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I was headed up to the pool yesterday and my jaw popped as I yawned.  It made sort of a crackling noise as it did so and my jaw ached afterwards.

I’ve had this happen before, but not for quite awhile.  When I was a kid I got diagnosed with TMJ – Temporomandibular Joint Disorder.   Back then my jaw popping would be loud enough that other people could hear it, my lower jaw was canted to the side, and I could almost dislocate my jaw.

I cut out the gummy bears and chewing gum and tried to calm myself down so I wasn’t clenching my teeth so much  – and while it didn’t go away, it got much better.  My jaw will still hurt if I have to hold my mouth open for an extended period – like going to the dentist – but otherwise it’s not been much of an issue.

Apparently, even without the chewy foods, the teeth clenching as a result of increased stress lately has made my TMJ flare up again.  Since I noticed this I’ve been trying to relax my jaw, but work and other stresses have been making that tough.  Thinking about getting a mouth guard until things settle down a bit – I’m sure it’s also related to my headaches.

I’ve got a break coming up, hoping that will reduce some of the tension and help me relax a bit.  I don’t want to go back to the constant jaw pain.  And I really miss gummy bears.

This past weekend, I went to visit my family for an early Christmas.  My sister and her family will be visiting her in-laws for Christmas day, so we got together on Saturday to exchange gifts and hang out with my nieces.  They were both really cute and fun – had a really nice time playing on the iPad and with some playdough with the older one.  I got some nice presents and I think everyone had fun.

On Sunday, I hung around my parents house until they got home from church.  We had lunch, and then we all sat down in the family room.  I knew something was up when Dad didn’t turn on the TV.

Mom started by asking if I believed in the doomsday prophecy (12/21/2012) and I said it was bunk and explained why.  She got more general about prophecy and I replied that there too many variables.  Then she started talking about prophecy in the bible and how so many of the prophecies in the bible had already come true – according to the bible.  I did mention “single source”, but that didn’t carry much weight.

Dad brought up the conflict in the middle east and the Super storm Sandy as indicators of end times – and I responded that people said that Katrina and the Tsunamis were indicators and then nothing happened.  And that the conflict in the middle east has been going for hundreds of years and would continue due to some basic factors related to resources.

There were a few more comments and I had answers for them as well – then Dad got angry(?) or at least heated and raised his voice – upset that I wasn’t keeping an open mind.  I could have responded that they weren’t keeping an open mind either – but I knew better than to engage.  I was mostly quiet for the rest of the discussion and tried to show them that these were not the end times and that while I respected their religion (though, admittedly, less now than before the discussion), I didn’t share their beliefs – and neither did the catholics, jews, buddists, hindu, etc.  And that it should be okay.

They finished up by telling me that they would be fine when the rapture came, but they were worried (and upset because I’m close-minded) that I would go to hell because I’m not a believer.

Then we hugged and Dad asked how the rest of my week was going to be and if I had a lot of meetings.

[crickets chirping]

Like a light switch, the barrage was over.  I know they meant well, but it really was a barrage.  Dad almost yelling at me, Mom with a gigantic bible in her lap quoting at me.    I really don’t know what prompted it – though they did quote their minister a few times.  And I don’t know what they were hoping to accomplish.  Well, I guess they hoped I would go along with them – though Dad did say he didn’t expect me suddenly ‘get it’ and Mom said she was proud of my hardheadedness and my questioning nature.

(insert head shaking here)

I got a bite to eat and we watched an episode of Bones on DVD before I left.  I fought a terrible headache all the way back and had to stop a couple of times just to get out of the car and rest my brain.

When I got back to Akron, I stopped over at a friend’s to see how his weekend was.  As I was leaving, I looking out the side view mirror and saw a familiar cat next to his house.  It was his cat Max, who had slipped out while I was leaving. I shut off my car, got out quickly, and scooped up the cat.   He was freaked out and clawed me a bit, but I hung on.  My friend was by this point in his back-yard with the dogs, so I walked around and shouted to get his attention and told him I had his cat.  He met me at the door and we let the freaked out indoor cat back where he belonged.

So, a fun weekend, a disturbing weekend, and a heroic weekend.  Almost glad to be back to work.

I had a dentist’s appointment last Friday, so I had been extra diligent with my teeth and had been flossing like mad – hoping to avoid the lecture.  And the bleeding.

So, first off, X-rays.  Uncomfortable  – I almost gagged a couple times.

Then the cleaning.  The hygienist said I had good oral hygiene  but I bled like crazy when she was flossing me. I’ve heard you can swallow a pint of your own blood before getting sick – and I think I got pretty close.  Okay, well, maybe not that much blood – but it was still a lot and it was annoying.

Then the dentist came in and said that I was apparently grinding my teeth (news to me) and that I had a cavity (also news to me).  We talked about the TMJ I have and he said he had it too and had to give up chewing gum.  I made an appointment for after the first of the year to get it filled and went on my way – still tasting blood even after the cleaning.

Blasted with x-rays while I clenched plastic in my mouth.  Teeth scraped with a metal pick.  Waxed string dragged through my teeth.   X-rays aren’t “exactly” low tech, but still…

So, last Thursday I finished up 150 miles in the pool for the year.  My original goal was 120, but I finished it early enough to set a new goal and get to that as well.   Not bad for an almost 40 year-old geek.

I’ve still got a few days before the pool closes for the break and I’ll try to do some more, but I don’t have any official goals.

Next year, maybe 200 miles?

One day last week, I was up late playing videos games.  Not that unusual, but I noticed that my furnace was still running.  It was late enough that it should have cycled down for the night and I went over to check it out.  The display on the programmable thermostat was dim and I could just barely see that the battery indicator was blinking.  The batteries were dead enough that it wasn’t keeping track anymore and the furnace would just run.

I swore, then proceeded to dismantle the thermostat to get at the batteries.  The cover was a flimsy piece of plastic that I almost broke, but I finally got to them.

AA

Now, I don’t have a stockpile of batteries in my house and I had a total of zero AA batteries.  I started scrounging around for some and realized that if I didn’t find any, I would either need to leave the furnace on all night (making it too hot) or off all night (way too cold in the morning).

I finally found a flashlight with the right size batteries and salvaged those.  I put the thermostat back together and set about programming it again.  Did a little more swearing and then got out the manual.

The configuration menu is activated by holding the back-light button for three seconds.  I never would have found that without the manual.  And would it have killed anyone to add a “setup” button?   Why is the trend for electronic devices to reduce the number of buttons to stupid levels?  I blame Apple for that.

Except for remote controls.  I’ve got three remotes and each has at least 2 dozen buttons that I never use.  Really?

The thermostat required pushing buttons or holding buttons in the correct sequence  – with a timer that would clear what I was doing if I wasn’t fast enough.  I finally got everything set up again and went to bed – knowing that I would have to replace the batteries again soon since they weren’t new.

So, the temp in my house is back to normal for now.

Hmmm… I wonder if I can transplant some buttons from my remote controls to the thermostat?

I went on a tour of homes this weekend that were decorated up for Christmas.  Or were supposed to be – only a couple of the places really went all out and the rest were just extra fancy.  In one case, it was fancy beyond functional – I can’t imagine the people that lived there actually “living” in a space like that. Overall it was pretty and I got some ideas on using glass blocks, but it wasn’t as holiday decorating focused as I expected.  And it didn’t suddenly inspire me to decorate my house or anything crazy like that.

Sometime last Thursday is the last time I have a clear recollection of where my checkbook was.  It’s normally either in my dining room with my bills tray or in my back pocket if I have to take it with me.  I’ve never had problem with it getting loose from my pocket – but the last time I remember it was taking it off the counter and putting it in my pocket.  And that’s it.

So, yesterday I went to the bank and transferred the money from my vulnerable checking account to a new one. I got a new checkbook and a new account number and we left some money behind in the old account to cover bills that had already gone out but not cleared.

From there I headed over to post office and then to the payroll office to get my direct deposit sorted out.

I checked my bank online last night and saw that the funds had been moved, but that the new account was not yet set up for me to view.  So, I’m a little hesitant to use my debit card until that is sorted out – I’ll check again here in a few.

Fortunately, I’m done with my Christmas shopping.  Unfortunately, I don’t keep a lot of food in the house.

So, I’m stressed about my stupid mistake.   And my Mom and I recently had a difference of opinion via email that ended with her saying we would talk more when she next saw me.  Not looking forward to that one.

The combination has me a little off my game and not really excited about the upcoming holidays.    On a brighter note, I finished mile #143 in the pool yesterday.   Seven miles to go before I reach my revised goal for the year.

Spent Thanksgiving with my family – had a pretty nice time.  The highlight of the trip was painting with my niece – we made place-mats for the thanksgiving table.  She really enjoyed the painting and it was a really neat bonding experience.

We didn’t do a lot over the  holiday, mostly just ate and played games.    Good to just relax for a bit.

As I was packing up my car to head home, I noticed that the key fob wasn’t working to open the trunk or the doors. I figured it was the battery in the fob and opened the door manually with the key – then noticed that the lights didn’t come on.  I tried the key in the ignition and it wouldn’t turn over.  Turns out I’d left an interior light on when I’d parked my car Wednesday evening and didn’t notice.

I got out the manual and my Dad and followed the strange instructions to jump the car – except that the horn sounded each time we tried it.   Finally got it started and let it run for a little while before shutting it down.  It had enough charge to get going when I left and fully charged on the way home.

I expected some traffic on the drive back, but not seeing three accidents – or almost being a part of 2 more.    There were two separate times when traffic in front of me went from 60 to 0.  I had enough room to safely get stopped by standing on the brakes, but the cars behind me had to swerve out into the shoulder to get stopped.  In both cases, traffic got moving again with no apparent cause – though now that I think about it I’m wondering if it was a reaction to deer.  A third time we all had to hit the brakes, but by this point we were all so gun-shy that everyone had plenty of room to get stopped.

I was glad to make it home and put my care safely in the garage.

Got some shopping to do – both online and in the real world.  Guess I’ll need to brave the crowds some evening this week (wish me and my patience good luck) – my family is celebrating Christmas early this year.

This past week I’ve gotten over 1,500 spam comments on my blog.  I, apparently, have been noticed by the spammers and I’m interesting enough to warrant a surge of traffic.  Which I guess is somewhat flattering and also deeply annoying.

I’ve been deleting them, but at one point they were coming in every few minutes.  Different posts, no real pattern – and nearly all are nonsensical.  There were a couple though that I had to actually read to see that they were junk – they were almost, but not quite, related to my the topic of the post.

The spam comments seem to have died off a bit, but if I get another surge it might be worth it to invest in some anti-spam tools for the blog.

In other blog news, my twitter feed came up with an error when I was trying to make my last post – and it froze the page.  I managed to get around it and run an update that fixed it, but for a while I thought my blog was broke.

Finally, in the past few weeks I’ve been getting very bad – but very short – headaches.  The pain hits me in the temple like an ice pick, quickly ramps up, and then fades out.  Of course, I suspect a voodoo doll, but I don’t know anyone with that kind of time on their hands or the inclination to do me harm.   I guess I should see a doctor about them, but they are so short in duration and relatively infrequent I don’t know if it’s worth the effort.  I’m planning a doctor visit after I turn 40 in January – maybe I’ll bring it up then.  The reason I mention it now is that I had one this evening.  Strange and annoying – much like the spam, I guess.

The street outside my house is narrow and unfortunately the small driveways and garages force my neighbors to frequently park on the street.  There is still enough room for two cars to pass each other – barely – but it’s close.  Most of the time one of the cars will temporarily pull to the side and yield the way until the opposing car is past.

This past weekend, I was coming home from some errands and was about a half a block from my house.   Another car was coming towards me and got way over – I figured I had enough room to get past the parked cars.

I didn’t.  Not quite anyway.  As I went past one of the cars I hear a “thunk” and realized I had hit a parked car.   I pulled into my driveway and checked my car.  The passenger side mirror was turned and I noted a small scratch as I rotated it back into position.

I went out and checked the car I had tagged.  The driver side mirror was rotated as well.  I rotated it back and noted a small scratch there as well – but it was an older car and I didn’t know if that was my doing or not.

I asked one of the neighborhood kids that was standing nearby if they knew who’s car this was and got a vague answer that it was someone that lived on the street.  Which is what I pretty much assumed.

So, I went back to my house and wrote a note explaining what had happened and my contact info – then took it back and left it under the windshield wiper.

A little while later I got a call from a woman who didn’t give her name but indicated she was my neighbor and had gotten my note.  She said she noticed a scratch on the car but said it wasn’t a new car and didn’t think it was a big deal – though she would have to talk to her husband.  I apologized again and we ended the call – though I wondered why she called me then if she needed her husband’s input on getting it repaired.     I haven’t heard back from them so I guess they aren’t going to pursue it.

I’m glad I left the note and even gladder that it wasn’t a big deal, but it makes me cranky – once again – at how fragile cars are.  I wasn’t going fast and the mirrors rotated as they are supposed to and still… damage.

So, lesson learned.