Getting Better

The model I wrote about a few days ago has made some progress. She's sedated and conscious, and things are looking not as bad as they did a week ago. Here's hoping she makes a full recovery!

....

In the meantime, I contemplating going to the emergency room tomorrow, because I've had an asthma attack for the last week or so that just won't go away. I've been waking up too early in the morning because my lungs aren't working right. And the puffer seems to be of minimal use. I need something stronger. If I could just breathe properly, life would be soooo much easier.

In about an hour, I'm going to visit the dentist. Again. He wants to pull out another tooth, but nuh-uh. I'm still traumatized from the last time. I'm going to have him fill the cavity, but he's not yanking my tooth unless it's 100% necessary, and he's not going to do it today. I have to teach a class tonight, and if I can't talk due to fainting or a broken jaw or bleeding or swelling or hospitalization, then I can't teach, can I?

Well, Shoot.

Last night I got to practice gun disarming at my wing chun class. It's much easier than fighting someone who's armed with a knife. Not, of course, that I ever want to have to ever do either, but given a shitty, shitty choice, I'd rather be stuck in close range with someone with a handgun than someone with a knife.

I wouldn't mind taking a shooting course, sometime. I haven't fired a gun in about twenty years, and my firearms knowledge is both meagre and rusty. I do remember that I wasn't a terrible shot with a rifle, though. Maybe it runs in the family. My Dad was a sharp-shooter.

I sucked at archery, though. I wonder if I'd be better now that I've substantially upped my arm and grip strength?

Ok. Enough stalling. Time for me to get my nervous butt down to the dentist's....

Poop on a Stick!

That was one of the quickest dentist visits in a long time, and a rather illuminating one, at that. While reclining in the chair in a somewhat inverted position, my laboured asthmatic breathing eased itself into normalcy. Considering stress is one of my asthma triggers, I doubt the dentist himself was my panacea. Instead, I think it was the reclining with my head down position. Then again, it could have been the freezing. That stuff always fucks me up and makes me feel high. Hmm...

So no more dental work, barring accidents. I am supposed to get a sleep guard, though, because I've been grinding/clenching my teeth in my sleep, which is what's been causing all this damage in the first place. The shitty news is that all this dental work has chewed (heh) through all my dental insurance coverage, and I can't afford the retainer. Neither can I afford new glasses (my lenses are screwed, and really difficult to see through), because they're not covered by insurance at all. Gah!

doyce sent me a link about how a 115-year-old harpoon tip was found in a whale. The article has an excited tone, because now we know that whales live over a century. I think this is a hasty assumption. I think this doesn't prove whales are old, but that 19th-century whalers have developed time travel technology.

And a recent conversation with chernobylred led me to Hello Kitty Hell, which features all sorts of ridiculous paraphernalia, including Hello Kitty red wine. Yuck!

This story pisses me off. A woman is charged with stealing three rolls of toilet paper and may go to prison for three years. The police chief reacts with stellar maturity by laughing because her last name is Butts. Get it? Three years for toilet paper. No wonder the American prison system is so overburdened.

Brother, Can You Spare a Lung?

Remember that pike pole spin I couldn't do yesterday? I was able to do it today with one little hint from a different teacher. It's not pretty, but pretty will come with practice. Callouses on the inside edge of my biceps will also come, hopefully before the skin tears itself off. I thought metal-working was hard on the skin. Pole dancing is more so! Well, maybe I won't get chemical burns, cracked hands, and critically dry epidermis from pole spinning, but I didn't get friction burns on my inner thighs, wrists, knees, and inner arms from soldering and sanding. Yeowch!

I got looking at my workout routine from a year ago, and I've been seriously slacking. It really showed when I went to put on a pair of shorts I wore last summer and couldn't get the zipper up without some serious gut-sucking. Of course, I wasn't drinking any beer last summer, either. Uh oh....

Although I get far more exercise than the average person, I'm still out of shape! Must get back into fine fettle. Must!

But first, I must get my lungs working properly. It's hard to exercise when exercise makes it far more difficult to breathe. Stupid vicious circles. Boo.

The lungs were working fine all day after my dentist attack, but when I put my rotary fan on the desk so that it was blowing at my face, it seems to have brought the asthma back. I wonder why that is? It's blowing at my feet, now, but the damage has already been done. So I guess it's off to the hospital I go in the morning. Good thing I have a good book to read....