It was a good day to be scared, to get a little jump on Halloween. I got myself scared real good, twice.

In the late afternoon, I was sitting on the deck, reading a book. Tasha was with me, but I thought she’d gone in the house. She’s gotten where she doesn’t care to be outside long: no comfy carpet out there. She goes inside after a few minutes if the door is open, which it was was. So, when I went in, and looked everywhere for her, and couldn’t find her, I paniced. Everybody helped me search every room, but she was nowhere to be found. Finally, I went back out and looked on the lawn. There she was, laying in the grass by the edge of the deck. Looked up at me and said, “What?”

When Joe and I got home to my condo around 10:00pm, we noticed that there were lights on inside, which we didn’t remember leaving on. And the porch light was on, which was really strange. We talked about how something was different, and came in by the kitchen door, carefully. But I wasn’t prepared for a tall man in a hat, standing by my piano holding two pistols.

I kinda jumped, kinda ducked, probably grabbed my chest, and I don’t remember exactly what I said, but it probably wasn’t nice. Joe got a good vicarious scare behind me. Then we both got a pretty good laugh.

Seems our folks dropped old Roy off while we were out. Yeah, that’s a life-size stand-up picture of the old cowboy, a little taller than me. Whew … thanks, Mom & Dad. It’s nice to know my ticker can still stand a shock.

Give people keys to your house, then see what happens. It’s cheaper than an EKG.

The following books are presently on the table next to my very comfy chair:

Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz

Beautiful writing, emotional rich, but a little thin on plot. The writer seems to have some trouble crafting separate and distinct lives for his characters. But this is a page-turner; very enjoyable.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Lots of fun for punctilious punctuators like me.

Four Past Midnight by Stephen King

I’ve had this one on my shelf for a long time, but left it unfinished. I read a lot of King’s stuff. It’s four novellas: The Langoliers (made for TV movie), Secret Window, Secret Garden (recently a movie with Johnny Depp), The Sun Dog (earlier material for Needful Things), and The Library Policeman. I’m reading the latter piece now, but haven’t come to an opinion about it yet.

I hope you’re enjoying your reading too.

My brother Joe has been staying with me much of the time for the past 5 months, while he had temporary business in the area. Now sometime in the next few days, he’ll be packing up the aero bed and going back to his wife and son, ostensibly to stay. I’ll write more on this later; for now, let me just inform you all that I don’t like it. I’m going to miss him. A lot.

A soldier’s blog: http://cbftw.blogspot.com/

CBS stations are getting e-mails , calling for CBS to fire Dan Rather.

Oh, sure. Don’t oust the president, who broke faith and trust with America by lying us into an ill-conceived war, based on personal vendetta and monumental false pride. Not the president, who deceived Congress and mislead the public, betrayed America’s good faith with the world community, then soaked the Iraqi sands with gouts of blood, including over a thousand American youth. No, no, the king’s no fool; kill the messenger.

Idiots.

I want one of these.

Christmas is only 3 months away!

My like-minded friend Erik has posted this exhortation to the obvious. Our fearless leader is monkeynuts.

Well, after about 10 days on antibiotics, I’m feeling almost back to normal. I still have an occasional cough, especially at night when I lay down. But I can take deep breaths without hacking up a lung. This is a seemingly mundane matter, which one should not take for granted. And I can carry my elderly puppydog up the stairs to my condo, so I don’t have to forego her illuminating company.

I have three more days on meds, and a followup with my doctor tomorrow. I expect a mostly clean bill of health. Then I have to get back to my life, such as it is. For example, my pickup truck — Old Blue — looks like it just crawled out of a cross-country run through the Mojave desert.

If you get a chest cold and it doesn’t clear up pretty quick, take my advice and get to your doctor. There’s a pretty mean virus running around out there.

So I went to see my family doctor today, expecting him to declare me on track to recovery from pneumonia, and send me on my way. My brother Joe did the driving, as I still get winded from exertions like driving a truck with no power steering.

I left Joe in the waiting room and went in. The doctor tested my pulse ox – oxygen saturation – and declared that it wasn’t very good. He listened to my chest and took my temp, etc. Then he said I needed a CT Scan of my chest, because I was at risk of blood clots in my lungs and that would be a diagnosis not to be missed.

Have you ever had one of these scans? I did, a long time ago, when I was in college. About 23 years ago, in fact. It wasn’t fun. I wasn’t looking forward to my next one.

I don’t consider myself exactly claustrophobic, but after the first pass into The Tube, which was apparently just for practice, I decided it was time for some defensive mental effort. I thought about this as the technician pulled me out and drove a hollow railroad spike into the inside of my elbow, for the purpose of pumping me full of dye.

I was told that this dye was for contrast. I don’t know why it was necessary, though. I could have given them a couple hundred words on contrast. The contrast between the oblivious mind I had before the visit to my doctor and the mind of fear I had on meeting The Tube, for example. The contrast between an afternoon watching the rustling of Jacaranda leaves and one spent in traffic. We could’ve gone Zen … the butterfly contrasted with the temple bell. A nice little essay, no charge, just let me go home.

“Yow!” I said.

She explained that the vein in that arm wasn’t working, so we tried the other. What the hell? I’ve got a vein that’s taking Wednesday afternoon off? If I’m here, I want all my veins bloody well on duty, no slackers. Someone’s going to hear about this.

When I went into The Tube the second time, I closed my eyes and pretended I was resting on a nice comfy couch in a pleasant room with plants and an open window. I wasn’t in a Tube.

“I’m not going in The Tube,” I thought. No sir.

This helped. I breathed as instructed and was soon freed from the confines of the comfy couch.

As we were leaving, I confessed to Joe that I was afraid of what they might find with this amazing technology. Blood clots, blocked arteries, a heart the size of a volleyball. Being overweight takes its toll. But the doctor called in a hour and all I have is pneumonia, which I knew, and which I’m living with for today.

Thanks for driving, Joe. Thanks for the break, God.

News Link

My dog Tasha always watches intently as I start the truck. She’s figuring it out, and one of these days, she’s down the road.

Guess what? I’ve got pneumonia. Really. This is why I’ve been totally offline for several days now. … It was quite a surprise. And yes, the doctor did suggest I go to the hospital. I opted for Mom & Dad’s house. The care was better, the bed was better, and the chicken soup can’t be beat.

I’m doing better, and I’ll be back in the cyberworld before long.

Peace.

I’m sick. That’s why I haven’t been posting. I have a bad chest cold, and I’m basically a wimp when it comes to such things. It feels like my chest is full of wet cotton. My brain has all the clarity of a 1970 RCA black and white TV, with a coat-hanger instead of cable. No use trying to write anything cogent about real life.

There are ants in my office. Running along the baseboard behind the computer desk and the bookcase. What could be attracting them in here? I never eat in this room — no crumbs. What are they looking for? I’ll bet the neighbors on the other side of this wall have some kind of filth going on. These are probably their ants. That’s sick.