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Monday, November 9th, 2009 |
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12:46am
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The Reservoir | |
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Today we finally took the kayaks down to the reservoir. We have two kayaks, (they're my mom's, but we keep them in the off-season since they do no good in New Hampshire when nobody is there,) one single and one tandem. We have these foam blocks that snap into Dan's rooftop bike rack, and since the boat launch area is literally two blocks away, we just put a kayak on the car, put a rope through the bow-end handle, and then whoever sat in the passenger seat held the ropes through the sunroof to make sure that it didn't go anywhere. Dan drove really slow. He took Dominic the first trip and left him there with the kayak, then came back for me and the other kayak. It worked out much more smoothly than we'd expected. The weather was great--cool enough to not need a jacket but also not get sweaty from the exertion of paddling. I got this nifty pic with my phone of Dominic:  Several hours later, we were eating dinner when we heard sirens. Several emergency vehicles came zooming down our street. This is very unusual. Our street only has houses on one side; the other side is just woods for a very long way, and the houses it does have are pretty far apart. And even the more towny parts of town, well, it's a pretty small town. A few minutes later we saw more flashing lights go by. Dominic started telling us what each one was as they went by every few minutes. When he said "that one was a police boat," I had to call him on it. I mean, yeah firetrucks and ambulances, sure, but there is no way that the last set of flashing lights was a BOAT driving down the street! Then he clarified: it was a police vehicle with a boat on a trailer behind it. OOOOOh. I got it. That's when we realized they were headed towards the reservoir. After twenty minutes and several more emergency vehicles went by, we decided to go see what was going on. When we got to the boat launch area there were probably at least a dozen if not fifteen vehicles with flashing lights. There were also several other cars, and a decent number of people milling around. We rolled down the window and asked what was going on. "Car in the water!" was the answer. We pulled off to the side and joined the milling around people (well out of the way of the bajillion rescue people who were doing their jobs, no fear) and watched for a while as at least one, possibly two boats with search lights made their way slowly around in the water. There was a pickup truck in the water. Many of us agreed, in our idle talking, that the way the boat launch was positioned was just asking for a car to be driven into it: it's at a 90 degree angle in the road, so if you don't make a very hard left, you end up in the lake. The end of the bed and the very top of the roof of the cab were all that were above the water line. There was a group of EMTs with a stretcher standing near an ambulance, and they were using the winch on one of the firetrucks (maybe?) to get the truck close enough to the shore so that the tow truck could take over. There didn't seem to be any frenzied rescue activity around the cab of the truck, so we figured probably there was nobody in there. There were rescue workers in scuba gear walking around. They finally got the pickup close enough that the flatbed tow truck could start winching it up. We watched as they did this in stages; water was pouring out from under the tailgate and they had to go slowly or they'd be hauling out a hell of a lot more weight in water than was necessary. Then there was a not-right sound and the truck lurched a bit and stopped making progress onto the tow truck. A moment later everyone was backing away very pointedly, while the folks with the stretcher sprang into action, getting blankets ready on the stretcher and moving it down toward the water. They helped a guy onto it who was holding a white cloth to his mouth. They put him in one of the ambulances and took him away. We stayed a bit longer and the story we got in bits and pieces from people who knew anything at all was that the guy had been hit by something when the pulley broke while they were winching the truck onto the flatbed. We also heard that there was nobody in the truck, and that they'd found/caught the people from the truck somewhere else. Since the truck's doors were closed it made me wonder if they'd stolen the truck and then driven it into the reservoir with a rock on the accelerator or something. When they got the truck out of the water far enough to open the door, a bunch of the emergency crew were looking in, taking official photos, but also laughing and talking about something. One of the people we were talking to was a local reporter and she took down my name for some reason. Not that my story "we saw the ambulances and police going down the road and came over to see what was going on" was interesting enough stuff to put in an article, but whatever. Hehe. The camera on Dan's phone is even worse than mine, plus it was dark, but this is the truck in the water:  Update: news article here--turns out they did end up quoting me! Bahaha. |
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Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
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6:11pm
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Catch-up since Halloween | |
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First off, the party was a lot of fun. A ton of people came, and almost everyone was in costume. We wore the same thing we did last year (except I didn't wear the gloves or the extremely silly crown.) The party was mostly in and around a barn, and the people who live there have two horses. So every once in a while, this huge horse head would come in the window, amid cobwebs and other macabre decor, to snag some hay or just to check out what was happening. It was rather hilarious. They had a truck with a flat bed and then an additional trailer behind that, which were piled with bales of hay. Dan estimates that there were about 40 people on the hayride, and several more walking behind. We rode (I was wearing 5" stiletto-heel boots.) We'd barely gone halfway down the (admittedly long) driveway when a "body" comes flying down on a zip line from out of some trees, and goes right over the truck. Then we passed a guy hacking into another guy with an axe or something--I didn't have a good view of that one. At other points on the ride, we came across other scenes that were set up. In front of one house was a kid who looked about Dominic's age, tied to a slab. As we approached, a guy with a chainsaw came over and cut off his legs. It was a pretty good effect, with spraying blood and everything. At another point, we came across a curiously abandoned car with the lights on and the radio playing. As we stopped alongside, the radio started playing "Thriller" and about 4 zombies came staggering out of the woods and started doing the Thriller dance. There were several more, but probably the best after that was when some guys in masks came out of the woods and grabbed a little girl off of the hayride. She started screaming--this blood-curdling scream--and they carried her into the yard and pulled off her [kind of obviously fake] arms. I about laughed my butt off. Trailing us for some of the way was an alien with a huge head driving a golf cart. After the hayride was over, the kids all went trick or treating more or less en masse, while the rest of us headed back to the barn. The music was on, a few people danced, and we got to meet a lot of our neighbors--who all seem really nice. Dan ran home and got some torches and my fire poi and we went around to the side of the barn to fuel and light them. We played around with those for a little while and people clapped. We both juggled the torches (though I'd have done better if I hadn't already had a few glasses of wine) and I spun my poi without catching my hair on fire. Woohoo! The neighbors said we'll fit right in. Monday I took Dominic to the orthodontist. He'd gotten x-rays and had molds made and so on last time and now we were there to find out what his treatment plan would be, and what it would cost (by the way, if you can possibly avoid it, do not move to a new state in the middle of having braces. Trust me on this.) He said it will be another 12-15 months and just over $1900. Holy crap. We'd already paid the first guy a big deposit and been making monthly payments for well over a year. We were not that far from paying it off. ARG! Next, I went to the hospital to get my first IV iron infusion and a B12 shot. The doctor also had me get a flu shot. By mid-evening, the flu shot was kicking my ass. I felt sore all over, like I'd worked out the day before, but without the benefit of knowing that you earned that pain with some exercise. By bedtime, I had chills so bad I was shaking, even in bed under the electric blanket. Shaking tensed up my muscles, and tensing my muscles made the aches scream. So I was fighting between trying to relax so it didn't hurt so much, and shivering to try to warm up. I ended up crying a little bit, actually. I'm such a baby. I felt a bit better on Tuesday, though still ill. I went to the new psychiatrist that my doctor referred me to, and he put me on Zyprexa in addition to what I'm taking now. Once we stabilize out my brain's habit of racing around and keeping me up at night, he may try switching my Wellbutrin to something else and maybe I'll get my short term memory back! Nothing too exciting happened yesterday or today. I feel worn out and lethargic, but it might be lingering effects from the flu shot, combined with the overall tiredness I always have. I miss my friends in Cleveland. And my friends in Atlanta. And my friends around DC. Still waiting to make some new friends here. Hopefully the party on Saturday will have helped. I got some email addresses. It's a start. |
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10:12am
Mood: |
New Meds | |
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( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) |
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9:06am
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Pinecone is accepting applications again... | |
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This is a US-only company. This is the e-mail I got. Do you know of households that would like to join the PineCone Research Panel? If so, please FORWARD A COPY of this email to each household you would like to refer so that they may click on the registration link shown below. That household should complete the registration form themselves and submit it. REMEMBER THAT ONLY ONE PERSON PER HOUSEHOLD MAY REGISTER. Multiple registrations of the same Household will void all registrations. Here is the link to the registration: http://www.pineconeresearch.com/sig As a member in good standing, you've already seen the benefits of being part of PineCone Research. So please, share the benefits of membership with a friend. Don't forget, please don't tell them about any of the products that you have seen in our questionnaires or tried in your home. Remember, it's important that your PineCone Research survey and product testing experiences remain confidential. </si> |
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009 |
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4:39pm
Mood: |
Better | |
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( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) |
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Sunday, November 1st, 2009 |
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4:34pm
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2 Songs | |
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I "discovered" (ie, heard on the radio) these 2 songs recently and I just have to share them. If I did the whole mp3 player thing, these songs would be among the top played. It took me a while to track down the title/artist of this first song. I heard it on the radio a few times before I could pick out enough lyrics (and remember them more than 20 minutes) to google it. I love the funky beat and the spirit behind the whole song. Michael Franti & Spearhead : Say Hey The way that the lyrics are simple yet complex and syncopated just makes me want to listen to this one over and over. Owl City - Fireflies (embedding disabled) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4JLa0h |
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009 |
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7:44pm
Mood: |
Steroids Again | |
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( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) |
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4:40pm
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Happy Halloween! | |
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We're going to a block party tonight. It should be nice to meet some of our new neighbors. Moving to a new state, which I've done three times now in the last 5 years, means starting over from scratch on knowing locals. This time, I don't have school to put me face to face with people, either. Should be good. |
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Friday, October 30th, 2009 |
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9:10am
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The official list of Trick-or-Treaters | |
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Oh there were about 80 kids! WHOA!!! ( pssst, back here! ) |
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009 |
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12:05am
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Bad Blood | |
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So I went to the doctor today to discuss the results of my lab work. She had me tested for a bunch of things, mostly iron and various vitamins. It wasn't pretty. Her exact words were "I don't understand how you are still able to function." She also said "the tiredness must be killing you." She said that my iron count should be at least 80, taking into account that I'm a vegetarian, but mine was 17. Vitamin B-12 should be between 200-946 according to the lab report, but mine is 168. Vitamin D should be above 30; mine is 11. She actually left the room to make me an appointment for immediately after I left the office to go to the hospital, get the iron checked once more, and then see a hematologist there. She was recommending a blood transfusion, but said the other possibility was intravenous iron treatments. She also wants me to start getting a B-12 shot, and is giving me prescription strength vitamin D supplements. I left the doctor's office and went to the hospital (the same one where Dan works, incidentally) and had the blood drawn. It was labeled "STAT" with instructions to phone the results to the hematologist, and she wrote the hematologist's cell phone number on the lab order. After they took the blood I went to the hematology/oncology place at the hospital to see the doctor there. He said he was on the fence about the transfusion vs the intravenous iron, and left it up to me. Since I have O- blood and I know that's valuable, and there is always a blood shortage, I figured I've lived feeling like this for several years already, a few more weeks is not worth using blood that could be saving someone's life. I get my first of five IV iron treatments on Monday, along with my B-12 shot. Just before I left, Dan showed up. He was getting off of his shift and walked over to see how I was doing. He chatted with the doctor for a few minutes, then drove me to my car (it was raining and he gets to park closer to the hospital, being a doctor, than I do, being a mere visitor). Tuesday I will see the new psychiatrist to see what he thinks about my medication situation. Maybe we can find something that still makes me feel human like the Wellbutrin does, but without the really irritating memory loss issues, and that also addresses the mood stabilizing part of being bipolar. Wellbutrin is just an antidepressant, so it doesn't treat the other half of my problem. The sleep study pretty much flat out concluded that the reason I can't sleep (and it definitely concluded that I don't sleep for shit) is because of a "mental disorder"--basically, my bipolar brain won't turn off and let me sleep. Now that I have insurance and can actually go to doctors and have tests and get treatment and medications, maybe I can finally straighten this stuff out and maybe I won't be exhausted all the time (from both severe anemia and lack of sleep)... I can't even imagine what that would feel like. I don't remember not feeling exhausted. For blood nerds: RBC: 3.87 (4.0-5.2 norm) HGB: 9.7 (12-16 norm) HCT: 29.7% (36-48% norm) IRON: 17 (37-145 norm) |
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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 |
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4:26pm
Mood: |
Stray Cat | |
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( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) |
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 |
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10:45pm
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Gonna teach! | |
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Today I had an interview at the community center. They currently offer art classes for 2-4 year olds and for elementary school kids (through 5th grade) but that's it. They were looking to offer some classes for older kids and adults. The art teacher at Dominic's school gave me the tip on this, by the way. So anyway, starting in January they're going to offer painting classes taught by me! There will be two adult oil painting classes, one in the middle of the day and one in the evening (she said that those are totally different demographics--people at home all day trying to find things to do vs people who want to do things and have to fit them in after work) and an after school class for middle & high school kids that will cover the basic principals of design, composition, and basic drawing, finishing with the basics of oil painting. The classes are all once a week for 2 hours, for 8 weeks. We're setting the minimum class size at 4 and the max size at 12. Hopefully we'll get the minimum 4! This should be fun :) |
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