Tag: health

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Mac is a Side

Summer and I both woke up with a bunch of crud in our chests, but it wasn’t until I saw macaroni and cheese as the lunch entrée that I made the final decision to stay home from work. Summer took a little bit of convincing to stay home, but it wasn’t long before she fell back asleep. I spent several hours playing Fishdom on my phone, but got up a few times to make more Theraflu and eventually some pot pies for lunch.

We were both coughing and sneezing pretty regularly, and it probably won’t be much better tomorrow, but time will tell. We finished the chili dogs in the afternoon just before Eaddie got home. She came in to shower, and then hit the road again to hang out with Eli.

I thought I’d make it to bed super early, but kept getting distracted. At least now it’ll be a super short week.

Tammy and the T-Rex?

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Head Space

I got up and had a slice of breakfast pizza before anyone else was awake this morning. Summer eventually got up and went to the gym. I felt worse after running around all weekend, with a sore throat, aches, and some chills, so I didn’t feel up to much. I did manage a shower, and did some dishes. Summer wanted to make dinner, and Eaddie had Eli over.

I spent most of the afternoon and evening just trying to keep some space.

Grettigan

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Twowheels

Eaddie left early this morning for all-state weekend, and my school had a “winter break,” so kids were out and teachers were only there for parent-teacher conferences. Traffic was thin enough that I had a nearly uninhibited drive in to work, save for the last mile. Kim showed up late, and then disappeared around lunch time. I just kept working on SCCM and never saw her again.

I was pretty hungry when I left work since the cafeteria was closed, so I stopped by McDonald’s in Dardanelle for a Big Mac, then fed my fish, and picked up some fries afterward before stopping by the wash to see Summer. I finished those on the drive home, and then jumped on the Onewheel to get some float time before sundown.

I took some milk back to my parents’ house, then rode around to Gary’s house to chat with him for a minute. As I was leaving, I accidentally knocked my earbuds out of my pocket, and they both popped out of the charging case. I nearly rode over one of them before I noticed, but it seemed like only the case got scratched.

From there, I rode down to Ridgewood, but didn’t see anyone I knew. I circled the building, and then a kid named Kyron(?) chased me down on his Onewheel GT. We stopped and talked for just a few seconds because he wanted to see my board. Then we split off and I headed home.

My head cold got bad pretty quickly from there. I had body aches and a bit of a fever, so I cleaned up some leftovers, made some Theraflu, and went to bed before Summer even made it home.

Okay.

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Float On

Eaddie left for all-region early this morning. I woke up pretty hungry, so I fried some rice with the veggies from Christmas, and then threw some egg in it. Then I reorganized and moved some stuff around the house and Summer went to the gym. I had a shower and then went out on the Onewheel to get a little bit of time in before the big freeze. I went to my parents’ house first, and then felt comfortable enough with my figure-eights that I decided to go up and around Inglewood on the sidewalk. I saw Joe out canvassing the neighborhood for school board.

All total, I got a little over seven and a half miles in. There were a few places where water was constantly moving across the road, so I kept trying to find new paths to stay dry. I also rode through the new subdivision, and the roads and sidewalks there were all super cheap, sunken in, and generally crappy. Then just as I was getting back home, I was carving pretty deep to try and dry the tire off when I got a really fast wobble that threw me. Luckily I was just in front of the neighbor’s house, so it was a short walk down the driveway. I didn’t injure myself, but I got progressively more sore throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Summer wanted to cook some seafood pasta for dinner for Eaddie and Eli when they got back, so we went to the Neighborhood Market where we ran into my parents again. We picked up what we needed and headed home to see the kids. I had stepped out back to check the murder basement for water, and it had flooded about eight inches up the wall, so Dad came over with some rubber boots to plug in the sump. It worked great, but there wasn’t a port hole for the hose, so I had to keep going back outside to check until it was done.

Everyone ate, and I spent a little more time on the washing machine. I still couldn’t get the pulsator out, so I think I’m just going to have to give up and bolt the thing back down. Not that it matters; that thing’s not going anywhere. I crawled into a heated bed early just to rest from the pain. A lot of it is just soreness in my legs from such a long ride, but it was a lot of fun finally getting a feel for the control of the board. We’ll see how the bruising looks tomorrow.

Alright, already!

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Solidifying

I had quite a bit more energy this morning, but still felt pretty squeamish inside. I was hungry for sure, so I cleaned up some leftover sloppy joes and then soaked in the bath for quite a while. When I was finally ready to get back into some clothes, I headed home for a much-needed shower to scrub down the rest of myself.

After my shower, I felt worse again for a little while, so I had to cool off and rest for a bit. Then I got dressed and went back to River Valley Tinting and Glass to talk to the guys about the two scratches on the trim. They insisted that they wouldn’t have had any tools anywhere near the trim, but there has been absolutely nothing else anywhere on or around the car that could have produced two identical scratches in the corner above the window. After denying any damage, the guy pointed out a bubble that he wanted to fix on the passenger side, and then I pointed out a spot with some dust on the driver side, so they scheduled me to do a complete strip and re-tint on Wednesday.

From there, I went to Leonard’s to pick up some nylon washers to protect Summer’s new license plate. It’s only temporary, but hopefully her custom plate won’t take much longer. As I was walking in, I ran into Tom and chatted with him briefly about the troubles I had with the head dog. He wished me well, and I picked up the washers I needed so I could mount the new plate in the parking lot.

When I headed back home, the light at 4th and Knoxville was broken and would never change from red for the eastbound traffic, so everyone had to take turns running the light while the westbound got a protected turn. Then I waited at home for Summer to finish at the gym so I could meet her at Walmart for dinner materials.

As I was walking toward the store, I ran into Dylan and got a big hug from him. I tried to get the Cliff’s Notes for the past decade, but even that was abridged. His son is apparently playing Smash Brothers competitively for money, and he’s working at Rockline. Summer parked right by us, so I introduced them and we carried on our way.

We ran into Bác Vân and Doug separately while we were wandering the store. They caught up to us at checkout and I helped them use the self-checkout, and then we headed up to Summer’s so she could start cooking. I helped clean fruits and veggies, and Summer cooked pork chops and mashed potatoes with Brussels sprouts.

The girls made it back home after dropping Eaddie’s bike back at my house, and we had a good dinner. Eaddie and Summer were talking about composing music, so I shared a video of Ben Folds composing a song live. Then everyone quickly disappeared to their bedrooms while I cried over the three-hour Linkin Park and Friends live stream from six years ago.

May your love never end, and if you need a friend, there’s a seat here alongside me.

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Fluid Loss

I woke up super early on Saturday so I could get home to shower before taking Eaddie and a couple of her classmates to Conway for National History Day. We barely got everything loaded up into the car because it was so wide, but we managed. I dropped the girls off at the UCA College of Business building and then left to find some breakfast. I ended up at McDonald’s for a cheap breakfast sandwich and coffee, and then started toward Little Rock to see Gary. He had three hours of physical therapy though, which meant I had to kill about half of my morning before I could actually see him.

I ended up going to Walmart, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Target, and Home Depot before Gary finally texted that he was all done. For all the walking around and shopping I had done, I really only picked up a couple packages of nuts for him as a snack, and then a really nice feeling pen flashlight as a cheeky gift. I also found a cover for the Masterbuilt Gravity 800 that was on clearance, so I picked it up figuring that I might just flip it on eBay since I already have a cover for mine.

I made my way across town to the rehab clinic where they moved Gary, and visited with him for a couple hours. He thought he was ready to pass out pretty early, but by the time I got there he said he was feeling alright. It’ll be another couple weeks before he can go into surgery to reconstruct his knee, but they already worked on his elbow. Eventually I was ready for a late lunch, and headed back toward Conway to eat before I had to get the girls.

I decided on Long John Silvers since I could actually get it fresh and eat there. The entire hour I was in the restaurant, I only saw a couple other people show up. The employees always outnumbered me, and none of them looked super excited to be there. The food was super good though, and tasted really fresh. Some guy rolled in on a knee scooter with a bum, or possibly missing leg, and sat at a table next to be in a fully open restaurant. He kept trying to sell me a couple deep well sockets that he said were his only possessions.

Eaddie finally texted me that they were done just as I was leaving the restaurant, which was a relief since she had somehow turned on airplane mode a few hours earlier, and I wasn’t able to see her location. I got the girls home, and by that time had started to feel a little sick to the stomach, but I had no clue what I was about to experience.

I took a bath after not feeling so great, but then once I tried to go to bed, I had trouble sleeping and had to get up about every hour to go to the bathroom again. During one of my earlier visits, I felt an inkling that throwing up might help me feel better, and I probably lost about a gallon of fluids that way. Overnight, I had lost about six pounds.

Summer let me lay around in bed all day, and went to Walmart to get a bunch of Pedialyte and Gatorade. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I felt well enough to make some rice and egg. I finished watching Nope and then fell asleep again for a while. Summer had spent the day resting on the couch, and Eaddie had left for most of the day to watch a band concert and then help her grandmother with some gardening. Joshua texted to prompt me to schedule an interview, so I booked that for Thursday to make sure I’ll be completely over whatever killed my weekend. Summer was in bed by the time Eaddie made it back home, and then everyone was off to sleep again.

Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!

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Hang Low

Summer asked me to stop by Superfast this morning to check out their computer, but they figured out how to hook up a new monitor on their own before I got there. I stopped for a couple breakfast burritos from Taco John’s and met up with her to eat, and then continued on home and got cleaned up so I could jump right into job hunting. I had a few that I had saved from the night before, so today was for submitting applications. In the middle of a bunch of confirmation emails, I actually got one for an interview, so I’ll schedule that for next week.

Summer ended up going to Morrilton, but came back so we could go out for a late lunch or early dinner. We ended up at Wendy’s for a relatively poor experience. They didn’t have the stuff to make the bourbon burger she wanted, and they didn’t add my requested vegetables to my pretzel pub burger. It was also just really dry and unsatisfying.

We made it up to her house and sat around for a while. Autumn eventually showed up after mooching some dinner off of her grandparents. Eventually I had to get Eaddie from her classmate’s house, where they were practicing for their National History Day competition tomorrow. When we got back, I started watching NOPE on a complete whim, but didn’t get very far before we had to go to the depot for the 5k Glow Run.

We arrived at the depot a little early, but didn’t have a whole lot to do. Cindy walked by us and stopped long enough for me to give her a hug. She has always been so friendly, and was always so encouraging about the work I did on the CPPC. I couldn’t help but feel a little like I let her down, but that’s why I have to fight.

Once they started lining up for the race, I had to leave to get away from the loudspeakers. I headed home to swap cars, and then took Summer’s to the carwash before coming back to pick them up. Of course Summer and Eaddie had already finished for a little while, but we had to wait for Autumn to finish well below average.

The girls showered once we got back to the house, and I did my best to get to bed early so I could take a bunch of kids to Conway in the morning.

If you’re going to be rebellious for rebellion’s sake, then I recommend you continue being a complete twat.

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Psych!

I felt super sick to the stomach after I went to bed last night, but I slept pretty horribly. After just a few short hours of sleep, I got up and showered so we could get some breakfast before we had to get across town for Summer’s appointment. The hotel breakfast was about standard for what I’ve become accustomed to considering an upscale continental breakfast, but I’m not sure I’d consider it a “full breakfast” as advertised.

The trip across Little Rock wasn’t too bad, and the written directions were a great help. We made it underground and then back up to the parking garage, and upstairs into the psychiatric wing. We didn’t have to wait very long to get back, and the first part of the appointment was a bit more like therapy than I was expecting. Afterward, he had a bunch of tests for Summer to do that would take a couple more hours, so I had to get lost. I ran to the deli to get her some snacks, and then ended up in the car for a while. I thought Ben might be able to entertain me, but that didn’t pan out. Instead, I just sat in the car while it did a software update.

Eventually I started to feel a little ill being cramped up again, so I went back inside for the rest of the time. My phone was enough to keep me entertained, and eventually they came back out. The whole meet was way less formal than a normal doctor visit, so it was interesting. Hopefully it’ll help motivate Summer to take better care of her mental health.

We headed straight back to Conway, where Summer had to stop and work for a bit. We moved some stuff between cars, and then I headed toward home. Just past Plumerville, I ran into a dead stop in traffic on the interstate. Evidently there was a large semi wreck way ahead, and they just closed a large portion of the interstate between Morrilton and Blackwell. I ended up stopping at the first Morrilton exit once I got there, and had a Happy Meal before taking Highway 64 back to Blackwell.

As soon as I got home, I quickly unpacked and then met Summer at Shell for some gas. Then she went to Popeye’s for dinner while I headed up to the girls. She wasn’t terribly far behind me, and everyone had a little to eat before bed. Eaddie was up trying to get help with science homework, but I was exhausted from multiple nights of very poor sleep, so I made it to bed super early.

Shut It Down

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WHAT’S THE PASSWORD

I was several minutes late to work this morning because the D&R railroad was blocking both major roads I could take. I possibly could have driven around it, but I didn’t expect it to last as long as it did. Shortly after I got to the shop, we all headed to Crawford to deploy new docking stations. Since we actually had to wait for someone to get the docks, I stopped by McDonald’s for a coffee with the hopes that it would help me feel a little better.

Deploying the docks took all morning, and we made it back to the shop for lunch at La Chiquita. After lunch, I wanted to make it over to the high school to try and get the new virtual domain controller joined to the EAST domain. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I spun that VM up that I couldn’t remember the admin password I set. I spent the rest of the day trying to get in, but my mental state just got foggier in a pretty steep decline until we were let out an hour early.

I stopped by the tint shop on my way out, to try and schedule an install before Summer’s next big VIP night. The price I was quoted this time was less than half what I was given before, so I scheduled it for Thursday and continued home to get some paperwork for the DMV. Unfortunately they were closed for the holiday, so I stopped by Superfast to see Summer for a bit before going back home to rest.

I just felt worse and worse all night until I made it up to Summer’s for the evening. I made some ramen that helped me feel a little better for a bit, but then my head cold just got worse again until I made some Theraflu and went to bed.

Who nose?

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She’s a Brainiac, Brainiac on the Floor

I got a request to shuffle a bunch of stuff at Support Services yesterday, so first thing this morning, Gary, Zach, Greg, and I went over to take care of that. It ended up being way easier than I expected, and we knocked it out pretty quickly, even after we lost Zach to go watch his kid do a firefighter challenge at Sequoyah.

Afterward, I went back to my office and started in on my Network+ videos again until lunch time. It was Brody’s last day, so most of us got together and went to Cicis for lunch. While we were there, Aaron and a couple other guys from the bank came in, and he snuck up behind me to say, “hi.”

Summer had gotten a call from the neurologist that they could see her in the afternoon, which was way better than waiting for the middle of December, so she came back to town and picked me up after lunch. We went straight to their office and waited for them to open back up from lunch so we could fill out paperwork before talking to the doctor. The meeting actually went really well, and he put us at ease right away. The abnormality was some possible shrinkage of her frontal lobe that could possibly have been greater than average, but he didn’t feel like that had anything to do with the symptoms that brought her to the doctor in the first place.

Summer did a few cognitive tests with varying results, and he referred us to UAMS, which we’ll probably do at the start of next year after her deductible resets. She still felt a bit off with a headache, but I talked her into going to my house to clean up, since I had been gone from work long enough to take the remainder of the day off.

I poked around in the garage when I got home, and cleaned and organized a few more things. Summer befriended a beautiful white dog with white eyes, who I’d seen wander around the neighborhood in the past. We tested the couple of scrapped TVs I brought home, and one of them appeared to work without any trouble. The other was clearly physically broken on the left side, but it would be fine for someone that just needs one that works at all. We loaded up the better one to take to her house, and then I ran around looking for some feet. I thought I had some in my office, but I finally came back home and found them there.

Up at Summer’s house, Eaddie was already dressed down for the evening. Summer made Rice Krispies Treats, and eventually Autumn showed up from whatever she had going on. I had gotten a message that my VIN was assigned, so I hopped online to try and finalize my Progressive quote. Since the delivery is happening so late in the year, I’m actually getting a 2023 year model, which is pretty neat. I won’t have ultrasonic sensors, so I’m annoyed that some features may be temporarily disabled, but hopefully it won’t take long for that to be corrected. I had trouble making the insurance changes myself because the new year model wasn’t even in the system yet, so I had to spend quite a while chatting with support to get the changes made. My rate will be higher than I thought, but still only about half of what State Farm wanted for just one car.

The girls all wound down pretty quietly, so I surfed my nightly deals, got a little distracted, and eventually made it to bed.

We are so close to being able to speak of Tres!