Vacation Update … and a Little Rant (for good measure)

Happy Tuesday. Vacation is going well; I feel rested, to say the least, although I did wake up much earlier than I had planned this morning.

I am staying with friends, a family of my friend, his wife, and their four year old. They are all continuing to go to work and school for the first part of the week, and later in the week they will take a few days off. This morning, I awoke to the little girl yelling, “Daaaaaaadyyyyy!” (after a few times, I got up and followed the voice to the living room.

She looked at me and said, “I want my daddy. I’m cold.” I asked her where her daddy was, and she told me he was in the shower.

“He cannot hear you if he is in the shower, but there is a blanket behind you on the couch.”

Now I am drinking coffee, and watching the TODAY show, where they are finally-FINALLY admitting that all of the disinfecting and antibacterial/antimicrobial products are affecting our immune systems. I’ve been saying this for years. I’ve been telling people — or at least trying to tell them that some germ exposure is GOOD, and taking antibiotics for everything (or simply too often) is not good.

They have also pointed out that doctors are now exposing children to very small amounts of foods to which they have allergies. (DO NOT JUST RUN OUT AND TRY THIS YOURSELF… CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR.) For example, children with peanut allergies are being given small amounts of peanut dust/powder in other foods in order to expose them to peanuts and allow their bodies to (SLOWLY) develop a resistance to it. This is also something I have been (preaching) talking about for years.

My (ex)wife’s sister has a daughter with an allergy to milk. Well, at least, the child had a problem with it as an INFANT. Now, the girl is eleven, and if you simply (lie to her and) tell her that what she just ate had milk in it, she “feels sick” about an hour later. Years ago (when the kid was around four years old), I attempted to make the suggestion to (that entire family) that it might be a good idea to expose her to small amounts of milk, since her body reacted fairly mildly and simply made her have excess mucus and congestion, and suggested that they might want to consult her pediatrician about it to see if s/he agreed with the theory.

My (ex)wife and (ex)sister-in-law, both being LPNs, argued with my theory, and stated that I was crazy. It would never work. She could DIE. Yet, they allow her to have small amounts of milk product (such as whipped cream on her strawberries or ice cream,) but to let her start drinking real milk instead of soy? “CRAZY.” “STUPID.”, “RISKY.”

As it turns out — I may be right. (I may be crazy).

Wouldn’t You Know It?

I closed my book, placed it on the bedside table, and turned the light off. I closed my eyes and got comfortable. Not more than 30 seconds later, the room flooded with light, and the previously quiet room was filled with the sounds of the alarm clock radio, a fan and the cordless phones emitting their loud BEEPS, alerting me to the fact that they now had power. I had been lying in bed, reading a book about the walking dead with a flashlight, when I decided I was finally tired enough to (try to) go to sleep. There was, afterall nothing better to do.

Tonight, after working a double shift, I came home to find that my entire street was in total darkness. No street lights, no lights in any of the homes; only the flicker associated with candlelight in the windows of the neighbors’ home. I unlocked my door and walked (cautiously) through the darkness of the living room. “Always be prepared,” my subconscious whispered. Yah, whatever.

I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed the flashlight. I was glad to find it where it belongs and that it had not disappeared along with many of my other possessions, that have vanished over the last few years; an extension cord, a Rubbermaid trash can lid, two garden hoses, a lawn sprinkler and my ironing board (which has since been replaced). Flashlight in hand, I was able to (easily) find the many, many candles I keep for just such an occasion.

I am sitting in my living room, surrounded by eight candles between the living and dining rooms, and three in the kitchen. The rest of the house remains dark. I am eternally grateful to have a laptop with a pretty good battery life (around 3 hours), and a mobile phone, since my (non-cordless) phone has not been seen in the last five or six years. I used to keep one for events such as this… I do not know what happened to it.

The dog and cat are excited to see the house in a new light (pun intended). I am concerned about and closely watching the cat to make sure that he does not knock over a candle or set himself on fire. My daughter says it is “like we camping or in the olden days like on ‘Little House on the Prairie’“. This is the quietest my life has been in months. The only sounds are a distant train, the wooden wind chimes belonging to the people next door, and an occasional car making its way down our dark street.

I have no idea how long the power has been out, or what caused the problem. I do not know if the food in the refrigerator and freezer has had time to become potentially fatal. I am hungry. Extremely hungry. I may go check to see if the food in the refrigerator is still reasonably cold, and take a chance on a piece of leftover fried chicken.

I do know that there is no power on my street (and probably a few others). I cannot publish it until the power is restored, and there is really no place I am willing to go at ten at night to PLUG IN and get on the internet (free of charge). If I was not so tired, I could use my power adapter which works in the car to power my laptop and drive to a house with an unprotected wireless network and park there until everything returns to normal, but that would be unethical.

Things I Just Gotta Get Done Before Vacation…

-Dust the house 17 March

-Get all of the laundry done and put away 19 March

-Get a key made for the housesitter 17 March

-Check refrigerator for any food that will be past its prime before I get home 19 March

-Discard any such food 19 March

-Update my iPod19 March

-Update my collection of Movies/TV shows to watch if I decide to do so 17 March

-Pack my stuff 19 March

-Pack the dog’s stuff (he is going to stay with my mom)

-Print boarding pass

-Remember to check the gas in the Range Rover so that when I return home very late at night, I will have plenty of gas in order to get back to my house.

I am sure I will need to add a few things during the week before I leave (Friday, very very early morning). I will try to come back and strike the items I have completed.

The kid will be on spring break, and will be going somewhere tropical with her mother and stepdad.

If Only it Were This Easy…

At night, when I am lying in bed, unable to sleep, ideas come to me. I am always thinking to myself… “get up and write it down before you forget.”

I never actually get up and write it down, and I always forget. I know, I should keep a notepad and pencil by the bed. I just fail to actually follow through with that theory.

In the past, when I did have the notepad by the bed, I would jot down notes, only to be unable to figure out how the pieces fit together. A few times I would take the laptop and stow it under my bed, enabling me to type the thoughts rather than write them. This was in no way beneficial to my falling back asleep, so I have had to abandon that idea if I am scheduled to work the next day.

When I was working nights, I had much better luck with writing and feeling energetic and alert. Every morning, upon my alarm clock popping to life, I utter a few choice expletives as I throw the covers aside and force myself to get up. I let the dog out, start the coffee maker, and shave, shower (etc.). I walk around feeling tired and (I am told Dark and MOODY) for most of the morning. If I had my way, I wouldn’t have to speak to anybody until at least nine (a little over three hours into the work day). I don’t start feeling really good until around 1:30 pm. I am proud of the fact that I am down to 22 oz. or less of coffee a day, the last cup is never consumed after 2:00 pm. (this is an accomplishment for me; I used to drink about a pot of coffee a day–sometimes more).

Don’t be afraid… to Call in Sick.

The people I work with tend to cycle through the exact same pattern, over and over again. Person #1 will come into work, sniffling, sneezing and complaining about feeling like crap. Two or three days later, one by one, the cold brought to us by Person #1 strikes each of us.

Monday was person #1′s big day. #2 followed suit… I was person #3, and started having the cold symptoms Wednesday… but had no symptoms at all by the time I woke up this morning. Maybe it was psychosomatic, but it is not uncommon for me to defeat whatever virus those germy people spread around. Of course, it goes to say that I work around sick people (not as associates but as “clients”.) I have yet to be down much longer than 24 hours with any of the things that I have been privileged enough to contract.

Before you call me lucky, please be reminded that while I don’t spend a lot of time down-and-out with colds, flu/s, and other things… I do have chronic insomnia and suffer from migraine headaches. (The latter of which have not been nearly as frequent in the past two years).

3:14 + 1 = 3:15

Pardon my vagueness in my previous post. I sometimes neglect to consider that not everyone is a fan of the horror movie genre.

I was actually loosely referring to George Lutz of the Amityville Horror story. If you are curious enough to read about the based-on-actual events account [3:15 A.M.].

It is actually a common occurance, my waking at precicely 3:15. But, then, I also wake at various other times, and I feel it holds no real significance whatsoever. Sometimes I wake with a headache, other times I merely need drink some water.