Wanderings

Well, I’m on my way back. Not back completely, but getting there. I still can’t explain why I needed to take a break from everything website-ish, but I did, and I’m almost ready to jump back into it.

I downloaded a new version of the blog software, and I must say that I’m having fun customizing it to what I want it to be and do. So expect it to change in appearance periodically.

Well, at least I know that my timing is on. 🙂

It seems to happen once every four years. It usually lasts for about three to four days. What is it, you ask?

I get sick.

Monday started out alright, but starting about noon things began to go downhill. I drove home with one of those full-body aches and was exhausted. I was actually cold — and I was wearing jeans. That never happens. Sure enough I got home and took my temperature — 99.0. A decent mid-grade fever for a person whose normal temperature is 97.0.

I go to sleep. For three hours this cycle occurred: Sleep for forty-five minutes, wake up and go to the bathroom, take my blood sugar and temperature, lay down and warm up enough to go back to sleep. By the end of the three hours my temperature was 101.9 degrees.

Let me interject that it was no small comfort that my blood sugar stayed normal throughout this whole process. If you know anything about diabetes, then you know that blood sugars tend to rise during times of sickness, and the body produces ketones, which burn fat for energy. This may sound nice, but ketones are toxic to the body, and can be very dangerous in a diabetic if not monitored during these times.

Anywho, Sarah got home and took care of me for the next couple of hours, and then we went to sleep. I woke up yesterday feeling okay. Not great, but okay. Fever was back down to 99.0, and since I wanted to make sure I was better I called in sick to work. I relaxed yesterday, although I did do some housework to help Sarah out. By the end of the day my temperature was back down to 97.1, so I thought I was in the clear.

I had every intention of going back to work today, since I actually woke up at a normal time, but now I had a sore throat and some not-so-fun acid reflux (probably the cause of the sore throat). Temp was back to 99.0. So I called work and let them know that I would not be in for the rest of the week, since I was supposed to leave early for an appointment tomorrow and I’m supposed to fly to Pennsylvania on Friday for the weekend.

You may say that I just need to “suck it up” and go back to work, but here’s what I say: I don’t want to get as sick as I usually have in the past…throwing up for four days, not being able to eat, high blood sugars, and losing ten pounds (the hard way). It is not fun.

So here I am. Doing my devotion and blogs, taking care of the cat, doing some minor housework, and relaxing so I can heal.

Hurricane Ivan, if you haven’t heard, is hitting the Gulf Coast tonight and tomorrow. Almost everything up to central Alabama (including Birmingham) has been put on hold — school and work. And, as predicted, even those people who already have four gallons of milk, three loaves of bread, and enough water to turn the Sahara Desert into a small ocean are clogging up the grocery stores in order to double their inventory.

It’s a hurricane, people. Not a nuclear warhead.

Before I go on — I can honestly understand why central Alabama is shutting down. Flooding and hurricane-force winds are a real possibility, if not inevitable. Authorities and employers are protecting people, and I’m happy about it.

If you’re on the Gulf Coast, you don’t need anything. Drive north. When you feel that you’ve driven far enough, drive another 100 miles and you should be good. You might need enough supplies for a day or two, but that’s all.

If you’re in Lower Alabama (Montgomery and lower) and you plan on staying where you are, then get enough supplies for a couple of days. If something serious happens and you can’t get anything from the grocery stores when this is over, then call your local American Red Cross. They’ll hook you up. I know this. I work for them as a Lifeguard Instructor. If they don’t personally give you supplies, they’ll tell you who to go to.

If you’re north of Montgomery, then protect your house as best as possible against wind damage (i.e. cut down dead trees close to your house, etc.) and sit tight. If by some tragedy something does happen to where you are (no power, no house, etc.) then after it’s over walk to your local emergency center or shelter. You will survive the walk. There’s no radioactive fallout — I promise.

And last, but not least, if your cable tv goes out — please do not call 911, 311 (the non-emergency-but-important-information-number), or your local cable company. They are doing the best they can. They’ll get it on when possible. They’re not going to leave you disconnected. They want their money, and they know they have to satisfy your need to watch the Home Shopping Network at 3 in the morning.

That’s all I have to say — for now — since I plan on enjoying my two free days off.

Most afternoons after I get home for work — as soon as I say hello to the cat — I “rest” for a little while. The only exceptions I can think of are afternoons where I have to cut the yard because I’ve waited *way* too long to do so, and when I know I have to leave in a few minutes to go somewhere.

Now here’s what I mean by “rest.” When I rest, it means my butt goes on the couch with the tv on low volume and I start playing on my notebook computer. And by “a little while” I mean until I go to bed. Occasionally, like last night, I do actually do a little house cleaning, but usually stuff like that gets saved for the weekend. If I end up doing something with friends or going out of town on the weekend that procrastination gets pushed back until the next weekend, and so forth and so on.

This “process” is evident by the State of My House meter, which right now looks like somewhere in between a total nuclear meltdown and my Halo character after Nick has shot me with a rocket launcher.

I’m torn between this resting and actually doing something productive like rewiring my phone system in my house (that’s another story for another day [that day being called Not Going To Go There Day]). But after eight hours of work, and a total of fifty minutes driving time, does a person really want to spend the remaining three to four hours of their day working at home?

It has been a while, hasn’t it?

After almost a month of inactivity I think I’m finally back into the web and blog routine again. I “celebrated” by birthday a couple of days ago and finally updated my website. If you could call it a website. It’s more of just something to keep me busy. 🙂

I put quotes around celebrated in the last paragraph because my definition of celebrating is probably very different than most people’s. This is what I did on my birthday: I slept until about 10:15am, watched tv until noon, went to eat lunch with my friend Nick (I didn’t tell him it was my birthday until after I brought him lunch ’cause I knew he wouldn’t let me pay for it — heh, heh). Then I went home and finished working on the website until Sarah got home. Then I watched tv until I went to bed at 10p.

It was a good 26h birthday. 🙂