a blog to keep me sane in not-so-sane countries. also, updates on where in the world i am. other than that, general commentary, random hyperbole (you might even get a bonus hyperbola as well), maybe some verse, hopefully some funny regional photos, you never know.
keep track of my weight loss by clicking here. it's an online graph that tracks my weight loss, goal weight, and BMI. give me shite whenever you see me slacking, send congrats when i'm doing good, or lend moral support when i'm hitting a plateau.
wow, it's been a while. i'd like to blame being busy as to why i haven't updated. i'd like to blame trips to the hospital. i'd like to blame work. despite all of those being partial causes, the biggest cause was laziness. a brief update on the latest news...
in november, i finished work in egypt and went on holiday in jordan and spain. i have pix i still have to post. TheMom had a heart attack and i had to come home. TheMom got better, and i got worse. in february, i was diagnosed with diabetes. what kind? they can't tell. i've since regulated it with insulin, and i think if i get to exercising regularly i think i might even be able to come off that. i did a few small jobs around the US. i worked in oswego, NY where TheDad did some philandering. i worked near tampa, FL, and visited TheBrothers in Ft. Myers, then TheMom had an episode of flash pulmonary edema where she stopped breathing. i rushed home, she got better, we took her home, then a few days ago during a sleep study, she had another episode. Now we are waiting. That's the latest.
Today is the 5th anniversary of NT. It would've also been the 62nd birthday of TheDad. Today, TheMom is having her pacemaker/defibrillator installed (?). I apologize the TheSwedishChefDave who's been dogging me to blog while calling me out on my Mafia Wars addiction. i apologize to my loyal readers for slacking off, i'm really going to try to do better. i have a few other friends who like to call me out for my excuses (i claim my organizational OCD has gotten the better of me since several things need organized, but then that turns into an infinite loop, and i get caught up). they may be making a breakthrough.
sadly, with TheMom's surgery and the few other things i have to do, this update is about over. until next time, here are a few pics.
the superbus... seen at the OSU spring game
it's NEVER lupus! i saw this lovely piece of graffiti every time i went to the ex-pat bar in alexandria, egypt. so that was... rather often.
THIS is the effect of the 9/11 mandatory road naming. good lord!
this is so damn close to how i think i'm going to end up, it's scary.
TheMom and i found this lady driving through the bank drive-thru in her "hover-round"
happy anniversary to NT! my resolution is to make sure i don't leave you so cold and lonely anymore. love y'ns.
so, my trip down to tampa was more sociable than usual. what seems like eons ago, i was working in trinidad, and i’d taken a book about how to make people like you, or how to start conversations or meet people or something like that. i don't remember much about the book except that the author used several really weird terms like "have sticky eyes" and "have a whatzit". the one thing i took away from the book is the "have a whatzit" to start conversations. that was easy for me because i like gadgets.
on the flight from pittsburgh to DC, i was seated next to a middle-aged woman who noticed my kindle DX. i was testing the DX because in the "portait" position, it shows an entire page and also what page you are on out of how many the book has. when you turn the kindle to the "landscape" position, the text turns accordingly, but it also sizes up the font. for some reason this does not change the page count (i determined that you have to use the joystick to scroll down the page in this position). the lady next to me noticed my experiment and asked how i liked it. i told her it was good, but no backlighting. she told me she was looking for an e-reader for an elderly friend of hers who wanted to learn calculus and figured and ebook would be the best way. i don't know why i didn't go further into why an elderly man would want to learn calculus. my excuse will be that i was nervous that i was having to converse with someone without prior preparation. i let her check it out, she apologized several times about interrupting, but i had no problem with it. i learned she works for a company that organizes clinical trials for HIV/AIDS treatments, and they are showing some promise in, not a cure, but a drug that makes it more difficult to transmit. fancy. as our conversation was reaching it's natural end (because i'm still learning how to do this whole talking to people thing), the pilot made the announcement that we were about to land and all electronic devices had to be switched off. that, i told her, was another drawback of the e-reader. she apologized again that i didn't get to read very much at all, but i re-asserted that it was no problem, and that i enjoyed the conversation.
on my connecting flight from DC to tampa, i was seated in the middle. from the way the guy to my left was glued to his blackberry, i figured he was a business type. he had on slacks, collared shirt, and had a clean haircut. i thought the lady to my right was just a crotchety old ethnic grandma. she seemed inconvenienced when she realized there would be a big man sitting next to her. once we were at cruising altitude, i whipped out the kindle to try to get some reading done. it didn't take very long at all before the lady to my right asked if you could change the font size on the kindle. i'm pretty sure you can, though i wasn't able to figure out where while trying to show her the functions that i DID know how to operate. i mentioned how it was very convenient for me since i travel a lot, and that it was much easier to carry 400 books on this than in a steamer trunk. the man to my left asked what i did, so i elaborated a bit. in trying to fit in with you humans, i then tried to bounce the question back, asking what he was doing in DC. i found out that he was there for an interview at a new church, and he actually lives in tampa. after some brief shit-chat, we found out that the lady to my right was a principal in england. she splits her time between london, where her husband works, and sarasota, where they are snowbirds. they got into a conversation about separation of church and state (he believes it should be, she experienced the opposite being in england, there is no such thing). he was concerned about the downfall of morality and traditional values. he spoke of how dysfunctional families breed dysfunctional families, so soon we would be exponentially out of control as a society. i tried to bite my tongue through most of this. i shouldn't try to be confrontational AND sociable. that's just too much on one plate. apparently, the pastor started out as an engineer in college and then found (lost?) his way to god, so he went to seminary. somehow it was thrashed out that i was an atheist, so he wanted to pick my brain. at least that's what he said. while i was curious about what a pastor does when it's not sunday, what does a church interview entail, and how can seminary last so long when there's really only one book, it seemed to me that he just wanted to know where i went astray, what caused me to lost faith so young, etc. he wanted to re-convert me rather than actually converse. it wasn't abrasive by any means, just disappointing. the first half of the trip, i thought he was kind of a normal person, open to new ideas, but then he fell into the same religious role i'd expected in the first place. we briefly talked about evolution and "irreducible complexity" and there having to be a maker. i hadn't expected to get into a theological debate, so i was a bit scattered, though sufficient, in my defense of what i think is right, but i got my point across.
before we knew it, the flight was over and we decided to introduce ourselves (somehow, i always do that backwards). i'd met ThePastorJohn and ThePrincipalDoris. his wife and four kids were waiting to pick him up, she was driving down to sarasota, and i was going to rent a car to get me to my hotel and my next assignment.
and all these things happened because of my "whatzit".
oh, and on a completely unrelated point, florida drivers are fukking nuts. they can't drive for shite, they speed, tailgate, and cut people off all willy nilly. you guys suck, really.
well, i've been in jordan for 4 days now. i decided to come to aqaba without doing much research, and that's my bad. it's good for divers, and i was contemplating getting certified, but that went away after i came to my senses. aqaba is pretty small, and i've walked most of it. i have booked a tour to go to wadi rum tomorrow afternoon. i'm taking a four hours 4WD tour, then they are dropping me off at a bedouin camp in the desert overnight. the next morning, i'm getting picked up again, and we are going directly to petra where i'll walk around solo seeing what i want to see and when i want to see it. when i've got my fill, the driver will bring me back to aqaba. i think this will be the longest i've been off-the-grid in a decade. no internet, no blogs, NO LAPTOP! i'm taking a phone, but only in case of emergency. what is wrong with me?! anyways, thursday will be a day of relaxing, repacking, and organizing everything to increase the chances of me making my tight connection in germany on my way to spain. there, i'll visit TheSwedishChefDave for a few days, then possibly on to barcelona over thanksgiving to see another buddy i worked with in italy, then ON IN to B-Town. i'll keep you updated.
i booked my tickets to take my back-to-back R&Rs. sadly, they are paper tickets, and TheGeneral thinks jordan is as unsafe as egypt so i need special authorization which was given today. now i just hope they can ship the tickets in time. i'm leaving egypt just before noon on the 12th on my way to aqaba, jordan for a few days. i might think about possibly taking scuba lessons, i have a week to waste. i'm going to go to petra for at least one day, maybe more. i've heard i have to check out wadi rum, so i'm just taking any and all suggestions.
on the 20th, i fly to malaga, spain to visit TheSwedishChefDave, an old buddy i worked with in turkmenistan. i'm a wee bit concerned i might either lose my bags or miss my final connection in frankfurt, but we'll see how it goes. i'm going to spend 4-5 days there, then try to hop down to barcelona to see another work buddy i met in italy a few years back. he might be getting together with some other americans for thanksgiving, and i'll see if i can barge my way in.
i haven't booked the ticket yet due to being crazy busy packing and such, but i plan to fly from barcelona to the states on the 28th, thus fulfilling my 330 days out of country, cementing my one year on this second assignment in egypt, and getting me home with not a lot of time to do all the american things i want to do (mostly visit friends, and have some 'merican food). i'll try to update while i'm on the road, i used to be better, but now that i'm excited about heading home, i think it will be far easier. i still have to post the taxi grand prix that hash held a few weeks ago. good times. hope to see as many of you as i can in less than three weeks. back to packing my checked bag, and packing my shipments home. here's to hoping that shipping with fedex is less of a nightmare than intermove egypt was from the last job.
you gotta check out my buddy, matt's, blog. he decided to go on a spiritual trip via his beard. he's currently sporting "the recesssion". it's quite spectacular. awesome stuff. go goad him on, and tell him i sent ya. Matt's New Beard
just a reminder, there's a new post up at PTVR, if anyone is interested in spreading the word. i THINK i'm caught up enough that i might be able to actually get an NT post post up soon. work, life, blogs... it's all too much at once.
for the sake of me getting this out of the way, and on to other posts, i'll give a cliff's notes version of the rest of my scotland trip accompanied by lots of pix (all clickable to embiggen). after all, pic = 1k words.
still in the edinburgh area: midway through the trip, we decided we were going to see rosslyn chapel (click for some pictures since i apparently didn't take any). i'd never heard of rosslyn, but soon found out it was featured in several scenes in 'the da vinci code', and i like puzzles. we hopped my first double-decker bus ever, and i ran like a fool up to the top to sit right up front, over the driver. along the way to rosslyn, i realized there was a small hatch on the dash in front of me where i could look down directly on to the driver. i thought it was an odd idea until i found, just above me, a mirror, so he can just look up and see if the top is empty. pretty cool. the gang had to keep me in line, though, because i was having too much fun looking down at the driver and not getting caught **TOURISTS!!!** rosslyn has some pretty cool stories, there are some interesting mathematical layouts involved in it, small discrepancies in patterned carvings on the ceilings, face of "green men" carved into the walls with no real explanation. at the front of the chapel, you find "the master's pillar" and "the apprentice's pillar". the story goes something like, the master went away telling the apprentice to practice, the apprentice felt he didn't need to practice anymore and made the apprentice's pillar, and when the master arrived back to see that the apprentice's pillar was better than his own pillar, he bludgeoned the apprentice with a hammer in a fit of rage. lovely story, eh? i KNOW i took some outside pictures of rosslyn, but can't seem to find them (now that i think about it, i think they were on an SC card that corrupted). eh, you'll have to make due with my vibrant descriptions and a rental of 'the da vinci code'.... wait... WOOHOOO!!! i found some, thank the aether some other people took pix.
soon after the rosslyn trip, TheJay and TheEJ had to make their respective ways home. i'm not exactly who left when, though, since it was a virtual whirlwind of people flying in, castles, pubs, quiz nights, more pubs, pizza, people flying out, etc. i was lucky enough to have TheJulie and TheBill invite me along on their trip to stirling to visit doune castle (setting for much of monty python and the holy grail), stirling castle, and the wallace monument (after ol' braveheart, himself).
so, TheBill, TheJulie, and i decided to make our trip. they'd already booked a bed & breakfast in stirling that i wasn't able to reserve ahead of time. i made it to the train station early to grab some brunch (good ol' burger king) and get the tix. i took a cab as i figured it would be easier, and i hate being late. if i do recall, TheBill and The Julie decided to take the adventurous route of taking the city buses, not knowing that the bus they needed drops them off further away from the station than they had expected. we missed the train we wanted to take, but they run fairly regularly, so we prepared to hop the next one. when we showed the tickets to the operator, he told us we paid too much, there was no first class or such-and-such on this and we could go to the counter to get some money back. we tried, and for some reason or another that i forget, we ended up not having time to get the refund there. so, we hopped the next train, saw some pretty countryside, and soon were in stirling. it wasn't a very far walk at all to their B&B from the station, and i'd noticed there was a pub just down the road a spell that was selling haggis lasagna (YEA!). TheJulie and TheBill spoke with the owner, got their room and luckily for me, she had another room that she wasn't sure if she could rent because they'd JUST finished painting the off-suite bathroom for it. she said it would be dry by the evening and let me take the room.
after dropping off our bags, we were off we to the bus station to doune castle. we took it the area of doune castle, and we found a tourist shop that sold information about monty python's part of the history of doune castle. when we arrived, some VERY nice cars were pulling into the grass and a bagpiper was playing away. apparently, we'd come as a wedding ceremony and reception was about to go off. we were directed around the wedding ceremony, checked out all the awesome halls, and TheBill and TheJulie were nice enough to catch me up on (and re-enact) scenes that were filmed where (as i've not seen the holy grail in some time). after touring the castle for a few hours, we made our way back to the B&B for a rest, then went out for dinner at the place i'd seen earlier. the haggis lasagna was lovely. TheJulie went back to the room to read and relax a bit. TheBill and i (bad influence that i am) went to the bar attached to the restaurant we ate at. we walked in and GOOD LORD it was loud! we ordered our drinks and tried to talk, but it was no use. the speakers kept playing the same loud song over and over again. that's when i realized... most of the people at the bar this night were deaf. they were signing away, while TheBill and i were the minority in that we couldn't communicate at all. we finished our beers and set out for somewhere else that might not cause permanent hearing damage. we found a decent bar called o'neill's where we grabbed a few drinks and talked about the trip so far and what still lay ahead. before it got too late, and i got TheBill in trouble, we went back to the B&B and laid our heads down for the night. (for more doune castle pix, go here).
we woke bright an early in the morning for breakfast. that's when i noticed some of the deaf people who were at the bar were staying at our B&B as well. we had our breakfast, paid the nice lady, and were on our way to wallace monument. we'd gotten there just as they were opening. there was supposed to be a shuttle to the top of the hill, but for some reason, that didn't work out. we saw a shuttle, and a man driving it, but not really shutting anyone. we hiked to the top of the hill, and i was again regretting ever having gotten fat. we eventually made it to the top of the hill on what turned out to be ANOTHER fantastically sunny day (most people would not mind this, but i went for rain and gloom... it's my thing). the air was a bit brisk but would warm up soon enough. we paid or way, left our bags at the front desk, and with that, made our way up the 246 stairs, through the several floors, and finally on to the roof. one of the first levels had a cool mannequin, of sorts, dressed as william wallace with a projector showing on his face (picture in the wallace monument link). since the room is kinda dark, with a bit of imagination, it looked like william wallace was actually telling the story of his life. there was a project screen next to him that showed skits fleshing out the story. we carried on to the other floors where we found some cool stained glass (one of my favorites is below), replicas of "the wallace sword" (though i think the hilt is believed to be the original), busts of the important people of the time, and more. the walk up got a bit tedious because it is a very tight spiral staircase, and you go around in circles several times between floors. a person could get vertigo. walking down was far easier, though you had to time it so as not to pass people on the stairs, but rather, at the gallery floors. on the roof, there's an amazing gothic peak like i've never seen before. we all took pix of each other and ourselves and the landscape. toward then end of our roof stay, we were startled when the speakers blared that there would be a presentation downstairs at 12:15 by "a man from william wallace's army". we made our way down and listened to the actor portraying the army character. he was quite good, giving small anecdotes in the first person and engaging the audience with his weapon and how to stories might related to the audience. at one point he was telling a story about how the future queen was killed before she could arrive in the country to rule "because women aren't fit for that sort of thing", and he called TheJulie out when she may have looked upset over that statement. it was funny. after his performance, we spoke with him for a bit but had to cut it short as we were on our way over to stirling castle. (for more wallace monument pics, go here).
coming up to stirling castle, you first notice an amazing open lawn, peppered with statues of famous kings and warriors as well as tourists and locals lounging in the uncommonly good weather. we'd arrived just as a tour was going out, so we joined in to get a little more history about the place than what we'd just get from reading the placards. i couldn't tell you what we learned now, but, back in the day, there were queens and kings and births, and there were buildings being built and parties being thrown. the art was pretty amazing. most of it was replicas, and they even had a professional weaver there recreating full size copies of some really awesome christian tapestries. you could see wallace monument from the castle. strangely enough, some of the garrison were pointed directly at it. i really liked the layout of stirling castle. there were long rustic walls built on the edge of the hill that you could walk clear to the edge, at one point, it looked like you'd walk right off the hill. the guard towers were actually quite tiny, and we had to duck to go in and out of them. i'm not exactly sure why i was so fascinated by this castle more than the others. maybe it was the weather, the green grass, the numerous walking paths among the immense guard walls, but i found it to be a really impressive sight. (for more stirling castle pix, go here).
after the castle, we made our way back to the train station where we went back to stirling proper. i got off at the haymarket station near my hotel, and TheBill and TheJulie went back to their place. we'd made plans to meet up for dinner later, so until then, i went the the haymarket, a bar across from my hotel, for a few cocktails. it was quiz night, the EASIEST quiz night i'd ever come across, but by the time it had started, i had to make my way back to the hotel for a quick shower and down to dinner. dinner was good, nothing really memorable. we parted ways, as i had to catch my flight in the morning.
it was good catching up with friends i haven't seen in a long time. sharing vacations rocks. if you haven't noticed, i'm NOT in spain as my R&R countdown says i should be right now. one of my buddies that i was supposed to meet is off working in malaysia for a bit, and i'm stuck with no one here to cover for me, so i'll take it at the end of the job. now need to find somewhere to meet someone. i've gotten an invite to japan, but i'm not sure if it's going to fit into my schedule. any other offers? more pix and movies below. now on to finishing the R&R before, the oktoberfest posts... i only have about a month to finish them before it's been a year. A YEAR ALREADY!!!
DOUNE CASTLE
TheJulie and TheBill "taunting" per the scene in monty python and the holy grail
roof of the main hall
TheBill and me standing guard per the scene in monty python and the holy grail
massive fireplace (one of many)
doune castle as we approached
TheJulie and TheBill doing the horse scene from monty python and the holy grail
approaching wallace monument from way-the-hell-down at the bottom of the hill
the view from the top of wallace monument
what do you see in the bottom frame of this stained glass, keep in mind this is a religious piece? see something in the small pic? once you see it, click on it and zoom to enlarge. i hope you see it, because i REALLY thought that was cool.
STIRLING CASTLE
the aforementioned lawn leading up to stirling castle
stirling castle from the back being remodeled
the ceiling of the great after being remodeled, even using authentic wooden pegs instead of nails
TheBill pondering what i dubbed "the vertigo stairs"
the vertigo stairs... you fall over that right hand side, and it's a LOOOOOOOONG way down
i have a strange time relating to people socially. one way or another, most people are going to annoy me in some fashion that my brain-box obsesses over until i'd much prefer not be in their presence. i didn't notice this trait until being on certain assignments for so long. for the first 4 years with TheGeneral, i worked primarily maintenance jobs; that is, you hop in, work 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day for 3-6 weeks, and you leave. that's it. just enough time to meet people, make some connections, get a job done. you have have just enough time to look around the area, but not so much that you are bored by the landscape.
since 2005, i've been primarily on long term installations. india from early 2005 through late 2006, 2007 was a highlight in bad management where i didn't do much, and then i've been in egypt since january 2008. it turns out, i think, that these long term assignments are slowly but methodically driving me insane. i still cringe when i think of pretty much anything related to india. i met people there that i truly grew to despise due to either willful (or not) incompetence, and general lack of understanding who knows more about what i do. i've noticed it a lot here lately as well. there are some egyptians onsite that i would consider acquaintances, colleagues, but on occasion, they go off on how i NEED to get married and have babies and get a house, which i want to do someday. the problem is, these are from guys that live AND work in egypt. i don't work in my home country with my family. several of these people are muslims who see the world differently (and uncompromisingly) different from me. **please keep in mind, i'm not saying all muslims are like this, just the ones who are driving me crazy are**. one guy wants me to get married so i can have my wife cleanthe house, have my food ready, take care of my kids when i get home so i'll have a calm mind. he doesn't much understand that i don't think i'd be happy with a wife who didn't strive for more than that. i asked him how he would like it if his wife worked and HE took care of the kids, cooked, cleaned, etc., complete role-reversal, but he really had no answer. he basically just said that's not the way it is, not the way his god tells him it should be. but i asked him wouldn't he bored, he said yes... then what about his wife? again, not much of an answer, or at least, not much of an answer a western woman would accept without throwing a few things at him.
in short, my fuse has grown shorter and shorter every day that i'm here. i know it sounds like an excuse, but sober... i have a really hard time tolerating these people. and by these people, i don't just mean the egyptians, i mean some of my colleagues, the hotel staff, the taxi drivers. just about everyone is hitting a raw nerve nowadays.
i've gone off on a bit of tangent though. where i was going with this is, what little sober sociability i had before coming here, it is atrophying, due to the people available to socialize with. then when i joined the delta HHH a little over a month ago, things changed. maybe it's that i'd stumbled into another social group completely unrelated to work, but i'm having a wee bit more fun. granted, the HHH isn't completely (or maybe even at all) sober, but it's introduced me to people that i don't have to be tipsy to not want to asphyxiate. we've been running once a week, learning about each others' past, i've been to several dinners with TheMougli (hash name), who has a similar displeasure toward the indian continent, and his wife, ThePlasticBag (hash name). i was invited on a "diving" trip (entailing nothing but trying to get to every dive bar in alex), but i totally forgot about it after a long day at work. i just got a call from TheEweTrollop (hash name) asking if i wanted to get together at TheKiwi's (hash name yet to be given) house for dinner tonight. i was thinking about going out drinking or maybe catching a movie, but that's what is cool, they go out and do things. they all kind alive near each other which helps, while i'm about a 10 minute cab drive away, but it's pumping some life into this assignment, that after almost 8 months has grown quite stagnant. TheEweTrollop also asked if i wanted to go sailing tomorrow. sailing! i'd never been sailing in my life until last year's R&R to australia, and it was a fantastic time. i thought about learning more about sailing, i'd even bought some books which are waiting for me at home, and out of nowhere, i get invited to go again, and i'm incredibly excited to do something that's still new to me. here's to hoping i don't have to work tomorrow now.
all of this "new" experience stuff can be traced back to accidental networking (that bastard device of kiss-asses looking to climb the ladder... at least, that's how i always thought of it), but this is flesh-n-blood social networking. it's not facebook, it has nothing to do with work connections, favors, benefits. maybe this is how normal people make friends. i may have forgotten how. it all started when we had a trainer here, he met TheEweTrollop and his wife, TheCallGirl (hash name) at the hotel they were staying at as well while waiting for their apartment to be ready. TheTrainer invited us all out to meet at ThePortugueseClub (ThePC), we friended, went on a few daytrips, but i never really thought anything of it. they were nice enough, but with "friends" in this field being so transitory, i figured i mightn't see them again. then i took some time off the drink and didn't visit ThePC again for a while. i went back one night, and as i've told already, imbibed, agreed to run the hash the next morning, and the rest is history. i have a new circle of friends. they've given me names of people they know on the dubai and doha hash in case i get assigned there next, their a mixed bag of pretty interesting people.
today on the way home, we were involved in an accident. it's the worst so far that i've been in, but that's still a far cry from the carnage you can see on the egyptian highways. we all had our seat belts on, and TheDriver did the very best he could to avoid an accident that wasn't his fault. i'm proud of him, we're still alive with no injuries.
we were on a feeder road onto the alex-cairo agricultural road which we take all the way to alex. as you can see from the pix at the bottom, we were heading WNW on the feeder; whereas, this truck made it's own road from the highway offramp that loops east. he tried to get across our feeder to the gas station before we got to him. it didn't happen. TheDriver got as far to the right of our lane as possible to avoid him and started on the brakes. sadly, since this is in the desert, sand collects at the edge of the road, so though he was turning right (towards the gas station lot), his tires were nevertheless sliding forward. since he was on the brakes, our momentum threw the front end down so we basically slid under the side of the truck. we stopped in the lot ready to talk to TheTruckDriver until he bolted. well, TheDriver would have none of that. he threw it back into driver and bolted after him, even as the bumper and other hood underparts were grinding away at the tire. we caught him after 1/4 mile and forced him to the shoulder. THEN TheDriver, ThePartsGuy, and TheTeaBoy all bolt out of the car dragging TheTruckDriver out of his truck!! TheTeaBoy had procured a ball-peen hammer from somewhere and was threatening TheTruckDriver with it (i think this is actually common in egyptian accidents, i've seen bats and pipes pulled out on at least two other occasions). they yelled for a bit, we made some calls, some other drivers came out to bring the cops, and i was sent home while TheDriver had to go to the police station to file the report. i offered to go to ensure that he wasn't in trouble, because it was 0% his fault, but the cop (through a driver translating) told me he knows the problem, and i wouldn't be needed.
so, here's the damage...
the damage we received from the right (TheDriver's side)
the damage we received from the left (my side)
the damage WE inflicted... a bent bolt for securing the load and a bent sheet-metal mudflap.
that's a truck full of LNG (liquified natural gas ~ propane) tanks we ran into
how our accident happened... click the pic to read it a bit better
btw, there is a new poll up. whatcha think of my style?!
7 days down... that wasn't too bad, and tonight as i was walking back from dinner, i ran into 3 guys from another company that TheMech can i met a couple months back. they are in town for a week to finish up the job they started. we are gonna go out tomorrow night to catch up. so i get to socialize AND not break my 7 days. things are looking good.
and just a warning to all my peepz out there... i found this onsite, and found it to be very wise.
ok, several days back, i endeavored to go 7 days without drinking. i'm doing this to allay fears friends and family might have, AND it's healthy. as luck would have it, the next day, i was waiting outside the hotel for TheDriver, when a guy walked past who looked eerily familiar. i immediately thought it was a colleague i'd met almost five years ago in spain, but couldn't figure out what he would be doing here, since the only sites that i knew TheGeneral were working on were the one i'm at and the one i WAS at that is very far from here (i now know there was a small outage at an old site about 30 minutes from the hotel he was working on). apparently, he must've recognized me as well (though i had my long hair when we last worked together), but wasn't sure so he nonchalantly showed that the shirt he was wearing had TheGeneral logo on it... he said, "BigZac?", i said "TheJohn? (he shares his name with a popular fake news anchor from comedy central)", and it turns out that we were both right.
TheJohn, being scottish, likes his drink as most of us TAs do, and said that he'd see me at the bar that night to catch up, so i had one day sober and it all fell apart. i took the TheJohn on the weekly KFC run two nights ago, we caught up on where we'd been working and the like. two days ago, we had a day off, so i took him and his mechanical colleague golfing. we are absolute shite (except for the mech colleague, an american indian from oklahoma who hadn't golfed in 5 years or more, and he whooped us). it was good a time, but now his assignment is over, and today he flies out back to spain.
so now, i make my second attempt at healthiness. we'll see how it goes. i've been going to the gym fairly regularly; i do about 5 miles in 50 minutes, a leisurely pace that still works up a sweat. the gym scale says i'm at 98kg which is impossible (that's 215lb), so i need to track down a calibrated scale now. may hand is doing much better, i've updated with another picture at the bottom of this post. more updates to come. i'm still trying to tweak my keyboard to update ZUMEL. since i lost my last hard drive, i lost the specialized keyboard, so i'm rebuilding it now. hopefully, i can update there more soon. thanks to that one visitor i have who has hope i'll update it again, whomever you are.
NSFTWS (that is, not safe for the weak-stomached) photo
i hate to do this, but i have to. i like to keep you guys updated with what's going on in my life, but when it comes to cases like this, TheMom freaks out, so i hate to do it, but i have fans to appease. i apologize in advance as the swelling and the wrap are impeding my impeccable typing skillz.
ok, so in india, i was the host to a lovely brood of bot fly larvae (my india post). they are usually introduced into humans via infected mosquitos that accidentally lay the eggs in the bite the give you. i fear, that i may have another bot fly infection here or something equally as gross and painful. i received a mosquito bite on my right hand about a week ago; actually, i caught the mosquito red-handed and killed it but too late. it seemed like a normal bite until 3-4 days ago when it started to swell a bit more than usual and started getting hotter. the night before last, i was in agony and didn't sleep a bit, so i came to work yesterday and asked the safety guy onsite where i could find a doctor to look at it. he suggested the site doctor first. so yesterday, i went to the site doctor, he looked at it and REFUSED to believe it was a mosquito, despite my insistence that i killed the fukker as it was biting me. he thinks it was a bee, but i would definitely feel that. he squeezed it a bit, some nastiness came out, then he decided he must cut. this sucked and hurt and bled and pussed, A LOT. he then stuffed it with iodine soaked gauze bringing tears to my eyes, wrapped it up, gave me a script for an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic (hand-written on a piece of lined notebook paper with "Rx" handwritten at the top), and sent me on my way.
i worked a half day yesterday as my hand was throbbing, and i wanted to get those drugs. i got back to the hotel where there is a pharmacy, and the internet is out in the neighborhood, so that means no ATMs are working. i only had LE100 (~$20) on me, so i prayed that was enough. i got 20 of the anti-inflammatories and 8 of the antibiotics for LE29 (about $6). gotta love cheap drugs, and thanks to them, i slept well last night, but my hand wasn't feeling any better today. when i got to work today, i went for a checkup and re-dressing. this REALLY sucked. he took off the dressing, and i had TheDriver take a photo, which will be below (stop at the pretty blue line if you don't want to see it). it was still swollen but a bit deflated. he squeezed and great-mother-of-goo=d, i thought i was going to pass out. it hurt like a MOFO, and the shite that came out of it was worthy of a "best special effects" oscar. he squeezed and squeezed and squeezed until he got out what he could. i noticed TheDriver not looking too hot. TheDoctor and TheDriver were both initially worried about me passing out from the pain, so they wanted me to lay down, when it ended up, TheDriver had to take a seat and eventually had to step out. TheDoctor then took a massive syringe (no needle) full of hydrogen peroxide, jammed it into my wound, and made me wish i was dead. peroxide bubbling away infection INSIDE YOU really isn't a pleasant feeling. i'm guessing it has to be along the line of meth mites... something that no one should feel. a friend of mine once had elbow surgery, and they had to place a drainage line in his arm. i'm guessing this was similar to the experience he described when they pulled it out... of having something moving under your skin that your brain KNOWS shouldn't be. it was pretty nasty. after a thorough peroxide catharsis, he, again, re-stuffed my wound with iodine-soaked gauze (yup, still hurts like a bitch), wrapped me up, and suggested that if it doesn't look better tomorrow, he's going to recommend seeing a surgeon specialist. amputation, here i come! (i'm kidding TheMom, that was for you). still, i'm glad he's not so macho that he'd continue to try to fix something that he might not be able to. he knows there are some veins in the hand there that would require a specialist's knowledge of their location (as my hand's so swollen you can't see any veins anymore). also, a surgeon might have some local anesthetic which would be a joy right now. i feel my heartbeat in all my fingers on my right hand while i'm typing this.
so rest-assured, i'm OK, just in pain, and hoping that there aren't any bot flies in there, because since this doctor had never heard of them, i doubt he's looking for them; BUT since i have a history with them, i know what to look for if we open it up. i must be DAMN sweet to get these lovely bugs to want to grow their youngins inside of me. and now, the pic... TheDriver isn't a great photog because, and i'm sorry, it actually looked worse than this, but the flash drowns out the infection-red. don't pray for me, send antibiotics and "OFF" bug spray and kill ANY mosquito or fly you see. it's for the greater good.
post-op day 1
post-op day 2
post-op day 3 (infection seems to be gone, maybe doesn't look better, but it is getting better!)
post-op day 9 (starting to close up, my wolverine regeneration is taking over!)
a post of schizophrenic proportions a.k.a. the boredom of waiting
we came in to work today as we are pavlovianly trained to. alarm goes off, hit snooze a few times, roll out of bed, brush teeth, get dressed, and wander down to the car in a typical zombie-state. we knew there was nothing for us to do at work today. as mechs, we are waiting for the controls and electrical people to catch up. we came in on time because we thought there'd be a meeting about when we are going to start up the second unit. there wasn't, so here i sit with exactly fukk-all to do. so, i'll catch you up on some random, unimportant things that have been on my mind. alone they would not be worth a post, but together they will join forces to flesh out something possibly worthy to fill the screen.
last week, TheMech drove us to work. when he'd gotten to the car, our driver was complaining of a migraine, though due to his flashy duds, we guessed he was at the disco all night and was just in no shape to drive. TheMech is always calling our driver out for driving too fast or overtaking when he shouldn't. i'm not as concerned, but i do agree, there is room for improvement. TheMech has taken defensive driving courses in the UK and is a good driver. about 30 minutes from site, there is a stretch of road where they hide a speed camera on occasion. TheMech knew about this, but thought the speed limit was 100 km/h when it's actually 90 km/h. maybe a kilometer after the speed trap, we pull off onto another road that goes towards the site. here, there is a police stop where they stop you if you were speeding. we got stopped. neil pulled over and gave the army guy his british license and his qatari driver's license. after some confusion, TheMech got out to talk to them (usually speaking english gets us off at checkpoints). i'm guessing the army guy didn't understand english or something because that got us nowhere. TheDriver got out and started arguing with the guy, arabic pomposity ensued, then TheDriver came back asking for 150 pounds ($30) for the fine). TheDriver went back over to the army guy and talked some more, then came back and said it was ok. the army guy didn't know how to send the ticket (for points) to the UK, so he let us off, and that was that.
why do toilets take so long to fill up? inside is the inlet valve controlled by the float. why can't there be like a mad in-rush until the float stops it? i was just thinking about this the other day, not sure why. the site toilet was probably running and i wanted it to stop
thursday night, TheMech, TheSiteLead, TheFemaleElectrical and i went out to dinner at a chinese restaurant at the top of the sofitel hotel on the corniche. i ordered spicy beef salad EXTRA SPICY. i specifically said, "i want you to make me cry!". i ended up eating my words, or rather, i would've if any cells in my mouth could function as they were supposed to. good GOD, they made it hot. what's even worse is TheMech said he wanted his soup the same way. mid-swallow, i said something that he apparently found damn funny, because he choked and got the crazy hot magma in his nose. he was tearing like mad. we couldn't finish our meals. stupid boys! i asked TheFemaleElectrical to see her phone, i wanted to text her manager. she didn't think i'd go through with it. i texted her manager, as her, "i'm really tired of this field engineering life. i'm not cut out for it. i think i'd like to work at KFC or mcdonald's. can we talk about this sometime?"... then to her disbelief, i hit "send". she then texted him to apologize for her stupid colleagues playing a prank. after dinner we tried to get into a few clubs and were turned away because we didn't have reservations. one, called "montreal", was ALMOST going to let us in, but some nerd-looking dude who was apparently the manager or something looked out the door, and we didn't make the cut. the bouncer was fukking HUGE, complete steroid junkie with a painted on shirt. TheMech says he has "sugar muscles". when it was clear we weren't going to get in and with a bit of the liquid courage kicking in, i told sugar muscles that he was very pretty and i loved him very much in arabic. he didn't kill me, but i don't think he liked it. stupid boys! after getting turned down, we went back to the hotel bar to figure out what to do next. a round of tequilas was ordered to induce creativity. TheFemaleElectrical doesn't drink, so i had hers as well... then we had a second round. we decided on going to the cabaret i went to several weeks ago until 4:30AM on a work night. TheMech was going to call it a night, but i peer pressured him with typical machismo insults (pussy, old man, punk) until he caved. TheSiteLead got a call and dashed off, so it was the three of us on our way. we were meeting some other guys from site there. and that's the next story
at the cabaret, we met three guys from site, two of whom i'd gone with before. they were throwing back drinks, the cabaret was really smoky, food was ordered, TheMech and i got beers while TheFemaleElectrical got a pop. after a few drinks and the tequilas coursing through our veins, we ended up dancing with the girls. i REALLY shouldn't dance, especially to egyptian music. it was ugly. and for your amusement, i've posted the video that TheFemaleElectrical took of our inebriated arses dancing like fools. i'm not sure why she turned the camera sideways half way through. stupid girls!
about a mile from work there is a strange little hiccup in the road where it goes under a bridge crossing the canal. you can see it in the picture here. it's just a quick bend in the road, but people drive on this road faster than they should and egyptians have no qualms about overtaking around blind turns, so this is actually a dangerous part of the road. due to the speeds people travel this road, i consider this a blind turn. there is a man that stands under this bridge most of the day directing traffic. i believe his family helps out in shifts letting you know whether it is safe to barrel around this turn or telling you to stop because an insane truck driver is coming from the other direction balls to the wall. i learned that this man does this because his son was killed at this turn several years ago. he wanted to do something to make it safer so, apparently, he took it upon himself to diligently stand there all day helping to make this dangerous part of the road safer. most of the drivers for this site and other people who take this road regularly tip him a pound or two ($.50) when we pass. our driver does it faster than most. you can't see the actual handoff in this video because it happens so fast, but it's like a 40mph high-five! you can hear the smack at the end. i don't know how both my driver and this guy still have rotator cuffs left due to the daily collisions, but i found it interesting enough to share with you.
two nights ago, i had to stay late for work to do CO2 fire protection testing on the enclosures. basically, this entails releasing about 1 ton of CO2 into the enclosure and waiting for an hour to make sure the concentration is within spec. four enclosures and about a half hour setup time in between means, in short, a lot of waiting. during the downtime, i was speaking to one of the mechanical guys i work with about the qur'an which i've started reading a translation of recently. i'm only several suras (chapters) in, but i have a load of questions already. one, i asked, was why women weren't to pray in the mosque? the qur'an says the men should pray at the mosque, but the women should pray at home. he quite plainly explained that it is for their own safety. women should stay at home to be safe. he used the example that a drunk driver might hit and kill her on the way to the mosque. wtf?! so non-sequitur! he also used safety as the reason that women should not have jobs. it is safer for them to stay at home taking care of the kids, cleaning the house, and making sure everything is comfortable for the man when he comes home from work. i'm not an activist by any means, but i couldn't believe how naturally the sexist attitude came to him. for him (and possibly the culture, i can't speak for it entirely), it's just natural. i explained that i don't think i could handle sitting at home all day, cleaning, rearing the kids, and waiting for my wife to come home to take care of her, i'd want to live, do something meaningful... this is where i was completely floored. he replied of course YOU couldn't do it, you're a man, but women are better suited for it. he was basically saying that women can handle it because they are, well, dumber! they don't need excitement, per se. it was amazing how matter-of-factly he said this.
i bit my tongue because there is no reason to upset a good working atmosphere over a religious argument that i couldn't win. islam indoctrinates it's followers by rote. muslims pray 5 times a day, they fast for the month of ramadan, i believe they are supposed to read the entire qur'an during ramadan, etc. the end user here has an engineer who is trying to convert me to islam, now that he's heard i'm reading the qur'an. i told him i was doing it more as research, to be better informed, and he told me that was wrong, i should only read it because it is the word of allah, and it is completely true. apparently, there are scientific revelations in the qur'an that allah told mohamed, his prophet, long before they were actually discovered by the human race. i haven't gotten that far yet. i'm not shooting down or blaspheming islam, it's just that, anyone who talks to me about it seems so... robotic. so, now i have to get on to reading to see how wrong/right/totalitarian this religion is.
i mentioned in a post in december that i play a quick online game every morning gauging my "on"-ness. yesterday and today, i was BANG ON! i've been pretty nerdy lately, but i was, to steal from the cool snow-boarder guys, STOKED! i made it into the top 10, that is tough, and if it weren't for a few hasty decisions, i might've made the top 5. i had some good runs, starting both with 0.0 (perfect), a few 1.0s, it was good. i have a hard time with the circle in a triangle. so, that's my excitement for the day (and it's raining, so SWEET!). today (and yesterday) was a good day according to my gauge game. and, again, if you're interested, you can play the game here.
two nights ago, i thought i was johnny knoxville. i don't know why, it could've been the massive amounts of vodka tonics i shared with TheMech and TheSiteLead at cafe 55 in order to forget the rough workday we'd had. it could've been the even MORE vodka tonics we had at TheSiteLead's apartment after as a cooldown. i don't know, but it went down like this. TheSiteLead likes to walk around his house in his underwear. what can i say? we weren't at his place more than like 5 minutes before he gets comfortable. i smacked his ass, he cross punched me from left shoulder to my sternum. it HURT! (dumb boys). later on, TheElectrical left for a minute to go to his apartment next door and brought down his air-power BB gun. the most powerful hand-pumped air gun on the market. i asked TheMech to shoot me in the ass which he tried to do, but since i don't have an ass to speak of, it hit my baggy jeans with no effect. we determined i had to pull my pants tighter, so i bent over and pulled them tight without noticing that'd he'd made an unauthorized approach, so he shot me in the ass at point blank range. holy shit, that hurt too. i was hopping around the front yard grabbing my booty, laughing and aching all at the same time. later in the night i was convinced to drop 'em, and yup, i had a NICE welt going on. (btw, there were girls there, so this wasn't come homoerotic get-together, just to let you know).
we calmed down a bit, i tried to burn TheSiteLead's yard but the leaves and grass were a bit too dewy. we talked and laughed. TheMech'sWife is a nice girl, but she smokes entirely too much. she asked for one of my cigarettes and i told her she had to be quiet for 2 minutes. it's for the best, i'm trying to save her lungs and all, and it was the first thing i thought of. it took her a while to stop complaining, and then, as a man of my word, i gave her a cigarette after two minutes. when she was almost done, she threatened to throw it at me, which i encouraged. i called her bluff as she threw it over the fence behind me. toward the end of the night, i asked her to put a cigarette out on my hand. she, again, acted like she would comply, but backed out, so TheMech showed her how it's done (dumb boys, er... maybe just dumb zac). hahah. it didn't hurt, no permanent damage, hardly a mark. we finished our drinks and headed home. i piggybacked TheMech'sWife as far as my house, had a few drinks at home, and went to bed. i've been averaging about 13 hour days for the past week (+2 hours roundtrip driving), and i've only been getting about 2-3 hours sleep per night. i'm tired, but i'm living, even if a bit reckelessly. i do a very good impression of safe recklessness.
last night, i went to the local mall with the regulars, TheSiteLead, TheMech, TheMech'sWife, and TheSiteLead's housekeeper. she knows of a place to get suits which TheSiteLead needs for a function coming up this week. while we were at the mall, i decided i needed a trim. i went to the barber, but they were clsoed for prayer at the time. i went back to the suit shop and found a decent jacket. it's getting cooler now, and it will be cooler on my next assignment a little further north and closer to the coast, so i figured i'd need something for that weather. i bought that then went back to the barber with TheMech'sWife. she told the barber how i wanted my hair. just a little trim was all. maybe she said something in arabic that he didn't understand because it is a bit shorter than i expected. the funny thing is egyptian men have curly hair, in general, but they keep it short, and just gel it and comb it back. this guy didn't know how to cut curly hair so now i kinda have an egyptian haircut. blah. it'll grow out. i think this might bust jules's theory that i might look good with a mini-fro, though the back is really short, less fro-ey. we'll see what happens when it grows out. after, we went back to TheSiteLead's place. as his housekeeper opens the door, she says "smelly" and flips on the light. TheSiteLead froze... then thanked god he was alive. wiring here in egypt is suspect at best, and the "smelly" was a massive build-up of natural gas in the apartment. we think she was in a hurry to leave and forgot to turn off the burner. we ran around opening windows and doors to vent the place out, she warmed up dinner, and we had a few beers. it was a generally low-key night. i got home and talked to the TheJaneAnn for a bit. she'd just cut her hair as well and dyed it. it looks REALLY good, it's a drastic change, that i hope will grow on her soon, because right now, i don't think she's entirely happy with it. she had a play date to get to so she stranded me to watch bad late night TV. i think i was in bed by 11:30pm to be up at 5:30am. woo-hoo.
i've organized, OCD-style, my R&R pix (yeah i know it's been over a month since i started my R&R) and have a draft started. it will be worth the wait, graphic and humor intensive. later.
it is commonplace for people to ask "how are you?" when seeing someone for the first time in the day. i don't quite like that. i mean, seriously, do you really care? at one time, many, many moons ago, it was probably used as it was supposed to, but now it's turned into a generic greeting that makes me feel uncomfortable. i prefer "what's up" or "what's going on?". with the former, you can deflect the inanity of the question with a smart-ass reply like "the price of oil", "NOT the market", or the old standby, "the sky". with the latter, you have far more topics to speak about: work, family, money, etc.
i speak of this because here in egypt, EVERYONE asks "how are you" (in arabic, of course), and they ask it EVERYTIME they see you. all of you who read this blog know that i'm not doing well. these people don't really care how i'm doing, it's just a common courtesy to ask, but it wears me down having to lie. i might not be thinking about the shitty things that are going on in my life, i might be truly distracted, but when they ask... it all comes flooding back, and i have to then lie. "i'm doing great", "meyya, meyya" (means 100%).
i'm kind of the happy-go-lucky guy at work. i don't raise my voice, i don't complain much, i curse on occasion if i knock my head on a scaffolding pole or something, but in general, everyone knows me to be in a good mood. with this whole shitty situation, i've had to start wearing masks. some days i might be in a piss poor mood, but someone will eventually come up to me, asking me how i am, and i have to throw on the smile, tell them everything's fine, what do they need. it's exhausting. when no one's looking, when no one's around, i can let the mask fade away, but that isn't very often at work. it's strictly an external facade, i still feel like shite inside. some days i'm at it so long, that i can't take it off even when i go home. i can't embrace my issues because i've been faking all day that everything is OK. they really don't want to hear about my shite. they wouldn't understand, and even if they did, they'd probably think less of me. i couldn't tell them the truth anyways; my throat closes when i even remotely think of having to explain what's going on in my heart and in my head. i want someone to talk to, someone strong enough to know that my flaws only compound this situation, and i'm pretty sure they are hard-wired flaws. there's no changing them no matter how much i want to.
TheElectrical advised that i see a therapist (as well as cutting down on drinking, pity smoking, and i should lose weight, but i digress). i suppose it might not be a BAD idea, but again, there are several genetic predispositions i have against that course of action.
i think i'm smarter than them - i minored in psychology in school, i took enough classes to have a decent idea what the fukk is wrong with me. granted, i didn't take the "how do you fix it" classes, but i have a general idea of what they would suggest, i suggest it to myself, my friends suggest it to me, but i'm just closed. it's not like i can't see the door, rather, my hand is on the knob, and i just can't turn it. i had a bad experience with a high school psychologist during a break up then. i'd pierced the bridge of my nose with a safety pin, left it in, and went to school. i was kicked out of just about every class, and the psychologist was called in. she said she knew i was an actor (yes, i joined thespians for my girlfriend at the time), that i might be able to put on a good show, but she felt i was like an orange... hard skin on the outside but juicy just underneath that skin. i'm not making this up. right then and there, i labeled her a joke as a professional, figured she was bottom of her class, and wrote her off. i wasn't impressed. i'm sure there HAS to be better therapists out there, but my first impression left a bad taste in my mouth
i broke me, so i can fix me - well, technically, I didn't break me, but i put myself into a position that allowed me to let down my guard to be broken. i've been witness to every little psycho synapse firing in my head, i've felt every heart pang for the most unrelated, benign reasons, it's all documented here in my head in my own proprietary format. there's no way i could explain it coherently to someone outside my head. they don't have the right codecs (i'm such a geek). i need time to analyze the data, but i've not had time to arrange it into an easy, user-friendly format. looking at the raw data, right now, it seems it isn't the product that is flawed (again this is preliminary), it's the process. i think i'm pretty damn good at relationships on the whole. everyone has their shortcomings and such, but in general, i think i have a pretty good handle on how things should go. the process is fukked in that, i just spend that time on the wrong people. i'm blinded by attention, by beauty, by learning about new things from new people, by the excitement of this amazing new person who wants to spend time with me. in doing so i might be missing telltale signs that we may not be compatible. i miss the hints, i miss the suggestions.
strangers vs. friends - this guy is a complete stranger. how am i going to open up to him, when i have a hard time opening up to my close friends? i was always the guy who listened to other peoples' problems, the shoulder to cry on. i didn't want to burden them with my problems because mine were so insignificant in comparison, so i tried my best to keep quiet. telling a stranger how crazy i am? come on. therapists are only human. they're trained to be non-judgemental, but we are animals. there will always be a judgment made, an impression formed, even if it's in the remotest hollow of the basal ganglia, i'll be judged. my friends know my good and bad already, they already know that and yet, they're still my friends. they accept my idiosyncracies, or at the very least, they aren't threatened by them. they aren't judging me, they already did that years ago, for free, they STILL stuck around, even if only to see what the fukk this guy is going to do next. these are people i love, i trust, and i still have a hard time letting them know exactly how messed up i am. a stranger who has to learn all my background plus current problems in several 60-minute sessions... i don't know if i'd trust their evaluation for lack of thoroughness.
i'm just too damn proud - there's not much more that can be added to that. i don't want to be fukked up, i don't want to admit that i can't deal with this on my own. i'm not into holistic medicine, i know my boundaries (i think). if i have cancer or a broken arm or a bullet wound... know i can't fix those, but my brain (unless i'm more fukked up that i though) is not injured. it may be chemically imbalanced or dehydrated, but it's not like something is there that shouldn't be. if there is no physical defect, i think i should be able to manage it myself. mind over matter (except in the case of the aforementioned bullets and such).
you know what i just realized? i'm a hypocrite. you didn't even ask me how i was doing, you mightn't even care, and yet i let you have it. i apologize. had i not ranted on about that in the first part of this post, this would be OK as it is my blog and you came here voluntarily. next time i'll give you warning.
i'm going to try to write more on ZUMEL(i put a short post up there today), really, and i'm going to really try to get some vacation pix and stories up for you soon. i give you my word, and that, my friend, is stronger than graphene. please someone corroborate that for me. hah. later kids.
man, i hurt. the site gave the mechanical crew a half-day yesterday, so TheMech and i went to his apartment building's pool on the 7th floor around 3PM. after more than enough vodka tonics, we were thoroughly hammered, he went to the restroom, and i decided to walk over to the railing to look at my building which you can see from the pool deck. wet feet + slick tile is not a good combination. JUST as i was thinking, "man, i hope i don't slip..." off i go, feet flying out from under me landing on my back. this was definitely a water accident not an intoxication accident. when TheMech came out of the bathroom, he found me on the floor trying to catch my breath. i got up no worse aside from a scraped up toe where apparently i'd kicked the wall on the way down. we decided it was time to go, so we went down to his place where his fiance cooked up some dinner, and i was home by around 7PM.
this morning when i got up EVERYTHING hurt. my hips are aching, my back is sore, i'm walking like a 60-year old. i was so glad to get another half-day today to recover. minimal libations will be imbibed today. gotta rest. i posted a short post on ZUMEL, some short, short, SHORT poems i've written lately. i'll post more if they are appropriate. yesterday at the pool, i was venting with TheMech, and i told jules this morning. she wasn't very happy, but i wanted a person in real life to talk to. until now, i've only talked to friends online about jules and my situation. so i don't want to piss anymore people off, so i'll have to look through the poems and see what i can post.
again, with my goofy metaphors. i'm still so tired. work is hectic, the schedule is pushed beyond it's breaking point, and some of us are as well. yesterday, i told our friends/colleagues onsite that jules and i have broken up. it was tough, but jules wanted it to be done. i didn't really care one way or the other. i didn't get into the details, just that we ran in to a problem we couldn't resolve. they're supportive, offering even to find me a filipino girlfriend. hah. we are doing this in a strange manner, but it's being done as professionally as possible in relation to our work relationships.
in other news, i'm still adjusting to my hair. it does some CRAZY things all by itself. i'll have to get a pic when it's wet. maybe i'll turn this blog into a new haircut modeling blog. jeez.
so... now i can see the storm, it's not very far off at all. later tonight and tomorrow, it will hit. my one main switch is taking it's time getting in position, but i'm confident it will in time. i can feel it moving, and it has to, that's what this is all about. tonight, i'm going out with TheMech and TheSiteLead to blow off some steam. we have to work tomorrow so it can't be insane, but substantial. i was thinking of staying home and just catching up on sleep, but i know it wouldn't come so easily without some help, so i guess you could say i'm being proactive. 4.5 hours before i get to leave and deal with the storm head on. i'm anxious, scared, sick, and mildly accepting of this task.
i'm done writing for now. check here and ZUMEL for the updates.
happy birthday to my friends, TheEJ (a day late) and TheJaneAnn (today).
