The summer of 1985. That is the year I turned 16. (Although, this story takes place a month or so before my birthday, which takes place in August).

I was invited to go to the coast and stay in a beach house with a friend and his parents. I was surprised my parents permitted me to go, because they tended to (typically) decline my requests for such a trip. We were there for a week, I think it was the week around Independence Day, because we were burning “sparklers” on the beach.

Keep in mind that weather on the Oregon Coast isn’t what some of you may imagine when it comes to “the beach”…

While we were on the beach early one morning walking the coast and looking for sand dollars and other shells and fossils. [info] While searching, we noticed two girls, around our ages (ok, so they were 17 and 18 as if it matters). They walked right up to us, introduced themselves, and we talked for a while.

They were from a city that was about a two or three hour drive from where we lived. They had known each other since they were in the first grade, which is how old Brendan and I were when we met. We had a good deal in common with them, from music and movie preferences, among other things. It then came time for us (Brendan and I) to go back to the beach house because something had been planned by his family and we “had to” be there. So, we were at a point that we had to depart from our new lady friends and return to the beach house. We agreed to meet them again later that night, (July 4th).

We spent that day driving down the coast a bit and then returned to the beach house just before dark. We were both anxious to get back out to the beach to meet the girls, and his parents seemed to want to have long conversations about things that are not usually of interest to young persons (us). We were FINALLY released from their grip.

We met with the girls, and walked with them, hand in hand. Brendan and (I don’t remember her name) were walking several yards ahead of Larae (pronounced La-Ray) and I. The temperature was dropping fairly quickly, and our new friends were cold, so we went to their cabin (one of the girl’s parents were there). Her father had offered us some BRANDY (can you imagine)? and a cigar. We accepted and sat around talking about current events, sports, and where we were from.

The cigar made me feel quite sick. Drinking Brandy did not seem to help much either, and I excused myself and vomited in their bathroom. (haha). They gave me some alka-seltzer and a peppermint after that — which helped tremendously.

Sometime around eleven, we had to leave, kissed our new lady friends goodnight, and made our way back up the beach to our beach house.

We spent four more days there, and when it came time for us to leave, the girls cried. We exchanged home addresses, and promised to write. I wrote her one letter, and never received a reply. I never knew what happened to her, or if she even received the letter, but I have to say… that was a great vacation.

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Update: The repetitive beep, which was occurring once every five minutes, has ceased. In its place is an incessant, high-pitched tone, which does not stop. It is a fairly low volume (-42 dB* 4 kHz), but it has to be driving the animals nuts, because it is annoying me (so far).
It is a lot like tinnitus. The sound is not LOUD, but present, and audible over the television.

Every once in a while, my brain ignores the sound, and I am no longer aware of its presence; however, since I am writing about the noise… I have no problem detecting its presence.

When I woke up (one of the four or five times) this morning, I noticed the beep… beep… was gone. I thought that my ears were ringing, until I walked out of my bedroom, down the hall and into the living room.


I am still unable to decide which would be better. The new sound is constant. Right now, I feel this is better than the reoccurring beep… beep… beep…, but then, I haven’t been listening to this for very long.

I left messages with a few people, requesting use of their ladder(s), and apparently everyone is either out of town, or they are all sitting together in a large group, contemplating my pending insanity and waiting to see who wins the pool on how long it takes before I am pushed over the “insanity ledge”.

Oh, by the way, Tim sent me a text message around 7:00 a.m. stating that he will return my ($300) ladder “tonight or tomorrow morning sometime”. I may knock him out, tie him to a chair and let him listen to this thing for a couple of days.

(I am unsure why this chart compares the sound to a -42 dB, because in comparison a whisper is 15 dB but… that is what it sounds like — at least with my speakers). PLEASE start at a lower dB volume (below where mine is on the chart), to avoid hearing damage. Once you get it up to a point that you can hear it, but it isn’t “loud” to you… that is what I am hearing. Another post about Pero’s “bat like” hearing can be found here.

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What have I done to deserve THIS?

I got up around 8:00 this morning, (being a day off, I didn’t have to be up earlier). Made coffee, had fruit for breakfast, and spent the morning catching up on TV news. I ventured out around eleven to go take a re-certification related test… and returned home roughly four hours later. I then spent the evening on the internet, and talking with friends.

I was still up at 1:00 a.m., talking to someone else that is a night-owl type person, and suddenly…

BEEP! The smoke detector in the living room, way way up by the high ceiling, began to tell me that it was suffering from a low battery.

I can’t have this. I won’t sleep with this beeping every 60-90 seconds. It’s not possible! (in a Chef Ramsay style voice)

I went out to the garage to find the ladder… (I have two, one regular 6′ ladder and one that is capable of reaching the damned thing. Of course, the ladder that is needed has disappeared… I will make the bold assumption that it was BORROWED by The Tim, (who is currently out of town). I have no idea when it was removed from my property, but I know that I could really, really use it RIGHT NOW.

Instead, I have to wait until a REASONABLE time to call one of my other friends, who also has a ladder capable of reaching 15′ (or so), which would enable me to change the battery and then the BEEP-BEEP-BEEPing will finally cease.

Anyway, I turn on the light in the garage, and make my way (barefoot) to the area where the ladder is should be. No Little Giant Ladder. Just my 6′ wooden paint ladder.

BEEP!

“Who the… What the… ???”, I think to myself.

Then, I saw something in my peripheral vision. I turned, s-l-o-w-l-y in its direction.

HOLY Sh–azbot. It was a “house centipede”. This sucker was over 2″ in size, and it was LOOKING directly at ME.

I just stood there, my bare feet less than 6″ from this beastly bug, wondering, If I move one direction or the other, will it track me like the spiders in the movie Arachnophobia did the characters in the film?

Do these things LEAP or JUMP? Because if that happens, I will scream like a girl and probably wet my pants.

I brought in the 6′ ladder, in hopes that I might be able to use it and reach the nagging smoke detector. Even if I stood on the very top platform, (which I would never do, because it is unsafe practice and quite stupid)… but even if I did, I would still be 8-10″ away from this stupid (although necessary) electronic device.

BEEP!

So, as I sit here, I am reminded every 60-90 seconds that the battery is indeed low and the device is crying out for attention.

BEEP!

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… what Friday is to Many

Lately, I seem to get the best sleep in the minutes (or if I am lucky, 1-2 hours) just before I have to wake up. This sometimes results in me having to work while tired and thinking about sleep. Luckily for the people I work (with / for / etc.), once at work, my brain switches to reserve power, and on most days, I am not preoccupied with thoughts of slumber.

I have been unable to find a cause or solution for my sleep problems, despite making so many efforts to understand them. I have tried to find a sleep study that doesn’t focus on a certain medication to aid one in sleep, but so far, they are all set up for the purpose of testing one drug or another. So instead, I am drinking coffee, and waiting for my “fifth wind”.

(It has been… either three or four days since I have had a really decent sleep.)

Today is my Friday… that is, after today, I have three days off. When I get off work, I will go to the grocery store and get whatever is on the list of things needed in my home, do a clean up of the house, and then do as much NOTHING as I can tolerate. (I expect to make it through the end of Tuesday before I can’t take it and have to go do something).

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I am awake far too early, considering that i have nowhere to be this morning. It’s 0400 (or 4:00 a.m.). I fell into bed just before midnight. I am awake (for the SECOND time) since I retired my old bones for what I had hoped would be at least six hours of sleep. Of course, that did not happen. Not that I REALLY thought it would. Since I was a kid, I have had these daVinci-esque* sleep patterns.

*(For those folks who are unfamiliar with Leonardo daVinci’s sleep patterns, read this.) For more information on it (way more wordy article) read this.

What I want to know is, WHY are my sleeping habits this way? Obviously, I have not contributed any such noteworthy inventions or wisdoms to the world as Leo. Is there really anything left, waiting for me to invent it, which would result in significant or profound changes to this world?

If that is the case, why have I not had a vision?

Either way, it is approaching five o’clock, and I have to say that trying to type a post for this weblog using the browser on iPhone is a pain in the A(nkle), as typing just this short post has taken an hour, and I think I will try to sleep a bit more.

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Cheers to all of us thieves, who used material from elsewhere, rather than think of something of our own.

1. What curse word do you use the most? Eff-Yew-See-Kay.

2. Do you own an iPod? I own an iPhone 3g, so in a sense, yes.

3. What person do you talk to on the phone the most? My 15-year old daughter, who respects my requests that she check in with me from time to time when she is away from home.

4. Do you still remember the first person you kissed? Kid kiss? or REAL kiss? Real kiss — Yes… I was in junior high, and leaving the convenience store with some junk food. She was standing out front and called me over to her. We talked for a bit, and then she planted one on me.

5. Do you remember where you were on 11/9/01? I was at work, sitting at a desk to do paperwork and preparing to go home, since I had worked the night shift. The supervisor walked in and announced the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. Then I left work, drove home and watched the news all day. (This is referring to 11 September 2001, and not 09 November 2001. — the digit order may confuse some Americans.)

6. What was the last movie you watched? Hahaha. Jaws 3 in 3D. It was what was on this morning when I turned on the TV. On DVD, I think it was Inglorious Basterds, and at the theatre it was Alice in Wonderland.

7. Has anyone ever called you lazy? Yes. My ex-wife has called me lazy. My stepfather had called me lazy while I was growing up as well.

8. Do you ever take medication to help you fall asleep? I have, but it is rare that I will do so. I have to be very tired, still unable to sleep, and generally have not slept well in two to three weeks.

9. Has anyone told you a secret this week? The week starts on Sunday, so — no.

10. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? I usually will notice if a woman is in good physical health (body)… It depends on who she is, where I meet her, how I meet her… since I am not looking at the body of an old lady. In those cases, I probably notice eyes or smile.

11. What are you looking forward to? Today being over. I am not ready for all the nut-case celebration of the fourth of July this year.

12. Do you own any band t-shirts? I have one from a Pearl Jam concert from (the early 90s). It is extra large, and a former girlfriend had left it here for her to sleep in. It fits me, and she never claimed it, so it is now mine.

13. What will you be doing in one hour? Packing the car up to drive my mother to visit her uncle, who is 97 years old.

14. Is anyone in love with you? I don’t know. I don’t think so.

15. Last time you cried? Last Friday (not 2 days ago, but nine days ago).

16. Are you on a desktop computer or a laptop? Laptop.

17. Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos? Nope.

18. Would you ever date anyone covered in tattoos? Sure.

19. What were you doing before this? Taking a shower.

20. When is the last time you slept on the floor?
I think it’s been about a year.

21. How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
At the least? I can function on 2. But for my brain to function well (as my job would require me to be), I need at least 4.

22. Do you eat breakfast daily? Yes, or try to. If I skip breakfast, it is because something interrupted my plans to eat, and then I eat something as soon as the opportunity arises.

This is actually the :.Part 1.: meme from June 27 (last week), but since I did not participate, I am a week behind. Next Sunday, I will post :.Part 2.: of the meme. Thanks to Sunday Stealing for this meme.

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In the entry-way to one of the old buildings (which houses a doctor’s office I visit occasionally), is a “Gender-Neutral” toilet facility. This is to say, the bathroom in the downstairs lobby is “Unisex”; or to put it another way, come on in, whoever you are.

According to the article on Wikipedia:

“A gender-neutral toilet, also known as a unisex toilet or a gender-free toilet is a public restroom or toilet that is available for use by either the male or female gender, and includes family restrooms.”

This bathroom has no stalls, it is the type that has a LOCK on the door, one toilet, one toilet-paper dispenser, one sink, one paper towel dispenser, one soap dispenser… you get the idea.

When I have needed to use such a facility, I knock, enter, and lock the door before proceeding. While I am certain that not all people would KNOCK on the door before trying the door handle, I would assume a normal person would at least lock the door behind oneself.

Today, as I was leaving the doctor’s office, I knocked, heard no voice from the other side proclaiming anything along the lines of “occupied”, and proceeded to enter.

To my surprise, and likely to hers too, a 20-something-ish female was inside, standing at the sink, and she yelled “I’m IN HERE!”

My immediate thought, in the fraction of a second that followed, was along the lines of, “Well you stupid F–allulah MORON, that is why there is a LOCK on the door?

(I guess I shouldn’t really HAVE to say that I had already closed the door and left after she said that… but that is what I did.)

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Molly had her (hopefully) last vet appointment for a LONG time today.

She is doing well, though she is still healing. The vet stated that a good thing to do now would be to alternate the Silver sulfadiazine cream with Neosporin (without pain relief) every other day, and watch it to make sure it continues to heal.

(Snakes often die from burns like the one she obtained, and he was very pleased with her healing progress.)

She was fed today, so she is very happy. If anything changes I’ll post another update.

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Like out of a creepy movie!

Maggots dropping out of the overhead compartments onto passengers… on a US Airways flight heading from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC.

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The votes are in… and it seems that being on bottom won. So, the comment link is now back to the position below the posts. I agree that it is better to put the comment link beneath the post, because that is where people are more likely to say,

“YES, I have something to say in respect to this crap Pero has written and shared.”

So, it has been relocated. I may have to work with it a bit, and might move the post-author to the bottom as well, I am not sure… I’ll give that some thought.

Thank you for your participation!

Oh, the things I could have said in this post, but took the high-road instead.

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