Category: Uncategorized Page 44 of 157

12/20/2014

Saturday was the day that my family was going to celebrate Christmas and Jim graciously drove me to my parent’s house that morning. We had a nice time, though I wasn’t as engaged as I would have liked. On Sunday, he drove me back and I rested much of the day in anticipation to returning to work on Monday. I wasn’t getting much sleep at this point – the pain meds weren’t working as expected – but Jim was looking after me so that was okay.

12/22/2014

Back to work for a 1/2 day, then drove to my doctor appointment in the afternoon. He recommended surgery – the next day – and there was a small mountain of paperwork to do. I was as prepared as I could have been for that, but I did have to sign a lot of forms. Had dinner with friends that evening and arranged for a ride to the surgery center the next day. Little things, like trying to use a pepper grinder, were too much for me to handle – and it was starting to get to me.

12/23/2014

Another 1/2 day of work as I tried to wrap up projects. I headed home, got changed, and got taken to the surgery center.

There was more paperwork, dozens of questions, and a complicated process of trying to get into the hospital gown. The anesthesiologist stopped by and asked if I wanted a general or a block plus a ‘twilight’ sleep. I asked if I would sparkle with the twilight and he said yes – so I went that route. He lied.

The block was dang weird. The used an ultrasound to guide a needle into my shoulder/neck and in a little while my arm and hand had no sensation. It was like some one else’s hand.

The surgeon was delayed and I rocked some minor mood swings – then dozed a bit until it was time to actually get started. They got me to operating room, transferred me to the bed in the most cumbersome way possible, and added something to the IV.

I woke up later – mostly out of it, but apparently chatty and kinda funny. My friend who works at the surgery center drove me home and then went and got my prescription while Jim helped me get settled.

This post will take me a while – I can’t type for very long at a time yet and will need to take a lot of breaks. So, here we go:

12/19/2014 – Heading into work and parking in the deck because it’s snowing. I’m loaded down with Christmas presents for my co-workers and both hands are full. I step onto the sidewalk and hit a patch of ice.

In the span of a heartbeat, both feet came off the ground and I went horizontal in mid-air. Then, impact.

The first and worst was my left elbow – then my head took the rest of the force. I lay on the ground for a minute – stunned – then forced myself to my feet and assessed the damage. My elbow was hurting pretty bad, but I had the foresight to take a picture of the area – just in case – then gathered my belongings and walked through the grass down the street to my building. My left arm was worthless at this point, but I got in the office and got my coat off. I didn’t know how bad it was, so I delivered the Christmas presents and checked my email. It wasn’t getting any better, but it’s tough to see your own elbow so I asked another co-worker to take a look.

The reaction when she saw it was enough to send me on my way. I canceled my appointments for the day by email, checked in with another co-worker, and carefully made my way back to my car and from there – to the emergency room.

It took a while to navigate the valet-ish parking, then I got checked in. And I waited 15 minutes while my arm continued to swell alarmingly.

A staff member came out and took a group of us back and assigned us to rooms – like a cattle call. Where I waited again for another 15 minutes. As long as I held very still, I was okay. Any movement and I was hurting.

A nurse came in and started to work with me. When I said that it might be workers comp – she left to get a form. Another nurse – perhaps an angel? – came in and took charge. She carefully helped me get my dress shirt off, got me an ice pack and a pillow and generally fussed over me until the doctor came in. I was still hurting bad, but mentally feeling better that someone was looking after me.

The doctor said I needed an x-ray and I was trundled down the hall to get that done. The techs had me position my arm into some terrible shapes, then sent me back to the room with a tissue to wipe my eyes. Yeah, I cried. Doesn’t make me less of a bad-ass.

The doctor came back after a while and said – “It’s broken”. He and a colleague put me in a splint, gave me a prescription, and sent me on my way with a referral.

I called my boss from the parking lot and explained what was going on – then went home. I made an appointed to see another doctor on the 22nd in the afternoon.

Later that evening I got my prescription filled and spent a lot of time with my arm in a sling trying to find a position that didn’t hurt.

It didn’t really work.

The Sunday before last, it started with a headache. Monday, it was a sore throat. And then things went downhill from there. By the weekend I was sick as a dog.

I took this past Monday off and spent most of the day in bed – getting up just long enough to email work and then later to try and eat. I’d also been making a steady diet of Mucinex and it wasn’t helping – fortunately, I had a Dr. visit scheduled for Tuesday. In short order he had a diagnosis for me – bronchitis.

He put me on antibiotics and a cough suppressant and send me on my way. I spent the rest of Tuesday in bed, getting only to take meds. I did log in that evening to at least try and do some work, but it was a feeble effort.

The long days in and out of sleep produced some peculiar side effects.

1. I was disappointed in science. We’ve got 1/2 dozen “reputable” treatments for erectile dysfunction, but no one seems to be working on the common cold. The answer is that it’s a virus and you just have to wait it out. And do you know how the flu vaccine is created? The process involves chicken eggs.

Yes, the pinnacle of science and we’re relying on chickens. We should, as a species, be disappointed. Where are the damn lasers? Nano-technology? Freaking healing potions?

Instead, I’m quaffing snake oil that either doesn’t taste like grape or doesn’t taste like orange. Or, to mix it up, doesn’t taste like cherry. And you know what else it doesn’t do? Work.

I’m kinda miserable and surly – in case you can’t tell. So, I wait – and apparently, I am in a very suggestable state.

—————

2. Since I’ve been home a lot in the day, I’ve been listening to the radio. And you know how they play the same damn songs over and over? Well, the culprit this time is Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. It’s actually playing now as I type this. I’ve heard it so many times in the past few days that, in what I have to assume is some kind of fever, I invented a board game to go along with the song.

Yes.

I have the rules mapped out – including suitor cards and a mechanic where if you land on the right space, you get to write your name in the provided Blank Space (with bonus points awarded if you are the last to have your name in that area). The game board would be dry erase, but I didn’t get to the character piece design before I snapped out of it.

—————

3. I’ve also spent some of my waking time… wait, time for more meds. BRB…

…

Sorry, I’m on a set schedule for that. Anyway, I decided to finally watch season 1 of the walking dead on DVD. I figured that if this does take me out and I became a zombie, it would be prudent to do some prep work.

I like the show and the writing, effects, and acting are all good. If there are any faults, it’s that in an almost predictable manner – the worst thing always happens. I know that drives the drama, but I haven’t really been surprised yet. Still, I’ll pick up season two one of these days and continue with it.

——————-

I went back to work today for part of the day – mostly just to avoid the paperwork I would need from a doctor for a longer absence. I was pretty productive when I wasn’t trying to talk on the phone, but by 2:00 I was wiped out. I left work and went home to sit on the couch and read.

Thundercat kept me company by curling up on my feet. I know he’s just looking for a warm spot, but it was still nice.

And I’m tired. Just worn down. The bronchitis, the meds, the coughing and not sleeping.

I’ll be back in the office tomorrow – or at least that’s the plan – and I’m trying to conserve the energy I have to kept going through the day.

Time to turn out the lights and kick out the guests at this pity party. And time to wrap up this entry, shower, spray some not-grape flavored snake oil down my throat, and hope for the best.

I’ve been making the drive to my folk’s house for decades and even with my propensity to get lost in a parking lot, I really don’t need a GPS to get me there.  Same route, every time.

But, it’s nice to have to keep track of when I’ll arrive and to have a back up in case there’s an accident or traffic. (Either of which would lead to a bout of intense and somewhat therapeutic swearing. In Klingon.)  And the calm and reassuring voice is nice too.  But, mostly, it’s the purple line.

I like physical maps and I’ve always been good at reading them. And that purple line is like how I would see the route I need on a paper map. Instead of “glowing” in my head, the line on the GPS stands out and lets me know I’m on the right path. It’s a little thing, but having been born with no innate sense of direction, it’s nice to have a little technological help.

—————

The thanksgiving visit with my folks was good and my nieces were fun. We did a lot of coloring, played games, and ate too much dessert. I did a lot of reading and while I can’t say I actually watched a lot of football, I was in a room where a lot of football was watched. My youngest niece managed to give me a cold and I fought a headache on the drive back on Sunday and for pretty much the rest of the day. It turned into a sore throat last night that got worse this morning.

————–

While I was at work today, this happened. I’m going slow things down for this narrative, but it pretty much happened all at once.

I sneezed. A powerful and intense sneeze. And since I have a sore throat, the sneeze itself was painful. In the middle of the sneeze, I grimaced in pain. Which caused me to clench my teeth. My tongue got in the way and I finished off the sneeze by biting my tongue hard enough to taste blood. Oh, and I sneezed all over my desk.

So, I’m bleeding, wondering how I’m going to get that stopped and should I try – improbably – to put a band-aid on my tongue. And this was as I cleaned off my desk, cleared my head, and tried not to cry. I also spent a few minutes doubting my ability to look after myself if this kind of thing was going to happen.

Then I chalked it up to “Monday” and got back to work.

I was in a mall over the weekend. And I had a bit of a headache to start. Which didn’t get better. The chatter of people, the deliberately terrible acoustics, the generally terrible Christmas music – it was too much. I could feel my brain starting to retreat into a dark corner of my skull… and yes, my skull has dark corners – I’m having a CRISIS here!

I took a break, had a snack and a soda in the food court, made some origami for a little kid, and felt a little better.

When I got home, I sat in the quiet of my living room with a book. No music, no traffic noise, even the furnace and fridge were quiet. The loudest thing in my whole house was my cat.

And I settled back down and slowly came back out of my shell.

It took a while and reaffirmed – once again – that I’m terrible in crowds. I didn’t use to be this way. For a while, I even enjoyed the subtle mix of cunning and guile needed to slip through a crowd unimpeded. And while I’ve never been one to cranky my music, noise didn’t really bother me either.

Next thing you know I’ll be on my porch yelling at kids to get off my lawn.

——————-

Since the mall was so chaotic, I decided I needed a bit of order. So, I re-arranged my kitchen cabinets.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

I don’t really know what possessed me… wait, that’s it! I was possessed!

(sign of relief)

Anyway, I moved some things around, threw out some expired cans, and wondered why I have so many cans of green beans. I mean, I like green beans but it never occurs to me to have them for dinner. And, strangely, I only ever think about having them for dinner when I’m buying groceries.

It’s a sickness, apparently.

When I was done I considered moving on to other areas of the house and organizing them, but after a judgmental look from my cat – which is, frankly, the only kind he gives me – I sensibly went and played some video games.

——————–

Working on a project at work this week and while I did everything right and used the software and tools exactly as prescribed – something went wrong.

And it was for some VIP’s.

I usually like to fly waaaaay below that radar, but I was the only one who had the right mix of expertise to pull this off. And, dammit, it should have worked. Instead, too many of the wrong people didn’t get an email.

And we can’t figure out why.

I’ve got a possible – and deeply counter-intuitive – solution that I’m going to try this morning. Essentially, we need to make the email look more like spam.

Yeah.

It’s also super tedious.

Had me kinda bummed out yesterday evening. I don’t like it when the tech fails me like that – we’re supposed to be bros, you know?

Well, can’t win them all.

I managed to hurt myself yesterday.

In the pool.

I was swimming, as one usually does in the pool, and I got distracted by… something. It was all in my head because there was nothing else in the lane, but it was enough to throw me off. I got started again and misjudged the wall on approach. I hit it with my left hand and jammed my pinky and ring fingers. It hurt, but I shrugged it off and kept going.

I didn’t really pay much attention to it the rest of the day but it really started hurting me last night – enough to wake me from a sound sleep. I was better this morning and it hasn’t slowed down my typing or folding – so I guess I’m okay. Really odd though, especially on the heels of the dog bite on my right hand last weekend.

Clearly, I need to be more careful.  Or at least pay better attention to my surroundings.

——————–

In an odd little recursive way, I’m in a video game.

I’ve got a game on my phone called Tiny Tower Vegas. The object is to build a tower floor by floor and populate it with random characters to live and work in the tower. The “bitizens” are assigned random names and skills – and an Anthony Wade showed up one day with a dream job to work at the Crusty Crab.  Yes, the Crusty Crab.

On occasion, he also posts on their version of Facebook – called “bitbook”. Here’s his latest post, I’m assuming the RNG refers to Random Number Generator.

And now, I’m posting this to my blog – which in turn is posted to the real world Facebook.

Well, if you can call Facebook the “real world”.

This seems pretty odd – even for me.  And I’m kind of known for odd.

Anyway, he’s safe from being fired from the Crusty Crab.  If your virtual clone can’t trust you, who can?

A rough few days at work had me cranky recently. I’ve normally got a pretty good “poker voice”, but my frustration was starting to be audible on the phone – enough that people commented on it. I felt like my passion for doing good work on our little part of the internet was being drown out by some not-great requests from my users. And yes, I’m being polite.

I kinda had my spirit fractured for a few days and stopped caring about some of the decisions I was seeing. Ended up making some not-great changes to the sites and my standard ‘advise and suggest’ method went right out the window.

I got better towards the end of the week – everything is better on Friday – but I’m not looking forward to Monday. Gotta figure out a way to either get my mojo back – or just give up the rest of the way.

—————-

Got together with some friends yesterday for snacks and games. They have a big dog that came bounding up to me in what seemed like a friendly way when I walked in. I had my hand slightly out in a loose fist – knuckles up – so he could smell me. Instead, he opened his gigantic jaws and put most of my hand in his mouth – and bit me.

I wasn’t really scared, just a little shaken, and managed to stay calm and still until he was called off. He broke the skin in several spots and I was starting to bleed a bit so I got my hand washed off and bandaged up. My hand swelled a bit and hurt a bit, but not as bad as if I’d tried to pull away. It’s still a little sore today, but I’m much better. Haven’t done any paper folding, though – and I’m starting to go into origami withdrawal.

I felt bad for the dog, actually. I must have scared him – or maybe smelled odd – and he just reacted. I hope to get another chance to make friends with him soon – and next time, I’m bringing treats.

—————

A sore hand didn’t stop me from kicking some major ass during the games. We played a trivia game that kept coming up with science and technology questions. I mean, one of the cards had HTML all over it! Towards the end, the cards were coming up art and history – not my strong areas – but by that point my team had it in the bag.

I’m not naturally a social person – perfectly fine with a book or high-speed internet – but it was a lot of fun to hang out with friends and enjoy some really great conversation.  And by “great” – I mean irreverent and bawdy.  🙂

———————–

Went and gave blood today – a double-red donation. I didn’t have any trouble – which is usual for me – but the technician noted that my iron levels were up. Too many black beans and spinach in my salad, I guess. Donating blood is actually a good way to keep the iron levels under control, but it may be something to look into. Or I’m just going to become magnetic.

Which would be awesome.

Out to eat at Denny’s the other night and had been seated a few minutes when another couple got seated two tables away. The man, a heavyset individual, complains immediately about how narrow the space is between the table and the back of the chair. The host offers to seat him at a table but he sits down in the booth anyway – with a warning that he’ll move if he’s not comfortable.

The restaurant is busy and obviously understaffed. We wait patiently and the server comes over and gets our drink order. He then heads over to the couple and is berated for taking over 7 minutes to be greeted and have their drink order taken. He brandishes his phone where he has apparently been timing the event – or, lack of an event.

The server tries to explain that they are short-staffed and he’s actually on overtime to cover until more people arrive.

The man doesn’t accept this and says something else I don’t hear clearly, then they order their drinks. For the man, a decaff coffee and water.

Now, I don’t think that 7 minutes is that big of a deal, but it had enraged that man.

In a few minutes, the server came back over with the water and explained, polietly, that the decaff coffee had been out for a while and they would need to make a fresh pot.

“That’s it!” the man cried, “You’ve just lost a customer,” and he began the difficult process of extracting his bulk from the booth. I think that made him even angrier that he couldn’t immediately storm off.

When he did free himself, instead of heading for the door he marched over to the kitchen area where a haggard-looking manger was trying to do about 8 things at once. The man’s wife waited at the table for him to return. She was pretty quiet the whole time and even though I didn’t have enough data, I suspected that this was not the first time she’d been dragged along into a mess like that.

“Mr. Manager! Mr. Manager!” the man yelled, “We had to wait too long for our drink order to be taken and now you’re out of decaff – this is unacceptable!”

The manager, taken aback by the amount of crap suddenly dumped in his lap, tried to apologize and said something about if he’d known he would have…

But the man cut him off, “Too late!” and then followed up with a wildly insincere “good-bye!”

He then left the restaurant with his wife in tow.

There’s no way the guy would have been happy. If the server had stopped and said he would be with them in a minute, the man would have been upset that they weren’t being waited on instead. If he had brought over the old decaff, the man would have complained it tasted terrible. And booth vs. table… they tried and he still wasn’t happy.

I felt terrible for the over-worked server who just wanted to be done with the day and go home. He handled it as well as he could have and we tipped him well – but that was all that could be done.

Makes me wonder how being terrible to each other got to be a thing that we do. I think the world is difficult enough as it is and the idea of making things worse for someone frankly makes me sick to my stomach.

And how do we fix that? How do we make it terrible again to be terrible to each other? What happened to the civility in civilization?

[editor note: Did I just use the writing pattern of Carrie Bradshaw?]

Pretty deep thoughts for a geek who just wanted a plank of fish, some fries, and a quiet meal.

For Halloween 2014, I dressed as Theseus, the slayer of the Minotaur. I got the idea from a conversation with the former president of UA when I asked him about the labyrinth on campus and wondered if we were going to get a Minotaur of our own. He said no – not in the budget – but it gave me the idea. I couldn’t figure out how to do the minotaur, but the slayer of the minotaur? That I could do.

Pics – including costume construction notes – are on my site.

As per my usual, I started at the computer center and made my way up campus. I visited folks in the center of campus for a bit, then met up with a student assistant from the UA communications group and got my picture taken for the official twitter.

UA Twitter for Halloween

I covered essentially the entire campus on foot to the further reaches of the campus. A few highlights.

1. One of my friends took a picture of me at the labyrinth and decided I looked like a bad ass.

2. In one of the buildings, a girl wouldn’t get on the elevator with me. I had pushed the button and waited. She had approached and then backed off and stood off to the side – clearly waiting for the elevator, but didn’t get on when it arrived. I waited a moment to see if she would change her mind, but eventually I just pushed the button and was on my way. I didn’t think I was that scary this time, but I was apparently un-nerving enough.

3. It was cold. I was essentially shirtless and the wind was chilly. Haven’t really had to deal with that in the past – usually much more covered – but it wasn’t bad. The rain held off most of the day.

4. I felt like a warrior most of the day. Which is pretty dang cool.

5. Only a few people got close to what the costume was. Most folks ended up with a lesson in Greek mythology for the day. 🙂

So, bad-ass, shirtless, monster slayer. Not a bad way to spent a Friday Halloween.