The Furry Reaper

Like many of you, I've been intrigued by the story of Oscar, the Hospice Cat:




Oscar has become rather famous for his uncanny ability to predict which patients are going to die soon, and he lies next to them in their last few hours, purring and snuggling. I can't think of a better way to pass away than having a cat in bed next to me in my final hours.

Of course, Olive pretty much does that every night



but she may just be playing the odds.

Kiss of Death

Good thing I have my own office so no one could hear me howl in protest when I read this today:

MINNEAPOLIS -- In an interview with ESPN, President George W. Bush complimented Tigers owner Mike Ilitch and predicted the Tigers will return to the World Series.

"I think Detroit will be in the World Series," Bush said. "I think they'll nose out Boston. I know that may be counterintuitive, but their young pitching is great, and they've got the flamethrower Zumala back."

ESPN's Karl Ravech, who was interviewing Bush, told him the flamethrower's name is Zumaya.

"Zumaya ... Zumala, Zumaya," Bush said. "I think they'll be pretty tough."

You can start hanging the bunting in Fenway now.

The Island Cure

I would have checked in earlier, but I spent all of last week here:



And, amazingly enough, my back pain is all gone!!! Even after another rough bout last weekend and a kind of tricky drive down, just one day at the beach and I felt like a new woman. Now I'm trying to figure out how to write this off on my taxes as a medical expense. Or at least get the insurance company to cover it. If the pain returns and I end up going through a course of physical therapy, it may just end up being cheaper to send me to the beach for another week. Or two.

I should have gotten the service contract...

A little over a week ago my laptop decided to fall apart. I'd been having a problem with the AC adapter port -- I had to jiggle the cord to get it to charge and even resorted to taping it in place, which would work for awhile, until I moved. So I had decided to "chat" that evening with a Dell technical support person online. About half an hour before that, however, half my LCD screen suddenly went blank. Well, not exactly blank, just three solid vertical blocks of various shades of green. I still managed to "chat" with Roderick by minimizing the Firefox window to half the monitor, and he decided I needed a new LCD screen and a new motherboard. Dell will send someone out to fix a machine, so we made arrangements for a technician to come to my office, either the next day (Friday) or no later than Monday. I wasn't that worried about internet withdrawal, since I was housesitting for someone with cable (which I don't have) and there was lots of baseball on last weekend.

Well that was the plan. However, Friday evening I was lying on the couch, and when I sat up I felt a twinge in my back which got my attention. Over time the twinge turned into spasms, and the pain became excruciating. I tried to tough it out Friday night and all day Saturday with massive doses of ibuprofen, but at 2:00 in the morning on Sunday, it was apparent I was in real trouble. I called a friend of mine (who happens to be a doctor) and between sobs on the phone I was able to explain my situation. She decided I needed to get to the ER. so she showed up 15 minutes later and off we went.

The last time I went to the ER was three years ago with what ended up being appendicitis, and in that this was 2 AM on a weekend I was prepared for a three hour wait just like I endured back then. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was a slow night and I was seen immediately. It helps to bring your own doctor with you to the ER so she could tell the resident exactly what I needed and what her diagnosis was. After ruling out a compression fracture with x-rays and going through a series of range-of-motion exercises, we all agreed that yes, this was a serious muscle spasm and Valium would do the trick. I also made him give my Serious Pain Pills because I was in Serious Pain. After a trip to the all night pharmacy, I got home and took my Vitamin V's (Valium and Vicodin) and managed to get a nice seven hours of sleep. After Sunday I stopped the Vicodin because it was just making me sleepy while the Valium really did relax the muscles and was giving me real relief.

Soooooo....needless to say I was not at work on Monday for the Dell technician. I wasn't there on Tuesday, either, but finally felt healed enough to go in on Wednesday. And Mr. Technician came in and had everything repaired and good as new in half an hour.

I wish I could say the same for my back. Things are better, but I still feel a little twinge every now and then. Sitting in my chair at work seems to aggravate it, but heading for the hot tub at the Y after work is blessed relief. And if I can survive this next week at work then it's off to Topsail Island next Sunday and the famous Sea-Sun-Mojito cure.

These two episodes have me thinking, though. I've had warranty work done on the computer, but I know once the warranty is up it'll start nickel-and-diming me with one problem after another, and it will be time to get a replacement. With all the minor glitches my body has been experiencing in the last few months, I'm just afraid that warranty is already up.