized Page 108 of 157

So, I’m in the pool today and I’m doing my laps and there’s a guy getting ready to get in the lane next to mine. And by getting ready, I mean he was folding up his red-tipped white cane. He’s visually impaired. Which is not a big deal in the pool – I’ve seen him before and while he’s not fast, he does okay. Except he didn’t get in the lane next to mine – he got in my lane. I realized this on my way back and just floated there, facing him for a moment while I figured out what to do. I thought I might be able to share the lane, but he does tend to wander and I didn’t think I could avoid him. So, I ducked under the water and moved outside the lanes. I don’t think he realized what was going on at all.

Being outside the lanes meant that, for my last lap, I decided to go diagonally across the rest of the pool. It ended up being about a lap and a half and while I felt like I was breaking some kind of rule or something, I was completely ignored.

that’s about it for now… I’m glad the week is just about done. later…

I noticed on campus today that there were people handing out bibles to passersby. I politely declined to the two people standing about 10 feet away from each other. A little further on my way, I was asked if I was registered to vote. No connection between the two groups, just a little interesting that they were both on campus at the same time. (separation of church and state?)

My doctor’s office has been trying to get a hold of me – they’ve left a couple of messages. I called them today and they said it was about my high blood pressure medicine that my wife Robin called in about. When I expressed some confusion, they figured it must have been put in the wrong chart. It’s a little ironic that I’ve been meaning to schedule an appointment to see my doctor about my migraines, but I didn’t have my calendar available and I’ll need to look at my schedule before I set something up.

While I was running some errands this afternoon, I noticed a guy next to his bike in a grassy area near the road. His bike was laying on it’s side and he had his arm under his head – apparently enjoying the shade on a warm day and resting. I drove on past, thinking he had the right idea. When I came back through, the area was surrounded by ambulances – the sleeping guy had apparently been injured – maybe by a hit and run – and was now being cared for by the paramedics. I felt bad – I should have stopped. But at the same time, he looked like he was sleeping in the shade next to his bike – something I might have done in that same position.

Finally, I got a notice in the that I’d been randomly selected to provide my proof of insurance. Sort of like winning a contest. Except I don’t get anything, it costs me a stamp, and if I don’t do it, my registration is revoked.

that’s it for now – later…

I went to visit my folks for the weekend to celebrate my dad’s birthday and their anniversary. I got them a red coffee pot – which they’ve been looking for – and scored major points. We played some dominoes and hung out a bit. On Sunday afternoon we headed out and went to Jungle Jim’s – a sort of international food mart. In this one store you can buy wasabi crackers, a pig’s head, and every kind of kitchen appliance you could imagine. I found an ice cream scoop that will work great for ice cream cones.

From there, we headed further south to Cincinati for the Riverfest fireworks show. We faced closed roads, distant parking, confused GPS, and 50 degree angle concrete seating. While a bit uncomfortable, the view was pretty good and the fireworks show was excellent. When it was over, we stood up – along with 20,000 other people – and headed for the cars. The group managed to stay together somehow and we made it out of there without too much trouble. It was a long drive home though.

On Monday, my parents and I – along with their dog – headed to Slate Run park for a bit of hiking. We didn’t go to far since the dog was getting tired, but still had a good trip.

I headed back Monday afternoon and was back at work today – and I didn’t enjoy it. Really crazy day. I left a bit early so I could go give blood – which went very smoothly except that the needle site kept bleeding. The tech finally got it under control and I went to Border’s – then Chic-fil-et.

It’s been a pretty quiet evening around here and I’m looking forward to an early bedtime. The weekend has caught up with me and the blood donation has made me tired.

That’s it for me… later.

I was going a little stir crazy last night after a difficult day at work, so, I headed out to target to pick up a few things – nothing critical, just something to get me out of the apartment for a few. As I was getting ready to check out, I discovered something of a truth:

“There’s no such thing as a good line”

As I stood there, patiently waiting my turn, I watched several people attempt to jockey for position. In every case, they ended up in no better position than before.

It’s the human element. Unless you are first in line and actually at the register, there’s a significant chance that a human will do something to disrupt the flow of the system. Check writing with a non functional pen or missing ID. Spills. Forgotten items or price disputes.

In my opinion, the best way through these is to just pick a line and wait it out.

Now, while I believe there is no such thing as a good line – I’ve convinced there is such a thing as a bad line.

And yesterday, I was in one.

The woman in front of me had an “aroma”. And while I could avoid looking at the mass of flesh on the backs of her upper arms after the initial glance, I could not “un-smell” her. She was trying to make small talk with the cashier while being passive aggressive with the bagger about how he was loading her cart incorrectly – something about the heavy items being actually in the cart as opposed to balanced in the child seat area so that she wouldn’t have to lift it out.

I waited quietly. She had to purchase a gift card as well and was chatting with the cashier about how good the orange flavored chocolate was that she was buying.

And then, the problem. She put in the wrong pin number. Completely flustered and helpless she became. It was, clearly, the very end of the world. The cashier had to lean over and walk her through the steps to undo her mistake – all the while she went on and on about how she used the pin from another card.

She looked at me for support, as though expecting I would chime in about a similar incident in my life where I too had entered the wrong pin number.

Instead, I looked through her, then through her very soul and on out the other side. Utterly dismissing her very existence. Because there was no way I was going to get dragged into her life in any way, shape or form.

Pin number correctly entered, she collected her receipt with something akin to reluctance. As she carefully folded it and worked her way through her purse for the correct location to place it, I realized that she was upset that her performance was ending so soon and that the audience – namely me – did not appreciate the show.

When she finally cleared the way and headed for the exit, I moved into position and placed my items on the belt – rotating them so that bar codes were easily accessible. Card swipe, pin entered, receipt gathered, bags collected and out the door. Moments later I was passing her in the parking lot.

Is there a deeper lesson to be learned here? Not really, except that people annoy me. I think even the Buddha would have sworn under his breath.

In other news… I’m still playing through Okami on the second time around. Kicking some butt and finding new areas. I’m going to try and get all of the ultimate weapons this time around.

Finally, I’m a little dressed up today. The team is having a luncheon with the UA president and the boss has asked us to wear the shirts we got for a division-wide award. So, we’re all going to be dressed alike and, perhaps, all looking like complete tools. Should be fun – at least lunch is free.

back to work… later…

My sister and brother-in-law stopped by for a quick visit and some snacks on their way back from a camping trip. They couldn’t stay long, but it was still nice they stopped. I’ll see them again this coming weekend.

Today is the first day of classes for the fall. I expect campus will be very busy – I got here early to secure a parking space and I also brought my lunch. It’ll settle down soon.

I got a new keyboard over the weekend. It only cost me $10 and it’s flexible! I couldn’t pass it up.
I’m using it now and it takes a little getting used to. Expect more typos than usual.

I’ve got a student coming in for an interview in a few minutes – guess I’d better get ready for that.

later…

It started when I when to the kitchen at work to fix my cup of pre-swim oatmeal.
(note, I’ve learned from experience that it’s not wise to try and chug hot oatmeal)
I had a weird sort of dizziness – like I was going to have an out-of-body experience or something. It wasn’t enough to impair my movements – but it was quite weird. I ate my oatmeal and hoped it would pass.

Not long after I got back to my desk – the visual distortion began. Apparently, some people refer to this as an aura – but I’ve read far too many new-agey books to call it that. To me, an aura should be a series of colors of energy surrounding a person that tell you what they are feeling. I’ve never been able to see those. What I experience when a migraine is coming on is a visual distortion. Can’t really describe it any other way.

I took an ibuprofen – and crossed my fingers. The distortion got worse and then the light sensitivity kicked in, followed shortly by the headache. It started to quickly ramp up and I held out hope that the ibuprofen would kick in and put an end to it. At a suggestion from a friend, I tried a bottle of Pepsi – thinking that the jolt of caffeinee would help since I’ve pretty much given up on the stuff. It tasted terrible – which was good, in a way. No falling off the wagon for me.

No luck. The next step was nausea and while I’m willing to put up with a lot of at work – nausea is not one of those things.

I wrapped up a couple of tasks – all the while, trying to shield my eyes from the light and with headphones in (no music) to try and dampen the sound. I checked in with the boss and began the drive home. I knew I could endure it, but also that I wouldn’t enjoy it.

I finally got home and went to bed – earplugs in, nightmask in place. As close to sensory deprivation I could manage without a tank of salt-water.

But it wasn’t enough – the nausea ramped up again and I headed for the bathroom where I tossed my oatmeal and Pepsi.

It was terrible, as it always is to throw up. But it was also a relief. I knew that when this wave passed it would take the nausea with it. And, eventually, I’d be able to sleep and that would take the headache.

But first, I had to stop throwing up. I did that by simply emptying the contents of my stomach. Unfortuantly, the force I employed in doing that caused some damage to my throat and I somehow managed to get some bile up my nose – which, I can tell you, is not pleasant.

So – mouthwash, water, and blowing my nose – then ready to go back to bed and sleep this off.

And it did – mostly. I slept for a few hours and woke up feeling a bit better. Which, is an indication of how much I was hurting – I generally don’t nap well. The headache was still lurking – that the best way to describe it. Waiting in my head to strike again. I was careful the rest of the day – keeping my computer time to a minimum and avoiding bright lights and loud noises. I was fearful of coughs and sneezes – any sudden move would cause a flare of pain in my head.

A quiet evening and I went to bed early and slept through the night. This morning – the headache tried to come back. I was up early, but ended up going back to bed for a while. Not sure if I really slept, though I must have based on the time that passed.

I took things easy today and the headache – while still lurking – didn’t stop me from running some errands and enjoying a bit of sunshine this afternoon.

So – what have we learned here?

1. The respite I had from these migraines has passed. I’ve had a few near misses and this has been the first full blown one in a while.

2. I need to head back to the doctor to get my prescription re-filled.

3. I apparently am now having pre-aura auras – the out-of-body feeling seemed like a signal.

4. Throwing up hurts – but it seems like it’s also helping again.

5. I hate being sick.

I don’t know how to speak or read Spanish. But, I think I still would have been better off using the Spanish version of the instructions when I put the grill together last night. Or perhaps I should have thrown out the instructions entirely and just winged it. Took me about an hour and a half to do – might have taken half that time if I hadn’t had to undo and redo several steps. Finally got it done and we fired it up for the “heat-clean” 15 minutes last evening. It looks good and it’s sturdy – I just wish the instructions were clearer.

The cooler evenings have created a slight problem for me – it’s too cool to sleep with just a sheet, but not cool enough to sleep with a comforter. After lying in bed for a while, trying to get comfortable, I hit on a solution. So, I headed down to my car and got a fleece blanket out of my trunk. This is part of the emergency kit that my mom put together for me for Christmas one year – but I’ve gotten other fleece blankets and have keep adding them to my trunk for lack of something better to do with them. So, this extra one was just right weight to keep me just warm enough. I discovered that it wasn’t quite long enough – so the next night I added a second fleece to the mix to keep me covered. I slept pretty well last night once I got things configured. Once it gets cold enough, I’ll put the fleeces back in the trunk and switch to the comforter.

busy day today – better get back to it.

I had a dream last night that I was in home depot and bought an orange bucket. Unlike the regular orange buckets, this one had wheels and I thought it would they would be useful to repurpose to make a scooter. On closer examination, I realized the bucket was really heavy duty and the wheels were independently swiveling and all terrain. So, instead of making taking the wheels off to use as a scooter, I decided to use it as is – a skateboard bucket. The bucket was wide enough to put both feet in and low enough that I could step in and out.

This all apparently took place in Miami, Florida and I headed out into the streets of the city in my bucket. A few kids in skateboards mocked me, then shut up in astonishment when I skimmed through standing water and then took it off-roading across the grass – not losing any speed with either maneuver. If I pressed my feet against the inside of the bucket I could “hang on” and used this technique to pull off some really impressive stunts.

But I got lost. So, I crusied around town for a bit in my bucket, finally stopping at a senior citizen’s complex. A friend of mine was there with her mother – both looking older than they currently are. My friend showed me her report card – she was finally finishing up her degreee and as I went to leave, an old woman slapped me on the ass. My friend said not to be offended since that woman wasn’t really ‘with it’ and tended to smack all men on the ass. In a disturbing twist, I was surpised to see it was my own great-grandmother – looking a little crazed, but remarkably spry for someone that passed away a number of years ago.

I headed out – still in my bucket – and went into the office where I worked. One of my current co-workers – who enjoys roller-blading – was really impressed with my skills and fired up ebay to see if he could find out there. He left the room – and his ebay account open – before I could tell him I bought it home depot. When he got back, I joked that he had just bought a bunch of vintage comics on his account and he laughed so loud that the boss made us get back to work. So, I got out of my bucket, settled into my desk and got to work.

And then I woke up and got ready to really go to work.

The home deport bit was ironic – since in reality I went to Lowe’s last night. The grill my room-mate brought from his old place was on it’s last legs, so we went to Lowe’s figuring that based on the season – we could get a good deal. We did and took it back to the apartment – but it was too late to put together last night. I’ll work on it this evening, I think.

I beat the game Okami night before last and started the replay mode last evening. It’s essentially starting the game over, except you have all the items you finished the game with. So, I walked into what would have been a serious battle the first time around, pulled out a huge-ass sword, and destroyed all the enemies in about 6 seconds. Kinda took a little of the fun out of things fairly quickly. I plowed through big chunks of the game, but the magic wasn’t really there. Maybe a break from this and then a fresh start.

That’s it for now – time to get back to work…

I helped my room-mate a little on Sunday at his job. Not a big deal, perhaps, but he works at a funeral home. There was a “customer” that needed his attention and he needed a little help with the removal and repositioning of some absorbent padding. I asked if I needed to “glove up” and he said yes – I figured I’d be right in the mix of things. Instead, he did the work and I held the plastic bag for the used padding. A bit of a letdown, actually. Still, I did my part and helped a bit. I didn’t save the gloves as a souvenir.

While out driving over the weekend, I saw a woman on a motorcycle with a pink leather jacket and a giant stuffed Hello Kitty strapped to the seat behind her. It was freaky.

I was out on campus today and while walking from one area to another I came across two marching band practices on different fields. I despise walking past a marching because – despite never having been in one – I always feel the almost compulsive urge to match my steps to the beat of the drums. I end up looking like a) a complete mindless tool or b) a complete spazz stumbling at every step to try and not match the rhythm.

The TV was on today at the pool – a giant screen normally used during swimming matches but this time set up to show the Olympics. I was busy with the whole swimming/not drowning thing and didn’t see much. It wasn’t swimming, which is good since I would have felt really outclassed. And I was already feeling that from the girl in the next lane that swam like a freaking dolphin. And that was before she put on the flippers and started hydro-planing.

I’ve started transcribing my written beach story into a text file. It’ll take me a long time, I think, and longer still to do the editing. In a way, it doesn’t really matter. I wrote the story because it was one I wanted to tell. If I get it done and others enjoy it – so much the better. But it’s mostly for me.

later…

I was just about to go to bed last night when my room-mate approached me with something akin to panic. A couple of weeks ago, I had helped him with a show field map for a car show he’s involved with. In the past, we’ve done this using powerpoint and it was relatively easy for him to modify this once I set it up. This time around, we didn’t have access to Powerpoint and I used a scanned image of an old event program and modified it using Fireworks. It’s a pretty good program, but there’s a learning curve.

Well, he got some additional updates last night that he should have gotten days ago. The clock was ticking and he needed to send the changed map via email last night. He asked if I could show him how to make the changes, but I shook my head and told him it would take far longer that way.

So, I sat down at the computer and he refered to his notes and we made the updates. Despite the troubles we had with the file (even getting the dang thing to save properly was a chore) we got things updated and I finally went to bed. I don’t know if he got the email out or not – I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Which surprised me a bit – I was putting forth quite a lot of brain-power on the file updates – figured I would have trouble settling down.

But that only lasted a while. I had a terrible nightmare that woke me up and scared the crap out of me.

I dreamed that I was being hunted through a dark neighborhood by a blood-thirsty serial killer. Seemed like I was running forever, but he finally cornered me and pulled out a wicked looking knife. Somehow, I managed to get the knife away from him and I used it against him. As his lifeless body fell to the ground, a bunch of my friends ran up to me and told me that his family was coming home and that I needed to get out of there. In the dream, I was shocked that such a lunatic would have a family, that he would have spent all that time hunting me when his family was due to arrive home – and that I had just killed somebody’s dad and husband and left his body on their front yard. I started running again when I saw the headlights of a mini-van start down the street toward the house – the bloody knife still in my hand.

I woke up then, in a panic that I was now a fugitive and they would think that I was the killer. I finally got myself calmed down and went back to sleep.

Still a little out of it this morning, but I’m here at work and it’s time to get back to it.
later…