Another Bug Hunt
Starr is still in the hospital, being pumped full of fluids. Her color’s improved greatly, though she’s still tired most of the time. They have ruled out a long list of possible issues, and are now fairly confident of the earlier guess that it was a bug. Now her doctors are running tests to see which antibiotic’s the best shot.
Meanwhile, she’s keeping herself busy with crocheting when she’s awake. This hospital has some decent TV channels and limited wireless access. (No WoW, she tried. If I knew Windows software better, I’d try to work around that for her, but she’s content with her hook-work.) If anyone wants to give her a call or swing by, drop me a note and I’ll pass along the room number. I’ve been by every day and twice yesterday, but more company is excellent medicine.
Her hospital is something else. Curving, gently lit, modern-decorated corridors; a huge atrium with a fountain wall; display cases of expensive art donated by the founder. I’ve taken to calling the place “Federation General Hospital.”
Thanks for everyone’s support. It’s been helping a great deal. You guys rock.
Stellar Hospital
After two weeks of “we can’t really find anything wrong,” Starr’s cardiologist read her 130 bpm pulse, her 90/60 blood pressure, and her severe anemia, and said, “Okay, we’re admitting you.” This is actually something of a relief, as both of us want this fixed, whatever it is. The leading theory is still that it’s a bug which has dehydrated her to this point – the nurses last night had a heck of a time getting an IV needle into any of her veins. I went to see her last night, and will go again today. Right now, we’re hoping that she might get out by Monday, though I rather suspect that her hopes for getting back to work on Monday are a bit optimistic.
More rain this morning, including some of that weird rolling rumbling thunder we get so close to the water. On the other hand, it’s 70 degrees again.
Time to pull myself together and start the errands of the day.
Brief updates
- 11:29 @tangowildheart Whenever I read something like that, my first thought is, “Huh. Wonder if I know the person in question.” #
- 11:49 OMG, people are calling for boycotts of the movie “10,000 B.C.” because the Bible says the Earth is only 6000 years old. #
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Primate Engineering
Slept reasonably well last night, but for some reason I am sluggish and foggy this morning. I remember bits and pieces of the dream I had… something about gorillas loping calmly out of the old General Electric plant back in Salem. In my dream, it was 3am, and rattrap and I had been tasked to do something about the gorilla situation, which I protested because I’d been up all night and had work tomorrow.
These are my dreams, folks. They don’t get any more coherent.
Despite, or because of, my mental fog this morning, my brain was quite creative on the drive to work. I fleshed out some more concepts for the webcomic I’m never going to have time or skill to do. I really miss plotting out Artificial Intelligence with Tom Monaghan. If I ever fix or replace my scanner, those old comics really ought to go on the web while I can still find the old print collection.
Midori-kitty has been a lot more affectionate to us the last few weeks, but she’s been quite hostile to visitors at the same time. We’re thinking it’s a territory issue, but she really needs to quit it. This remains our place, not hers, until she’s willing to pay rent for it. And she doesn’t make much money.
Must. Clear. Head. And. Get Work Done.
Just One More Turn
Starr is feeling much better today – it appears to have been nothing more than a vicious virus. She’s at home playing the copy of Civilisation II I gave her. (OMG, that game is crack just to watch. How addictive must it be to play? WoW has nothing on Civ!)
I had a sockfull of good intentions for chores and games and stuff last night, but that turned into Civ-watching, dinner, half of Master Blasters, and an early bedtime. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll like MB based on the little I just saw, but it does have building stuff and rocketry going for it.
It’s about time for another haircut. I’m wondering how the short hair from my Next Gen icon would look.
Three decades of playing roles
I’m pretty sure I began playing Dungeons & Dragons around 1978 – after Star Wars but before Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I vaguely recall hearing about it from school friends, but have a clear memory of sitting in a sickbed opening the box my mom had purchased for me. The game came with cardboard chits you were supposed to shake in a cup for random rolls, but there was a dice accessory available that she got me soon after: 5 Platonic solids of very very cheap plastic. The 20-sided die was marked 1-10 (0, really) twice: you had to mark half the faces with a colored Sharpie to know which ones were 11-20.
And thus began a minor addiction…
Anyone for a swim?
Bad night last night to leave your car windows open.
The wind was so violent that you frequently couldn’t hear the thunder. The rain lashed the roof of my apartment building so heavily that it woke up more than once, and Midori, unsurprisingly, stayed pretty close the whole evening. (She didn’t like it either that Starr was spending a night with her mom last night.) I peeked out the front of the building during a laundry run to see visible waves and sheets in the torrent. The fresh mulch that the groundskeepers had spread Monday was all over the sidewalk and parking lot this morning.
It was the sort of night where I was utterly grateful for 21st-century shelter. It was also a good night to finish two more levels of my “yes I will beat the Terran Starcraft missions before Starcraft II comes out” campaign. I started fresh a few days ago, to get back into the rhythms, and I won Mission 8 last night – two more to go. The funny things is that I have a strategy guide, but always end up doing it my own way. This is, by the way, part of the awesomeness of Starcraft – it can support multiple play styles.
The sky is crystal clear this morning. Shame we’re losing those soothing high-60s temperatures.
RIP Gary Gygax
It’s going around the Internet that E. Gary Gygax, co-creator of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, has passed away at age 69.
The man’s work certainly made a major impact in my life. I spent hours of my early teenaged years rolling odd dice at the kitchen table with my friends, and designing ridiculously labyrinthine dungeons for our overpowered characters to run through. I moved on in the 90s to more story-based RPG systems, but my First Edition Advanced D&D books remain on my game shelves, just in case.
Certainly, the World of Warcraft owes a great deal to the man, as does the Munchkin card game. Because of his work, many game stores have seen a fine profit from me over the years.
I think I should dig out an old module or two of his, and see about hosting a run in memoriam. I’ve always wanted to try “Expedition to the Barrier Peaks” again in a setting such as Earthdawn, Hercules & Xena, or perhaps even Deadlands (where it would fit awfully nicely, with certain tweaks. Hmm…)
Thanks for many lovely evenings, Mr. Gygax.
Maybe it’s just hibernation…
I haven’t really slept well the last couple of nights. For the last week, Starr’s been constantly lightheaded and exhausted, napping through large chunks of the day. Sunday, she was running a pulse of 130. (What am I doing taking a pulse? I’m a Mac geek, not a doctor!)
She’s been to the doctor; nobody’s yet figured out what the problem is. It doesn’t seem to be immediately life-threatening, but at the same time, it’s really curtailing her activities. I believe she’d like her life back. Me, I’m just worried that we’ll find the problem and it will turn out to be life-threatening.
So, yeah. Not sleeping so well.
Killing the Radio Star
Okay, I think I’m totally turning into a Daft Punk fan. I saw this video on someone’s blog, and now the tune is firmly lodged in my head.
