Last year, I was an agent of the MiB. This year, our team is dressing up as crayons, and I’ll be red. Yes, I even have a red T-shirt ready to go, and when I get to work there will be a “crayon head” headgear waiting for me...more photographic evidence later!

Last night i had another very short anxiety attack. This one was brought on by an IM I had with an LGF Minion, and instead of it having to do with politics, it had to do with my son. Pretty much as soon as it was over, the positive feedback it generated fed right into the attack, and it lasted about five minutes.
At least I’m learning things; now I know what to look for. Now I have to learn to stop them cold in their tracks, because the situation with my son, like all the other things I stressed out on, is something I have no control over...in other words, I can’t make it turn out the way I’d like for it to turn out.

Well, I had my angiogram done just about 48 hours ago and it’s time for a report.
The cardiologist found no significant blockage in my arteries which warranted a further procedure, so that’s good. I’m going to take that as though there may be some blockage which I’m already on meds for. It could mean I may have to adjust those meds. I’ll find out more in the next two to three weeks when I follow up with him again.
And we’ll also likely talk about a diet I could go on to help lose weight which is what I need and want to do. He said I was a lucky man and I don’t want to let anything else go. A lot of the stuff which I totally stressed out on three weeks ago has been rectified.
As far as soreness goes, it wasn’t too bad at all It isn’t now, but today I’ll take off the bandage and clean it up a bit, then I’ll feel civilized again
So, that is where things stand.

Come 1800 hours local time, I will NOT be among the throng of Mac faithful at the Apple Stores around the country when Leopard is officially released.
Will I get it? Oh, absolutely! But you see, I have to make a side trip to the hospital today for an angiogram, as a followup to what happened three weeks ago, just to make sure there’s nothing out of the ordinary. That starts at 0930 with check in; the procedure goes at 1130 and should last approximately one hour, and then for the rest of the time I’m there, I’ll be in the recovery room, for about four hours.
Therefore, when you add it all up...I’ll be at home recuperating when Leopard comes out. Leopard can wait.

At least two things. One, I found a good and decent person (the Official Roommate) I’ve known for two years to room with. The apartment just will be available a little later than we had hoped. Two, my primary care physician agrees with the cardiologist and is sanctioning an angiogram to go in and make sure everything is OK. So I have call and schedule that; in addition, the Official College Buddy will be taking me to the hospital for the procedure, and bringing me back afterwards.
That said, fair warning: I may not post over the next few days.

Mark Noonan over at Blogs for Bush writes a wonderfully sobering treatise about how a person’s drive for money, the drive to do things their way, can destroy a person’s life and sould if they’re not careful. I reached this point a couple of months ago when a friend in Tennessee pointed out to me that “I’m letting Life pass me by.” And she is right.
Please, God, let me catch the next bus, so I can return to these friends and family I have back East.

I’ve had a lot of things on my mind. A lot. Too many things. It caught up to me Friday morning at work, when I started feeling very funny in my chest. It wasn’t painful, but a strange sensation which emanated from the middle of my chest to my left side, above the breastbone. After realizing this was not right, I called my doctor, and his medical assistant advised me to got to ER right away.
I was scared, folks. So i went to the ER at Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital, got checked in, and spent the next 8 hours there, then they checked me in for overnight observation. They did four complete blood tests over the next 24 hours. I didn’t sleep well at all that evening, because I didn’t have a CPAP machine.
Then at 1530 hours yesterday, a resident doctor came along to inform me that the results of the tests which did not show any marker enzymes present, and I did not have a heart attack, but rather an anxiety attack, possibly combined with heartburn. He gave me prescriptions for those, and sent me home with those in hand. I got back to my place just after 1700 hours.
I had a lot of time to think about things when I was in the ER and inpatient. First, I’ve done a terrible job taking care of myself, not taking my meds when I should. Second, I am pushing myself too hard, working four ten-hour shifts; I’ll be talking to my bosses about changing back to the regular rotation, especially in light of the fact that they are moving me to closing at 1900 hours. Finally, the stuff which I want to do is going to have to wait until I can lose some of this weight I’ve been carrying.
God heard my prayer when I thought of all these things. I ask you all to keep me in your prayers also. I have to slow down.

I went to church a couple of days ago...and it was Preschoolers’ Day, where all the little kids got to go in front and sing for everyone. I felt so out of place there because of the lack of a family of my own. Because I wasn’t allowed to be a Dad when my son was growing up, I missed out on a lot of things.
Do I resent that? You bet I do! Even though I was worshipping God along with the rest of the congregation, He could see that I was in pain, and He got me through the service (and the rest of the day to boot) without my breaking down and crying right then and there.
Thank you, God.

Last night I helped my good friend Jonathan pick up a computer (unfortunately not a Mac, since Jonathan is a fellow Mac user!) from his mother’s home in Tempe, and bring it back to his place in North Phoenix. For a while there, we were sweating bullets because the monitor was honkin’ huge...it was not a flatscreen panel...and I didn’t think I had my bungee cords to hold the thing in place, since there was not enough room in the back part of the cab.
Lo and Behold! I indeed had the bungee cords! All was well. So when we got going again to drive back from Tempe to Phoenix via the 101, which was 40 miles one-way or thereabouts, I drove at 55, and that’s something I haven’t done in quite awhile. It made me think of the time I moved out here, hauling the U-Haul trailer behind me...and I’ll just leave it at that.
I even drove home from Jonathan’s apartment at 55 too. Now I wonder why.

Last night, after I got home, I got some bad news about my Mom...from Mom herself. She has to go through open heart surgery again. She went through it back in 1981, on her 43rd birthday, where they repaired her mitral valve.
The doctors told her back then she’d eventually have to go through it again. That time has arrived. She doesn’t know yet when that surgery will take place, only that it will, and will be done at Borgess Heart Institute in Kalamazoo. She’ll know more about it next week when she sees the doctors up there. Until then, everything is in limbo.
I ask you, my readers and friends, to please pray for her. I know I will. I didn’t sleep good at all last night.

Today was supposed to be my scheduled day off. However, I got a call last night from my boss, who informed me that when Workforce did the scheduling, they made an error with all the people who work four 10-hour shifts (like I do), and it had to deal with the beginning of another training class like the one I took a few weeks ago...which would result in even more people not being there to handle incoming client calls.
So I am going in for a few hours today to help out. Ain’t I the nice guy. 

Notice I didn’t say Idiot Landlords like I have in the past....
I paid my rent today. I also found out that the guy who signed for my USPS Express Mail last month and promptly tossed it into a front office closet normally reserved for package deliveries, where it languished for two weeks and I had to end up stopping payment on the initial check, and they found it when I actually went down on August 16 to give them the new rent check...OK! Still keeping up?
He’s been fired. THANK GOD! Who knows how many other tenants this guy screwed up over the last six months. Well anyway, I spoke to two workers and they both remember what happened. I asked them to knock the cost I bore of mailing them the check via Express Mail. They said they would speak to the owner, who will be in the office on Tuesday. So we shall see.
In any case, I’m still done with these folks in 60 days.

Some a**hole in a Lexus cut right in front of me on the way home from work, from two lanes over, then slowed down to point threateningly not at me, but at some other guy in an SUV. Of course he slowed up everyone behind me too.
That did it. I reached for my cell phone and called 911 to report his rich-b***h a** to the Arizona Highway Patrol. He may be on his way home somewhere in Scottsdale (a rich-b***h town of course!), and I hope the Good Guys pay a call on him to let him know that someone who gives a damn about Public Safety reported him. That was fulfilling my duty as an American Citizen!

And I guess that’s a good thing for me right about now, with my non-standard schedule this week. About the only good thing about it is that I can stop by at BK for breakfast, instead of McDonald’s or Del Taco...which, BTW, has a smashing good shredded beef breakfast burrito...so new of a product they forgot to include it on their web site!
Whoop de freakin’ do.

I’ve worked four 10-hour work weeks since October of last year, where in addition to my weekends off, I get one other day off during the week, Normally this is either Tuesday or Thursday, and I use this day to run my errands.
Not this week. I have some training starting Wednesday for some “new” (rather, to reacquaint myself with some old) systems, so I can service clients in yet another part of the country. While I still start at 0600 today and tomorrow, I will work until 1430 for those days, then for the rest of the week it’ll be 0800 to 1630. These will all be with a half-hour lunch instead of an hour I would get under the 4x10 scheme of things. Whether I can sleep in to compensate is another matter entirely.
Now that I have you thoroughly confused....