Tag: health

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Peptolk

I felt pretty sick to my stomach all night, and it didn’t get a whole lot better this morning. I actually slept about half an hour late since I planned to power through my morning routine after showering so late in the evening. I foolishly thought I was ahead and could stop by Starbucks on the way out of town, but I was actually the latest I’ve ever been. Maggie and Jay were the only ones in the office though, as the old men were outside smoking.

Maggie ended up leaving early to take her kid to the dentist, so I was actually in the office by myself for nearly the entire day. I grabbed some McDonald’s for lunch to try their Chicken Big Mac. It was fine, but it really just made me want a regular Big Mac more.

The afternoon was dull until I finally left a little bit early. I stopped in Blackwell for some beer and then made it home. I took the dogs out for a longer run than usual, stopping to visit with Dad, then out to sniff around the pond. We went past the basin and then turned back around to go through it again on the way home. We passed another girl, her baby, and two large off-leash dogs that came by for a sniff. They made my dogs pretty jumpy, but they weren’t bad.

We made it home and they did super well, so they each got their own hot dog after dinner. Then I had a couple burritos before settling in. I cleaned up a little, got a couple more security cameras up, and then did some shopping before bed.

The worst kind of liquidity.

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No, but Yes

I was a little on edge this morning as I waited for a call from Moodle. I woke up early and Summer was around for a little while before work, and then I made some coffee and cleaned up a little bit while I waited. I eventually got a text, and about ten minutes later a call in the early afternoon, and she apologized for the missed communication. They filled the position, but would have a different one open at the start of next year if I would be available. This worked out pretty beautifully, since Randy would later confirm my employment in North Little Rock.

I took a breather as the afternoon flew by, and then Summer came to get me so we could go look at a house across town. That ended up being a pretty neat experience. The house was small, but super cute, and seemed to be well maintained. As we ended our visit, Alisha spotted the owner in the driveway next door, so she walked over to ask a question we had about the property line. Another guy drove up to look at the house unannounced, so the homeowner went to talk with him, and then came over to talk to us. She ended up taking us back inside to tell us the rich story about her life and the home.

Her father built the house for her mother in 1961 or ’62, and she knew the history of all the surrounding farmland before it was developed. She had all kinds of improvements made and maintenance done, and the house really did appear loved. I was a little concerned about the number of cameras outside, but it made sense for her situation. The lot seemed to be fairly sized, which was difficult to discern from the maps I found online. Summer was nervous about taking on additional debt, but we’ve been doing so well, and I may have an opportunity for immediate income.

We finally left and stopped by the old house before going home. She thought she had a Tech event for work, but ended up back home because she had the dates wrong or something. I took the dogs out for a run, but then wiped out going pretty fast just a few houses down the road. I don’t know how I didn’t take more damage, because I tumbled over backwards and lost my phone out of my pocket. I must have rolled just right to take the inertia out of the fall. I took the dogs back home since Summer was still in the driveway, and then the neighbor rode over on her little recumbent trike. I shook off a bit while we talked, and ended up continuing my ride with the dogs to my parents’ house.

I visited with them for a little while and then ended up just going straight back home. The dogs had been pulling kind of hard all night, and I was still feeling shaky on my board. I got them fed, and then I came inside to watch the recorded Linkin Park streaming event. I’ve never had a more emotional connection with a band, and I don’t entirely know why. Maybe it’s nostalgia, or maybe it’s power in the vocals, but I was weepy the entire show, even with their new singer that made me feel a little iffy about them.

I got hungry late and ate some leftover pizza and fried mushrooms. Eaddie got home from her away game and went to her room to study and sleep. I thought I’d get to bed early, but I missed. I won’t be able to keep that up if I’m going to make it to Little Rock by seven o’clock in the morning for five days a week.

Get some cheddar for now, and worry about the rest later.

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Bye Week

I could feel something in the back of my throat Wednesday evening, and by Thursday I had a 103º fever that Tylenol would only coax down to about 101º. I ran the full gamut of chills, heat flashes, body aches, and eventually sinus and chest crud. Dad brought me a COVID at-home test that was advertised as having a propensity for false-negatives, so it wasn’t COVID. Maybe.

I remember getting out on Friday with Summer to take Kevin his birthday present to the airport, but we didn’t stick around for pulled pork. I stopped by the old house to check on the fish, and in hindsight I should have left the automatic feeder on. We made it back home, and the next thing I remember doing is getting out late to pick up some burgers from Sonic. The pickle fries were awful.

The fever never let up, but between waves of medication I felt well enough to watch The Secret of NIMH on Saturday, and then out of nowhere, the fever was gone on Sunday morning. Recovery was nearly as rough, with more crud in my chest than anything else. I felt gross and sweaty all day, but I had a shower and brushed my teeth.

Summer had mowed in the morning, so she left it to Eaddie when it came time to walk the dogs. She didn’t mind, but said she couldn’t walk both alone, so I went with her. It was immediately obvious that they hadn’t been properly walked in my two week absence, as the line was taught nearly the entire time. We made it about halfway to my parents’ house, which was already a longer route than Eaddie wanted to take, when she had to stop to scoop some poop, so she insisted that it was my job to walk the dogs alone the rest of the way. She might have reconsidered if I had pressed, but I had more fight in me for the dogs than for her.

We gave them a drink at my parents’ house, and then headed back home. It was a hot struggle, and I was completely drenched in sweat, so I took a cold shower and finished up my laundry. The dogs were fussy outside, and tore into the bags of potting mix on the porch. I went back out to discipline and clean that up, and left the hole they had dug under the north fence for another day.

If you do nothing, bite your tongue when I do.

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Walk the Dog

I got out early this morning and rode through the neighborhood again just to see if I could find any sign of the dogs. No luck, so I showered and headed in to work. A $3 steak bagel is a pretty hearty breakfast, and I enjoyed my coffee when I got there. I spent the morning trying to make sense of some more of the Ubiquiti stuff, and finally had a bit of a breakthrough in the afternoon. Now I just need to learn Linux.

Summer went by the animal shelter around lunch time to look for the dogs, and assumed people would be back afterward. It wasn’t until she spotted a volunteer coming by that she learned they were actually closed for Juneteenth. Luckily they did recognize our dogs, and said they were picked up at Sequoyah Park, soliciting pets from children.

Summer loaded them up into her car and just took them to the wash with her since she didn’t have time to run home. I went home after work to change, and then took the leash so I could bring them home. I had treats, but Muad’dib was still super averse to the collar. Stilgar took to it alright, and I walked him around the property a bit. I went back in and tried to take Muad’dib out again, and he just cowered down on the ground every chance he got. There was one brief moment that I thought he’d do alright, and he seemed to do better when Summer was nearby, but I nearly had to pick him up and carry him. It wasn’t until we got to the car that he jumped right in.

I went ahead and took him to the house and covered up the holes under the fence. He ran under the deck and refused to look at me, so I went back for Stilgar. He didn’t seem to mind the leash at all, so when we got back to the house, I took him for a walk around the block. He did super well, but I guess now I need to get poop bags for that. I met some folks just around the corner that chatted with me for a bit, and said they had seen the dogs wandering the neighborhood before. When we got back near the house, Muad’dib started howling and crying from the fence in a way I had never heard him act before. When we got inside, he acted like he had hurt himself somehow, and he had a couple bumps above his right ear. It took him a while, but he warmed back up to me over the course of the evening.

Eaddie got home as I was cleaning the dog dust out of the car, and we went to pet the dogs for a bit longer. Then I came in to eat a sloppy joe before bed.

It’s not just a yo-yo trick any more!

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Pint of Alements

I woke up feeling pretty rough, with a worse throat and somehow a dry tongue. Summer wasn’t feeling well either, but we were both hungry, so I got up and made some eggs with bagels for breakfast. Afterward, Summer said the bedroom fan was being super noisy, so I looked again and saw that it had walked across the ceiling a bit. I climbed up onto the bed and found that one of the two mounting screws had come out. There were two holes that were both completely stripped out.

Around that time, Dad wanted to borrow my pick set to extract a gasket. He rode a bicycle over and got them, and then I rode the Onewheel over to their house to find a larger screw from his jars of screws. That made quick work of the fan, but the other side didn’t look to be in great shape either. It’ll probably be a good idea to replace that screw too.

Summer had been thinking about going to Conway for the day since she had to get some work stuff from there before Monday. By the time I had a shower and was ready to do anything, she had become aimless, which frustrated me. I ended up taking her to the old house to pick up some more stuff in the Pathfinder. We took three trips, but never at capacity. We had room on the porch for the outdoor chairs though, and also picked up a couple UPS batteries. On our last trip, I replaced the thermostat so I could ship the old one back in exchange for the replacement I got.

We were hungry for an early dinner by then, so we went to Stoby’s for one of the worst meals we’d ever had there. My burger was dry to the point that it was burnt, and so incredibly salty and dry that it was just hard to choke down. Summer’s pasta was watered down and lacked its usual creaminess. I kind of wanted some possum pie, but I was afraid to try it after that meal.

We were both feeling pretty rough by the time we got home. I still had a massive headache, which I figured was likely from blood pressure. I took some medicine for that, started some laundry, and came out to watch a movie. Unfortunately X-Men: Days of Future Past was no longer on Disney+, so I ended up playing The King’s Man since I loved the first two in the series and had never seen this one. I didn’t think it was nearly as good as the other two, but it had some really good moments.

I guess I’ll try to get up and be the motivator tomorrow.

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Test Daze

I was supposed to go to work about 20 minutes early today, but I didn’t make it. I woke up pretty sore, but not too tired. It had stormed all night, and I couldn’t find my wallet when it was time to leave. That put me in a panic, thinking that it might have somehow fallen out when I crashed yesterday, but I didn’t see it in the road when I circled by. The weather got rough and I ran into some hail and fog, which brought traffic down to about 25mph on the highway. By then, I was glad to be stuck behind a truck, and I just surrendered to traffic the rest of the way.

I still got there about 10 minutes early, and it wasn’t needed anyway. I handed out a couple Chromebooks, but that was all. It was pretty quiet apart from that, which was good because I was hurting quite a bit and couldn’t really focus on anything important. That, plus a dash of burnout led to a very unproductive day.

I left just a couple minutes early and made it to the old house to feed the fish. No wallet. Then I remembered that I had taken it to my office when I called TCW to set up new internet yesterday. I made it home where Summer was baking a lasagna, and I found my wallet. I started to get a headache that had me a little worried, but I was pretty sure it was from the neck muscle pain that had been increasing all day. We ate and then I laid down for a while when Eaddie unsympathetically kept playing loud concert recordings.

I ended the night by resetting my Pixel Watch 2 because of battery issues, and then did my best not to get distracted crunching numbers for a new car. I’m tickled by the new Model 3 Performance, but still curious if something better will come along soon. On the other hand, the $7,500 tax credit won’t be around forever.

But what if we paid off the house in under six years?

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Wheel of Destress

They were testing this morning, but I was still early enough to grab breakfast on the way. It was a bit warmer, so I didn’t freeze to death on the ride in. It didn’t take them long at all to pass out an entire cart full of Chromebooks, because they hadn’t held kids accountable for bringing their own devices. Otherwise, it was pretty quiet for most of the day. Kim brought lunch, so I didn’t even look up when it was time to eat. I just skipped lunch and kept poking around in inventory, mostly hoping that I would have a good return at the end of the year. I did take a break for a minute in the afternoon when I got a text that the new Model 3 Performance was available to order, but I wasn’t impressed enough to jump on the first wave of ordering. I may wait on a few more reviews first.

The ride home was mostly unencumbered, and I came straight to the house where Summer was working on the couch and Eaddie was out again. Summer wanted chicken, so I ended up going to KFC to pick up the only fast food that comes in buckets. There were a lot of people in the back, but only one girl up front, who spent most of her time running to the back. Nobody looked to be in charge, or even in understanding. Michael was there eating with family after another parent night at the high school. Eaddie’s flute tutor, Kim, came in behind me and waited to place an order. Our food finally came out about 10 minutes late, wrong at first, and still wrong in the end with none of our requested sauces.

I got to the house where Summer and I discovered that nearly all of the food was old and dry, which made less sense of how much waiting I had to do. Then I went out on the Onewheel for about eight miles. I stopped to see my parents briefly, but then kept rolling around to decompress. I’d like to think I made some kid’s whole lifetime so far by giving him a high-five as I rolled by.

Once home for the evening, we wound down pretty quickly. I finally though to check my blood pressure, which was super high. I took some medicine for it, had a drink, and loosened up the best I could before bed.

Arch Ford in the morning makes for a short day. Maybe that will help.

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Just Take a Lunch Break

Eaddie got up this morning to go hiking with some friends. Summer and I got around a little slower than that, and made our way to her bank to figure out if there was any damage done by the scammer. We ended up leaving her account in a limited state, and we’ll just have to watch it for a week or so. Afterwards she started complaining of hunger, but she also didn’t split the leftover pizza with me like I offered back at home, so I took her to Walmart instead.

I returned the garbage disposal cover we bought because it was too large, and then I kind of dawdled across the entire store with her to see if I could work up an appetite. We left with just a couple things and went to the old house to load up anything we could fit into her car.

Just after I fed the fish and started to get things moving, Dad called with a weak voice and wanted me to come help after he had apparently passed out from doing some yard work. I told him to call 911, and we raced across town as quickly as we could through traffic. We beat the ambulance by a mile, and by then he was laying in the living room floor with his feet propped up on the couch.

Summer went out back to put out the fire Dad had been tending, and the paramedics leisurely arrived without any observable urgency. There were three of them, and Summer recognized one of them as a former student. Dad stubbornly crawled toward the stretcher they had in the doorway, and they carted him off as Terry walked over from next door.

We had enough time to run home for a garage door opener and still got to the hospital before they had him in the system. Julie showed up shortly after we did, and then Mom arrived shortly after that. Once they had him in the system, Mom and Julie went back to see him. Then Julie came out and traded spots with me for a moment. Tesla called while I was back there, and didn’t seem to understand my inability to formally request leave to return my car, but tentatively set up an appointment to return Tres on the Tuesday after break. Then Summer and I left to get Eaddie and go out for dinner.

We went up to La Huerta, and Summer and I split some fajitas after some confusion. I don’t know if they just stopped doing the Especial La Huerta for two, but we seem to have that problem every time we order that now. I guess we should review the menu. Otherwise the food was okay, and then I took the girls home before taking the Onewheel over to my parents’ house to check on things.

While I was there, Julie called and asked me to pick up some clothes for Dad to wear out of the hospital. Dad was alert enough to let me in remotely, and I rode home to get my car to go to the hospital. Julie left to get some sleep before work, and then Mom left after a little while, and then I took Dad home.

The girls were in bed by the time I made it home, and somehow I lost a couple hours somewhere along the line. I really thought I’d make it to bed before midnight, but it just didn’t happen.

Flush

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Bronchiasoreus Rex

My aches weren’t as bad, but my cough was worse today. My chest hurt, but I was able to ride to the Neighborhood Market for some milk and oranges, and ended up toting two more sacks of groceries home with me. It all started when I tried to make biscuits with sour milk, so I could eat some more of the spoiling gravy. When I got back home, I made three giant biscuits and ate one with a bunch of gravy. It could have been the milk, or it could have been the spoilage, but that didn’t sit with me for very long.

I had a long bath with some Vicks bath crystals in the afternoon, and I was kind of disappointed in their effect. I even ran a short bath so as not to dilute them too much. Ultimately, I think neither they nor the shower puck are worth the price of admission. You’re better off stuffing your mouth full of cough drops before you hop in the shower.

Eaddie brought a friend home to study, and I ended up grilling brats for everyone. We had a pretty good impromptu dinner, and then it was off to bed to try and sleep off my last bit of fever.

R*cough*oar

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Burn Up and Burn Out

I slept in until Eaddie started getting ready for school. Even after that, I laid in bed for a while longer. I felt a little bit better, but still had a fever for most of the day. I got around and warmed up some chicken strips to eat with the leftover gravy. The gravy was starting to turn, and the chicken took longer to warm up than I expected, but eventually I got it all in me.

My cough had worsened a bit, but the aches and chills subsided. I mostly laid around in bed all day, but eventually took a shower with some Vicks and then took the Onewheel to Walgreens to pick up an online order of more chicken strips. I prefer the raw ones, but these have been conveniently on sale.

Eaddie got home just as I was leaving, and when I got back from Walgreens, she asked how long I would be there. Evidently my existence in my home was bothering her as she practiced flute.

Summer ended up having to close the shop for one of her employees, so I took her some Burger King and talked with her for a bit before heading back home. I was still hungry from just being sick the past day, so I stopped and got a fish sandwich from Arby’s. Eaddie had asked to go study with friends, so I laid around the house alone until Summer got home.

I still had a little bit of a fever, so I called in to work again for another day. No sense in bringing that to work with me, and Kim didn’t have any problem texting me with questions she should have been able to answer on her own. At least I should be over this by spring break.

He said what?