Thunder of Wade – Page 75

poison

On May 23, 2011

The weekend before last, I decided to do a little yardwork. I don’t do much since I rent and the landlord does the mowing – but a storm had knocked down some trees and branches into the yard. And instead of cleaning them up, they just mowed around them.

So, armed with a really wicked tree pruner, I went after those branches and tore through them. And of course, I got more than I bargained for.

Poison oak – or sumac. Doesn’t matter what it was except that I got a bad case on both arms. It didn’t really hit me at first, but this past weekend it went into overdrive. The itch was maddening. And, try as I might, I couldn’t stop scratching. I’d do okay for a bit, then the madness would strike and I’d tear into my arms like I had a flesh-eating scarab beetle burrowing into my… well… flesh. And to make matters worse, I’ve actually made some progress on breaking my lifelong habit of biting my nails. So, when I dig in – I can really dig in.

On Sunday, I had an appointment to donate blood – a double red donation. Not really sure of the protocol I went anyway and I signed in. It was at a Best Buy and they were giving out gift cards and t-shirts. They handed me a gift card when I signed in and sat down to read the red book. The woman seated next to me was getting an explanation of the double red. The women decided against it – mainly, it appeared, because she would only get one gift card. I could tell that the staff were a little disgusted by that as well. I went back to do the history and did the full disclosure. The staff member took a look at my arms and said the poison was too close to where the needle would go in and they wouldn’t be able to to disinfect it properly.

They thanked me for coming in anyway and offered me a shirt. I declined and returned my gift card as I left.

Kind of a bummer, but at least I tried – and I’ll try again once the poison is gone.

Today, I was bad enough to take off of work and go to a stat care. They gave me a prescription and suggested a few things – and I think genuinely felt bad for me.

So, I’m on drugs and covered in Calimine lotion. I’ll do another shower tonight and slather it on before I go back to work tomorrow.

Oh, and I’ve got a head cold too. Yea.

a good deed

By admin

On April 30, 2011

In Uncategorized

Yesterday, at the pool, I was doing my laps as usual and noticed that the guy in the lane next to me was a novice swimmer. Well, more novice than I am, as far as that goes. He also didn’t have goggles and the pool is usually super-chlorinated.

So, when I finished up my workout, I waited at the end of the lane for him to come back. I told him that I noticed he didn’t have goggles and how rough the chlorine is on the eyes. I handed him my goggles and said he could have them – and that I had a back-up pair at home. He was really surprised and gratefully – and put them on right away. I wished him a good weekend and went back to work.

balance

By admin

On April 27, 2011

In Uncategorized

I saw a set of signs up in the student union today. One said that graduating seniors could pick commencement tickets today. The other directed incoming freshmen to orientation.

Seemed like a circle of life kind of balance thing. Kinda neat.

Which was good, because the rest of the day was shit. As was last evening. As is, apparently, tonight.

So, at least I’ve got the circle of college life thing going.

easter weekend, saving the day, still standing, temp

By admin

On April 27, 2011

In Uncategorized

I went to my sister’s new house for easter weekend – my parents stayed there as well. The new house is huge and on a great piece of property. We had a pretty low-key weekend; I got trounced by my brother-in-law at ping pong and we went for a couple of walks with my niece. She’s babbling up a storm and working on new words all the time. We all enjoyed her exploration outside – the creek, the trees, the trampoline, and the trip down the quiet road in the wagon.

Back to work and a very stressful Monday – but on Tuesday I saved the day several times. It’s getting close to the end of the semester and the pressure is rising. I helped several departments get things done yesterday and got some good feedback.

I’m still experimenting with the standing desk. I think I’m getting used to it, but my feet still get a little tired by the end of the day.

The heating and cooling system here at work is based not on the outside air, but on the time of year. So, we freeze in the fall and cook in the spring. A nice warm day – with the heat on in the building – means that we swelter. Yesterday, it hit 83.1 degrees in the office.

Hope it doesn’t get that bad today, but we’re already at 77.5 degrees and it’s not even 7:00 yet.

dog

By admin

On April 20, 2011

In Uncategorized

I forgot to mention one part of the walk from the other night. I was taking a slight shortcut through a bank parking lot and out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement behind and to the side of me. I turned and saw a dog. Here’s a reconstruction of what went though my head while I was busy being startled:

DOG!-straylostrabies?!-(werewolf?)-rabies!-lostdog-stray-help?-run?-CHASED!

I made a loud noise and shouted at it to leave me alone. It was a pretty good sized dog and it was a full moon – so, I was totally justified in the werewolf thought.

The dog wandered away and successfully made the trip across a busy road to pester some people at the dollar store. I continued on to Starbucks – and kept looking for the moon.

standing and walking – but not talking

By admin

On April 19, 2011

In Uncategorized

Today is day four of my Standing Desk experiment. I’d read about some studies that said that sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day can lead to some health problems, so I bought a cheap set of plastic shelves and configured them to sit on top of the cubicle on my desk. I still need to work on the height a bit, but otherwise I’m getting used to it. My feet are bothering though. I’ve got a foam pad that I’m using, but it’s not enough and either shoes or no shoes, they still are uncomfortable. I’ll give it a few more days and see how it goes – I can pretty easily revert back if needed.

I took myself for a walk last night – I was in the mood for hot chocolate and made a trip to starbucks. Total 2.9 miles. This is on top of the 30 laps I got in the pool at lunch + standing up all day. I slept pretty well last night as a result – once I finally turned off the video games and went to bed.

My phone is being a little…what’s the phrase I’m looking for? Oh, right. Ham Doctor.

The screen won’t go dark at the preset 7 seconds… or any number of seconds, apparently. So, the battery drains like it’s trying to get a signal from Pluto. Which is, in fact, still a planet. A dwarf planet, but that’s still real – right? I mean, it’s not like the movie is suddenly called, “Snow White and the Seven _______”?

Anyway, it sucks. I charged it up last night and this afternoon I’m already down to one battery bar – which doesn’t mean anything, apparently. I’ve seen it sit on one bar for days (though not recently) and other times I’ll go from full bars to a plaintive beeping as it approaches shutdown in minutes.

You know, I’m pretty much indifferent to smart phones. People that have them seem to enjoy them. I’m on a computer 8+ hours a day so I kinda like to unplug. But I don’t begrudge them.

I don’t have a smart phone. I have an ordinary phone. Which apparently translates to “non-functional”.

The really crappy part is that I can’t even enjoy hating them since I’m stuck in another 2 year contact. Ugh.

I’m going to try a factory reset and a cell tower reset when I get home and see if that fixes the “no bars of any kind” issues I’m having. If not, I’m going back to the Verizon store. I don’t care how shiny the phone is, I’m really getting tired of paying too much money a month for a phone that doesn’t work.

karma

By admin

On April 15, 2011

In Uncategorized

I headed back to the School of Law this afternoon for a beverage and thought I’d treat myself since it was a nice day and I’d had a tough week. This time, my target was the vanilla frappuccino. I swiped my card, pushed the button and the machine politely registered my transaction and thanked me – giving me my revised balance.

And nothing else. No gears turned, no whirring noises could be heard. No beverage was even attempted to be dispensed. Nothing – except my card now has $2.50 less on it than before.

I switched machines and got an iced tea instead.

Apparently, the machine remembered me from last time and was still ticked off from the discounted-by-force frappuccino I got before.

I have learned my lesson.

accidental frappuccino

By admin

On April 12, 2011

In Uncategorized

I headed over to the nearby school of law today for a beverage – since the computer center vending machines don’t have the selection or the convenience of using our campus ID for payment. My co-worker went with me since he wanted to get out of the office for a few minutes as well.

I swiped my card and punched in the code for a cranberry juice. The machine did its thing, but when the bottle dropped, it neatly wedged itself between the plexiglass front, a side panel, and the corner. I gave the machine an experimental shove and quickly concluded that I was out of luck. I swore quietly and my co-worker came over to give it a try. He used what was right on the edge of excessive force, and then went ahead and crossed the line to excessive. To the point that I thought he might break the machine – not a good thing in a building full of lawyers.

After a few moments, something odd happened. The cranberry juice bottle refused to budge – of course – but another bottle fell instead. In the far upper left corner of the machine are the really pricey drinks and apparently they are vulnerable to machine shaking. Down tumbled a cold bottle of Starbucks Coffee Vanilla Frappuccino – which I’ve never tried.

We quickly headed back to the office – leaving behind the stranded bottle of juice in favor of the iced coffee drink.

It was good. It tasted of anarchy. 🙂

the law

By admin

On April 11, 2011

In Uncategorized

Early on Saturday morning – before I headed out for my epic swim – I heard sirens outside. I looked out to see 3 police cars come down one of the roads near the apartment and make a sharp turn onto our road. A bit later, my room-mate heard something that could have been shots fired, but it was difficult to tell.

A bit after that, my room-mate looked out the back windows and saw a police care in our backyard. There was a black Cadillac parked/abandoned back there as well and we watched a police officer inspected the car. Not long after that, a tow-truck came, but they ended up driving the car out of the yard since the ground was too wet for the truck. In short order, everything was back to the way it was.

Later that day, we found out (from our neighbor whose brother is on the local police force) that the car had been stolen in a nearby township, driven it and been pursued by police until he got to our backyard, then fled on foot. He was captured a few blocks away.

This was all fascinating at the time, but now it’s just disconcerting. I guess the trees in the back and along the road made me forget that I’m really still in the city. We’re always very careful about locked doors and such, but it’s still worrisome.

5 miles

By admin

On April 10, 2011

In Uncategorized

I hit the pool this morning and did 30 laps. I was feeling pretty good and worked my way up to 60. Figured that I could do better than that, I set my sights on 120. I was getting tired, but kept going. 150 came and went and by this point I was really tired, but I did some math and realized that another 30 would finish me at 180 – 5 miles.

I got through it, but I was really tired. I mean really tired. It was all I could do to pull myself out of the pool. I was feeling better when I got dressed and better still when I got home and ate. I think I’ll sleep pretty well tonight.

5 miles. Didn’t think I had it in me – and not bad for a 38 year old.