Saturday, September 30, 2017

The Turtle

A car speeds down a deserted highway in the twilight hours of the night. The lone occupant, his grasp tightly fixed on the wheel, attentively scans the distance illuminated by his headlamps for trouble. There's nothing out there. Nothing for miles. Just as he passes through a valley, the expanse shrouded by overgrowth, his attention is distracted by flashing lights in his rear view mirror.

Begrudgingly, the man slows to a stop on the shoulder.  He knows that he's guilty, but prays for leniency.  Despite being the sole occupant of the road that night, the officer issues him a ticket anyway.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Mumbo Jumbo

Went out with a friend today.  The day started out nice, visiting one of the new Halloween stores in town.  My feet have been hurting a lot, as of late, with the cooler weather, but the warm temperatures today proved worthwhile for this outing.

We trekked around looking at this and that, before moving on to our next destination where we did some grocery shopping.  Her for her household, me for mine.  Then we had a quick lunch right there.

In an effort to eat up as much time before going to pick up her boyfriend from work, we visited a couple more destinations, looking for Halloween stuff that she could incorporate into a costume.  She's very creative and sometimes likes to bounce ideas off of me.  I don't mind as I like the creative aspect without any of the follow-up of having to do the work.  It's like taking pride in the finished product without having any of the headaches or callouses of putting the piece together.

As well as I was feeling in the beginning of our adventure, the time on my feet was beginning to take it's toll on me.  I eventually found myself limping a little, as my feet began to swell.  My midsection was beginning to hurt some, as I'd had surgery a couple of weeks ago and I'm still having some issues with that healing process.  Most annoyingly, I began to get a headache.

I tend to get a lot of headaches, come autumn, and they only grow more frequent and intense as the winter months engulf us.  This particular headache I could feel mustering behind my eyeball.  These ones tend to get real bad, real quick.  But I didn't want to say anything, because my friend was having a good time and I didn't wish to spoil her outing.  I never mentioned anything until we began our journey homeward.

"I would offer you something, if I had anything." she said, to which I told her it was okay.  I explained that I had the same Ibuprofen that she had in her trunk, a purchase she'd made earlier in the day.  "I'll simply take four or five of them, when I get home.... With a shot of bourbon!"

She was shocked, immediately warning me off of such a terrible action, citing that booze and medication should never be mixed.  "Bah!" I said, "That's just nonsense."

She went on to tell me that I should never mix alcohol with medication, to which I gave her my explanation and to tell the truth, while I was just blowing smoke out my ass, the logic is present and I think I may actually believe my own hype...

"That's just big pharmaceutical who warns against mixing medication with alcohol.  You never see alcohol companies warning 'Don't drink this with pain meds'."   I paused for a moment, thinking about the words that just spilled from my mouth and yeah...  No alcohol companies say that.  So I have to believe that it's like the marijuana thing, where the booze companies launched negative campaigns to render cannabis as an illicit "drug", so too are big pharmaceutical companies making similar claims against alcohol, exemplifying that it can't fix any of the problems that medication can. (Which makes a person curious as to why they speak against the positives of marijuana.)

"Besides," I added, "The alcohol just gives it that extra -- Ba-BAAMM!!  The Ibuprofen works fine, but the bourbon acts as a turbo boost!  Thrusts it into your system so much quicker."

Big pharmaceutical claims that medication should not be mixed with alcohol, but they make the same claim that shit should be taken with food and despite not following those instructions, I've never been affected negatively in that way, either.  It's a lot of hooey.  Verbal mumbo jumbo meant to put fear into people so they have to rely more heavily on their meds.  Unless you're a raging alcoholic, then I say there's no harm in pouring yourself a nice stiff drink to chase down the pain meds.  It'll fix whatever ails you.

CHEERS!!

Spiders Are Dicks!!

Spiders are dicks!  At least the ones around my house are.

Spiders in and around my house place their little (and not so little) webs in the most irritating places, in an effort (obviously) to catch and devour insects.  I notice their webs in the nooks and crannies throughout my abode.  In the corner, between the wall, floor and counter.  There seems to be a monstrosity that repeatedly appears by my front door, almost daily, that seems to catch nothing but dirt and lint carried in from the outdoors.  There's a terribly large formidable one in the backyard that, to be quite honest, I'm a little afraid to approach.  The one thing that they all seem to have in common is: No insects!

I don't know if these spiders are catching insects and eating them before I notice anything or if they're just too stupid to actually catch anything.  They must be doing the former as some of these spiders grow to disgustingly large sizes, which then becomes a real problem for me.  I have arachnophobia!

I used to be deathly... And I do mean deathly afraid of spiders.  I'd see a spider and I'd almost shutdown physically.  I'd be like...  I don't want to say that I was "like a chick", because most women that I know, would always mock me as they strode by me to "rescue" me from the terrifying spider-monster.  Suffice it to say, I was a true wimp, when it came to dealing with spiders.  My fears, however, were well founded, though.

A few years ago, while living in a basement suite on the east side of Saskatoon, I fell "victim" to a spider bite.  A couple times, to be exact.  One time a spider bit me on my shin and the skin in that region, literally dissolved away.  It was several months of applying ointments and changing bandages before the flesh in that area finally healed.  Then it happened a second time, but on my big toe.  That bite had more lasting effects, of which I continue to experience to this day.  The flesh grew back, after much speculation by doctors and specialists on whether or not to amputate the appendage.  However, my foot has been numb ever since.  It's been over ten years since I've felt my left foot.

Needless to say, with the exception of the Spider-Man movies, I'm not real stoked on spiders.  On the plus side, my deathly fear of them has subsided enough to where I can throw down extreme vengeance on them.  I see a spider and I can grab a paper towel and go in for the kill.  I see a web I don't want, I grab a lighter.  (FYI - Be very careful, as some of these motherf*ckers can go off like a Roman candle.)

For the most part, though..; Spiders are dicks!!  What prompts this belief, besides the fact that sometimes my shoe will fall off my left foot and because of the lack of feeling, I won't notice this.  Thankfully, it only happens around the house (and only once at the Costco -- Only noticed because I inadvertently kicked it ahead of me. *True story.)

In addition to the spider epidemic in my household, I have trouble with ants.  This year, they've not been the problem that they've been in recent years.  Not indoors, anyway.  However, outside, next to the door leading into my garage, there are swarms of them.  They've dug through the concrete and burrowed through the wall.  There are droves and droves of them inside and out.  Roaming freely among all the spider webs inside the garage.  I've bore witness to this.  Spiders sitting there watching the ants make a mockery out of them and all the while I'm thinking, "What the f*ck are you doing?"

Ants are insects.  Why the f*ck aren't the spiders doing anything to catch these little bastards?  Not meaty enough?  Maybe not one or two, but they could literally catch a thousand of these little f*ckwads, and have a buffet for all their little spider friends and family.  But no.  They just wanna sit there like dicks!!

I've poisoned the ants.  I've done this a couple of times in the last month and a half.  I would send the bill for the ant poison to the spiders, if I thought they would pay, but alas...  Spiders are dicks!