A shorter, lighter post today. We had our monthly training, which was for off-road rescue. We took an 4-wheeler and two Polaris Rangers down to a local lake 'saved' a kid from the bible camp there as practice. All in all the actual rescue part was just more of the same, but getting in and out was a blast. Riding down a barely existent path, traveling through boggy marshland and dense forest is pretty cool. Of course, I was dressed completely inappropriately.
Button-down shirt, v-neck sweater, sneakers instead of boots... at least I was wearing jeans instead of dress slacks. XD I actually managed to stay completely pristine until we were just about out and done. I saw the puddle (mini-lake? a ford in the river? Truly it was too large and too deep to be considered a puddle.) coming and all I could think was 'nonononononoh snap.' And as the wave of muddy brown water came crashing towards me; "bother".
On a completely unrelated note, the girls have decided that it's fun to make me do sit-ups. Two of them run up when I'm sitting and leap on me, trying their best to pull me to the ground. Then I have about two seconds to do a sit-up before they start indiscriminately smacking me. Or crawling over me. They do that too. Getting kneed in the kidney by a two year old is still painful... but I'm so ticklish that I laugh uncontrollably. After about 75 sit-ups or so I physically couldn't do any more and my cousin had to rescue me as I just curled up into the fetal position, laughing.
Apparently this is becoming a daily occurrence, which is probably good for me. Sometimes I need the motivation.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Late night shenanigans
One of us is lying
In his lonely bed
Staring at the ceiling
Wishing he was somewhere else instead
One of us is lonely
One of us is only
Waiting for a call*
And guess what? It came. At 2:15am dispatch reported that a juvenile had been found unconscious in ditch just outside of the main town area so we headed over. Turns out it was a 14 year old girl who drank herself unconscious and her "friends" left her on the side of the road. Now, piecing together more of the story through the night, apparently two of her friends stayed with her (both guys) and stripped her out of her clothes when she started vomiting on herself. Eventually they freaked and called one of their mothers, who called 911 and that's when we came in.
Of course, a mostly naked teenage girl who can't remember what happened gives us additional worries. Thankfully, nothing had happened on that end, and given enough time she slowly started sobering up (very slowly, she had a BAC of .172 on the breathalyzer about an hour after we picked her up). And sadly, that isn't the highest BAC we've had this week, but more on that later.
About an hour into pumping saline solution into the girl and trying to get the full story, we get a call from a concerned grandmother because her 2 year old granddaughter is having breathing difficulties. The poor kid has chronic issues with this and used the nebulizer better than most adults. There weren't really any major issues with her, but all in all it still kept us at the clinic until about 5am.
On the way home from all this, at 5:15am I get a phone call, "Hello, Crystal?" from a 727 number. Curse my Floridian cell number. /sigh
Anyways, I've been sitting on a post for well over a month now about alcoholism and I'm still hemming an hawing about posting it. On the one hand, I don't want to get too preachy on this blog, and I've been steering clear of really serious issues, but on the other hand, it really is incredible some of the alcohol related problems I've seen up here. One example would be a lady in a MVA (motor vehicle accident) from the other day. BAC of 0.53. ZERO POINT FIVE THREE. By the US scale, you're dead at anything above 0.5. Death is a very real possibility at anything above 0.3, and blacking out and unconsciousness can start at 0.2 or earlier. And yes, the girl from last night was only 14 and already drinking herself stupid. That wasn't a typo. And these two weren't even native.
Nothing against natives, but a common oxymoron and joke up here is a 'dry native village'. They start young and develop a dependence, they kill each other (even family members) over booze, and only a lucky few can escape the vicious cycle. The worst are those who sober up, suffer through the withdrawal (usually with our help. It's never pleasant for anyone involved), and then once they are finally completely dry... they just go back and start drinking all over again. bak;sndinadxf The natives have too many issues to cover here. I really shouldn't have even started on it.
*Clearly I have heard too much ABBA. Also, going without sleep for over 24 hours makes me weird. I really was just staring at the ceiling though, part of me hoping that I could fall asleep, the other part hoping something interesting would happen so I wouldn't have to just lay there patiently anymore.
In his lonely bed
Staring at the ceiling
Wishing he was somewhere else instead
One of us is lonely
One of us is only
Waiting for a call*
And guess what? It came. At 2:15am dispatch reported that a juvenile had been found unconscious in ditch just outside of the main town area so we headed over. Turns out it was a 14 year old girl who drank herself unconscious and her "friends" left her on the side of the road. Now, piecing together more of the story through the night, apparently two of her friends stayed with her (both guys) and stripped her out of her clothes when she started vomiting on herself. Eventually they freaked and called one of their mothers, who called 911 and that's when we came in.
Of course, a mostly naked teenage girl who can't remember what happened gives us additional worries. Thankfully, nothing had happened on that end, and given enough time she slowly started sobering up (very slowly, she had a BAC of .172 on the breathalyzer about an hour after we picked her up). And sadly, that isn't the highest BAC we've had this week, but more on that later.
About an hour into pumping saline solution into the girl and trying to get the full story, we get a call from a concerned grandmother because her 2 year old granddaughter is having breathing difficulties. The poor kid has chronic issues with this and used the nebulizer better than most adults. There weren't really any major issues with her, but all in all it still kept us at the clinic until about 5am.
On the way home from all this, at 5:15am I get a phone call, "Hello, Crystal?" from a 727 number. Curse my Floridian cell number. /sigh
Anyways, I've been sitting on a post for well over a month now about alcoholism and I'm still hemming an hawing about posting it. On the one hand, I don't want to get too preachy on this blog, and I've been steering clear of really serious issues, but on the other hand, it really is incredible some of the alcohol related problems I've seen up here. One example would be a lady in a MVA (motor vehicle accident) from the other day. BAC of 0.53. ZERO POINT FIVE THREE. By the US scale, you're dead at anything above 0.5. Death is a very real possibility at anything above 0.3, and blacking out and unconsciousness can start at 0.2 or earlier. And yes, the girl from last night was only 14 and already drinking herself stupid. That wasn't a typo. And these two weren't even native.
Nothing against natives, but a common oxymoron and joke up here is a 'dry native village'. They start young and develop a dependence, they kill each other (even family members) over booze, and only a lucky few can escape the vicious cycle. The worst are those who sober up, suffer through the withdrawal (usually with our help. It's never pleasant for anyone involved), and then once they are finally completely dry... they just go back and start drinking all over again. bak;sndinadxf The natives have too many issues to cover here. I really shouldn't have even started on it.
*Clearly I have heard too much ABBA. Also, going without sleep for over 24 hours makes me weird. I really was just staring at the ceiling though, part of me hoping that I could fall asleep, the other part hoping something interesting would happen so I wouldn't have to just lay there patiently anymore.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Procedure day!
I gave my first shot today*! Which was quickly followed by my second. In addition to that I had to remove some stitches, we dealt with an ingrown toenail, drained an infection, and several other things which I can't remember right now because it's 6am and I haven't slept yet. More on that later though.
*Technically not today, but yeah. I don't post any of these the day they actually happen, and usually not even the day that I write them.
*Technically not today, but yeah. I don't post any of these the day they actually happen, and usually not even the day that I write them.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
A week with family.
Last week I decided to take a break from the clinic and EMS and just spend a week up at Familial Home Base. Originally I was just going up for the weekend on my way to Little City to visit my brother, but one thing lead to another and I ended up spending the whole week and following weekend away from Home.
The visit with my brother went quite well. We saw l'elisir d'amore which was very entertaining and remarkably well done. Much better than I was expecting considering where we are. My only regret is that I could only partially make out faces. My brother still hasn't replaced his glasses, so I lent him mine so he could read the prompter and actually understand what was being said. (My vision is still good enough that I could read it, just the fine details got lost.)
After the opera, we went to my brother's friends' place and played League of Legends. I was pushing to see Harry Potter 7.5, but since my brother had work in the morning we didn't get around to it. Speaking of morning, at some point around 2am, my dear brother said "okay, I'm going to bed, if you're still up at 6am give me a call." and promptly walked out the door. Now, I was tired and in the middle of a game, so I wasn't paying much attention and it didn't dawn on me until a few minutes later that he had left. I don't know where he lives, and since his old place burned down, neither do his friends. So I was like 'well, who's up for another game?' *twitch* In the end, I stayed up with one of his friends playing LoL and watching It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia until 5:45am at which point I decided "screw this, I'm waking my brother up and going home." Yes, I am a spiteful person.
The drive from Little City back to FHB was uneventful, thankfully, but my mind decided to play club music nonstop in order to keep me awake (I also ate 11 riesens >.>). Seriously, I don't even know where I heard some of those songs, but I never want to hear them again. My pulse was providing the annoying base rhythm and I could feel the throbbing in my head. :S When I got back to FHB, of course everyone (being sane) was still asleep and the front door was locked. I've been told where the spare key is kept, but honestly, I couldn't remember for the life of me. So I just sat in the back of my car and read until my Tante came out. I ended up crashing around 9am and only slept until noon.
Because of that, I decided that driving all the way to Home would probably be a bad idea and since my family was planning on going back to Little City on Monday I decided to tag along so I could see my brother again. That visit went much smoother, but lasted the entire day so once again I decided to postpone the drive back to Home.
On Tuesday, I was just having too much fun with my cousins to bother driving, and since my Opa's birthday was the following weekend I figured I might as well just stay for the rest of the week and save myself all that driving... not to mention the fuel. The rest of the week passed by in a bit of a blur, and Friday saw the arrival of pretty much my entire extended family. Almost all of them ended up staying under the same roof, so it was a little cramped Friday night... well, morning. We were up playing video games until 5am. Zzz...
Anyways, once I got back on Monday I learned how much I had missed. 26 ambulance runs in under 48 hours, a double medevac to an Air Force Base just outside of Big City (this was the first time in YEARS that we've even had to send one patient to that AFB, so sending two there on the same flight was unheard of). One ambulance ended up returning with three patients. Called out for one, ended up having two on scene, and on the way back picked up another who had been in a moose related accident. And a plane crash! I missed out on a plane crash! T_T /sigh But what can one do? It figures that the one week I decide not to be in Home, they would have an incredibly busy and exciting week. Spending time with my extended family and brother was worth it though, especially considering I usually only get to see the latter about once a year and the former never. What with them being on the other side of the continent and all.
The visit with my brother went quite well. We saw l'elisir d'amore which was very entertaining and remarkably well done. Much better than I was expecting considering where we are. My only regret is that I could only partially make out faces. My brother still hasn't replaced his glasses, so I lent him mine so he could read the prompter and actually understand what was being said. (My vision is still good enough that I could read it, just the fine details got lost.)
After the opera, we went to my brother's friends' place and played League of Legends. I was pushing to see Harry Potter 7.5, but since my brother had work in the morning we didn't get around to it. Speaking of morning, at some point around 2am, my dear brother said "okay, I'm going to bed, if you're still up at 6am give me a call." and promptly walked out the door. Now, I was tired and in the middle of a game, so I wasn't paying much attention and it didn't dawn on me until a few minutes later that he had left. I don't know where he lives, and since his old place burned down, neither do his friends. So I was like 'well, who's up for another game?' *twitch* In the end, I stayed up with one of his friends playing LoL and watching It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia until 5:45am at which point I decided "screw this, I'm waking my brother up and going home." Yes, I am a spiteful person.
The drive from Little City back to FHB was uneventful, thankfully, but my mind decided to play club music nonstop in order to keep me awake (I also ate 11 riesens >.>). Seriously, I don't even know where I heard some of those songs, but I never want to hear them again. My pulse was providing the annoying base rhythm and I could feel the throbbing in my head. :S When I got back to FHB, of course everyone (being sane) was still asleep and the front door was locked. I've been told where the spare key is kept, but honestly, I couldn't remember for the life of me. So I just sat in the back of my car and read until my Tante came out. I ended up crashing around 9am and only slept until noon.
Because of that, I decided that driving all the way to Home would probably be a bad idea and since my family was planning on going back to Little City on Monday I decided to tag along so I could see my brother again. That visit went much smoother, but lasted the entire day so once again I decided to postpone the drive back to Home.
On Tuesday, I was just having too much fun with my cousins to bother driving, and since my Opa's birthday was the following weekend I figured I might as well just stay for the rest of the week and save myself all that driving... not to mention the fuel. The rest of the week passed by in a bit of a blur, and Friday saw the arrival of pretty much my entire extended family. Almost all of them ended up staying under the same roof, so it was a little cramped Friday night... well, morning. We were up playing video games until 5am. Zzz...
Anyways, once I got back on Monday I learned how much I had missed. 26 ambulance runs in under 48 hours, a double medevac to an Air Force Base just outside of Big City (this was the first time in YEARS that we've even had to send one patient to that AFB, so sending two there on the same flight was unheard of). One ambulance ended up returning with three patients. Called out for one, ended up having two on scene, and on the way back picked up another who had been in a moose related accident. And a plane crash! I missed out on a plane crash! T_T /sigh But what can one do? It figures that the one week I decide not to be in Home, they would have an incredibly busy and exciting week. Spending time with my extended family and brother was worth it though, especially considering I usually only get to see the latter about once a year and the former never. What with them being on the other side of the continent and all.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Late Nights
To me, there just seems something unwholesome about slinking in after 4am, trying not to wake anyone up on the way to your own bed. The reason for being out so late just doesn't seem to matter all that much. This probably has to do with the way I grew up, but I'm not going into that here.
Anyways. 1:20am, there's an ambulance call for a patient with respiratory distress. By this time, I'm already comfortably in bed, so when I here the radio I'm thinking "do I really want to go? Three other people have already responded..." Then I realize that it's after 1am. I'm been staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep for over an hour and I'm no closer than when I started. Like hell I'm not going on this run.
The patient lived in town, so I was kind of expecting it to be a very short run; I was thinking I'd be getting back by 2:30, 3 at the latest. Maybe by then I'd be more tired and ready to sleep. Oh no. Treating the patient took forever and then we had to transport him back to his house.
Of course, during the course of this I passed by the tired stage and right into the 'untired' phase. Which leaves me here, typing this at almost 5am and eating corn chips. Not tired, but knowing that at some point today I'm going to crash. Hard.
Anyways. 1:20am, there's an ambulance call for a patient with respiratory distress. By this time, I'm already comfortably in bed, so when I here the radio I'm thinking "do I really want to go? Three other people have already responded..." Then I realize that it's after 1am. I'm been staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep for over an hour and I'm no closer than when I started. Like hell I'm not going on this run.
The patient lived in town, so I was kind of expecting it to be a very short run; I was thinking I'd be getting back by 2:30, 3 at the latest. Maybe by then I'd be more tired and ready to sleep. Oh no. Treating the patient took forever and then we had to transport him back to his house.
Of course, during the course of this I passed by the tired stage and right into the 'untired' phase. Which leaves me here, typing this at almost 5am and eating corn chips. Not tired, but knowing that at some point today I'm going to crash. Hard.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Nerve-wracking ambulance runs
Today... Got a call around 11:30 for respiratory trouble. Not that much of an issue, right? Well, it took seven people to load the gurney onto the ambulance. We got him back to the clinic, couldn't establish an IV, found his heart enzymes were all positive and decided to send him to Little City (we did everything in the back of the ambulance because moving him into the clinic and then possibly back to the ambulance was out of the question. The gurney wasn't rated for him and would collapse without a couple people supporting it).
Anyways, 10 minutes out from Home, Patient complains of chest pain. Well... We don't have an IV and his blood pressure is hovering around 100 systolic. So we can't give nitro, we can't give morphine... They say MONA greets all heart pain, but this time only the vowels made it. (MONA = Morphine, Oxygen, Nitro, and Aspirin). Then he starts going in and out of consciousness and the heart rate monitor shows that he is going into V-fib. We decided if he went unconscious and we couldn't get him back with painful stimuli in about three seconds, then we'd put in an IO so we could give him meds. One time, we were literally about to put the IO in, we felt out the location and... "wha?" *eye lids flutter open*
Then he started cycling between normal rhythms, V-fib, and A-fib, coinciding with his changes in consciousness. The monitor was screaming at us "ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION". At one point, we had the pads out and ready to go, but again, the moment we were about to do something he'd come back. And to top it all off, 20 minutes out of Little City's hospital, he just suddenly came back, heart rhythm became textbook normal, he was fully alert, talking, and the only pain he had was in his bottom from being on it for so long. When we got him to the hospital, the nurse didn't believe us and when we asked her how their ekg looked she was like "oh I didn't even look at it, it's normal"... GRAGH.
Even more annoying, we had called ahead asking for a special gurney and help moving the patient. We get into the ambulance bay and there's the gurney, but no help. So we poke our heads in and ask for three of four people. The guy at the desk looks around, then says "I don't think we have the staff" (there are plenty of nurses just standing at the desk.) The lady (really only four years older than me) EMT-III who had been in the back with me went off on them and we got our help. Eventually. It took a good fifteen minutes just to unload the patient because of this.
We had to mark his neck with a sharpie because we were having so much difficulty locating his carotid pulse that once we got it we didn't want to risk losing it, we only found a radial pulse once... yeah, it was bad. Oh! and we wanted to take a D-stick, because it would have been so convenient if all his problems were coming from high blood sugar. We prick him, turn on the meter and "Low battery, shutting down". NOOO!!!!! Thus began a frantic search for spare batteries. While the other EMT was calling the EMS chief, I was like 'wait, what other small portable objects do we have on the ambulance? THE PORTABLE SAT METER!' After rooting about one of the boxes I managed to find it and thank goodness, two AAA batteries... All ambulances should carry spare batteries. Seriously.
Another random story from the ride. His legs were pretty much too large to fit on the gurney together, so they kept sliding off (in spite of the straps). So we had to keep putting them back on. I swear one leg weighed as much as I did. It was certainly thicker than my waist, but anyways. I had just finished replacing a leg when our driver took a sudden turn. I put my hands down for stability and ended up balancing on them as my legs went into the air. I managed, somehow, not to crash down on the patient and stayed balanced above him until the turn stopped.
Btw, we were going 95 pretty much the entire way... if the ambulance could have gone faster, we would have. Even still, I got back to my house just before 11pm. /sigh
Anyways, do yourself a favor, especially because you'll be doing us a favor at the same time. Go outside and walk. Or bike, I don't care. Just do some sort of exercise that will elevate your heart rate at least four times a week, especially if you have an illness like diabetes. You probably don't realize just how much good it can do for you.
Anyways, 10 minutes out from Home, Patient complains of chest pain. Well... We don't have an IV and his blood pressure is hovering around 100 systolic. So we can't give nitro, we can't give morphine... They say MONA greets all heart pain, but this time only the vowels made it. (MONA = Morphine, Oxygen, Nitro, and Aspirin). Then he starts going in and out of consciousness and the heart rate monitor shows that he is going into V-fib. We decided if he went unconscious and we couldn't get him back with painful stimuli in about three seconds, then we'd put in an IO so we could give him meds. One time, we were literally about to put the IO in, we felt out the location and... "wha?" *eye lids flutter open*
Then he started cycling between normal rhythms, V-fib, and A-fib, coinciding with his changes in consciousness. The monitor was screaming at us "ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION". At one point, we had the pads out and ready to go, but again, the moment we were about to do something he'd come back. And to top it all off, 20 minutes out of Little City's hospital, he just suddenly came back, heart rhythm became textbook normal, he was fully alert, talking, and the only pain he had was in his bottom from being on it for so long. When we got him to the hospital, the nurse didn't believe us and when we asked her how their ekg looked she was like "oh I didn't even look at it, it's normal"... GRAGH.
Even more annoying, we had called ahead asking for a special gurney and help moving the patient. We get into the ambulance bay and there's the gurney, but no help. So we poke our heads in and ask for three of four people. The guy at the desk looks around, then says "I don't think we have the staff" (there are plenty of nurses just standing at the desk.) The lady (really only four years older than me) EMT-III who had been in the back with me went off on them and we got our help. Eventually. It took a good fifteen minutes just to unload the patient because of this.
We had to mark his neck with a sharpie because we were having so much difficulty locating his carotid pulse that once we got it we didn't want to risk losing it, we only found a radial pulse once... yeah, it was bad. Oh! and we wanted to take a D-stick, because it would have been so convenient if all his problems were coming from high blood sugar. We prick him, turn on the meter and "Low battery, shutting down". NOOO!!!!! Thus began a frantic search for spare batteries. While the other EMT was calling the EMS chief, I was like 'wait, what other small portable objects do we have on the ambulance? THE PORTABLE SAT METER!' After rooting about one of the boxes I managed to find it and thank goodness, two AAA batteries... All ambulances should carry spare batteries. Seriously.
Another random story from the ride. His legs were pretty much too large to fit on the gurney together, so they kept sliding off (in spite of the straps). So we had to keep putting them back on. I swear one leg weighed as much as I did. It was certainly thicker than my waist, but anyways. I had just finished replacing a leg when our driver took a sudden turn. I put my hands down for stability and ended up balancing on them as my legs went into the air. I managed, somehow, not to crash down on the patient and stayed balanced above him until the turn stopped.
Btw, we were going 95 pretty much the entire way... if the ambulance could have gone faster, we would have. Even still, I got back to my house just before 11pm. /sigh
Anyways, do yourself a favor, especially because you'll be doing us a favor at the same time. Go outside and walk. Or bike, I don't care. Just do some sort of exercise that will elevate your heart rate at least four times a week, especially if you have an illness like diabetes. You probably don't realize just how much good it can do for you.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Unpleasant surprises
Last night was one of the (very) few times that I managed to fall asleep before midnight. I also wasn't having any weird, freaky dreams about a future me stealing my car (repeatedly), or a zombie carebear apocalypse destroying humanity*. So all in all it was shaping up to be a nice night.
Imagine my surprise as I wake up to the most horrid screeching sound I have ever heard. My heart went something like "thump. thump.thumpthumthutht---" It was also loud. Very, very loud. After a minute or so of frantically flailing around I realized where I was and set out to find the source of the noise. You'd think it wouldn't take very long to find, but with the way the sound echoed about the room, I had a really difficult time pinpointing the source. Finally, my eyes settled on the pale green glow on the gas/carbon monoxide detector's diminutive LED. Low battery.
It's one of those annoying little devices that wails at you when its battery gets low. "LOOK AT ME MY BATTERY IS RUNNING OUT I CAN'T JUST TURN AN LED ON TO TELL YOU BECAUSE THAT WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH SO NOW I HAVE TO WASTE WHAT LITTLE BATTERY REMAINS TO ME TO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THAT I'M DYING HERE! HERE, LET ME SPURT SOME MORE OF MY BLOOD IN YOUR FACE! CAN I GET A TRANSFUSION NOW!? OMG LOOK AT ME! WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING!?" Just like those aggravating smoke detectors. Just like those annoying alarms on the glass doors we had in Florida. Just like... You know, this incident clearly dredged up some unhappy memories. That and spending the night on the couch (just in case it wasn't only a battery issue). >.>
*My cousin and I have been on a bit of a horror spree lately. Usually watching one or two movies a night. It's entertaining but it does give me some pretty messed up dreams. This is mostly because the movies are messed up, but also because they meld with things that the girls watch. Thus Zombie Apocalypse: Carebear Edition. Carebears would swarm people and hug them, turning them into another carebear. Once we started driving them back (because let's face it, if you can't keep an over-sized teddy bear away from you, you have issues) they evolved. The carebear stare became a tool for ranged conversion. Their eyes would turn red, they'd float into the air and hearts should shoot out of their stomachs, converting anyone they touched. We lost so many people to the stare... That and the damned balls, those were the worst.
Imagine my surprise as I wake up to the most horrid screeching sound I have ever heard. My heart went something like "thump. thump.thumpthumthutht---" It was also loud. Very, very loud. After a minute or so of frantically flailing around I realized where I was and set out to find the source of the noise. You'd think it wouldn't take very long to find, but with the way the sound echoed about the room, I had a really difficult time pinpointing the source. Finally, my eyes settled on the pale green glow on the gas/carbon monoxide detector's diminutive LED. Low battery.
It's one of those annoying little devices that wails at you when its battery gets low. "LOOK AT ME MY BATTERY IS RUNNING OUT I CAN'T JUST TURN AN LED ON TO TELL YOU BECAUSE THAT WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH SO NOW I HAVE TO WASTE WHAT LITTLE BATTERY REMAINS TO ME TO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THAT I'M DYING HERE! HERE, LET ME SPURT SOME MORE OF MY BLOOD IN YOUR FACE! CAN I GET A TRANSFUSION NOW!? OMG LOOK AT ME! WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING!?" Just like those aggravating smoke detectors. Just like those annoying alarms on the glass doors we had in Florida. Just like... You know, this incident clearly dredged up some unhappy memories. That and spending the night on the couch (just in case it wasn't only a battery issue). >.>
*My cousin and I have been on a bit of a horror spree lately. Usually watching one or two movies a night. It's entertaining but it does give me some pretty messed up dreams. This is mostly because the movies are messed up, but also because they meld with things that the girls watch. Thus Zombie Apocalypse: Carebear Edition. Carebears would swarm people and hug them, turning them into another carebear. Once we started driving them back (because let's face it, if you can't keep an over-sized teddy bear away from you, you have issues) they evolved. The carebear stare became a tool for ranged conversion. Their eyes would turn red, they'd float into the air and hearts should shoot out of their stomachs, converting anyone they touched. We lost so many people to the stare... That and the damned balls, those were the worst.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
My car
I'm using a little old Dodge Neon. It works well, especially considering it has almost 117,500 miles on it. Every now and then, however, it throws something completely surprising at me. For example, when I turn on the air, it will occasionally shoot bugs out of the vents. Yes, bugs. Or rather bug parts. Wings, bodies, heads, they've all come out of the air vents, which is why I direct the airflow around myself and not directly at me. Being covered in bug bodies during the first barrage was enough for me, thanks.
The latest and greatest surprise came when I was driving down the highway today. Everything was going fine and then suddenly the speedometer dropped to 0 and the odometer stopped working. I managed to make it into the clinic without getting pulled over for speeding or having someone rage at me for driving too slow, but it was a rather worrisome experience. Coming back everything worked just fine, but having random parts of the car just give out like that doesn't give me the peace of mind I'm used to. My assumption is that a sensor is on the fritz and I'm going to have it checked out soon.
The latest and greatest surprise came when I was driving down the highway today. Everything was going fine and then suddenly the speedometer dropped to 0 and the odometer stopped working. I managed to make it into the clinic without getting pulled over for speeding or having someone rage at me for driving too slow, but it was a rather worrisome experience. Coming back everything worked just fine, but having random parts of the car just give out like that doesn't give me the peace of mind I'm used to. My assumption is that a sensor is on the fritz and I'm going to have it checked out soon.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy 4th
This weekend was exhausting, which is to say I was pretty much busy doing something for every waking moment. That and not sleeping. Between the rain hitting the metal roof and the constant snoring (from two to three people. I could feel the vibrations through the floor and my bed. It was crazy.)there was plenty of noise to keep me awake. Then the fan in my laptop decided to go psycho. It's kind of creepy when you wake up in the middle of the night to what sounds like heavy breathing right next to your bed.
But I did have fun. I got to spend roughly four days with more of my extended family (though not my immediate family. My brother was tied up with work and didn't manage to make it down). I had the chance to further refine my potato salad recipe. My limited German was put to the test because my Opa would randomly insert German words into his sentences or just flat out answer in German. "Where's the Maggi?" *Long string of German words* "Right... Thanks." It is nice to know, however, that I can understand at least enough of it to get the gist.
While I was at FHB I gave Fable 2 a whirl. Now, I really liked Fable: The Lost Chapters (for computer, I was playing Fable 2 on the xbox 360) and I must say I was a little disappointed by this sequel. I will still finish it just for the story, but the game play seems very simplified and the magic system is pretty terrible compared to the first. Oh, speaking of disappointments... Dungeon Siege 3. EPIC FAIL. It might have been good on a console, but the computer version has many, many issues.
On the flip side, Mass Effect 2 (yeah, yeah, I FINALLY started playing it) is freaking amazing. I will probably end up playing through it multiple times when I have more free time just to further explore the options. I also can't wait to get back into the Starcraft 2 competitive scene. This past year I didn't play much of it, just swiftly rose to high gold then stopped, but after watching the dreamhack SC2 finals, I'm really excited to climb as high as I can. I would start now, or at least practice since the end of season 2 is just around the corner, but I lack the proper internet connection.
Anyways, I digress. This weekend. Being Far Far Away, it doesn't actually get dark enough for fireworks, so we had to forgo that part of the 4th celebrations. Instead, my family pulled out a plethora of handguns and rifles and many rounds were fired. I was planning on making red velvet cupcakes and then decorating them with blue and white frosting, but I managed to completely forget about it. To make up for it, I am currently baking a batch of those lemon muffins so we can have cake for breakfast. Because let's face it, muffins are just an excuse to have cake first thing in the morning.
While I was in Little City, I picked up a mini-muffin tin, so I'm making dozens of these bite-sized little things. I'm thinking they will be perfect for the girls. ^_^ Also, I can bring them into the clinic and all the people I work with won't have to feel quite as guilty about eating one. I swear 3/4 of the people there are on diets. >.> My only regret is that I only picked up one of the tins, because it's taking a rather long time...
I haven't posted for a while mainly because I haven't really had anything to post about. Practically nothing new has happened in the clinic, we've had almost no ambulance runs, and yeah. The only thing of note is that I'm helping one of the doctors here pass the test for his Wisconsin license. Hehehe. To be fair, he really doesn't need my help, he just has a LOT of bad luck (or karma) accumulated. And honestly, some of those questions are a bit tricky, especially the legal questions. O.o
But I did have fun. I got to spend roughly four days with more of my extended family (though not my immediate family. My brother was tied up with work and didn't manage to make it down). I had the chance to further refine my potato salad recipe. My limited German was put to the test because my Opa would randomly insert German words into his sentences or just flat out answer in German. "Where's the Maggi?" *Long string of German words* "Right... Thanks." It is nice to know, however, that I can understand at least enough of it to get the gist.
While I was at FHB I gave Fable 2 a whirl. Now, I really liked Fable: The Lost Chapters (for computer, I was playing Fable 2 on the xbox 360) and I must say I was a little disappointed by this sequel. I will still finish it just for the story, but the game play seems very simplified and the magic system is pretty terrible compared to the first. Oh, speaking of disappointments... Dungeon Siege 3. EPIC FAIL. It might have been good on a console, but the computer version has many, many issues.
On the flip side, Mass Effect 2 (yeah, yeah, I FINALLY started playing it) is freaking amazing. I will probably end up playing through it multiple times when I have more free time just to further explore the options. I also can't wait to get back into the Starcraft 2 competitive scene. This past year I didn't play much of it, just swiftly rose to high gold then stopped, but after watching the dreamhack SC2 finals, I'm really excited to climb as high as I can. I would start now, or at least practice since the end of season 2 is just around the corner, but I lack the proper internet connection.
Anyways, I digress. This weekend. Being Far Far Away, it doesn't actually get dark enough for fireworks, so we had to forgo that part of the 4th celebrations. Instead, my family pulled out a plethora of handguns and rifles and many rounds were fired. I was planning on making red velvet cupcakes and then decorating them with blue and white frosting, but I managed to completely forget about it. To make up for it, I am currently baking a batch of those lemon muffins so we can have cake for breakfast. Because let's face it, muffins are just an excuse to have cake first thing in the morning.
While I was in Little City, I picked up a mini-muffin tin, so I'm making dozens of these bite-sized little things. I'm thinking they will be perfect for the girls. ^_^ Also, I can bring them into the clinic and all the people I work with won't have to feel quite as guilty about eating one. I swear 3/4 of the people there are on diets. >.> My only regret is that I only picked up one of the tins, because it's taking a rather long time...
I haven't posted for a while mainly because I haven't really had anything to post about. Practically nothing new has happened in the clinic, we've had almost no ambulance runs, and yeah. The only thing of note is that I'm helping one of the doctors here pass the test for his Wisconsin license. Hehehe. To be fair, he really doesn't need my help, he just has a LOT of bad luck (or karma) accumulated. And honestly, some of those questions are a bit tricky, especially the legal questions. O.o
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