Aches and Pains of the Body and Mind

Welcome to my short lived pity party. All attendees must arrive with gifts in hand. Two weeks ago (through events of my own making…..yes, I fess up to the blame) I overindulged in eating pizza and chugging root beer I suffered in such a manner that I have never suffered before. I had a marathon, decathlon, Navy seal like training— attack of my hiatal hernia. I’ve had previous attacks which have been short lived, but in this particular case, it was an all night, not-so-slumber-party of pain. For the next three days, I suffered through the post trauma effects of the attack until I was finally able to go see a doctor and get some pharmaceutical relief and help my body heal. And that concludes the aches and pains of the body…

Whilst everyone else in this happy valley was celebrating Spring Break (a week long party) I was glued to my computer chair getting a little Halo gaming action in (ya right). No, I was working on my portfolio (in place of a Master’s thesis)…the reality of graduation looms near and I had procrastinated the day of my scholarly repentance. As such, I spent many long hours each day putting it all together. I am glad to say that 90% of this last minute up-hill, feel the burn of the run, is over with. I have some minor editing changes to do and then I just have to put it all together in an HTML and PDF format, burn 4 copies and turn the little devil in. And that is the pains of the mind.

To our great celebration, Lubbock finally had back to back days of measurable precipitation. We had received only a sparse .003” of rain between October 2005 and March 2006. Totally unheard of in these parts. I think between yesterday and today, we have had at least .5” of rain. Yippee!!

Things are shaping up. Pity party is over. Thanks for stopping by.

Save The Day

Yes folks, it was another triumphant day for the forces of good. The other day, right in the middle of the spin cycle on our washer, something went Zoing! Clink-a-link-a-clunck-clunk-clunck! I promptly changed into my alter-ego. Up on its side went the washer in despair. Great Neptunes thought I! What appeared to be a belt was no longer in its proper orbit and one of the springs that helps hold the tub in place was dead on the floor, like a severed limb without the gore. I began drawing various tools from my utility belt in not so quite desperation. This was proving to be more villainous than I could have predicted. I contacted Alfred (a distant relation) on my radio transmitter. Alfred was unable to provide any tech support and to my chagrin I called it a night realizing the problem was not going anywhere that night.

Thank heavens for my wonderful side-kick Honeylishous Babe. The next day while my mild mannered side was in school, Honeylishous Babe went the distance and researched what knowledge we humans had been able to collect on our nemesis. To our astonishment, all was needed was put a silver bullet (a.k.a. machine screw….back into place) and re-attach the spring.
What we thought was a loose belt was in fact a noise reduction device that has no replacement part.

So later that night, after the kids had been safely tucked into bed, I once again changed into my alter-ego, replaced the screw, snipped and removed the damaged noise-reducing belt, re-attached the spring using my super-human muscles and wa-la! We have an operational washer again.

Thanks Honeylishous Babe! I could not have done it without you.