The "O" Word
Conservative by Nature, Christian by Choice
Wait!  Where's the pictures?  They're supposed to be right here!  I swear, you can't find decent help these days...

Yes, I Went to the Doctor

June 12th, 2008 . by Cary

But first, let me catch you up, since I know you all are dying to know what I’ve been up to since I last posted.

Actually, I need to start back a bit, like Monday night. I was supposed to put the small box dolly in the trunk of the car for TMBWitW. In between Rodolfo and other projects on line and off, making sure TMBWitW’s ice pack didn’t freeze her or stay on her too long as she slept, and Logan not quite sure whether he wanted in, out, or to just move from room to room, I managed to forget. I lost big time husband points there. (TMBWitW uses an ice pack on her back since the accident; it keep some of the inflammation to a minimum).

So – this deficiency was not discovered until Tuesday morning, when she got to work and expected to grab the dolly out of the trunk to take up to her desk, so she could load files at the end of the day for working at home on Wednesday.

Phone call – my phone rings:
“This is Cary.”

TMBWitW: “Hi honey. Guess what wasn’t in the trunk today?”

“That leaves it pretty wide open, but I imagine you were looking for the dolly that’s in the garage.”

“Uh-huh. So, guess what you get to do?”

I got to drive downtown and pick up her and the box of files, leaving the SUV in the parking garage. No problem, since I don’t do a lot of driving anyway.

Wednesday passed, with her working from home; I did manage to check my e-mail after she went to bed.

Today I went to the doctor. Helpful hint – if you don’t like long waits in the doctor’s office, see about getting one of the earliest appointments possible. There hasn’t been any delays yet, and you’ll be in and out in a timely manner. My appointment was at 0800. I saw the doctor at 0805, we had a nice chat, yadda yadda yadda, I was out the door by 0830.

I know what you’re thinking – “Cary, don’t yadda yadda yadda the visit – we want DETAILS!”

OK. We discussed the migraines that hit me two Mondays ago, and the one from Sunday. We reviewed my meals prior to the attacks, and sleep patterns; he asked about work-related stress, I asked him “What stress? I haven’t had a wood order in months!” and we both chuckled, then he asked “Isn’t that kind of stressful, not having orders?” Well, yes, but I have a 17 month old to keep me happy and well adjusted. He couldn’t tell if there was a pattern, or any specific triggers, I couldn’t help him with that either, since I know what to look out for and I have been eating less, but not not eating, which could be a trigger; I’ve been getting my usual four and a half to six hours of sleep every night (not straight through – dogs, especially Logan, make that hard to happen), and I’ve been engaging in moderate levels of exercise. In the end, he gave me some samples for migraine meds (one, Frova (frovatriptan succinate), I’ve had before, and it works OK if you take it early enough in the process; the other is new to me, Axert (almotriptan malate), and I’ll be carrying two tabs in my pocket just in case).

To seal the deal (and this is the best part) he prayed for my healing. Yes, my doctor is a Christian. He had prayed for TMBWitW to have a healthy pregnancy before she was pregnant, and she conceived shortly after; with a track record like that you don’t turn down this man’s offer for a healing prayer. So – after all is said and done, with the grace of God I will not have any more migraines, there is medicine in my pocket if one does break through; my faith will be the barrier to any more incidents. After a month, if there are no more frequent attacks, then fine; otherwise more stringent tracking and recording will be needed. If, in fact, there is a physical reason for the migraines, it will be outed over the next few months. No neurologist yet, but if it’s necessary, then one will be consulted.

TMBWitW thinks I should have gone to one now. She also mumbled something about “stubborn”, “old”, and “Marine” but that could have been my imagination.

Thank you to everyone who has been worrying about me since I mentioned the first migraine, and thank you for the prayers and support leading up to the appointment. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer, and with your prayers backing me up I have faith that I’ve seen the last of the migraines.

I know what you’re thinking now – “Cary, how do you find time to squeeze all this in?”

I don’t know. I just do. I also try to keep up with the growing piles of fur in every corner (five dogs and five cats generate a lot of loose fur), keep a seventeen month old entertained, stay on top of the laundry (most days), post here, have a talk show on Friday mornings, play TradeWars to keep my mind sharp (oo – that reminds me. i found another trader last night, he was almost as good-aligned as i was – took him out, stole his planet from him, and in the process became one bad dude – i am now an evil trader, and i had to park my imperial starship – only goody-two-shoes traders can fly those. on the upside, i can now trade at a port, and turn around and steal everything back. i’m so evil.)

How is your Thursday going?

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Getting Nostalgic

May 4th, 2008 . by Cary

I have been messing around with computers since about 1982. That was the year the Marine Corps got digitized in it’s maintenance records, and being the MIMMS clerk for the Communications Platoon (along with being the parts guy, and a line company operator, and the Comm Chief’s driver…) I got to make the weekly trek down to S-1 with the disks under one arm. Yes, the disks were large enough to carry under your arm. They were about the size of dinner plates. Huge, really. And they only carried about 256k of stuff on them.

Anyway – I’ve been doing this for a while.

During the late eighties, I was involved in the running of several Bulletin Boards (BBS) while I was living in California. One of the highlights of running a BBS was providing “door” games for your callers. One of the best, in my opinion, was TradeWars, from martech software.

Now comes the blast from the past: The game is still out there. Not as popular as it once was, since everyone is doing the ‘net these days instead of telneting or dialing up their favorite BBS, but it’s still there. I have found a place that has a couple of games going, and I’ve been fooling around on there. you have to telnet “cavebbs.homeip.net 23” (without the quotes) to get there. It’s called the Cave BBS, run by Red Wolf. Registration is free, the board is text-based, and if you have the same memories I do the only thing missing is the handshaking of two modems at the blazing fast speed of 300 bpm.

If you remember the game, pop on in. If you are interested in learning the game, I’m sure I can help out with tips and advice.

If all this is Greek to you, then move along you young whippersnapper you – there’s nothing to see here.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!