Monthly Archives: December 2003

It was “fun” going running today. It’s an out-and-back route, 1 1/2 miles on the road, the rest on a gravel road, and it’s uphill most of the first half. Foolishly, I tried to stay on the sidewalk on the way up and found the worst traction was ice on the sidewalk. The roads were mostly clear. Much of the run was on choppy ice, the kind that forms on churned up snow. And now it’s snowing again! What I like most about rain is that you don’t have to shovel it. And this is my last day of diagnosis ignorance. Tomorrow I find out what the doctor has found … Continue reading →

Yesterday I saw our former State Representative, Chris Beck, and I was thinking there’s a lot of things I do for friends that I wouldn’t do otherwise. I hate cold-calling, and I don’t really like getting anonymous phone calls, but I sat in a call center and made campaign calls for Chris. Why? Because he’s a friend (though not a really close friend) and he asked me to. I’ve worked on a yacht’s “sewage” system, sat in hospital waiting rooms, and driven around the airport for an hour all for friends. I certainly wouldn’t want to do those things for myself. So, here’s something funny. My sister got a letter … Continue reading →

I’m doing nothing but sit at home all day watching TV. It’s rainy and cold outside. I realized that this is NORMAL. It isn’t because I’m sick, it’s because it’s the holidays and it’s miserable outside. Everyone is out with their families and I’m just hanging out. I’d go down to the pub for a beer, but it’s POURING outside. Ah, yes. I remember the last time I was unemployed in the winter. I’d only go outside to get a cup of coffee every day. So this is normal. Boring, but normal.

My friend called right after I got up this morning and dragged me out for a walk in the woods with his 6-month-old daughter. She was quite fussy towards the end of the walk, and it was because she was gassy. It made me wonder how old we were when we decided that passing gas is funny. I’m glad gas doesn’t upset me as much as little Thea, because my friend bought me dinner tonight that included garlic mashed potatoes. Garlic anything pretty much gets me going. I spent most of the day helping my friend increase his couch-potato-ness by hooking up a dual-LNB to his new DirectTV converter/TiVo. There … Continue reading →

Merry Christmas to whoever is reading this, and I hope your holidays are going well. But it isn’t going all that well for everyone. My neighbor passed away this morning. My friend’s sister is in the hospital with the ‘flu and possible heart problems. There isn’t much I can do but try to be supportive. But today, all I did was watch movies, movies, movies. Scrooge again, A Christmas Story, Vertigo, Arthur’s Perfect Christmas, and parts of something that seemed like a Korean kung-fu movie called Volcano High that was on MTV. I’ll get away from the TV tomorrow. (I have to help a friend fix his DishTV installation.)

I had the choice of watching A Christmas Story that added 38 minutes to a 82 minute movie, or It’s A Wonderful Life where they added 49 minutes to a 131 minute movie. Basically, it came down to watching the movie that they only show once a season instead of the movie that that’ll show repeatedly for 24 hours. And I already watched Scrooge from 1951, which is my favorite version of that story. Yay for all the movies I’ve been watching. Parts of You Only Live Twice, and Thunderball, and even Diamonds are Forever. And I kind of want to see Love, Actually, tomorrow.

I forgot to mention yesterday that my sister lives in Paso Robles, CA, where all the earthquake damage occurred and, sadly, two people died when a building collapsed. Fortunately, she’s fine. Today I spent the day waiting for a friend to get out of day surgery. She was scheduled for a 2 or 3PM, but she didn’t get in until much later. The recovery time kept getting pushed out, and she finally got out after 9PM. I was hanging out with her husband (my buddy Greg) and her daughter Bridget and we were running out of ways to kill time. I hope those two don’t drive her crazy, since she … Continue reading →

I suppose the worst part is not knowing. Since I never made it into med school, I don’t know if my problems are unique. This latest thing about my kidney function was really freaking me out until my buddy Greg told me he had the same diagnosis once. He didn’t drink water for a couple of days before a urine test, and they didn’t want to hire him because they thought his kidneys were failing. On a drug test, he tested positive for salt. He rehydrated himself and they haven’t found any problems since. That was about seven years ago or maybe more. I’ve been waking up early and don’t … Continue reading →

I went running today, and it was at a pretty slow pace since I’ve been slacking for several weeks. I had to take it easy because my back still hurts and my knees started to hurt. I’m guessing my back hurts because I’ve been sitting in front of my computer screen for a couple weeks, avoiding the world. But I’m not that tired, and I feel good. The worst part is that I probably am not that much slower than I was before. Andiamo.

I really haven’t been doing much. Seasonal depression and all the good news I’ve been getting lately are contributing to my lethargy. However, it does seem like I was dehydrated. I stopped running a few weeks ago because of the weather and because my doctor was stressing me out, and I haven’t been as thirsty. For that reason, I haven’t been drinking as much water. I wonder if 12 glasses a day is overdoing it. At least I’m going to the bathroom more regularly again. And other than that I have nothing. My back is sore from the bone marrow biopsy. I’m still pretending that the doctor is wrong and … Continue reading →