December 18
From my brain
Contents |
2008
Me 09:13, 18 December 2008 (EST)
The brakes on the death machine are shot. I don't mean they're going, I mean their gone. Like, over the fence, out of the park, splash down in the bay going, going, gone. We just got our reimbursement checks from pre-paid medical, and I'm hoping that will be enough to fix what I've done to the brakes.
The scraping early on was bad. The grinding was unbearable later on. Now, when I tap the brakes and it answers back with a, "Excuse me, were you expecting to stop? Yeah, I'll get right on that, LOL." If I tap the brakes, it goes straight to the floor. Now, if I jam them, I stop...but I'm sure that someone much more mechanically inclined than me would have a heart attack to know that I'm relying on that to stop the car.
I'm really freaked out to drive this thing. We'll probably drop it off over the weekend, but I really don't want to drive it tomorrow. I might try to borrow FIL's truck. When we take it into the brake place, I'm just going to tell them I don't want to hear it, I was broke, I have money now. Please just fix the brakes so I don't have to worry about dying in a car crash every morning.
Me 17:19, 18 December 2008 (EST)
- While going to see Princess at her preschool Christmas performance, I found out why the brakes are all but non existent: I'm leaking brake fluid all around the tire.
- Countrywide, after losing buyer #1, stringing buyer #2 along for two months, finally decides to do something: counter the guys offer with another $17K.
I'm going to try to make it home now and not die in fiery glory.
2007
Me 08:36, 18 December 2007 (EST)
So, the car issues of yesterday repeated themselves. It appears I get to look at a 15 minute burn of gasoline every morning before I can go to work in order for the gear box to warm up enough to get out of park.
Silver lining today: ThePit announced that in 2008 we're (those who've been here 10+ years) will be getting 20 days of vacation per year rather than the former 15.
2006
Me 07:17, 18 December 2006 (EST)
On the way to work, as I was saying my morning prayers, I caught myself letting out a big sigh. At first I did a self-check, Was that because of the praying? Dude, that's not good. Then I realized, it wasn't that at all.
Instead, I think it was the fact that I realize if I'm saying my morning prayers in the car...I'm on my way to work. The prayers are about all that's getting me going these days (and keeping me going), and the sigh was a result of the dread I have going in each day.
Had a long talk with Wifey during some pillow time (w00t!) on Saturday. We got talking about how I was feeling about stuff lately and she brought up the fact that I really need to re-look into things like [Guru] (that Angie showed me) and even look into local college programs. The thing is this: I don't know what I want to do.
I was never that kid who grew up and wanted to be a chemist, a veterinarian, a lawyer, or a journalist. I happened to be good with computers, and the must-go-to-college propaganda pulled me in, so I figured I should go to college for computer stuff. I'm not the computer guy that everyone thinks I am. Sure, I can get by, but in comparison to the knowledge of others, I'm no where near the hardware guy (such as Ceraun or Phantom), the webdev (such as Zejan, Heather/Pamplemousse or Karin), or any of the software monkies I know I know but can't think of right now. If I don't have an active application for something...I just don't want to bother with it.
So, where is this rant wandering to? I don't know. I'm still feeling disconnected. Now, I just have to figure out how to fix it.
Me 07:17, 18 December 2006 (EST)
And another thing: I don't like the new Firefox (2.0). They added hot keys in on the edit and history menu so I can't ALT-E or ALT-S to edit and save my blog entries. GAH!
Me 13:17, 18 December 2006 (EST)
From Mr. Bunnyman: George Carlin's New Rules for 2007
2003
Me 21:47, 18, December 2003 (EDT)
And remember, this is for posterity's sake...
Since a friend asked "How's life?", and I responded to her email with "Lemme get back to you on Friday", I thought I'd include the chronology of recent events here as I sent in the email to her. :)
- Last Monday
- Picked up wife's rental. Her car had about $3,000 worth of work that needed done on the engine. Her parents paid for it.
- Tuesday
- Oncology follow up. Clean bill of health: Diagnosis Day Celebration still scheduled for February. Been spending the last month or so - roughly since the Halloween party - obsessing as usual. What, with the lump in the throat, trouble falling asleep, sweating when not exactly exerting myself, I don't think, "It's just a bug...", I go to the oncologist. That and it was roughly at the same point when I started feeling like that last time, and once again, wife was pregnant. Thankfully, that little ordeal is over (mostly...see Wednesday). Was told by oncologist that if it does ever come back, it's an 80% chance that it's in the first two years, and I'm in my third. Combine that with total 95% no-return rate, it's something like 0.25% of a chance, and after 5 years, even less than that.
- Wednesday
- Wife has Level 2 ultrasound. She's been sorta obsessing over this herself because they didn't want to do one last time, but they now. Only after talking to someone else who was over 35 with both of her kids and had to get it done both times did she start to feel better. Tests look fine. Like 1 in 1000 chance of any problems with downs syndrome.
- Then, they go home for nap, and when they wake up, my oncologist: "This is Kate with Dr. Patel's office. I wanted to talk to you about your results from yesterday." Huh? Everything was fine? Oh well, we'll call them back.
- Thursday
- Actual appointment with her OB. Yup, all's clear. Got sound clip of heartbeat for this one too now. :)
- Called oncologist: Apparently, I threw myself into a nasty cycle with my obessing over the potential for the cancer coming back. I was dead tired throughout the day since Jake had taken to waking up every day at 7am. So, I drank Mt. Dew all day - a lot of it. I stopped around 8ish, but that wasn't enough, because by the time I kept myself awake enough to get home, I was WIDE AWAKE AND COULD NOT SLEEP. Which meant I'd lie awake tossing and turning, thinking of the cancer potential (which up until Thanksgiving week I hadn't even told the wife...all my little mental happiness). So, I'd have a couple a couple draft ciders to help with sleep. The combination of processing the caffeine, nightly alcohol, combined with Chrissy's wine party just the previous Saturday, apparently sent my liver enzymes through the roof.
- Oncologist schedules me for ultrasound of my liver.
- Friday
- My Mom has been having this weird crazy pain in her side, and her doctor - failing at comfort - won't say what she thinks it might be, but wants her to get a test done right away. She was slated for the tests on Friday, but when she called her insurance company, they said that she's had too many tests done this year, and they won't pay for it until the first. So, tests were cancelled that were scheduled for today. The boy and I go meet her for breakfast regardless.
That summed up last week. I had my ultrasound - just like wife's, except I'm pretty sure I have a boy liver - on Wednesday. Of course, I was a zombie all day yesterday though, because we had midnight tickets for Lord of the Rings. I got home around 4:30, and then Jake was up right at 7 as usual. I still don't know how I made it to Westerville at 10:30.
