Today is my sweetie’s b-day. His live rock and live sand arrived, so he’s very happy. He and daughter just finished setting it all up. Once the filter clears the water again, I’ll post a pic - the rocks are cool.
I made him cuppy-cakes at his request - 24 devil’s food masterpieces - yum! And as soon as he gets cleaned up, we’re going to Damon’s for ribs.
Work was meh. I’m glad to be one day closer to the weekend. Who wants to rub my feets for me?? I’ll be your BFF!!! 
I hate busybodies.
I was minding my own business standing in line at the gas station, and I hear a voice behind me. “Did you vote today?” The voice’s owner was an overaerobicized grannie.
“No.” I used my best ‘I’m bored with this conversation’ tone.
She copped a :dubious: “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you care what happens in Virginia?”
“No, I don’t care.”
She started huffing and puffing, and said no two syllables together that even remotely resembled a word of English.
“Lady, you see that little red car out there by pump #7? If you look closely at the license plate, you’ll note that it says ‘North Carolina’. The last time I checked, it was illegal for a non-resident to cast a vote in a Virginia election. There’s no election today in my home precinct, ergo I’m not voting.”
“Oh.”
She walked into that one, the twunt.
Aww, happy birthday, FCD!!! Congrats to the BusFamily on the engagement of BusDaughter; another happy birthday to PieGrandpa, and gentle get well wishes to Vorlon–so sorry about the shingles. 
I’m finally feeling better, I think. I started taking the prilosec this morning and it’s already seeming to make a difference. And then on top of everything else, the rollator arrived! YAY! My daughter put it together, it will hopefully make a big difference in me being able to get around. It was fairly simple to put together too, but my daughter is talented in things like that, fortunately!
So tomorrow, I’m heading back to work, and will hopefully be able to catch up on all the stuff I’ve fallen behind in. I’ve only been in 3 days in the past week or so. :eek:
Congratulations BusFamily!
Bobbio, today is election day here in Hippy Hollow. I ain’t voting. I haven’t lived here long enough to have a dog in this fight yet.
Fun tidbit: today the local paper ran a front-page story on the Hotel Ugly Yellow. This would be the hotel that a large percentage of the staff at Duckwood left to work at because the former GM of Duckwood is the GM there. These would be the people who royally screwed us by being unclassy* last month, the Busiest Month Of The Mountain Year. There were some interesting comments made about that story by we few leftover Duckwood folks. The comments on the online news story are a fun mix like all such comments. Personally? I wish the best for them, but I’m nominating Hotel Yellow as the Best Local Eyesore in Hippy Hollow in next year’s Best of WNC contest.
*Not everyone was unclassy. Just most people.
Hope the shingles go away very soon, Al (short for Alien, which swampy was trying out yesterday).
Glad you’re feeling better, tarra.
Hooray for engagements, MBG. Congrats to the whole family.
I voted very early this morning. We were electing ourselves 1/2 a new city council and 1/2 a new school board. And there were 3 statewide issues and a county levy to vote on.
I’m not going to work tomorrow, but have to get up kind of early anyway to go take Halloween decorations down.
I know there was more to say, but can’t remember what. Tired.
Back later.
GT
We went to Damon’s for the birthday boy’s supper. It was greatly disappointing and overpriced. But my cuppy-cakes are yum, so there’s that.
I think I’ll knit a little before crashing… <yawn>
Same here. Nothing statewide, nothing in my county, so no voting.
Meanwhile, the POD PEOPLE have been here. The first POD, or I suppose more accurately, the first PODS container has been delivered to our driveway.
DH started loading boxes into it, and it quickly became painfully evident that there is no way we’d be able to fit our stuff into just one of those expensive bins, so we called the POD PEOPLE and arranged to have the soon-to-be full container picked up and replaced with a second and equally expensive one next Monday.
We’d messed with the idea of renting a trailer from UHaul, but when all was added up and found that an 8x16 foot container would only cost a net $900 (only? Oy…) more than a 6x12 foot trailer, we went with the extra POD, which will also mean that we get to keep the piano and a bunch of other stuff. The other benefit is that since we won’t be towing anything, we’ll be relatively footloose and fancy free on the trip, and not needing to worry about maneuvering and parking forty feet of train at every restaurant and motel we visit.
It’s a bit pricey, but letting the POD PEOPLE move your stuff seems to be really easy - loading the thing is certainly easy - you can just walk into it, rather than hoisting stuff up to the deck of a truck or even walking up a ramp. This makes do-it-yourself piano moving feasible and safe.
At risk of sounding like a commercial, the POD PEOPLE have also been helpful on the phone whenever we’ve called to add a POD or change the scheduling of when the POD PEOPLE need to bring or take a POD. Oh, and their PODZILLA is pretty nifty at transferring the POD from their truck to the driveway. as well.
<Looks at clock> At about this time in four weeks, we will be in some place called Tucumcari, New Mexico.
Home. I made Gordie the traditional doggie diarrhea recipe of boiled beef/rice/cottage cheese. I spot cleaned, and will re shampoo the carpet Thrsday, solid stools willing.
Congrats on the PODS, gotti.
Hooray for Buskid!!!
Happy Birthday GrandPie!!!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’.
Need more caffiene and brekkie. Work awaits. UGH!
MOOOOOOM I’m glad FCD enjoyed the rocks and dirt he got for his bday. 
Yay! It’s half-past week! Something happened last week that was so traumatic I completely forgot to tell you about it. No, I didn’t really forget, I have tried to block it out of my mind but it’s there as a reminder every day when I get home…
Last Thursday, I received my first xmas card in the post. In October, people! October! What is wrong with folks? We hadn’t had Hallowe’en, Guy Fawkes night hasn’t been round yet, it’s not even mince pie day. And I have a hexmas card? There is not enough vodka in the world to help me through that one.
Up, caffeinated, off to work.
Priceless
Well, now we know what the problem is! You do not drown you Xmas Blues with Vodka!!
Rum… that’s the ticket.
Congrats BusDude and BusDudette Jr. (hey, a girl can be “junior” too, nowadays, right? Right?!)
I’m at home with the stomach flu, boo. I desperately want to be able to eat something solid and have it stay in my stomach. Living off water and broth is no fun.
::Sends “get well” vibes to Haze::
::And some chicken soup. Well, it is Jewish Penicillin :D::
Ok, strange dream.
I was walking along trying to find my way back onto the Lincoln Highway and my grandpa was with me. I decided that we should take a shortcut through a house. This turned out to be a bad idea as the people that lived there were home and having a birthday party for their dog. The homeowner got so upset that he threatened to call the police. Instead he just ended up calling his workplace and told them that he wouldn’t be in today because there was an intruder in his house. Then he burst into tears. Did I mention that I happened to be carrying a plate of homemade dog biscuits with me? I tried to give them to the birthday dog but the people didn’t trust me because I had broken into their house and they wondered what else I might do. :dubious:
Blurfity McBlurfblurf.
I got a story to tell. Guess I’ll go write it off-line.
Humpty Hump day. Blurf.
Watched the new V last night. Enjoyed it. There were a few discrepancies, and it felt like they fast tracked things for the sake of squeezing everything into an hour, but on the whole so far I think it’s doing the series justice. I hope it lasts.
Pie - That is a strange dream indeed. I don’t think I’ve had many dreams involving canines except one many years ago, where I seemed to be living in a small and none-too-kempt split-level house. One of my ex-girlfriends was there and I guess we got into an argument because she suddenly turned into a barking bulldog. A barking cartoon bulldog. Despite how whimsical and odd it seemed when I woke up, it genuinely freaked me out in my dream.
Hank - Sorry to hear you’ve got the flu. I’d get it checked out to make sure it doesn’t respond to “Sooo-WEEEE!” Not to be alarmist like the MSM or anything. Hope you feel better soon.
VBob - I love it when busybodies get their big noses bit. I always hope they’ll have learned something from their pwnage, but my inner cynic knows they’ll forget about it the moment they escape. Sometimes though I’m tempted to freak them out. In that situation I’d almost want to respond gravely, “I’m not voting because soon it won’t matter. Nothing will matter.” Then, in overly dramatic fashion, spin on one heel and walk away purposefully.
BooFae - We just wrapped our first series of Christmas presents last night. No reason for doing it yesterday in particular, but we had to do them before next week as they’re going to be taken back to the in-laws up north when they come down here for a visit.
Gotti - Wait, when the hell did the pod people get here? And when did their activities become acceptable enough to integrate them into society and allow them to start their own businesses? And more importantly, how long until we’re all one of them? I have to … prepare.
Bluuuuuuuuuurf.
BooFae, we’re seeing Xmas ads on TV already. The 10 months of the year that are Xmas free aren’t nearly enough for me to recover from the 2 month barrage of holiday cheer. Grrrrrrr.
Also watched the first episode of the new V last night. Not shabby. Of course, I was totally expecting it to suck giant hairy donkey balls, so the fact that it was relatively un-sucky is sufficient to impress me. 
Just when the bastiges that comprise TVCTPMO are about to get the upper hand, something comes along in my favor that cheers me up and blows them away. Another one of those occurrences happened last night.
I’ve been having a long dry spell regarding successful IV starts. I’d miss the vein, or go through it, or the vein would blow for no apparent reason. It all added up to about 5 months of 0s in the success column. It was enough to give me an inferiority complex, and seriously consider asking for an ER rotation so I could get some live practice.
Last night was an unscheduled night. The squad has been having scheduling problems, and I agreed to answer any call that came along, but I was not going to be at the station, or even officially on the duty roster.
About 6 PM was a page for a seizure. Buddy Mark also answered right away, so there would be no waiting for a full crew.
Our patient was lying on the couch, unable to talk, and complaining of extreme pain to her right temple. Very unusual for a run of the mill seizure…
I looked her over. She had facial paralysis on the left side, equal strength and sensation in her extremities, was lucid, and could write without a problem. She ended up creating several notes for us. Her symptoms were unusual, but to me indicated a stroke of some kind.
Well, this is it, I said to myself. I’m all she has in the way of advanced care, and Mark has to drive. We loaded her up, and started to work. Vitals, oxygen, heart monitor, and IV.
Our patient, who I soon figured out was a nurse, motioned to me that I should do my IV in her left arm at the elbow. OK, I’ll always take the advice of a patient, it saves me time usually. By golly, there was a vein in her elbow I could tap with a sharpened water pipe. I sat down, prepped her, and got it in one stick just like the textbook showed. I could have knocked myself over with a feather for the success. The tape job wasn’t pretty, but everything held, and we rolled to Bugtussel.
Her pain was worsening, and going beyond 10 of 10, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that except get her to the ER. We were about halfway there, and she began to slide out of consciousness, which is bad. She also was losing strength in both sides; I don’t know if that was a direct neurological effect, or secondary to the altered status. Either way, she was getting worse. We tried for a paramedic intercept, but by the time everyone was talking, we were closer to the hospital than the Bugtussel rescue station, and we kept going.
The radio traffic cleared for that, and there was a new call. “R-23 (Mark), call the Station IMMEDIATELY”, said The Voice Of Doom over the radio.
“Negative. We have a critical patient, and I’m busy right now. I’ll call when we get to the hospital.”
“Copy.” Whoever was calling wasn’t happy.
We had a reception committee at the ambulance entrance, and got the patient inside and settled. I did my brief, and Mark came in. “We gotta go NOW.”
Signatures, collected equipment, and out the door. That was the fastest turnover I ever did, and lots of corners were cut.
Outside, Mark said his mother was in a serious wreck in Suffolk, and she was in a hospital very close to where I work, so I knew it was a long trip. I told him I’ll drive back, and he said he’d do the ambulance turnaround enroute. I’m glad I wasn’t stopped, because I broke several traffic laws along the way, the most major being unauthorized use of emergency vehicles (I ran lights without a dispatched call). I dropped him off at home, and went to the station to do the paperwork.
Halfway through that, there was a silent page for a domestic assault. Dude bit his girlfriend’s left index finger and broke it. Steve the Barber went with me on that one. Cleaned out the bite marks and splinted her hand. She refused transport in favor of a trip to the family doctor today. I was finally home around 11.
Mark was back at the station just as I was leaving. His mom was hit head on, but she wasn’t hurt as badly as originally reported. They were going to keep her overnight for observation, and she was going to be very sore for a few days. A happier ending than first imagined.
And an oddball good night for me, for all the wrong reasons.
Told that same thing to my wife when she had the shingles.
I slept on my stomach for a month afterwards.
Just in case.
The way she kept muttering “Bobbit” under her breath worried me.
My sympathies Vorlon.