Fish Fear Me

Brutal

Our first really wicked band of heavy weather came in loaded for bear:

State emergency officials' tally for all of Minnesota released Friday afternoon showed 39 tornadoes, 26 funnel clouds, 11 reports of damage from thunderstorm winds and 69 reports of hail.

Three people are dead and hundreds are dealing with damage to their homes and businesses. I couldn't believe the number of red tornado warning boxes as I watched the line move across the state on the local NWS weather radar site. I was happy to see the cell that appeared to have my neighborhood's number fall apart about twenty miles out. It just went away and all I saw here was some light wind and rain.

Given the number of touchdowns, it's a testament to the warning systems in place that more weren't injured or killed. I tease the TV weather people about how they dig this kind of weather because then they can play with their toys, but there really is a serious public service that they provide. Thanks, guys and gals.

Strange

Well, since there were no serious complications I guess I can take a more bemused attitude rather than alarmed, but I had a fairly strong allergic reaction to something last night. That's pretty startling to me because I haven't had an allergic reaction to anything since a mysterious case of hives when I was five years old or so. I mean nothing. I can't think of any food or drink I'm even intolerant of, let alone truly allergic.

Here's what happened. Last night I didn't feel like cooking so I walked down to the local pub and brought home the lasagna dinner, which consisted of a good sized square of lasagna, two pieces of garlic bread, and a regular dinner salad with creamy Italian dressing. All stuff I've had before, though it's been awhile since I've had the lasagna. Maybe even a couple of years.

It was all fine. I got home and chowed down and nothing gave me any sort of gastric distress. Not last night or today. It all tasted great too. But I got a look at my face in the mirror about twenty minutes later and holy cow. I looked like I had a severe sunburn, which was more puzzling than anything else. I didn't spend much time outside yesterday and it didn't hurt like a sunburn that red should have. Then I saw it kept going down my chest and took off my shirt. Holy cow again. There were huge blotches of red all across my upper body and a couple of small blemishes and bug bites were absolutely screaming red. I had no idea what set it off, but my immune system was seriously pissed.

As I stared in horror and watched the red blotches grow before my eyes, I thought about going to the ER. I didn't though, because my breathing was fine, I wasn't feeling dizzy nor had a racing heartbeat, and it didn't even itch. Besides, I have to pay 20% of any ER visit until I hit my annual max. out of pocket and that's still a ways off. I'd go to the ER, wait four hours for a doc to see me, and end up leaving with a $200 bottle of Benadryl...if I was lucky.

But I was fine. I woke up this morning and it was all gone like it never happened. Very strange. I suspect the lasagna, and the owner of the local pub, who was absolutely mortified when I told him what happened, is tracking down the list of ingredients so I can start playing detective. I'm 100% certain that the food wasn't bad. If it was a matter of spoilage or some sort of bacteria I would have had some kind of digestive upset and he swears no one else has complained. I believe him. I've known him long enough. Hell, I probably single-handedly paid for his kids' dental work. No, this was all immune system reaction to some ingredient. I haven't heard back from my doctor yet, but my message said it could wait until next week.

It's not a huge deal...I think. It bugs me to not know what set it off though. And I hate not being able to say "nothing" for now when a doctor or nurse asks if I'm allergic to anything. That was one "nothing" that made things really easy.

Heheh...my evil twin Skippy just had a nasty thought. Maybe I need to start smoking again.  ;)

There Are Some Stories...

...you just have to read:

A German student "mooned" a group of Hell's Angels and hurled a puppy at them before escaping on a stolen bulldozer, police have said.

I....

Wha...

Huh?

Never mind. Just move on.

Every Year...

...I learn a little more on Bloomsday.

Better

After a couple of medical appointments you might think I would be even more cranky than I was this morning, but I'm not. Just the opposite actually. The stitches are out of my hand now and I had the first serious wound care session that really cleaned things up nicely. Some visible progress was just the ticket. The therapist, Jodie, didn't damage good tissue once and showed me that she really is good at what she does. There's lots more work and pain ahead and my doctor is a little concerned at the numbness in the fingers at this stage, but it was good to see some results finally.

Still pissed at the other stuff though. :)

Wednesday Cranky

I guess we can describe it as biblical now:

A government panel raised its estimate of the flow rate from BP’s out-of-control well yet again on Tuesday, declaring that as much as 60,000 barrels a day could be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. That is roughly 2.5 million gallons a day, and it means an amount equal to the Exxon Valdez spill could be gushing from the well about every four days.

Geez I'm tired right now. Tired of fighting the urge for a smoke. Tired of doing stuff one-handed and wearing this friggin' splint. Tired of the rain(12 days out of 15 this month). Most of all though, I'm tired of the bullshit, incompetence, and impotence surrounding the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

Something about that mess just doesn't make sense to me. I know that BP has every incentive to shut that leak down, and so does the Obama administration. I also understand that a mile underwater presents huge challenges. But the best we can do after nearly two months is collect what may be as little as a quarter of what is gushing out right now? Really?

Okay, who am I to challenge the conventional wisdom? Nobody, really. It just seems that we have been remarkably passive about accepting that everything that can be done is, in fact, being done. With maybe 2.5 million gallons a day spilling into the Gulf, that damn well better be the case.

Nothing from Obama's speech last night reassured me. We don't need a damn commission to figure out what went wrong, the blowout preventer failed. We don't need new regulations, we need the federal government to do its damn job and actually enforce the regulations that are already in place. And spare me, for God's sake spare me, the bullshit about green jobs. It's a lie and anyone who is paying attention knows it.

Actually, you know what? Spare me from everything right now except plugging the damn hole. That's all I want to hear right now. Until then, Mr. President, just shut the fuck up. 

$97.20

Twelve full days without a cigarette now and 6 full days since I ditched the patch and went completely nicotine-free. Figuring $5.40 a pack and 1.5 packs per day, today I will surpass the $100 mark in money saved by not smoking. 

I think I'm going to make it now. I wasn't so sure just a couple of days ago.

There's Always One

When I worked for a national school photography company about a decade ago, they had a yearbook division that was always dealing with stuff like this:

A Mayo High School senior's yearbook prank could end in his suspension, as officials attempt to scrub his work from the newly released annuals just days before the end of school.

Students at the southeast Rochester high school have reported that a freshman student's name was altered in the $85 book to read "Moe Lester." It also appeared in the index of names in the back of the book.

Officials were alerted to the change after the yearbooks came out earlier this month, and they have been scrambling through classrooms to get the 1,000 or so books and make changes, which included pasting a sticker over the student's name to correctly spell the name and then working over the index with what students thought looked to be a Sharpie pen.

If I was the principal at that school I'd tell him I want him to cough up $85,000 to pay for a reprint. I wouldn't be serious, but I would love to see the look on his face. His parent's faces too.

Ahh, in the grand scheme of things it's not that big a deal unless you're the poor shlub who was singled out. Even then it sounds like it wasn't personal, he was just some random freshman. Sort of a high school version of a zebra herd having to cross the river. The gators are going to get one every so often.

They Really Do Think It's Their Money

You know, I really don't want to be a crank about this, but there's a subtle distinction that really does matter here and I refuse to concede this rhetorical ground:

And now that sentiment has turned against all the federal red ink — and cost-cutting is in vogue — Democrats on President Barack Obama’s financial commission are considering the wisdom of permanent tax breaks such as the mortgage deduction and corporate deferral. Calling them “tax entitlements,” senior Democratic lawmakers have argued they should be on the table for reform just like traditional entitlement programs Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.

No. No. No.

If the government pays me instead of taxing me, I'm getting an entitlement. If the government does not take my money for some reason, it is not an entitlement because it was my freakin' money in the first place. Call it a tax break, question the policy wisdom of it, whatever. Just don't call it an entitlement because that implies that the government has first claim on wealth instead of the people who earn it.

Um, no. Not in a free country at least. Removing tax a break is not removing a cost to government, it's raising revenue for the government. If a politician can't be honest about that he shouldn't be allowed to keep his office come November.

I Won't Be Hurt If You Skip This Post

While I change the dressing on my hand and let it get some air, I thought I would share a little more detail. I do this because I don't get grossed out by this stuff and I find it kind of interesting. But I understand if others don't. Below the fold here is a description and a text only link to a pic of my hand. Don't click the link if you don't want to see my beat up hand or you are really squeamish about such things. I don't think it's that bad, but then I've gotten used to it the last five days. YMMV.

Oh, and I meant to add that at this point it looks like a success. I am pretty confident that my ring finger will return to 100% of normal or very close. Right now the little finger is looking more like 90%, but even better is still a good possibility.