The Hypercolon Therapist

Here are a few shots from the NewSpring Live Free Live Loud 2008 Concert:

www.flickr.com/photos/banana98/sets/72157605870367966/

Here

I got this:

Nikon Nikor AF-S 70mm-300mm VR Zoom,
originally uploaded by banana98.

I could be jumping to conclusions. The preview could be showing every single good clip to build it up. Maybe I just assume anything J J Abrams writes will be as good or better than LOST. I’ll admit wrongness later on but for now, I think this looks to be good.

Watch Fringe TV Series Trailer

And what’s with J J Abrams and airplane weirdness? First flight 815, now flight 627

April 24:
Drive to Charleston was good. Good except for the part where we watched the pickup in front of us blow a tire, lose control, slide into the tree wall/median. We stopped quickly, backed up to the accident (Jill was speaking with 911 at the same time). The guy in the truck, a college student on the way home for the weekend was bloodied but ok otherwise. Amazing it was. His truck went right between the big trees. A few feet further in either direction and he may not have made it out so good. We stuck around and gave our report to the law enforcement. Then we continued to Charleston. Made camp in the Marriot River View. We have stayed the a few times before for procedures I have at MUSC. Nice place and we get a discount due to it being needed for medical trip. Watched LOST and The Office. To bed.

April 25:
The doc said all my blood work looked good. Wants me to have another MRCP. Good news is that he said I could get that as well as future blood work done locally if it made sense to do so and eliminate extra trips to Charleston (may not make sense if the Transplant program of my insurance desires that I get related procedures done at the medical center I am under care with). I’ll still need to drive there every 6 months or so to see him but otherwise… He also said I could stop taking one of my medications that I am on. This particular one I have been taking since back before I had my surgery and it has always caused extra stomach upset with me (as if more was needed). I have been taking it so long now that I forgot about that side effect. I am really hoping that eliminating it may eliminate some of the bad spells I have with my plumbing. That would be awesome. I’m sure it wouldn’t get rid of all problems, but eliminating any would be welcomed.

My MELD score actually went down a point this time from 13 last time (12 now). 15 is the mark where it comes time to consider getting put on a list. My MELD score is calculated slightly different than others with Liver Diseases due to my problem causing elevated liver functions differently or something. It makes sense to me but can’t explain it well in a small amount of time. In short, this means that even a score of 15 for me may not necessarily mean it’s time to be on a list.

Now, here is the second crazy part of our trip. We were just heading out of downtown Charleston when in the first curve of I-26/17 our right front wheel all but came off. It felt like we had hit a log in the road and the car became almost un-steerable. I managed to wrestle the car to a stop over near the guard rail on the right side of the highway (4 lines I might add). There was a heavy smell of rubber inside the car immediately and smoke was coming from the right front area. When I put the car in park it made this terrible grinding noise (would later discovery this was because the wheel had pulled the axle out as well). We both got out quickly and scaled the guard rail because the car was still partially in a lane of traffic. I actually tried to keep it moving further before we came to a stop but when it stopped the engine wouldn’t budge it. When I finally was able to take a peak at the wheel which, until now, I had assumed was a blown tire much like the wreck we witnessed the day before, I was in shocked. It was literally sitting perpendicular to the direction a car normally goes when it is moving straight ahead.

To wrap up without wasting much more of your time, we called a tow truck, cop arrived and used his car and lights to notify traffic to slow down, we (including the car) were delivered to a garage Mount Pleasant, learned the ball joint had failed, axle pulled out, tire damaged too bad to keep if we chose to repair. We chose a partial repair to see how much more might be discovered once this was done. They replaced ball joint, axle, and tire then drove the car to test. Amazingly nothing else was wrong. Less than 500 bucks too including the tow. Not bad I don’t think. We made it home in the car though. Took us only 12 hours total.

This did make up our mind that it is time to invest in a newer and hopefully safer mode of transportation for Jill. We will be shopping for a slightly used mid size SUV this weekend. We have been thinking about it for a long time, a year or 2…maybe more actually. It should be fun…except for dishing out the dough for it.

All said and done, a nice weekend despite the events. Jill and I had an incredible peace about us the entire time.

Well, it’s true. According to stats presented at NewSpring Church 1 out of every 1 person dies. Dang.

Here is a copy of the email I sent my boss this morning. Nothing really to do with the title or first sentence of this post, but I don’t mind randomness. Here goes:

“Over the weekend I had a front tooth lose its filling and partially break. A few months back I was prescribed some kind of mouth rinse and after completing it I noticed that my teeth looked horrible (not that they have ever been great). With the changes in my GI system the even the mouth suffers apparently with the aural flora being difficult to keep balanced. Anyway, after that mouth rinse teeth that have been fine for a long time suddenly had cavities and teeth that had fillings began to loose them…all this happening almost literally overnight.

I said all that to say this: I’m probably going to be a hermit over the next few days because I am now way uglier than I have ever been (is that possible). Also, I do have an appointment this afternoon with the dentist but I don’t know how much work he will do or if it will require scheduling for tomorrow, later in the week, etc. I am hoping to at least get a temporary filling put back in place to cover up the unsightly gap that reminds me of this guy who called himself the turtle man and seemed proud of the fact that his front teeth are gone after getting hit by a chainsaw. While I never intended to grow up and have my image completely match the mental pictures that come to mind when I think of the Bumpasses (the hillbillies who lived next to Ralphie in A Christmas Story), time and health problems seem to win out occasionally.

I will probably be out this afternoon and really don’t know for how long but I’ll play it by ear. If I am out, I will either work here later or work at home to make sure I have the IS site ready prior to Marty’s demo Wednesday AM. If I still resemble my mom when she was employed here and made her own teeth out of balsa wood, I may request to be exempt from assisting with said demo unless problems arise.

Thanks”

This Thursday “The Office” comes back. Good good.
The AnMed Peep Trophy more than likely goes to Jason Stephens but I never finished scoring the NCAA brackets. We seem to have all lost interest after about round 2.
That’s what’s happening.

Apple and Orange Edited,
originally uploaded by banana98.

Blah blah blah blah blah. You better scroll down a few inches and answer my ‘who am i’ quiz. NOW!

new toy,
originally uploaded by banana98.

Got this the other day. We are building the robot that will save the world. First step? Take out the 2 Felinoids that have been living in our house. And they thought we were clueless.

welcome,
originally uploaded by banana98.

where am i?

Actually, it’s me that’s been gone. Blogs don’t really leave. Well, maybe they do. I am pretty sure that the light in the fridge turns off when the door closes but blogs…I just don’t trust them. I think they are invisible when noone is reading.

So, Hunter had his first Spring soccer game today, yesterday, last night, whatever it was. They won and that’s the most important thing I guess. Well, it’s also fun to see other little kids who have just been defeated cry over their pathetic after game snacks.

Enough of my humorous side. That was intended to be funny and shouldn’t be taken seriously you know. Work has been nice. I finally wrapped up a huge project I have been working on. It went live a few weeks back so I have just been doing clean up behind it’s messes and preparing to tackle my next assignment.

So, the year is 1996. I have just begged a girl to give me her phone number and the best I could tell her is that I will call her 8 years from now on Christmas Eve. And she fell for it! And who knew, with the simple addition of 2 of the digits of her number, you get the phone number which was also the title to a 1980’s song so I hear. I got to get back. The question is, who am I. Reply with answers in comments. Correct entries could win a kiss from me if you are Jill, or a Kiss from Hershey if you aren’t.

Although i was already awake and up for a very early morning round of medicines, the strike still scared the heck out of me. At about 2:15 AM, it sounded like something large exploded right outside our house. Now, I would not have thought much of it had it been raining and storming already. But there was nothing…and then boom! My first thought was, oh heck, we have just been bombed. This thought moved quickly into the thoughts of a possible sonic boom from a military plane or something. Eliminating that, I then went to the bedroom to make sure Jill was still there so that I could eliminate the Rapture’s occurence. (I think God is going to play a cruel joke on me when this happens and let me wonder for about 5-10 seconds that maybe I didn’t make it just to be funny).