Good News and Bad News

I came home to a broken AC and my house is damned near 80 degrees and it's been raining for hours. I hate to think how hot it was before that. While I have a service contract, I'm paying another company to come fix it since the company that has my contract is closed. I can't stay in this heat and I can't even open the windows. It was a repair guy or a hotel. I hope they can fix it.

In the good news department, my blood work came back today. Blood cell counts (red and white) are flawless, sugar levels perfect, cholesterol is 140 and that's after two weeks of eating crap. My PSA was good. So I'm in perfect health according to all tests in spite of the fact my heart isn't beating properly. Ugh.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse....

.... It does. Just remember, you can be happy you don't have my life :/

So today I went for my annual physical (for which I am two years behind schedule) during which they drew tons of blood, did an EKG, examined my prostate (my least favourite part), checked my weight, blood pressure, listened to my lungs, heart, and all that good stuff with a stethoscope, and took a chest x-ray.

Lab results take 24 to 48 hours. No news there. I did warn him that my cholesterol would probably off due to my temporary change in diet which involved lots of mushy foods like mac & cheese and mashed potatoes and other high-carbohydrate, high-fat, high-cholesterol foods. I have resumed a normal eating schedule a few days ago, but I wanted to make sure he needed everything.

Weight -- doctor is happy with my new weight though not so much that I lost so much weight so quickly. I could stand to lose another five pounds but I shouldn't try to do it in a few days. Prostate was fine -- did not enjoy the intrusion. Lungs seemed clear. Scar on lip "could be worse" as far as he could tell but he, too, said "at least your lips line up" -- and they mostly do.

X-ray -- damn near flawless copy of the last one and the baseline. This is good news.

EKG -- doing way better than my age would indicate. So, given all this you'd think I'm healthy, right? Oh, how wrong you are.

I explained all the symptoms I've been having to the doctor. He listened carefully placing the stethoscope over my heart both in the front, back, and also my wrist, neck, and other places. And he heard what I was feeling. I have "aortic premature beats" and what that means is my heart is randomly beating improperly, an extra beat out of sync here and there. That's bad. He wants me to wait two weeks before he decides what to do. Why? He doesn't think the Celebrex I recently started taking could be affecting it because it's simply too soon. What he does think is that the cortisone shot in my shoulder (see previous bitching) is causing it. Apparently, a cortisone shot is a stimulant and can cause an irregular heartbeat and, after careful questioning, he pointed out that these symptoms all started after the shot. He has absolutely banned me from anything with caffeine in it for two weeks: no coffee, chocolate, soda, anything. I am also banned from all cold medications (not that I need them at the moment) because drugs in the pseudoephedrine are stimulants.

Please read here for a detailed explanation. He hopes he finds I am short on potassium, but I suspect not. That's the common cause. If, in two weeks, it's not completely gone I am going to be attached to a Holter monitor for 24 hours for further analysis. After that would be the possibility of a stress test -- which right now would be a bad idea because I would fail miserably. A brief summary of the feeling: Patients with PVC's sometimes report palpitations in the chest and in the neck. Palpitations are discomforting feelings due to forceful heartbeats. The heart beat immediately after a premature ventricular contraction is usually stronger (the heart ventricle contracts more forcefully) than normal. Patients with premature ventricular contractions may report feeling that the heart has stopped briefly. Or, in my case, like a beat has been skipped. And the second mystery is the fact he can hear it, I can feel it, there EKG shows no sign of it. That's odd.

So that's all the news for now. I'll report more when I have it.

Just remember, "at least you have your health."

Fun on an Ugly Day

Woke up and went to breakfast (brunch) at Cheesecake Factory. It ended up being just me and Liz but I had a most enjoyable time and that's everyone else's loss. I had French toast (okay) and bacon (yummy) and a glass of water -- still no hot beverages for me :(

After which, we went to Incredible Ice for skating. While the ice was excellent, it's just too crowded there to have a good time. I made it two hours out of the 2-1/2 before I gave up out of frustration.

On the way home from skating it started to cloud up and by the time I hit the turnpike there was a deluge of the like I've not seen in some time. The kind where cars just pull over, throw on their hazards, and wait. (This being Florida, there are also idiots who drive with their hazards on. That is illegal in Florida. Period.) Hazards are not for use whilst driving unless your car is having mechanical issues. The deluge continued and my neighbourhood flooded. I opened the garage door and the garage was soaked in seconds.

I painted the door from the house to the garage (the garage side) -- first yesterday and second coat today. It looks good (colour) but I didn't do such a good painting job. I'll re-do it. I used the free paint Glidden sent in their promotion. I ordered teal but what I got was something similar but not quite right. I don't mind though. Free is a great price.

As it turns out, I did make it to dinner with everyone (except the Berners) yesterday so that was nice. We went to Lucille's and I had leftovers -- those were tonight's dinner. For lunch yesterday, I also had an unexpected, but short, visit from Jace and Grant who were on their way to the Keys.

I continue to be very fatigued and nap almost every single day. I have rarely napped in the past three decades, so this is unusual. Not long naps (15 to 30 mins) but always between 3 and 6 in the afternoon. I'm just running out of gas. Not sure if it's my suddenly altered diet or something else. I will mention to my doctor when I get my physical. All-in-all, I've been feeling very unwell for the past week -- I get a bit light-headed, not quite dizzy, maybe even a little feeling like I'm oxygen deprived. No stabbing pains in my left shoulder or arm though. I've tried to figure out what these are the symptoms of, but can't get a good match. My two best guesses were concussion or heart-attack but the symptoms don't seem to fully fit either one. The symptoms are closer to the heart attack so I'll see if my doctor thinks a stress test is in order. Ew.

I did my laundry after my nap and have been watching "Cronkite Remembers" on Discovery. They're showing it all day. Yay.

Shout out to Paul: Hope things look up sooner for you.

Tron The Sequel

Yeah, that's right: Jeff Bridges returns to world of TRON, now in 3D! Tron: Legacy is coming in 2010. I am skeptical and excited at the same time. There are some pretty cool clips on YouTube so maybe it won't suck. I saw the original in Manhattan on opening weekend and was shocked way back then to find it was $10 for a movie. It was still $4 back home.

Some dental news: I probably won't need my lip to have plastic surgery unless I am unhappy with how it looks now. So I can live with this scar. The inside is another story and we'll have to keep an eye on that. While my mouth is still very store, it doesn't appear there is too much long-term damage except for that one bad tooth and my lip. The rest will heal although "it will take some time"

My Mac is back to being normal. It doesn't appear I lost any files in the reconstruct, except what was on the desktop, which sucks because my new novel in progress was there and there were damn near 30,000 words. I'll start over when my spirit feels a little less broken. In an odd and likely related event, the font of all my desktop icons has changed. That may not sound like much but in OS 10.5.6 you can't even change it. So something that's not possible has happened. Odd.

Mom came in and we had a greasy, nasty dinner at Pollo Topical (her choice). Ew. Mom gave me some scratch off tickets and I've won $6 which I will collect tomorrow when I go grocery shopping.

In theory I've got company tomorrow until around 1pm or so, and thus have opted out of "moon day" with Evan, Erin, and the Higgi. I'm sure I'll end up being bored. So maybe if someone wants to do something later in the day, give me a buzz. I need to go to the mall and get some birthday gifts and cards.

Maybe God Hates Me

Been a rough year so far. So now, we can add to the pile. My main hard drive on my Mac suddenly stopped working. No idea why or anything. Disk Utility won't verify it.

I think it's probably a complete loss, but am not sure. I do have a partial backup -- but it was backing up when it failed so I have to figure how to restore this. I'm drying to get Disk Warrior to repair it but it doesn't look promising -- it can 't seem to locate the directory data :( I hope I can get Time Machine do a proper restore.

EDIT: I have restored stuff and it appears to be okay except all the fonts on my desktop are weird now. I have no idea why. No more default font.

It's been such a long, rough, year starting with the accident and everything, I actually was thinking maybe God is sending me a message that I've been absent from a house of worship too long. Or maybe he's warning me not to get near one. I can't be sure. I am very displeased right now though, but I've learned never to get that "it can't get worse" thought, because it can always be worse.

I finished the next book in my pile and will move on to a new one this weekend. This one was called Talk to the Snail by Stephen Clarke. I've reviewed his previous books and found them tres amusing and this one is no exception. This book isn't a novel like the previous ones, but an actual discussion of the French from an "Anglo-Saxon" point of view. The subtitle is "ten commandments for understanding the French" and from what I do know, it seems spot on. I rather think many of you might like this work.

It may be a few days before I get to the next one. Gotta rebuild my hard drive first. I'm doing this from my alternate hard drive but all my applications and data are on the one that seized up. So recovering it is a priority.

Shout out to poor Evan who is having a hell of a time with WaMu/Chase. Apparently they've shoved a telephone pole up his arse without the benefit of lube.

Oi! You! Pay attention!

First, today's useful links are to BBC America's website where you can get a list of all sorts of British slang -- at least what's used on the awesome show Skins. I've mentioned this show in this blog before, and it bears reminding you all that it's just great. They use a lot of British slang, and many of these words, you've heard me use before -- some of you giving me quizzical looks. Amusing reading for everyone: A-G, H-P, and last, but not least, Q-Z. Check 'em out and have fun.

Second, Facebook is still borked and you will see this post whenever Facebook sees fit to poll this blog. Which, sometimes, is a week late. Again, follows this blog using your favourite RSS/ATOM news reader or just visit directly at http://www.darsys.net/quagmire.html. Or be patient. Technorati is having similar, but long-standing, issues and is running nearly three weeks behind schedule.

Third, and thanks to Suzie-Q for this, I have submitted my blog to Amazon to make available on their Kindle reader. I'm not sure why anyone would want to read this blog on a Kindle, but it's a cool idea so I thought I'd make it available. Do I get paid for it? Theoretically, yes, but practically speaking, unlikely. If you like my blog, click on an ad or two of interest. Or use the other links provided. I'm not doing this for money, but for fun -- or at least what passes for fun.

Next up, I want to plug the company where my friend Evan works, Barcharts Publishing. They have a new QuickStudy guide for G-Mail that is now available for the very low price of $1.25 to the first 1024 people. Google mentioned it in their official blog in this post where they gave away 1000 copies for free. You can get the un-laminated PDF version for free via a URL in that blog, but splurge and send $1.25 to Evan's company. You know you want to. (I am not getting a cut of the action.)

Ah, yes, Taco Bell ad star Gidget the Chihuahua dies at 15, and this is yet another celebrity death. I had to mention it because those ads ran for a long, long, long time. Quite a bit too long now that I think of it. Speaking of Taco Bell, I still miss the border lite line. Apparently I'm the only one. But that was some tasty stuff.

I watched the two hour season première of Hell's Kitchen last night and I am realizing this season is far more contrived than others. But Gordon Ramsay is fun to watch. I think they pick half the cooks for their entertainment value and not their cooking skills.

My lip is killing me still. But I am going to the dentist tomorrow for him to look at the lip, the teeth, and render a verdict. After reading a lot on-line about busted lips, I realized how serious this can be. There's something in there called the vermillion border. There are some horrific pictures here but you might not want to see them. I feel that this is what part of the problem may be in addition to the teeth/jaw/whatever.

The Victoria Line on London's legendary tube system got the first new trains yesterday, and they'll slowly roll them out. Nobody cares but me. I know. Still there's an article here if you want to read about it and see some pictures and a short Flash video.

Mind The Gap: Book Review

I am reading (still) and have pounded out another book. This one is Mind The Gap by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebborn is set in London. I picked it up last year sometime, but never quite got to it. Now that I am making an effort to spend less time on-line and more time reading and doing other things, I'm catching up. It's the first in a series "A Novel of the Hidden Cities" which I didn't realize when I first got it. It's a murder mystery along the horror genre. At least that's what it appears to be going for.

First, the characters are quite interesting. The lead is a girl, Jasmine (Jazz), who finds her mother murdered and that leads us to the story in which she runs away and tries to find out why. She meets several other characters as well, some of whom should start in their own books. That's how interesting they are.

I'm a great lover of fantasy but this book was much better before the final bit where suddenly it turned into Gothic fantasy instead of how it started out. I just didn't care for the ending so much. But I enjoyed the book enough where I'd certainly get the next one in the series.

I went back to the MRI doctor today. He gave me a cortisone shot in my left trapezius muscle (shoulder if you don't know) and I now hurt more. Blech. I am also prescribed four weeks of physical therapy which I'll try and arrange tomorrow. He also told me to stay on the Celebrex through the duration of physical therapy. I've given up on the worthless pain patches.

My teeth still hurt. My lip still hurts. I have a headache. My antibiotics, thankfully, will be done tomorrow.

In other news, there's quite a row going on about Continental frisking a passenger preparing to board a plane. If you travel aboard on a flight into the USA, you will know that some passengers on the Jetway are randomly pulled aside for screening. This is nothing new. The row is because the former president of India was randomly picked. He submitted with good grace, I might add. However, India is up in arms about this. My feeling is that if you fly a commercial aircraft, you should be subject to the same rules as all other passengers. Then again, the politician is probably low risk -- much like everyone else the seem to pick for screening. However, fair's fair. I side with Continental on this.

I've started yet another book, and am halfway through just from waiting in the doctor's office.

Ouch + Stuff

First, my teeth hurt. Badly. Painfully. I will start to deal with that next week when, I hope, this stupid infection in my mouth is gone and the wounds have started to heal over. I'm sure I need an x-ray but if they touch me there, I'll probably kill them dead on the spot. It really hurts. On the plus side, it looks much better on the outside. The inside, a little. While I do have a whole series of detailed photos of the progression of the wounds, healing, infection, and such I am not prepared to share them at this time. I didn't mention, but there's also an enormous (from my shoulder down to my elbow almost) yellow bruise on the outside of my left arm. One must assume that's where I landed when I fell. It hurts but nothing's broken there. My mouth, I'm not sure and am wondering if maybe something is slightly fractured.

Tomorrow I go back to the MRI doctor again. I was doing okay until yesterday evening. I woke up this morning with a horrible pain in the back of my neck on the left side. It's a different sort of pain than before so I wonder if it's just a pinched nerve.

I have also made an appointment for my annual physical, which is overdue as was pointed out to me by the nurse. I am also going to have my doctor check my other ailments while I am there. He might have some sage words for me (other than eat less, exercise more, lose ten pounds).

Speaking of that, I finally stopped the weight loss. I realize that sounds bad since I need to lose weight, but a pound or more a day is just unhealthy. I was able to eat today. Soft and mushy, but I ate a full-sized ("Eric" sized) meal today. Those of you who've actually seen me since the original fall have expressed alarm at how little I've eaten. While I'd love to lose weight, the lack of strength and energy that has been accompanying it has been not fun. I still can't do hot liquids or anything really cold. But I can eat. Yes, it hurts like hell because of pressure on the teeth (and I am certain I've got teeth problems) but the lip is slowly healing.

I also got my replacement driver's license today which makes me feel much better about driving. And I ate an entire pint of Starbuck's ice cream last night figuring it would fatten me up and help my lip feel better. I didn't lose any more weight as I said above, but it made my lip feel worse. And my teeth, they did protest too much.

Shout out to Erin who had a good day at her doctor (foot/ankle etc). Mom is coming in this weekend and I'll try and see her. My Aunt's been in but was unable to see her due to face pain. I could have seen her today, but she's busy today. Maybe next time.

My trip to Vegas for the fastener show is booked (yay -- thanks Karen) but I've really cut that trip down. My annual trip to Europe is also booked and I am hopeful that goes off without a hitch.

Last night I had a nice dinner with Dad in the Gables at a new place that was decent. I think it's the first normal stress-free meal I've had with him in a long, long time. Of course we discussed work because Dad can't not discuss work, but I'm okay with that.

I'm reading a new book and hope to have a review here soon. I'm going to read more and watch more TV and spend less time online, especially if I can escape the horribly addicting "Farm Town" game on Facebook. Hopefully Facebook will begin taking posts from my blog automatically -- it's broken (again) and that's why you should read my blog at the source and get the RSS feed.

I'm tired of pain. I hurt.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: The Review

Ah, yes, Mister Potter. As has been traditional, I saw the latest Potter film with Jace and Grant. No reason to break that tradition as it's always been a fun thing to do. First, I think I will go on record as saying this 2h 48m monstrosity is the best Potter yet. And I am happy because I really didn't enjoy the last Potter film.

I've always thought Daniel Radcliffe made a great Potter and every film he proves it while Emma Watson (Hermione) is the least changed in her role and that's a good thing, for she is the rock that anchors all three friends. Rupert Grint (Ron) continues to get better as he gets older. Mercifully Tom Felton (Draco) barely appears at all. I guess when you cast a film of kids, you have no idea how they'll look down the road. And poor Neville Longbottom looks like he's play by a different actor than when the films started.

There was, as to be expected, chunks of book just gone missing. But I realize stuff has to be left out. They spend some time on the horcrux(sp?) because it's so important to the book. There are so many characters, very few get a lot of screen time other than Harry, Ron, and Dumbledore. Even poor Hermione is barely in the film. If you haven't read the book the next bit is a spoiler: the death of Dumbledore was changed quite a bit from how I remembered it. I think it was done quite well in the film and do not find any fault at all.

Helena Bonham Carter played Bellatrix Lestrange and she was just awesome. She tore her scenes up like nothing else and I was really impressed. You'd never even know it was her.

One goof I noticed and most Londoners will notice is that this book took place in 1996 or 1997. (Not when it was written, but when it took place.) There is a scene with the Millennium Bridge which connects the Tate Modern in Southwark with Saint Paul's Cathedral and that bridge is destroyed. That is really a neat trick since the bridge wasn't even built until 1999. And I love that bridge. It's amazing.

Had breakfast with Evan and the kids -- no John or Liz :( We then went to skating -- Liz and Brenda didn't join us, nor did anyone else for that matter. The ice was horrific. The public side is just not acceptable any more and we've decided to not return. Pines Ice Arena sucks -- it's a mess and they just don't care as evidenced by their response to our complaints as we left early. We're going to alternate Kendall and Incredible. This will inconvenience everyone, but we just can't skate at a rink where there are speed-bumps on the ice, the humidity is pushing 100% and there's no effort to ensure the safety and enjoyment of the patrons.

I did laundry, went to Publix, and continue to doze on and off regularly. I think it's time I schedule a visit to my GP for a full physical. I believe I've got something wrong with me. This isn't like me. I'll call and arrange it right after my MRI follow up this coming Tuesday. The infection in my mouth continue to improve -- though it doesn't really hurt less. The teeth in that area are killing me and are hyper-sensitive, so that is going to require some attention as soon as that infection heals. They pretty much just throb all the time. I continue to lose weight. I have bought some fattening stuff to eat that I may be able to keep down. While I want to lose weight, a pound or more a day is just unhealthy and my explain why I'm so sleepy all the time, and do indeed doze off, as well as my light-headedness.

Shout out to Evan: Good luck buying the new car. Erin: good luck at the doctor Monday.

The Most Trusted Man In America: Dead at 92

One of the people I most respected and admired growing up was Walter Cronkite. He died a few hours ago.

He was a legendary newsman for whom there is no equal. There will never be someone as trusted as he is again and as such, I am saddened by his passing. This was the face of America for many years, and I grew up watching him. Here's a man who almost never cracked -- though he did when announcing the death of JFK.

Here's a man who changed history by making a statement against the Vietnam war and afterwards, President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." And, sure enough, he had. So goes Cronkite, so goes America. He wasn't one for politics and turned down an offer to go on the Presidential ticket at one point.

Walter Cronkite was that rare breed of man nobody had anything bad to say about. He's an American hero, an icon, a legend, and a singular talent.

An LA Times bio is here for those who want more and of course Wikipedia 's entry as well. I rarely read an auto-biography, but his was awesome. Highly recommended and it's available at Amazon. The link is for paperback, but it's a keeper so maybe you should consider the hardback.

Walter, you're a class act and always were. I salute you!

And that's the way it is, 17 July 2009. (If you didn't know this is how "Uncle Walter" always signed off his newscasts)

In other news: I found a piece of stitch still in my lip which I removed myself. I didn't fancy another trip to hospital. Three, so far, is enough, I hope. My lip is looking better on the outside but you can see I'll be having a ginormous scar. The inside is still infected and very swollen, but I am still taking antibiotics 4x per day. Teeth still hurt, of course. Lots of cleaning and such going on.

Looking forward to seeing Mr Potter tomorrow and this will be my first public appearance since receiving this wound. At least nobody outside of work had to see the stitches. I'm hoping to have a normal Sunday session with the usual gang as well.

All Sorts of Blogger Weirdness

Okay, first some people still can't comment. This is aggravating as hell. I've signed off, signed on, and tried it both on a Mac and PC and have no troubles. Other people do. It seems to be a problem with the comment box issue. Evan e-mailed me and said hitting tab a few times got him to the place it needed to be and it worked fine after that. Not sure if I quite understood what he meant but I hope he explains it here. He's right, though, my comments have dropped way off so there is a problem. Jose said it might be an iframe height (the iframe's id="comment-editor") in my template only my template doesn't HAVE this tag which means it's something that's expanded from a Blogger meta-tag. I am self-hosted and don't use Blogger.

Also, when I republished my blog last time the post count changed. It was very odd. I went exploring and found that a few old posts were there twice and when I republished the entire blog, the duplicates vanished. I had explained that for awhile (see blogger's help forum) posts with spaces in the URL appeared twice "Name Post" and "Name%20Post" which is technically the same thing, but Blogger was saving them twice. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd change services and deal with the loss of page rank.

I will keep everyone updated on the blog situation. I am still wondering what the deal is because, honestly, it was working after I made the big change to the new format. I suspect Blogger has changed something with their meta-tags.

My front stitches are out. Yay. However my infection -- on the inside with the self-dissolving stitches -- is pretty bad. I am on 4x day antibiotics and have been to the ER three times now for this. I have to go back again for a follow up. Also my teeth really hurt so once this is fixed, I'm probably going to have to get them checked by a dentist. Considering I've barely eaten for five days due to my mouth, it's not surprising I've lost six pounds. However, since I've not been using my teeth except to chew mushy stuff and drinking liquids, the fact they're hurting badly anyway is not a good sign. However with this infection inside my mouth, there's no way the dentist can touch the teeth. The aftermath looks pretty ugly, but I hope it heals okay. Lots of scabbing and scarring and such.

Other than that, nothing to report. I am excited about seeing the new Potter film this weekend especially since I was disappointed in the last one a bit.

Hockey and Lips

I went to the local Urgent Care Centre last night and my stitches are infected. Yay me. Blech. I am now on an antibiotic and have to go back to have them removed tomorrow if all goes well. I hope so because they really hurt. They pretty much implied they weren't installed properly, nor was I given proper care instructions for them.

I also went to a presentation on sleep disorders -- that's actually what brought me to the medical plaza -- and it was a bit dry if very informative. I think I'm going to have to sign up for one and see if my snoring and not sleeping are related. It mostly focused on sleep apnea, though I don't think that's my issue. The doctor (a nice South African guy named Dr Lance Cohen) did say one thing that shocked a lot of people. He said that if you have kids and they snore, it's not cute, but a very dangerous thing and you should see a doctor right away. He said small children should never snore (unless they have a cold or something). He said it's a sign of blocked airflow and medical attention is required. I pass that factoid along for my friends with kids.

Today the NHL schedule came out. Yay. Rather than post it here, you can find the Panthers schedule here. I know you all care. I do.

Some people seem to continue to have trouble commenting on my blog posts. I see the comments mentioning it, but I am unable to reproduce this on either a PC or Mac using Firefox or Safari. I have mucked about the settings a bit and hit 'republish' and hope this fixes things for no good reason. Maybe clean your browser cache -- something you should do every few weeks anyway to keep your favourite websites loading properly. Still, I believe it's an issue with Blogger. Sorry.

Bruno, Books, and Stitches

I visited Erin yesterday, we went to Stevie B's for lunch, then we went and saw Bruno (same idea as Borat). It was really, really funny. But both Erin and I agreed it had too much dick. This movie was a vertibale pickle fest. Bouncing penises are not funny. But many of the jokes were. Much more of this movie was staged compared to the first one and those segments are obviously staged. Within the first ten minutes an entire group of six people walked out, and that's a good thing because they mixed the bicycle with the dildo on the end. I wish I had missed it. This movie needed an NC17 and has no business being an R film. It's funny -- hysterical in some places -- but it's very vulgar even when compared to Borat. It's also short clocking in at under 90 minutes.

Also, I had, shall we say, a fall and thought I was okay. As it turns out I ended up in the Emergency Room and now have 9 stitches in my lower lip, and my teeth in that area hurt like all fuck. It was a pretty hard fall. It's all swollen and I can't talk or eat without a lot of pain. Never go to the ER on a Saturday night unless you're bleeding to death. I was, I guess. A second ice pack is apparently too complex. Somewhere along the way, my driver's license seems to have vanished, and I suspect it will not return. Thanks to those who checked in on me to make sure I was okay. Here's the shirt I was wearing with blood-stains:

I have some pictures of my post-surgered face and pre-surgered face but you really don't want to see them.

While I was waiting in the ER I did have the chance to read an entire book called The London Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. I got it in London a year or two ago and then never got to it. It's about one kid who goes missing on the London Eye. He gets on and never gets off -- a seemingly impossible trick on a Ferris wheel. There's another teen in the book who, we slowly learn, is autistic. He's the one who cracks the case because that's how his mind is wired. It's neat because they never actually tell you that he is, you just learn it from reading.

Off to the pharmacy for some antibiotic cream for my lip.

BMW Sucks, Enterprise Doesn't, and Other Stuff

Let's start with the good: Enterprise Rent-A-Car. In a previous post I detailed the misery of the first car they gave me: two flat tires, faulty transmission, broken key, smelled like cigarettes, and was dirty as hell. When I complained they didn't even care and was left on my own to deal with a crap car. I finally found another branch to help me out. When I turned in the car -- three weeks later -- I got an apology and nothing else. I didn't feel that was quite the right way to handle it, and I wrote their corporate office. I was expecting a refund for the first few days while I had the faulty car and an apology. Russ, the district manager, called me today. First, he apologized, sincerely, and said it was inexcusable. He said he had a meeting with the branch that rented the car. He also indicated he had actually checked out my facts and realized I was right. They are refunding most of the money I paid. Not for the first few days, but for the whole three weeks. He then apologized to me several more times, and gave me his mobile number in case I ever had trouble again. The moral of the story is: they care. My first contact with corporate produced a happy result without any threats, yelling, or anything. Good job Enterprise.

BMW, on the other hand, could care less about its customers. I have detailed the issues with my car, it being lost by the dealer, and so on and so forth. I will not recap most of it here. But the bottom line is for nearly a week my car was lost and no work was done. Even BMW can't dispute that because I have it in writing. Yes, I do. Well over a dozen emails where the dealer couldn't even find the car in their computer and asked me for my VIN despite the fact they sold me the car. Today, BMW calls me again. (They had called me before saying they were looking into it.) They told me the car wasn't actually lost, it was just in the wrong lot but they were really sorry for the inconvenience. I had asked for a written apology and a refund of one weeks rental (I did not know Enterprise was going to give me a credit, that happened just a couple hours ago.) BMW's position is that since the car wasn't lost, and I didn't want to drive down to swap cars, it wasn't their responsibility. They miss the fact that it was a one day repair job for which no work was started for a week. The service manager never called, only Tina from corporate. I asked if they were going to do anything other than "make a note in the dealer's record" to which she said, again, she was sorry. The fact is, BMW isn't sorry. They have made no effort to satisfy me as a customer and what does that mean? I won't get another one, all my friends will be told of my horrific experience -- and the 230,000+ people who read here will all hear about it. I'm guessing at some point I might even hear from BMW again, but I've got nothing to say to them except sod off. My next vehicle will be a Rover or an Acura or maybe even a Lexus. It will be pretty much anything except a BMW. The customer is always right, especially when the customer IS right and has it all in writing and can prove it. Never, ever tell the customer "you're sorry" and don't offer to do anything. I do need to point out, I have to go back to the dealer Saturday because the car was returned to me with a nail in the tire (this is a warranty repair and the only reason I am going to the dealer to do it -- it needs to be replaced). If you like service, don't buy a BMW because they do not care about you.

Lastly, Mark Fischel posted this link on Facebook. It's a fantastic article from the overly stodgy Wall Street Journal, and I just had to give it a heads-up in my blog. The OpEd piece by Peggy Noonan details everything that was wrong with Sarah Palin. And this quote made me smile, "In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it...." I think that sums it up nicely.

Shout out to Tara who's getting her first tattoo today. While I think it's a bad idea, I hope it makes her happy. Also to Erin whose poor foot still is making her miserable.

Spud, The Madness Continues: A Book Review

I have previously reviewed the first book in a previous post. I ordered the second book and started reading it a few days ago.

The new book in the series Spud, The Madness Continues is interesting. The first book became famous because of its humour and it was rip-roaringly funny. It was an okay book. The sequel (or continuation really) is not nearly as funny, though it's still quite humorous, is a much better book. Spud, our hero, finally is not a spud. He still got girl troubles and there's far more mayhem but it's not so funny. But it's good.

Like the first book, I'm not sure I'd recommend this book to American audiences if you're not familiar with British English and customs. It's going to be a rough ride otherwise.

Seeing Harry Potter the 18th with Jace and Grant and am very excited. Been too long. I have no shout-outs today.

A special "piss off" to BMW corporate who called and pretty much doesn't care what the dealer does but they'll put a note in the system. That is so helpful. After I get my tire fixed there this weekend (warranty) I'm going to find a new dealer even though I'll have to drive further.

And double "piss off" to DirecTV. I got a replacement receiver for the one that fried. Sent overnight and for free which is great. So you have to activate it after arrival. Their activation system has been down for two days. They have no back up, so I have a brand new working receiver that gets channel 100 and 200 and nothing else. (And this receiver doesn't handle RF remotes which makes me unhappy, but that's a minor detail.)

As for the new meds I'm taking (Celebrex and Lidoderm) I wish to report the Lidoderm is worthless and I am now out $50. The Celebrex isn't helping my neck much but it's certainly pissing off my stomach and making me gain weight rapidly.

MRI Results and stuff

This is post 650 for this blog and the current counter has surpassed 230,000 which is pretty amazing to me. I also wish to point out I am spending too much time on Facebook lately. I'll correct that in short order. Happy Birthday to Jace -- I'm glad you're having one, and I hope there are many more to follow. I have a brutal headache and have taken Fioricet. Good luck to David who's off on his business trip.

I am saddened at the crash of the monorails at Disney (Purple was hit by Pink). One intrepid tourist shot a video just after the crash -- a short way in you can hear security say they just called the EMTs. This video is at the ClickOrlando's website here (you may have to watch a commercial first). It's pretty disturbing that Disney security is more concerned about the guy filming it, than getting passengers off the train or trying to see if anyone's hurt (or as it turns out dead). You can see some tourists trying to rescue the driver. This was at 2am and the very last monorail of the day, so doubly sad, bad luck. Over on YouTube an ex monorail driver explains how this might have happened. The monorail was reopened earlier today.

So I had my MRI results today. Or, to be accurate, the doctor interpreted them today. There is no additional damage to my C1 through C7 vertebrae when comparing the new and old MRI except for what can be accounted for based on my age (fuck you!) The issue I had mentioned before "meningocele" is minor and isn't the cause of my pain. So that leaves muscle and tissue damage. Since the last cortisone shot into my neck didn't do much for the pain, we're trying something else. I am having Celebrex for two weeks (2x day) and a Lidocain patch (1x day for 12hrs). We're going to see how that works. I saw Dr Berkower instead of Dr Cohen -- same office. I liked him okay and he's a hockey fan. He also checked my knee pain out and said it probably wasn't serious and would likely go away over several months: that means returning to the pain level from before the accident.

And for those of you who might be ABBA fans and not on my FaceBook page, there's this word of a pseudo-reunion from BBC. It's in Hyde Park so have fun. I'd go but it's on Dad's Birthday which would be a bad thing.

The Day From Hell

It started off okay. Woke up, had a cup of tea (Decaf Earl Grey) with loads of milk and sugar. I never drink tea in the states, and this is God's way of punishing me for breaking with custom.

Met everyone at OPH for breakfast (everyone: Three Higgi, Three Berners) and the food was fine and the service wasn't as bad as usual. We finished in about an hour, and had some time to kill so we walked around Game Stop and then Lowes. In Lowes I saw some cool bathroom faucets and I had been contemplating changing mine. We went to the movie (Karen met us).

We saw Ice Age 3D which had been receiving very bad reviews. One of my friends really liked it, so I was hopeful it would be amusing. Sometimes one's hopes are dashed to Hell on the rocks. There were some very, very funny moments. The animation was spectacular, and the new character Buck stole the show -- I'd see a movie about him. Simon Pegg played Buck, he of Star Trek (Scotty) fame. I think I'm beginning to like him as an actor. He's 2 for 2 with me.

Many of the reviews said "Yawn of the Dinosaurs" and sadly, witty dialogue does not a movie make. While the dialogue was often funny, the movie was a long bore. Sad a 94 minute movie seems really long -- and no post-credit surprises either. So, I cannot recommend this film.

Anyway, after the movie it was raining and I started thinking about those faucets. I went into Lowes and bought them and all the necessary hoses and such to do the job -- and I bought a new toilet seat too. I figured I'd make my bathroom nicer. I've been here almost fifteen years (Nov 2009).

I'm handy with some things and have done light plumbing work before (as well as light electrical, phone, and data cabling). I figured it would be a half-hour job for each one. I emptied out the cupboards under the sinks and made room to work. I even brought up a small bucket and shop towels -- working with water after all. Then I shut off the water to the sinks.

I remove the drain stop first, then I remove the bolts -- one of which is so rusted it broke meaning I can't put it back together and give up -- holding the fixture to the sink counter. It won't move. Odd. I explore and remove cover plates. I see the problem, and squirt lots of WD40 on it, and the nut moves a little. Finally it comes off. Same issue with the second one. Try harder and harder but it won't move. More WD40. Finally it turns. And breaks. The people who installed it (Lennar) had apparently broken it and instead of replacing it had tack welded it to the water line. Yeah, I broke it. In half. I stop it up quickly -- no damage at all. I am, unfortunately, having to call a real plumber. Which I do. Roto-Rooter to the rescue. I replaced the toilet seat while I waited.

$310 later, the job is done. It took him a long time to fix that spot. Since he was here, he did the other fixture in about 20 minutes. They look nice. And here's a before and after for you to look at, but I'd never attempt this again. Wow.

Click for larger image

I am too tired to go out. I had agreed to go hang with Karen and do some 4th of July stuff, but I just don't have the energy now. What a day. So I decided to watch TV and noticed my DirecTV receiver was cycling lights: first all four video resolutions went red (1, then 2, then 3, then 4), then again in yellow, then again in green. And the TV reported "no video signal detected" -- lovely. That's right no TV -- so I have an old non-HD receiver so it's not quite that bad. But a call to DirecTV indicates that after power-cycling, resetting, replacing the access card, etc. that the damn thing is just dead.

The moral of this story: Don't drink tea when you're a coffee person.

A busy day: Deaths and Cars and such

First, RIP to Karl Malden a fine veteran actor who died today at 97. RIP to another from one of my all-time favourite shows, Mollie Sugden -- the legendary Mrs Slocombe -- who died today at 87: she was one of the highlights of the legendary Britcom Are You Being Served. A sad day and the number of celebrities dying in the past few weeks is phenomenal.

My car is back. I cannot say if they fixed the mechanical stuff but they did find some major computer errors. It was set in 'transportation mode' -- something that was supposed to be fixed before it left the dealer, apparently. This isn't something an owner can turn on or off. They claim it is responsible for my long litany of problems with the car. The basic premise that iDrive still sucks donkey balls even when it works remains unchanged. My car has 12007 miles on it and they feel the brakes (under warranty) will need to be replaced at 13671 miles. Um.... Why not just do it while it was there? So I have to come back. I am not impressed with South Motors.

Every car I've ever owned that was serviced by a dealer is cleaned thoroughly inside before being returned to its owner. Apparently BMW doesn't do this -- though they did offer to drive it through the car wash for me to clean the outside (as it was pouring rain, I declined politely.) Oh, and BTW, BMW corporate has never called me back. They suck too. [BTW, South Motors didn't open the repair ticket until 26 June 09 at 1026 am -- that's how long my car was "lost" while I was paying rental fees. I've not been in my car since around 9 June or thereabouts.]

The body work appears to be fine and everything seems to work well. Though it would have been nice if they body shop cleaned the blood stains from the inside of the rear tailgate where someone obviously cut himself while installing it. I cleaned it myself.

My XM on Sirius package never worked right. Still didn't when I got the car back. I thought it was one of the problems with the car. I called Sirius for the fifth time and got someone smart and we managed to get the damned thing working. She had to call her technical department to get a special reset code which we had to send while the car was running. Yes, smart people in foreign call centres do exist. Yay. Do I get a refund for the one month of missed extra channels? As if.

Eventually, I will send Enterprise as very nasty letter -- not sure if I complained about the rental from hell (two flat tires, faulty transmission, broken key, filthy car with lipstick all over the rear view mirror, and smelling like twin packs of cigarettes). Probably BMW too.

Oh, and my right knee is killing me and am wondering if it's accident related or not. It was hurting a bit before but now one spot is sore to the touch. ::mutter:: And the two teeth the dentist fixed have started hurting again. He warned me he wasn't sure if replacing the fillings was going to work and if it didn't I might need some root canals. Damn it all to hell.

I am trying to find fun stuff to do this weekend but so far Sunday AM skating is all that's up. Am looking to see Ice Age 3D. Maybe visit with some people. Etc. Fireworks don't interest me so much though.