Catchin' up on some things

Man! I've got to quit screwing around and write things down as they occur to me.

Over the weekend: Feb 26-27 we lost Darren McGavin and Don Knots. Don Knots we all knew as Barney Fife, or as I remember him from *my* boyhood the professor that turned into a dolphin in that Disney movie, whatever it was.

Then, Monday, we find out that Dennis Weaver died. He played McCloud, a country boy detective in the big city. He was also in that Stephen Spielberg movie "Duel" where a trucker driving a tanker truck seems to be hell-bent on harrassing Weaver's character in a classic case of road rage gone bad. (Wow, I never realized that was a Spielberg movie until I looked it up on IMDB just now.

Monday at work: Donate blood around 11:30. Donating blood is nothing new for me, been doing it for years...but it has been a while. Hike across campus to my truck and go off to Chic-Filet for lunch. A large lunch compared to what I usually have, but there was nearly a quart of Coke involved. Come back to work and start typing away on an Excel project. Around 1:30 things start getting fuzzy, and the cube starts spinning around. So, I dive to the floor, lay on my back, and prop my feet up. Felt a little better. May have even passed out for a short time. I was sweating a cold sweat, regardless. Felt like I might throw up, too. Gathered my wits and made a drunken path to the restroom. Didn't throw up, but did sit there for a while doing something else....with my head between my knees and cold sweat dripping off my forehead onto the floor. Not a pleasant time to keep your head between your knees. But I was starting to feel better. Wasn't so much of a stagger getting back to my cube, but I still felt like remaining horizontal would be best. Was supposed to have a performance review with my boss, so I called him, filled him in on the situation, and he freaks....calls HR guy to check on me. They call the Blood Mobile people to come get me....I hang out in the Blood Mobile for about 45 minutes, and I'm back to work.

I'm on medications for high blood pressure. One of them makes me light-headed and dizzy anyway. Donating blood lowers your blood pressure. Digesting a large meal lowers your blood pressure ( or at least redirects your blood flow?)..and then there's the post-prandial desire to nap a bit..that lowers your blood pressure. Judging from the readings before I donated, and the reading after they got me to the Blood Mobile, there was at least a 20 point swing in my blood pressure...so I know the "bottoming out" reading was even lower.

First time in 20 years of donating that the "nurse" missed the fucking vein in my arm. They're fucking huge. First time in 20 years of donating that I've ever passed out after donating blood. Hell, it's the first time I've even felt any after-effects.

Monday night: Okay, so I live in an apartment. I used to be a volunteer fire-fighter in another life time. I don't trust toaster ovens, drip coffee makers, regular toasters, or any of my neighbors, for that matter. I've been to too many fires started by any one, or a combination of those factors. I'm doing my books and paying bills at the computer when I suddenly smell this horrid unidentifiable stench...but I recognize it as a "burning" stench.
I check the dryer...not coming from there.
I check the kitchen....not coming from there.
I check out the front door to the intra-apartment landings....not coming from there.
I check out the back door to the woods.....not coming from there.
I finally notice that the fat juicy raisin-sized fly is no longer buzzing about the apartment. Because he is currently smoldering under the 300 watt halogen bulb in the lamp I use to light up the apartment when I'm doing detail work. Whew! what a smell.


Today (Wednesday) - day two of not taking the medication that made me feel so crappy in the first place. And I can already feel a difference. A better difference.