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Work on Friday was too busy for me to make an entry in teh blog, so, better late than never.

Over the course of the vacation week we:

1. Fought with the rain – getting things set up on the beach and retreating when the clouds took over.

2. Walked on the pier and the beach – and bravely laughed at talk of sharks from the safety of dry land.

3. Went out to eat several times – including a trip to the Hot Fish Club where I, ironically, got some fish that was mostly raw (kinda like sushi)

4. Did some touristy shopping and a very small degree of site-seeing.

And then we said our good-byes to the beach and ocean and headed back. We left very early on Saturday morning – and dealt with the overheating again, though it wasn’t as bad since the position of the sun made it less intense.

Then finally home to unpack and relax before going back to work.

The massive sunburn put a damper on the trip and the weather could have been better – but as I said all along, “No email, no phone, no voicemail, no work – still a good vacation”

I learned several valuable lessons and had quite a bit fo fun anyway – so, it all balances out to a good vacation.

Next time… back to the usual entries of funky dreams and random rants.

Later.

So, Tuesday night – instead of going out with my friend for his birthday – I went to the Doctor’s Care office in Surfside. I folded paper like a madman to keep from scratching and made a couple of complex models while waiting to be called. I gave them away to a kid in the waiting room. The first nurse got my weight and other vitals, then the doctor came and was somewhat amazed at the degree of sunburn. He wrote a prescritption for a painkiller (though it was itching more than hurting), and sent in nurse #2 to slather on about a pound of heavy silver-something cream. I kept folding and the cream helped – though she felt bad when she had to add more to a sensitive area of my back ’cause I would gasp. She got some origami when she was done too. Heck, I gotta give the stuff away or I’d be buried in it.

They put a hospital gown on me – backwards, so it was like a vest – then sent me on my way. We got the perscriptions filled – then headed back to the condo for cake. I took off the “vest” and kept threatening to hug everyone.

The next couple of days were a bit of a blur – and though I kept seeping with the blisters, I was getting steadly better. Spent a little time on the beach – fulled dressed under an umbrella – and in the pool, which really seemed to help. Though, I felt a little bad about “shedding” flakes of skin into the pool. It was a little gross, but I did try to stay away from everyone else in the pool.

Next time: wrapping up the week and heading home.

Now, back to work…

Sunday had some great weather – lots of sun and blue skies. I was on the beach building sandcastles or swimming in the ocean for most of the day. I was starting to get warm and knew I was sunburned, but didn’t realize how sunburned until later.

We went out for dinner that evening and I got the shivers – which I thought was just a reaction to the really cold resturant. I only ate about half my dinner and took the rest back to the condo. That night, in an increasing amount of pain from the sunburn and ensuing blisters – I lost my dinner in a fairly spectacular fashion. And I had a sore throat the rest of the week as a result.

Monday was spent indoors, fully dressed, and watching TV. Still cold, but feeling ever so slightly better to be out of the harsh sun.

Tuesday – and the blisters are taking on a life of their own. But only on my back. My front is a bit sunburned as well, but not as bad. So, I put on some aloe on my chest to help forestall any problems. Turns out – big problem. I had a terrible reaction to the aloe and started itching like crazy. And when I say crazy – I mean full-blown-put-me-in-the-psych-ward kinda crazy.

Part of me wanted to scratch. Part of me knew better. My compromise was to rub the affected area – which still wasn’t good, but was better than humping a tree.

Got the aloe washed off and tried a couple more anti-histmine flavored sprays – and it kept getting worse. I was in full freak-out mode. So, armed with a stack of paper to keep my hands occupied I was taken to the stat care down the street.

Next time: Lots of cream and a spiffy new vest.

It’s been a bit since I’ve blogged – I’ve been out of town on vacation. I’m back to work now and trying to get caught up, so I’m going to break down my vacation report into several days.

We headed out the Friday before last – driving south toward Myrtle Beach. The car was having some overheating issues, so for a good part of the trip we drove with windows down and heat turned on. I don’t really mind the heat so I wasn’t too bothered by it, but the hot air did tend to dry my contacts out.

Over the course of the drive we passed though:

Virginia’s Technology Corridor – which appeared to be mostly trees.

Bland, NC – where we stopped to have to some white rice, plain backed potatoes, dry toast and water without ice. Just kidding – we didn’t stop there.

Polymer Alliance Zone (WV). Not sure what that means, but I felt good about it since I work in Akron – Aka Polymer City.

We arrived at our waypoint for the trip a few hours later and stopped for the night. We were awakened at 12:30 that night with a loud pounding on the door, but when we finally answered it, no one was there. We’re still puzzled about that one.

It was raining when we got to the condo the next day and it would rain on and off for much of the week. Saturday was for grocery shopping and settling in.

Sunday, the weather broke and we headed for the beach. I dutifully put on sun block, but apparently the ocean washed it off much sooner than I anticipated. The results of this situation were soon to become painfully obvious.

Next time – the beginning of the blisters.

Back to work…

The past couple of nights I’ve had some trouble getting to sleep and this morning when I woke up had a master of space and time moment – one where I attempted to defy the passage of time – then realized it was still early and I didn’t need to worry about getting up.

I’ve been a little cranky and stressed the past few days. Taking a little vacation soon and travel stresses me out. Plus, you would not believe the weird ass phone calls I’ve been getting this week. All I want to do is get my job done and get the heck out of here.

The power just flickered here – not enough to take down my computer, but enough to flicker the lights. Could be a really unplesant day if I get in the middle of something and we lose power entirely.

Well, I guess this post won’t be much except me being cranky and complaining a bit. What? Did you expect a sonet?

Oh, one quick thing – I found out from my favorite DC Flash site that a Flash movie is in pre-production. All three of the legacy flashes are being considered for the focus of the movie and it’s expected to talk about the Speed Force. Those of you out there in blog land who are looking to get smacked around by an angry geek should at this point ask me a question referencing Flash Gordon. Not the same guy, people.

Flash Gordon = Lame ass ex-football player hero wanna-be.

The Flash = Coolest superhero ever. Outruns time and death itself. Saves the entire world in a half-second. Leaves Superman in his dust.

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

Let’s start as I started this morning – at 5:58 when the sanitation engineers came by to empty the dumpsters from the parking lot in front of my apartment. Granted, my alarm was set for 6:00, but still…

The banging of the dumpersters yanked me out of dream – one that had an element I wasn’t familier with. In the dream, I was playing an online game with two friends. The object of the game was to score points by wandering around and looking for spirits to capture. It took place in the real world – as viewed through goggles – so a trip to the grocery store could end up being a challenging level. My goggles broke, so I just had a piece of glass that I carried around to look through. And, when I looked in the right place, I could see the spirits that we were supposed to capture.

To do that, I needed to hold up my right hand in the direction of the spirit and concentrate. The spirit would be drawn toward my hand until I had captured it. Once captured, a raised bump would appear on my hand until I released the spirit – and earn points for it. The funky part was, though it was a game, you could become sick if you gathered up too many evil spirits and didn’t release them quickly – a real problem since the release areas were few and far between. And not just sick in the game, but sick in real life as well (yes, I’m aware it was still just a dream).

My team and I were the best – mainly because I could hold up to the pain better than most.
It hurt to drawn in a spirit and my hand would ache until those spirits were released.

And here’s where things go off the deep end. I distinctly remember that it hurt to draw in a spirit. I remember the senstation of pain on contact, the ache in my hand and my whole wrist while I stored the spirits. I remember feeling the cold of the day as we hiked out to get “just one more spirit” before quitting for the day.

Real pain. To the point that I was surpised when I woke up and found my hand undamaged and without any raised bumps of stored spirits – since I woke up before releaseing them.

Now, I know that you aren’t supposed to feel pain in dreams…but I remember it and it sure as heck felt real. Good thing we were winning the game…

—

Back to reality… Ever heard the expression “Like a hot Dremel through Plexiglass”? No? Well, there’s a reason for that. It doesn’t go all that well. It’ll work, just like cutting a frozen potato with a dull spoon will work, but it ain’t fun. For one, it smells bad. Also, the shreaded plexiglass tends to fly off and that stuff is hot. And the dremel bit tends to get fouled when you let it stop as the plastic cools and fills the bit.

Now, why was I cutting plexiglass with a dremel? Well, I was trying to make a mask. Yeah, yeah, I know…”what hairbrained project are you up to now, Anthony?” Actually, I’ve been working on some masks in various mediums (paper mache, clay, etc) and I figured plexiglass would be the next logical step before tying to carve one out of wood.

I actually had some good success and would have done more to smooth the edges, but it was getting late and I was losing the light – since I was working outside to minimize the mess and I was wearing sunglasses for my safety goggles. I may have time to finish it this week, but it’s no big deal if I don’t.

And before I close – a big shout-out to my colleague and friend for inviting me to his bonfire last friday. I had a good time and enjoyed the food and the company.

So, that’s it for now in this slightly longer than usual blog. Time to get back to work…

I had a f’ed up dream last night. I was back at school in Miami – florida – and I had just joined my fraternity (something I didn’t do in real life until my second year of school at akron). I was also working at a well appointed clinic when a terrible accident occured. To save me, they cloned me and transfered my consciousness into the clone. But, they only got about 2% of my memories – and all of my bad temper. Then, the sick and injured orginal of me took off and I had to try and track him/me down so that I could get the rest of his/our/my memories. The process would most likely kill “him”, but the idea didn’t seem to bother “me”. During the course of my pursuit, I ran into my former room-mate – who wanted me to look at the art work one of his son’s had done and tell him what it was about. It was meant to look like a photo taken of a collage of newsprint, but it had all been done on computer. I started to explain it, but then I got a lead on my orginal and had to leave. I think I had him/me cornered in the basement of a frat-house when I woke up.

Apparently, I have some issues.

That’s it for now… back to work….

I decided to give blood yesterday after work so, as is my usual plan, I went to Wendy’s to get something to eat beforehand. Otherwise, I tend to get woosie. On the way to Wendy’s the sky opened up and it just freaking poured. Not as bad as over the weekend, but still really intense for several miles, then it abruptly stopped. Very strange and a little unnerving – though it did wash the bird crap off my car.

Got to Wendy’s and had a snack, then stopped to get gas, then on to the blood donation site.

The place was nearly empty, but unfortunatly that included staff as well. So, I had to wait until the one person ahead of me was nearly done before they got started with me. It was then that I noticed that the big clock in the room wasn’t working right – the second hand was stuck to the minute hand. Looked really odd and upset my Master of Space and Time sensiblities.

Finally got through the history section and ovet to the donation area. Normally, I have no trouble with any part of giving blood, but this was not one of those times. First, the needle hurt going in. And it kept hurting, even after she pulled it nearly out and put a pad under my arm to change the angle. It got a little better but it was still kinda painful – like a sharp pinching sensation. Took slightly longer than usual to give the blood and the direct pressure didn’t stop the bleeding right away. Finally got that under control and I got woosie. So, they had me lay back and elevated my feet – then put a cold cloth on my head. The site was starting to hurt again, so after my head felt better and I sat up, they gave me an ice pack to put on the site.

Meanwhile, the procedure for reporting a reaction had changed – there were new codes or something. So, there was a lot of hurrying around and such to figure out the new codes and how to report the fact that I felt woosie. Seemed a little weird. They took good care of me, but it was still mildly chaotic.

After a bit I felt well enough to go over to the canteen area and got myself a cookie and some juice. When that was done, I thanked them and they thanked me and I went home.

All the rest of the evening I felt sore and tired – which is unusual for me after I give blood. I skipped the shower last and went to bed early.

I’m dragging a little today, but at least I don’t have any meetings.

Well, time to go answer some email.

One thing before I go. My experience with giving blood yesterday was not typical of me or of people in general and I strongly encourage everyone who can to go and give blood. Check out the red cross’s site for more information.

http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

Back to work…

I’ve told this story to a few people already, but for the rest that haven’t heard it, here you go…

On the way to visit my parents this past weekend, I encountered some rain just south of Columbus. And then I got pummeled by more rain than I have ever seen in my whole life. Visibilty was so low I sometimes couldn’t see my hood. The wind was so intense from the side I thought my windows might break. And the lightning flashes would blank out the windshield. It was amazing and not a little scary. I got through it, but was a little shaky for a while.

The rest of the trip was fine, had a good time visiting with everyone.

Had a dream Saturday night that I ate some blue powder and shrunk to 11 inches tall, which was okay since that’s how tall a Ken doll is and it was easy to find clothes. I also tames a cat, threw a saddle on it, and rode off to explore.

In other weird news… I’ve decided to switch to diet coke with lime, instead of regular coke. Yes, I’m serious. No, it’s not the end of the world.

Oh, and I also visited the largest Walmart in Ohio, which is also the second largest in the country. Yes, you should all be very imprssed.

Time to get back to work…

My neighbors now have a dog. I’m not sure which ones have the dog or what the dog looks like. But I know what it sounds like.

Yip yap yap yip yap yap yap yip yip yip yip yap yip yap

I don’t know where they got this dog – maybe the 5th circle of hell (“The angry”) or maybe the 7th (“Violent against neighbors and fellow men”). In any case, I heard it last night while I was trying to sleep. I had the fan going and the windows open. A good cross breeze was just starting to form and I was headed to dreamland.

Yip yap yap yap yip yip yap yap yip

And then, just for variation…

Yap yip yip yip yap yap yip yip yap

And every so often, a plantitive howl at the moon. But, since it was only a small yapper dog, the howl at the moon was just a pathetic shadow of what a real dog could do.

Yap yap yip yip yap yap yap

After 20 minutes I considered closeing the window.

Yap yip yip yap yap yap

Yip

Another 10 minutes and I got up to get ear plugs.

20 minutes later and the dog finally YAPYAPYAPYAPYAPYIPYIPYIP (howl) YAP

Okay, 30 minutes later the dog finally shut up.

Yip.

That one didn’t count, but I left the earplugs in.

Now, I’m a dog person and I really like dogs. But this little yipper was getting on my nerves. Oh, and did I mention that it echoed between the two buildings so it sounded twice as loud? Well, it did.

Sleep was an elusive misteress last night – hell, let’s just say it like it was. I was so ticked off from the noise that I didn’t think it would ever come. And I tried everything – well, not everything, but enough of my tried and true methods of getting to sleep that I was really stressing. And apparently the stress of not being able to sleep tired me out enough that I eventually fell asleep.

This morning? I’m king of the yawns. Yea. And all I really want to do it go back home and sleep some more. Or maybe I’ll just crawl under my desk.

Well, time to get back to work…