Also pretty hilarious; at some points I had trouble breathing. Yes, I am an insensitive jerk; why do you ask?

I'm on somewhat of a Vietnam War kick at the moment...
( Would you like to know more? )

Got a fresh box of needles today, and just in time, too, since today's outings included a trip to Wal-Mart to get some generic syringes. Stopped by Harris Teeter to cash in my Sub Club points (a fig on thee, Subway!), test their chili (mild, but not bad), and pay the ignorance tax for this week.

The online job fair I thought was today is actually next week. :(

Note to self: pita bread is a lot denser in carbs than it appears to be. I can't think of anything else that would explain yesterday, because I just shouldn't have been that damn tired on 6 hours' sleep, and I recognize that logy sleepy feeling all too well. For the record, I got home from the interview and exchanging moldy pitas for good ones at around 1300, ate the rest of the hummus and a sandwich, and then just kind of sat there in a sleepy daze until finally giving up and going to bed around 1800. Slept until 2200, got up, ate a belated dinner and took meds, and wound up going back to bed for another five hours of sleep at 0500. I feel okay now, and my blood sugar is down from yesterday morning, but I didn't like the way that felt, no sir.

In other news, the legs are getting better after backsliding a bit. I think the generic Allegra is helping with the scratching problem. Still haven't managed to get the scale put together.

Up for no good reason at 0600; couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and did the breakfast thing. Blood sugar was very good, down to 144. You'd think I'd had a full night's sleep or something. Also, the legs are continuing to heal up nicely. At this rate I may be able to hit the pool soon, which would be a Good Thing.

I guess today I'll go out and get the paperwork started to transfer my medical records from Kaiser to the VA. It's pretty annoying. If I want a copy, it's about $25 for the first 50 pages and $0.25/page after that, and of course it's not available in electronic format, even though that's they way they store it. Bastards. On the other hand, if my doctor asks for it, it doesn't cost anything. This is the sort of horseshit that makes people wonder how things could possibly be worse if the Feds were running the system.

Also on the agenda today is refueling the Sportage, filing my unemployment forms for this week, checking in with my agencies, and staying dry, which is going to be an achievement since it was raining when I woke up and is expected to keep raining all day. No idea yet what I'm doing this weekend; hopefully getting the Failbox whipped into shape will be part of the goings-on.

Got the Failbox home last night but decided not to set it up since I'm only going to be unhooking it and hauling it off to brian_edminster's joint in a few days (or a week, depends on his schedule) so he can walk me through the BIOS flush and whatever else we need to do with it. Frustrating.

Long exchange of letters with digex and others about weight loss, DIABEETUS, diet and exercise, since we're in pretty much the same boat. digex has been more aggressive and program-oriented than I've been, to say nothing of more strict about the starches & sugars,so he's made a lot more progress, but it's an example I could stand to follow.

Fired off some more resumes, went to the bank to get more quarters (which it turns out I didn't need) did laundry, found my pistol (which I had absent-mindedly stuck in the closet after the last range outing) and am going to call it a night. Going to rise tomorrow, call in to the agencies, and do some major cleaning around here; maybe rearrange things a bit and get the remaining bookshelf assembled. God willing, I can dispose of 3-4 boxes tomorrow.

Blood sugar finally down(!) to 175 this morning, but I don't know if that's because I'm using "fresh" NPH or because last night's dinner was mainly broccoli and carrots with a sandwich as an afterthought. Either way, I didn't sleep as long or as late as I have been of late - woke up around 0800 and did breakfast around 0900. Printed out the deferment form for Wells and a strong letter to Fairfax County, both of which will require a trip to Staples and the post office later today.

Thinking about leaving the laptop behind and just taking the Centro, which would leave you loyal readers at the mercy of LoudTwitter for this weekend's entries. So far I'm just thinking about it; we'll see what gets packed tomorrow morning after I get back from my appointment with the doctor at the VA.

Going to do the weekly sweep through CareerBuilder and Monster.com in search of work today; will probably file the unemployment report tomorrow morning, especially if I decide to leave Cowzilla behind.

Arrived at the office this morning to find that it was my last day, which they didn't require me to hang around for. Bob was surprised that I only had the radio and power strip to take home, but I've been expecting this since February. It would have been dumb to have piled up a bunch of crap, and rude to Tammy besides; the desk is her space, and cluttering it up with my shit would be Wrong. I am, after all, a professional. So I said my goodbyes, left my number with Tammy just in case, went downstairs and said goodbye to Sue and the boys in the body shop, and promised that if I racked up a truck, they'd be the first to know. :)

After that I headed over to the VA clinic, put in an order for syringes, and got a week's worth to tide me over until the new ones arrive. I also called Accountemps in Alexandria and made an appointment to come in and reactivate my file, which hopefully will yield me an extra week of pay on top of the week's severance I have coming from Wilbar. I'm going to need it, since the Sportage's starter switch (fortunately not the starter itself) is fried and will cost $250 to replace. I'm also having them look at the turn signal and dome light while they're in there messing with the wiring.

Finally stopped off at the library, dropped off the old stuff, and picked up Neal Stephenson's Anathem, Brian Doherty's Radicals for Capitalism (subtitled "A History of the modern American libertarian movement") and two books by Michael Flynn, The Forest of Time and other stories and The Wreck of the River of Stars. Strangely, the Alexandria Library doesn't have his Firestar books.

Well, now to eat lunch and turn my attention to the Serious Business of the day, which is updating my listings on Monster.com and related sites, checking Craigslist for promising ads, and generally firing off resumes and applications in all directions. Wish me luck, f-list.

Got up at the wretched hour of 0600 feeling more rested than I had a right to be, and headed off to the VA Clinic. It was your bog-standard first appointment with a new doctor in a new system; lots of medical history talk and tests, and a lot of things left up in the air until next month's appointment. Anyway, looks like I'll be re-starting the Cozaar since Dr. B is not pleased with my BP, and depending on how the tests come back I may be going on statins to whack on my cholesterol. GIVE ME EGGS AND/OR GIVE ME DEATH GOD DAMN IT The VA also inflicted a new glucose meter - my third in as many months; Tammy suggested that I ought to have a yard sale for the old ones. It's occurred to me.

I'd skipped breakfast in the interest of having a (nominally) more accurate A1C test, so I stopped at Uncle Roy's on the way to work, which was every bit as dull and boring as I expected it to be.Tomorrow will be a little different; it has finally occurred to Henry that we ought to have an aging file for Commercial Body, and so Tammy and I will be setting that up tomorrow. Probably in Lotus, because Bob would probably have a stroke otherwise.

I'm thinking that I ought to go out and do some shopping tonight, but Lord, I am tired, and there's nothing I need right away. I can always shop tomorrow, right after I drop the new pants off at the tailor's for hemming.

I don't know why I waited so long to do it, but I submitted paperwork this morning to get medical care through the VA. There's a small clinic not too far from where I live, off Telegraph Road, and I should be hearing from them next week. I'm getting to the point where I do need to0 see a doctor or an NP since all my prescriptions are expiring and I'd like to get weighed, get some blood tests done, and talk to a medic about what it means before they sign off on some more prescriptions. As much as I disliked government medicine, I don't have much of a choice at this point.

Work was pretty much a waste of six hours. The phone/computer hookup has gotten screwed up somehow, so the guy who originally set it up is coming out Monday morning to unscrew it and hopefully tag the wires so this doesn't happen again. Tammy and Bob should also be back; she's been out these last three days because of her grandmother's death and funeral.

Among last night's library gets was Hal Colebatch's Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War.
( So how was it? )

I'm a little wired from all the black tea and DayQuil I've been ingesting since eating an early dinner at 1620 and going to the Night Job shortly thereafter, but I think the stimulants will wear off in the couple of hours before I crash. Night Job was pretty dull; we had some walk-ins but it wasn't nearly as crazy as I'd been led to expect it would be. Heck, it wasn't even as busy as last night. So I stayed for a couple of hours until Deb came in, hung out talking to one of the tax preparers (who turned out to be from Haverhill and a descendant of "Fightin' Joe" Wheeler) about Civil War stuff, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and other weirdnesses for about an hour before heading home.

So here I am...going to take advantage of the early time off and go to bed early.

Got up this morning feeling okay, and am heading off to the Day Job now - with DayQuil. Just in case. Still coughing a little, but that may be from burning the toast this morning.

Good luck to edminster, the Other McCain, and everybody else going to today's Tea Parties. I'm with you in spirit, and praying for you. Call us terrorists, will they? I say: WOLVERINES!!!

Well, I managed to last about 7.5 hours at the Night Job before giving in and going home for another shot of DayQuil. I think I'll sleep okay in spite of the phenylephrine; it doesn't pack the same punch as the old pseudoephedrine. Unfortunately the Dayquil (God, I hope it's the DayQuil) is pumping up my blood sugar. One problem at a time.

Came home, opened mail, answered a bunch of surveys, and applied for some jobs with the Feds. Going to eat something, shoot up, and then get horizontal for the night. Hopefully tomorrow will be less full of sneezing, mucus, and coughing.

In the meantime, via Cobb, Andrew Klavan explains it all:


Moe Lane notes the Congressional killing of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which among other things will get those miserable little poor kids out of the school President Obama's kids are attending. Can't have the po' folks getting above themselves and associating with their betters, eh, Speaker Pelosi?

Moe also notes the presence of the Virginia Tech killer in the latest Niven & Pournelle opus. (Yes, it's on my shopping list.) Then there's the exploding squirrels...

Meanwhile, Ace notes that The One has become his own plastic turkey. Kind of hard to fake those "spontaneous" photo ops when lots of folks who don't much like you are on site.

Even more amusement from this YouTube video. Best summary:
"At 1:08 he whips out his own business card, which bleeds Holy Water, destroys your enemies, and can save your life if you're ever thrown out of a jet. It is at this moment that you will fall in love...with the idea of punching him in the jimmie as hard as you can." (Ace)

Unfortunately he doesn't give this story both barrels as it deserves, but the Other McCain gives a useful roundup of links pertaining to the DHS asshattery that considers all conservative opposition to the Obamagenda as "terrorism". (You may already be on the TSA watchlist JUST FOR READING THIS LJ, BWAHAHAHA!) And so R. Stacy McCain hits the road for Alabama with this song blaring from the speakers. (You were expecting "Bohemian Rhapsody"?)

Already it sucks. Woke up late, thrashed around trying to find things, finally managed to get on the road and into work ~0900 only to get sent home by Henry half an hour later since I was quite obviously sicker than shit. Going to make a quick run to Walmart for Day-Quils, chicken soup, and whatever other essentials I can squeeze out of a $10 gift card.* After that I'm going to be horizontal until I have to get up for the night job. BJ & Deb are both supposed to be on tonight, but I figure Olesya will need the help since it was apparently seriously crazy from noon onwards. So if I work from 2-7 or even 2-6 that'll allow me to be helpful and get in some more hours before tomorrow night.

If I had any brains I'd just stay home and try to get better, but we all know the deal with that.

*It took MyPoints over a week to cough it up, which is pretty slow for them. :(

Slept in for a couple extra hours on account of waking up with a bit of sore throat, which worked. Inhaled breakfast, scanned webcomics, mail & LJ, and now I'm off to do laundry and get the Winbox slapped back together. The rain seems to have quit for now, thank God.

Work tonight, probably starting around 5 depending on how the box-fu and laundry go.

( Cut for grotendous medical stuff )
So now I owe Inova at least $700, which they won't be seeing any time soon unless I either hit the lottery or get a really good job in the near future. Maybe the VA will cover it, if I can ever find time to get to the local veterans' clinic and get signed up.

E-filed my taxes tonight since the wretched financial excesses of Detour weekend wiped out the contribution I had planned to make from my 401k, which would have reduced my taxes some. What the hell; I only owe $254 to the Feds and $61 to Richmond, and I don't have to pay the latter until May 1. It could be a lot worse.

Bedtime comes now.

One last post before I get off the intertubes and get to packing. I hadn't heard about phage therapy for wounds, but it doesn't surprise me that the FDA are being a bunch of bureaucratic cock-blockers. Just think, if they'd been acting like this in the 1930s, we might just about have permission to use penicillin by now. (Instapundit, and I'll second that "Faster, please.")

Woke up this morning feeling like shit - sore throat, aches & pains. Called in sick and slept in until 1230. Feeling marginally better now after showering and dressing; think I'll check the blood sugar, eat a sizable brunch, and maybe go in early to the Night Job.

I'd listen to Rush, but the stereo is in the bedroom and I don't want to crank it loud enough to hear over the noise of cooking/in the living room. One side benefit of leaving Wilbar is that I can bring the radio home and put it in the kitchen...somewhere.

Could not get to sleep last night - allergies/cold/flu were making me miserable but unable to sleep, so I wound up reading Schlock Mercenary and inflicting edits on Wikipedia and the TV Tropes wiki, especially the David Drake page and The General page. On balance, I would have been better off tossing and turnnig half the night.

Moving on to the work of the day...the day job passed like several geologic eras. Training people is no big deal, but it's hard to explain things when you can't think straight and your brain is full of mud. Left early after supervising the new gal's bashing out of manual checks, swung by Shilla to pick up delicious caek for my brother, who is 41 today.

Also another year older (but hopefully not deeper in debt), revolutionaryjo, who is 21 or thereabouts. W/E; I can't be arsed to keep track of womens' ages once they can buy their own booze. ;)

Finished inventorying the CDs (more like empty cases) in the hall closet, which is where they're all living these days. Man, losing those CD cases in the move really kicked the crap out of my music collection. See, the original plan was to rip all the music onto one hard drive and keep the CDs as backup, which was great as long as I had the original CDs. Unfortunately that's no longer the case for 2/3 of the music I own, so I guess it's time to start rebuilding the collection. More expenses I didn't really need. *grump* Well, I'd better write it up and drop it into Excel so I can quickly search for what I'm missing.

Meanwhile, staying awake to outlast the rush hour so I can cross the river, deliver caek, and pick up a bunch of books for sale on Half.com.

Made it into the Night Job this morning only to find out that the office manager had had a senior moment and forgotten to tell me that she'd scheduled BJ for Sunday, which made me superfluous. Called her at home to confirm this, and also found out I'd been scheduled to work a week from Friday, when I'll be in St. Paul. FUCK. We talked about this. A month ago. Well, I'll work something out with BJ; probably wind up working Monday/Wednesday/Thursday that week instead of M-W-F. This cuts my hours pretty severely, and I'm Not Happy. I'll talk about this to her when I come in Tuesday...and I think I'm going to start coming in at 1600 if at all possible. I need me some hours.

Used the time wisely by going to Wal-mart, finishing my shopping, and getting quarters for laundry, which is running now.

I am not surprised to see that the media gave far more coverage to the forty losers who showed up for ACORN's "Richhunt" bus tour of AIG execs' houses than they did to the "Tea Party" protest in suburban Richfield. I am surprised that ABC noticed the discrepancy. Maybe they're trying to stake out some space between CBS/NBC/PBS and Fox? Meanwhile, this seems apropos.

Finally, today seems to be the start of allergy season. I see many boxes of loratadine in my future.

Whoever rorschachsdiary is, he sure has the character nailed. I present today's entry as evidence.

Went to Walmart at lunchtime in search of the ReliOn glucose monitor, only to find they were en route and had not been delivered to the store yet. Wound up buying a new AccuChek monitor (whose price will be rebated to me) and a box of refill test strip drums for far more money than I intended. Still, I needed the meter. Trying to live with diabetes without a meter is much like driving down the road without a functioning speedometer, only worse.

New edition of EVE doesn't work on Cowzilla, whose graphics card is merely adequate and not shiny enough to process the oodles of texture & other graphic awesomeness in the Apocrypha Edition. Fuck you, CCP, for not throwing the rest of us a bone and letting the regular display modes be supported for a while longer. Until I get the Winbox back, I guess I won't be playing EVE, and this sucks.

How Soccer Explains The World is okay so far. Kind of lightweight, but Foer did obviously do some of his homework before getting to know the hooligans of Glasgow, Belgrade and Chelsea, to say nothing of his adventures in Brazil. More later.