Wook's Place

It has been pointed out that posting a title of "Salmonella" and then nothing for 2 months could be a cause for worry. I figure no news is good news, but whatever. Mea culpa.

The cipro did wonders. I felt better the next day, and pretty much cured of all harmful symptoms by Monday. The cipro didn't do a number on me either, which was good.

A couple of weeks after all that, I got a cold.

Yesterday morning, I had a Clif bar for breakfast, which was a new thing for me. I got two boxes of the chocolate peanut butter bars in the last grocery shipment. I didn't want the chocolate ones, but whatever, I'll get the ones I want next order. All part of the Wookie Improvement Project, to eat differently.

Wednesday afternoon, I was feeling a little pukey, so I left work early to get some sleep, since I had to get up early Thursday. I got home tonight, after having suffered thru all day of "stomach flu" symptoms, and checked my email. FreshDirect sent an important email saying that something I bought had been recalled because the FDA was investigating some peanut company for salmonella.

I have every, fucking, symptom of salmonella. And two boxes of recalled Clif bars in the cupboard. Go figure.

Supposedly, it usually goes away in less than a week. (Oh joy, should be an exiting weekend.) But I'm going to go check in with my doctor tomorrow morning anyway. Just in case. The biggest imediate danger seems to be dehydration, which I seem to be able to keep ahead of so far.

EDIT: Doctor says antibiotics and Gatorade. When I asked him (not my doctor, she wasn't in today) about having to many anti-biotics, he recommended I take them, because it can be serious and I do have all the symptoms including, it turns out, a mild fever.

I now own a 46" Sony XBR4 LCD television. A flat-screen. Can I still call it a "tube"? How about a "boob tube"?

"Boob tube" just flows off the tongue. I'd hate to have to give up a perfectly good slang term.

Something strange has happened to me, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

The housekeeper came today, and made the Wookie Improvement Plan Location (my apartment) spic 'n' span, and lemony fresh. Today at work was kind of long, and I have a 2 day meeting Thurs-Fri that I'm dreading. So when I got home, I just wanted to chill, make a sandwich, drink a beer maybe, watch some inauguration coverage on the tube, and not go downstairs and get some exercise.

So imagine my surprise to discover I was hunting thru the clean clothes the housekeeper washed for me to find shorts to work out in. Then imagine my surprise to find myself in the elevator to the basement. And even more surprised to find myself on a treadmill, going nowhere at 3.5 MPH up a 3% grade while watching "The Biggest Looser" on the TV with no sound.

I didn't want to go down there. It wasn't in the plan. The Biggest Looser was not what I wanted to be watching. But for some reason, I did it anyway.

And that kind of thing is just so unlike me, I'm not sure I approve.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Hope all your partying was satisfactory. Hope you had fun. I hope for, and wish you, a fabulous 2009.

I'm in Des Moines for the week. It's winter here. The New Years Eve party starts Wednesday night at 7pm. It goes until "Saturday night/Sunday morning". I leave to go home Sunday afternoon.

Al sprained his ankle when he fell starting his car Saturday night and clearing the ice off of it. Yesterday, I took him to the chiropractor so he could have it looked at and get "adjusted". After that, I dropped him off at the mall while I went to get my massage.

So that's the joke of the week. Al sprains his ankle, and has me drive him around, and I drop him at the mall.

So it's snowing here in NYC. Upstate and places without a massive heat column are supposed to get dumped on big time. We're just supposed to get 8 to 10 inches I think.

This is actually the third snow we've gotten, but the first one that will amount to something. I missed the first when it happened. Second was Tuesday (3 days ago). This won't stick around either, the streets are still to warm for snow to last long. But this snow will probably cool them down enough to that any future snow storms will probably dump snow that will last for a while.

I like snow, and winter in general. I'd have posted this anyway, but this post is also a test of putting more photos up on this site. The photo above was taken with my iPhone, and uploaded with SmugShot, an iPhone app that seems damn cool.

This will be the last post I'll make from my trusty G5 PowerPC Mac. I've joined the Xeon age.

Yesterday it was "Winter Cold" outside, for the first time so far this year. It's been chilly, but not parkas-zipped-all-the-way-up cold. Not that it gets that cold here by Minnesota standards, but it was unequivocally a cold day in NYC yesterday.

It took me all night, and all of this morning, but it as I was rummaging around in my sock drawer just now, it occurred to me that the big fuzzy socks I've been avoiding all summer, are finally in season again. Yes, I'm a little slow, but I do get there.

I have been sick now for about 4 weeks. I missed a week of work too at the beginning. I had bronchitis, and a bad sore throat that turned out not to be strep but hurt like a mofo anyway. I went to the doctor to find out I didn't have strep, and he put me on 7 days of antibiotics for the cough anyway because having a cough for 2 weeks is a bad thing.

Then I got better, some. I was a couple of days from being totally over it. I could feel it.

Then, I got worse. Yesterday, I went to my normal doctor. My problem is post-nasal drip. And I have that bad. It's screwing up my throat, and giving me bronchial spasms (cough), which might take an asthma inhaler to treat. I might also have viral bronchitis, but there isn't anything to do for that, but just treat the symptoms and get sleep. Take vitamin C. Drink fluids.

But the conversation turned strange, at least for me, when she told me she really didn't want me to have any more anti-biotics. I've apparently had more than enough for one year already. And I have. The Cirpo after India was probably more than I need for the rest of my life, and probably the reason why it took 2 months to get over that whole mess.

She did give me a prescription for Biaxin, but I'm not to fill it unless I'm not feeling any better by Monday. If Monday comes and I don't feel better, I'm not entirely sure I'll get it filled. I guess I have to get over this whole thing somehow, I just wish it would go away.

The pharmacist, who knows me by name now before I hand him my prescriptions, says that the boomerang bug is going around. He sees people come in with cold prescriptions, and then come in two weeks later with something else to try. So something persistent is going around.

Frozen burritos.  I'm serious.

Saturday, I ruined an entire week for my massage therapist, her family, and her best friend. I didn't mean to. I wish it hadn't happened the way it went down.

I didn't shoot their little dog or anything physically harmful. But what I did was worse. I ruined an opportunity for them to do something incredibly nice for someone. Something they'd been planning for a week, and really looking forward to doing.

I am deeply, deeply, sorry.

I found this in my iChat window today, from my friend Meg. It made me laugh at a time I was in a foul mood and needed a laugh.

Other than the joke here, I'm always "Away" or some variation, all the time. I don't set iChat to "Available" any more because I'm not good at remembering to set it back away when I leave the computer. I figure being perpetually away and will sometimes answer is better than being always available but never responding. So my friends have learned to just poke my cage and see if I stir. Meg just did it creatively.

Today I remembered that today is my father's birthday. I usually remember his birthday every year, but usually I remember it either when I'm not near a phone, or several days later. This year, I win points because I remembered it on the day itself, and I was sitting at my desk not doing anything else. So I called him at work, and caught him between classes, and wished him happy birthday.

Dad informed me that this birthday was special. Before I could ask him if he got a pony, he said this birthday was the last power of 2 he expected to see. He is 64 years old. And frankly, that is far cooler than a pony. I admitted it was cool, and then we both laughed together about how we're both computer nerds. Then we laughed some more about how I am definitely his son, that I think it's as cool as he does. We also swapped medical horror stories (I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow, and dad has had to cancel his due to meds he's taking for his knee). Then we talked about my mom (she's doing great far as I can tell) and then said our goodbyes.

5 or 6 years ago now, I spent a few months of my life in San Francisco, California. All told, it added up to maybe 9 months. I was even moving there at the time, but ended up staying in NYC. This was during the RiverSoft days, and a good time was had by me, and everyone else who worked there, until everyone got fired and I quit.

Three years ago or so, after not having been in San Francisco for a couple of years, I had reason to go back for a couple of weeks on business. I actually went to Dublin, California, which was a ways east of SF across the bay, but I flew into SFO. United flies direct from NYC to SFO, but not OAK. Even though Oakland was closer to where I was going, the overall trip was shorter since I didn't have to change planes.

At the time, walking down the SFO concourse from gates 80-90 to baggage claim, I suddenly had a strong feeling of coming home. I can't really explain why. I never went into SF itself, except to drive thru it to get to the Bay Bridge and Interstate 80 to go East to Dublin.

Maybe the old song has it right. Maybe you really do leave your heart in San Francisco. Maybe there is some magic there. Some shamanistic, earthy, witchy, magic that cause you to remember San Francisco as the home you most want to stay in, or come back to.

I had reason to be in Concord, California. A suburban city East of SF, across the bay bridge and over the Oakland hills. I might have left my heart in San Francisco, but I either picked it up and took it home with me on that last trip, or someone stole it. Walking down the SFO concourse from gate 87 to baggage claim, twice now, I'v felt nothing but what anyone feels when they get off a nearly 6-hour flight.

I don't know if it was time healing my heart of what it had been missing. I don't know if absence had made my heart go wander. I have no idea why, but I didn't feel like I was coming home. I wasn't looking forward to being in SF, even just to drive thru it to the Bay Bridge and I-80.

But I did miss the longing for SF. I was looking forward to visiting the city that had claimed my heart so long ago. And it didn't happen.

I want that magic back.

When I came home from India with a full blown case of the galloping collywobbles, I went to the doctor. That doctor sent to another one. The final medical diagnosis: eat more fiber. So I have been.

And the results have been predictable: I just got done taking a dump in an aircraft lavatory, into a Boeing, old-style, crapper. I managed to drop trou, shit what seemed like an enormous turd, wipe up, and get all arranged and dressed in a space so small you have to step outside to change your mind.

One of my favorite airlines was called Midwest Express. Today it is called just Midwest. Based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they fly MacDonald-Douglas MD80 aircraft. Today the MD80 is called the Boeing 717, due to Boeing having acquired MacDonald-Douglas a few years ago. Before that, the MD80 was the successor to the DC9. But I digress.

Midwest fly smallish aircraft, but has only one class of service, which equates to somewhere between coach and first on most other airline's domestic serivce. The seats are the size of first class seats, spaced no farther apart than coach seats. Those who are fat, as I am, get the seat width they need to avoid sitting in their neighbor's seats too. A feature people sitting next to me probably love. People who are tall, as I am, do not get any more legroom than they would in coach on a normal flight. They actually get less due to a footrest that folds down, but is to close when down, and blocks access to the space under the seat ahead of us when up. But again, I digress.

I am flying on a UA flight between SFO and JFK, and United has done an interesting thing with these flights. They fly custom B757s, that have far far more business class seats than a normal 757 configuration they fly. The coach seats are all "Economy Plus", meaning they have extra legroom. It looks like they aren't as roomy as economy plus on normal 757s. The difference is 2 inches, 34" seat pitch verses 36". Business class seats do not fold flat when fully reclined, but they are much closer to being laying down than sitting up.

This is a trend I heartily encourage. More than once I have thought of fling a class-action lawsuit for all those air travelers over 5'10", citing health hazards of being in coach. I would get laughed at by an attorney if I tried it, but I like to dream sometimes.

United also flies these aircraft between JFK and LAX as well. They may fly them between IAD and SFO/LAX too, but I can't confirm that up here on the plane. I would hope they do. The plane is nice, and it is nice to see this happen, even if I can't figure out why they did it.

Due to some problems remaining after I was supposedly cured of India, I had reason to be checked for lactose and gluten intolerance. I did the lactose test today, and got the results of the gluten blood test as well.

I'm happy to report that I am neither lactose or gluten intolerant. This is good. I can continue to eat pizza like it is one of the 4 basic food groups. (Along with beer, steak, and cocholate-chip cookies.)

I did some research on gluten intolerance, since I knew not what it was. And that was the first possible health problem I could get that actually freaked me out. It is brutal. Basically, all food becomes poisonous. And it is not just "you can't digest that". Gluten intolerance can cause nerve damage if you keep consuming it. And gluten is in EVERYTHING.

The final diagnosis: Eat more fiber.

It would seem that Garfield Minus Garfield, one of my favorite web sites is going to be coming out in book form. Check out the second page, with the details.

I will be buying this book.