And Keeps on Ticking

Well, I finally figured out that the reason I'm in task overdrive mode, and probably the reason I gained two pounds that I can't shake, is the prednisone I'm taking for my non-hearing business. I have a list of things to do here beside me that I keep crossing off and adding to, and I went on one little errand this morning that blossomed into me power-walking through the mall, stopping here and there. It's enough, already. I wish I could just stop. I don't feel like, as my sister asked, I'm jumping out of my skin. Just like I keep finding more and more to do. When I was on the phone with her before, I was also walking around the room dusting. I know! So know you know the gravity of the situation.

I won't list for you all the things I did today because frankly, if I read it over next week, it'll probably scare me. (Just kidding.) Let's see where things are, then.

It's Saturday, so it's not a countdown day. I managed to stay in bed until 7.00 this morning, and I am so looking forward to when I can set my own sleep and wake-up times and move at a comfortable pace in the morning. That would be ... June 22, I guess. I do have those two workshop days the following week, but they probably won't start until 9.00, which is the shank of the day for me.

I've been putting the new hearing aids through their paces, as best I can, at least until the hearing problem cropped up again a few hours ago (but seems better now.) So far, they seem very good, but I'm reserving final judgment for at least a week. But one of the things on my list was to check them out with headphones on, and I know some of the music I've had trouble with (hearing both channels of the stereo), so that's what I put on, and oh .... it was just lovely. Walking around the house with the Beach Boys in my head ... I was so happy, just like that. I don't dance, you know, not like any kind of actual dance and not in public or anything, but when I'm alone and the music is loud enough and comes through clear, it's just joy, and I move like a goon and that's okay. Sometimes, hearing can be fun.

So here's a thought: I can't move my dland archives to blogspot, but maybe I can open another account at wordpress and move them there? To protect them? It's not like I think I wrote gold or anything, and I do have a backup, but I like to reference old entries sometimes, and I could just like there from here. Just thinking.

Toes with the Sibs tomorrow, and then the Great TV Migration, Phase Two, takes place. You may recall that R and I swapped TV's, but mine was too big for her place so I got her a new one and now I have to bring the other one back. Tomorrow, she and I will hustle that one down from the third floor and into my car, and then it sits on my living room floor. However. K got a game system today -- it's a Super Nintendo, don't laugh; long story -- that does not appear to work with the TV in her room upstairs. So perhaps we will be carrying the big black monster TV up there after all, but I'll have the sense to test the game thing on it before we take that trip. Either way, we'll have a spare TV in the house somewhere, big or small, depending on who wants what where. I'm just hoping I don't have a monster TV on my living room floor all summer. (Oh wait, I'll just take more prednisone and then I can move it anywhere I want. In the middle of the night. When I'm not sleeping, and have extra energy.)

NEWS FLASH FROM THE WEIRD PEOPLE ARE STILL WEIRD DEPARTMENT:

I just stopped typing for a few minutes when the MIL called and we chatted. The ILs, whom I love and am fond of, are still at the top of the "I just don't get it" list. So we're chatting, as we do, and I tell her nonsense about R has been decorating her place and K has been subbing and so on, and then she says, matter-of-factly, "Oh, we had a bit of excitement the other day" and proceeds to tell me that on Wednesday, she and the FIL were doing an errand, and he tripped in the parking lot and fell on his face. But he's okay.

WTF? And may I repeat: WHAT THE FUCK?

Lately, I am surrounded by stories of people I don't get, but this is my new favorite. Let's see. 79 year old, 350 pound man who walks with a cane and severe limp, falls in a parking lot, and neither he nor the missus thinks "Hey! Maybe we oughta call our son and tell him what happened!" Nooooo. Now she said that fortunately, three men rushed out of the store and helped him up, and that he was okay although his face was bruised, but they didn't go to the emergency room because he felt fine. (Let me just say that if no help had arrived, she would have had to call 911 just to pick him up, and then he would have gone to the hospital.) Well. For one, he wouldn't even know if his hip were broken, and his right hip ain't breaking anytime soon because it's titanium. For another, I can't see him breaking a rib because no pavement is finding his ribs under all that (although he could have hit a parking space barrier wrong, I guess.) For three, when people fall, especially elderly people, it's the internal damage you have to worry about. For the record, my mother died of cancer, but what she died of that day was that she fell the night before and she bled to death internally from injuries that weren't found until she finally agreed to go the emergency room the next morning. Oh, and she broke her elbow, but we didn't know that either. Anyway, here's the plan: if an elderly person falls, take him to the hospital.

Okay, I can pay bills or I can investigate my archive options. Just kidding, you know I'm heading right over to wordpress the minute I post. (And send out my notify! Thanks, one subscriber!)

watching Raymond :: entry #1490

NINE! (and The Music Game)

And what a strange nine this has been.

First, I wrote yesterday about the peculiar phone conversation I had with Kathleen from Judy's office. So I made my way across town to the Central Office this morning for the meeting. Oy. Basically, there are lots of decisions to be made and information to be exchanged before the new library software can be installed. This all was due yesterday, which Judy found out when the email packet with everything in it arrived yesterday. Now there's another meeting this afternoon with just the three librarians, and another meeting Monday morning with the three librarians, Judy, Mike the tech guy, and a representative from the company. Oh, and did I mention the the company rep that we've been dealing with for the last six years and who sold us this package and walked us through every detail has been re-assigned to a new territory? Uh huh.

I stopped at DD on the way back to the high school, where the full working staff of Epsilon Semi Morons lived up to their Brave New World class designation. And let me say again, Oy. Once back, I started printing out screen dumps like mad of all the settings we have in the current software, since that seems to be what I need for this afternoon's meeting. In ten minutes, it's time for my lunch, and then I'm leaving lunch a few minutes early to head over to the middle school.

Now this is nice. One of the middle school librarians offered to host the afternoon meeting, so that's at the school that's down the street from my house. And it is a bee-yoo-ti-ful day. So I'll park at the Mouse House and stroll on over, and stroll back when I'm done.

I hope K is at my lunch today (instead of having first lunch) so I can tell her why my car will be parked at home but I won't be there. She's subbing for a gym teacher today. Yes, we are all amused.

I am a little on the wired side today, not sure why. Oh, speaking of wires! Day 3 on the pred (so I cut down to 2 pills this morning) and my good ear is back to whatever normal is for that ear, and I have the hearing aids on. So far, it's an adjustment period for me getting used to them again after 10 days naked, so to speak, but I think they're okay. The sound has not mysteriously changed on its own yet . I can't really tell if the programming is in place, though. I do think that I will have to go to the movies on Sunday, though, since my last movie/hearing experience was so awful, and I really need to test it out again before I declare them Officially Working.

Okay, on to lunch. More later.

Later. Home.

Gave K my message at lunch, and now R's car is ready at the shop, so she'll be taking the train here and then she can drive home. Most likely dinner at mom's expense is in there somewhere, too. The afternoon meeting was pleasant and productive, but my most amusing moment came when I walked home after school and stopped and chatted with the crossing guard to whom I have only waved from the car for years. I'm just never on foot when he's there, but I always toss him a friendly, thankful wave for signalling my car to pass on by.

Okay, so now, The Music Game.

from thirdeye inspirations.

1 The best musician ever is? Oh, I don't know if I could pick one. I probably don't know enough about music to answer the question, and I know that's over-thinking it.

2 The best female voice ever? Maybe Ella Fitzgerald? Or Julie Andrews?

3 Do you listen to mainstream music? I listen mostly to what music was mainstream when I was a kid.

4 List your top 10 favourite bands/singers. The Beatles, The Moody Blues, Simon and Garfunkel come to mind. I don't know how long it would take me to come up with 10.

5 Five years ago how many of the bands/singers did you know stated above? All of them. I do know some contemporary bands/singers, but I'm mostly mired in the past.

6 Have you ever been in a mosh-pit? Heavens, no.

7 Ever been to a concert? I've been to many, although not as many as a lot of people from my generation. I once set my kids up my telling them to ask my cousin Richie if he's ever been to a Grateful Dead concert. He'd been to hundreds of them.

8 A CD you have that you're ashamed of? If I have it, I'm not really ashamed of it, but I have some regrets about Beatles for Babies. It's a little creepy.

9 Do you have an IPOD? I do. A 30 gig video iPod and a older model shuffle, less than 1 gig, I think.

10 Name a band/musician you hate. Interesting, I was just thinking about this the other day. I am utterly repulsed by The Rolling Stones, and always have been, but I actually like their music. I'm repulsed by them personally.

11 The best guitarist ever? I think it's generally accepted in the world at large that it's Andres Segovia, but my FIL would claim Les Paul. My ear is not discriminating enough to judge.

12 The best drummer ever? Drummers, however, I get. Gene Krupa.

13 What music did you listen to in school/growing up? Motown, California (Beach Boys), and the British Invasion, big time. Later on, the whole Woodstock music thing.

14 Do you wanna be in a band? I wish I could play the drums. Drums are so cool.

15 Do you play an instrument? I can pick out a tune or two on a piano from my lessons 45 years ago, but no, I can't play an instrument. I have no sense of rythym or pitch.

watching Friends :: entry #1489

Apple Review

The new apple of the day today was a Gala, and it was excellent. And of course it was COLD! How -- why -- would anyone eat an apple at room temperature? Apples must be cold and crisp! That's what makes them apples, eh? Okay, okay, and I'm trying a Fuji tomorrow. I don't know if I've ever seen a Honeycrisp around here; I'll have to look in the fancier supermarket over the weekend. Maybe.

K passed her exam with a very respectable 88 -- a B+ -- which should give her a solid B for the course. And now she never has to know anything about economics ever, ever again, much like her mother.

I'm very itchy tonight; I took a benadryl about a half hour ago. Oh, my hearing is better today, too, so the magic prednisone is doing its job. I'm sure that the hearing thing is just another one of this year's allergy reactions, as the hives are; wherever I go these days, pollen is flying through the air, settling on the car, settled on my shirt before, even, when I was out.

I finally took the Sibs out for her birthday dinner, to the Cheesecake Factory, so as you can guess, I ate a very healthy dinner of grilled shrimp with no butter, steamed broccoli, and then a piece of key lime pie cheesecake. I can't even figure out how to put that into my WW food log, unless I write "... and then I ate a million points." But hey, that was hours ago, and I'm not hungry yet; haven't eaten a bite since I got home. Maybe I should eat a piece of cheesecake every night.

Then we went to the Land's End store at Sears, and I got a few little things, so now I'm going to try on the lightweight sneakery-shoes I got and see if they'll be good for Walking Away Pounds right here in the comfort of my own home. As soon as I stop scratching.

watching Friends :: entry #1481

To Quote Lew Grant ...

I cherish you people.

and ... life.

Okay. Today was the first day in nearly two weeks that I did not feel sick. Prednisone is magic stuff, man. And taking it for only three days means no nasty side effects, which is also good. I felt like a human being today, just with a stuffy nose, which is hardly cause for alarm. So basically, okay.

I had a very nice day at work, actually. I spent first period going over budget-y things with the Colleague and then hanging out in the hallway with a friend on hall duty, hearing about a nasty confrontation he had with another teacher the other day. So, boo to the bad guy. Then second period I had coffee with The Other Chai, then third period I had to see the Colleague again for a short budget conversation and then hung out with yet another pal on hall duty, talking about our kids. So really, I had a very nice morning.

I was also surreptitiously emptying cartons of copy/printer paper and putting the empty cartons in my car for R to move with. (I didn't take any paper, I just kindly unloaded it for people before anyone could open a box by tearing it open, rendering it useless to me.) So now my car is crammed with boxes, and I thought I'd email R and ask if she wanted me to meet her when she got home from work so I could unload them. And then she called me about 15 minutes ago and asked if she could take the train here to B-Town, stop in at her sister's store (her last day is tomorrow) and then would I take her home? Yes! Fits my plan perfectly. So this is how my day is going.

What a difference a day makes. Wait, let me write a song.

Meanwhile, the Hubs is on his annual business trip to A.C. (that's Atlantic City for you non-Jersey types, which I know is all of you), so he won't be back until tomorrow morning. He has to go to Minneapolis again in a few weeks, too.

I also dropped in on the Sibs before, and exchanged a few things we had for each other, so, nice to see her today, too. As of today, her husband is retired. Yesterday was his last day of class. No more commute from hell for him, so I'm very glad for both of them.

Okay, I'm going to shift some boxes around to make room for more and then meet the kid at the train.


watching Friends :: entry #1452

Don't Read the Last Entry

(copied from dland)

I mean, you could, if you want to, but the thing is that I am feeling much, much better. I am calm, I have had macaroni and cheese for dinner, I have read several pages of Harry, I have picked up my prescription.

Harry Katz, Sinus Man, called about 5.10, not long after I'd posted. He offered to see me tomorrow morning (but I don't want to stay out of work again) and called in a prescription for prednisone for me to take until I can see him next week.

So, better.


watching Reba :: entry #1451

So I Had a Bad Day

(copied from dland)

I woke up this morning and could not hear at all, which means most likely an inner ear infection. That one cannot be ignored, and requires prednisone. So I called in sick (so to speak, we now log in absences via computer) and have been trying to get an appointment with the doctor. I'm having trouble with their phone people/voice mail. Last time, I called at 9 and left a message, and heard back from them in ten minutes and got a 9.45 appointment. Today, I can't connect with the right people. It's 9.30. I'll try again in five minutes, and report my progress here as things go on.

I could not read Timequake. Allegedly a novel, it has no story that I could detect, just ramblings about what Vonnegut would have written if he had decided to write this book. Okay, that's not so unusual for him, but he usually keeps that stuff in the preface. This was the whole book, so I gave up around chapter 7. If I can't find that queens book downstairs, I'm going to re-read The Order of the Phoenix and the The Half-Blood Prince.

12.15

I never did get a call back from the regular doctor's office -- not a good sign -- but I'm going to see the ear-nose-throat guy at 1.45. I'm just going to see my regular sinus guy who will hopefully give me prednisone for a week so that I can continue to hear. Although my hearing is a bit better now. But my head was ringing like a bell for hours last night, and again this morning when I woke up and couldn't hear.

I still feel pretty crappy in general, but I'm going to try to get some things done as long as I'm out, like get to the bank and drop something off at my sister's house (she's not home, just leaving it in her mailbox.) I have to pick up a few groceries and when I get home, attempt yet again to pay K's summer tuition. They are really not making it easy.

Later.

4.20

Have you seen a doctor, or spoken to a doctor? Because I haven't.

Long story short, I got to my 1.45 appointment at 1.30, and at 3.00, somehow found myself still sitting in the waiting room and crying. Why? No clue, except that the burning feeling in my face for the last few days (due to the congestion, I assume) feels the way you do before you're about to cry, so I guess the dam just burst. I did not want to sit there on display, crying, so I got up and left. By the time I got home, there was a message wondering where I was, and apologizing for the delay, etc. We played a little phone tag, but allegedly, the doctor is going to call me any minute here. Yeah, I'm holding my breath.

There was also a message from the regular doctor's office that hadn't called back this morning, so I called them and left a rather detailed account of my symptoms on their voice mail -- they asked for it -- and a lot of snuffles and sobs. Because I am still crying, off and on. I don't want to say for no reason. The reason came to me on the drive home. Here ya go.

You know, I make a whole lot of jokes about being a hypochondriac and/or having all these varied ailments, but the reality of it just kind of hit me, right there in the doctor's office, I guess. I have finally accepted that I am not a hypochondriac. The only truth left is that there is a lot of shit wrong with me. If I were a car, I'd be a lemon.

The first wave of this, in the doctor's office, was that now I can't go to this doctor anymore, and that made me very, very sad, because I've been going to him for a long time and he pretty much keeps me breathing. But I'm better on that score now, because it was his office that made the call to apologize to me, so I don't have feel that since I walked out, they're mad at me or won't want me back. That part of it is resolved, anyway.

But I think the rest of it has kicked off a depression, which, you know, you usually don't realize in the first hour, but I was in the car and I was driving, and I had that one thought that has always been there when I'm depressed: Wouldn't it be easier if I just drove into a brick wall and it was all over? I could avoid all the drama.

Now, I am not suicidal, not at all, but that one image has been in my mind for 30 years whenever I'm actually depressed. So it's like a benchmark, and now I know I'm depressed. Timing sure sucks, with R's play next week and a million plans going along with it. But I'll be okay. If I could do something for the health concerns of the moment, I could pull out of it, and I guess I will.

As for the full depth of the thoughts of depression, you don't want to know. Maybe I can share them more objectively tomorrow, and maybe if I do, it'll bum you out, too.

I'm going to blow my nose now, and then go to the bathroom, and then sit here with my thumb up my ass waiting for two different doctors' offices to call. Sounds like a good time for Harry Potter.


watching Ellen :: entry #1450