3676 Stuff and things

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.

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I'm sick.  I felt rocky Sunday, nothing specific, just that "uh oh" feeling in my throat.  Monday afternoon I got the hot dry spots in my throat.  Then the cough started, a short dry bark, almost constant.  The thermometer said I didn't have a fever, but I couldn't get warm, either.  Monday night I got almost no sleep because of the coughing.  Instead, I had strange mental visions of waves washing over rocks.  Tuesday, yesterday, the fever and headache and body aches started.  Every bone, muscle, and joint aches.  Even my little finger aches.  Still no congestion, but coughing hard.  My stomach hurts from the coughing.  Aspirin does help the headache, but leaves me lightheaded.

Obviously it's a virus.  I've been gargling with Listerine to prevent a secondary bacterial infection in my torn-up throat.  If I can avoid that, this should go away soonish....

It's messing with my head.  Yesterday I drove to the garage where Fred the van has been for the past 2.5 months to pay and pick up the keys (long story short - the manufacturer kept sending the wrong part, mainly because of confusion over the fact that Fred had been modified for wheelchair use, so some of his parts are not the standard issue).  I've been there many times, but yesterday I kept getting lost.  I had difficulty figuring out where I was in relation to the shop, and at least twice I couldn't figure out where I was AT ALL!  And when I did figure out where I was, I had no idea how I ended up there.  Streets I was familiar with were completely unfamiliar.  Also, on three occasions I had to pull out into traffic, and I couldn't judge the speed or distance of oncoming cars.  That was scary.

I think maybe I shouldn't drive until at least the headache/lightheadedness  goes away.  Daughter is going to pick up some cough medicine for me this afternoon on her way to fetch Nugget from nursery school.

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There are a bunch of sayings about taking the road less traveled, the path least trodden.  From the height of my great age and experience, I can tell you that's bullpoopy (except when it comes to inventions).  You should take the well-marked well-used trail.  Can't tell you how many times I've come to a (literal) Y in the trail, and I took the wild-looking one, only to be asked later, "Did you see the ....?" - some wonderful view, or falls, or whatever.  And of course I didn't. 

There's usually a reason one of two paths is better-traveled than the other.

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Definition of cognitive disconnect, not necessarily irony.

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Observation: Older computer games couldn't be won.  They just got harder and faster until you died.  Just like real life.

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Not to get into a discussion on gun control, but whatever one's position I think we can all agree that unstable, scary people shouldn't have guns.   But how do we identify those people?

I realize this won't work in real life! but it's worth thinking about.  Suppose before someone could buy a gun, 20 people who know him (not 20 he chooses, 20 randomly selected from friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, etc.) are asked, "Do you find the thought of him with a gun frightening?"  If some proportion say yes, say maybe 1/3, then he doesn't get a gun.

I'm comfortable with that.  People who know him, know him best (as long as he isn't a psychopath - those folks can be charming).

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I have "exploding head syndrome".  It's real.  

The Wikipedia article says it's more common over 50, but I've had it most of my life.  The article seems to imply that it happens most often when you're falling asleep. It happens to me randomly maybe once every year or two or so, and it's never when I'm falling asleep.  It's usually when I'm up and at work or home, anywhere, doing anything.  People have brushed it off as a cherry bomb outside, or a backfire, or a hunter in the woods - but there's a BIG difference in sound and feeling between sounds from outside your head and sounds inside your head.  It's very obvious that it was inside my head.  Absolutely 100%.  I can actually feel the bang, but there are no words to describe that feeling.  It's sort of like a pop of invisible lightning in my head.

When it happens, I don't get the fear that Wikipedia describes.  I just pause for a moment and run a mental test pattern in my mind to make sure it wasn't a stroke, and that's it.

You know what really gets me?  Sometimes I'd be mid-sentence and suddenly stop, and the person I was talking with will see me staring off into space for a few seconds (running the mental checklist for stroke), ask why, I'll tell them I heard a loud bang inside my head, and

they proceed to tell me it wasn't in my head, that it must have been outside, even though 

they themselves heard nothing!