Allan

update

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I wrote to Phil Harder in MB in the summer.  I sent him a card with a “thank you” for helping Uncle Al so much and an apology that I couldn’t make it out that (last) summer.  It came back – twice! – with the wrong address.  As it turns out, Mom had his address in her ‘little black book’ all along.  He probably thought I’d forgotten about him.  Not the case.

Only two weeks of classes left.  I did an exam today in Process Design and got the mark back in record time.  75%.  Not bad.  Not as good as I was hoping.  I’m not so great with Statistics & Applied Research.  I’m watching YouTube videos like this one to bone up.  Pretty simplistic, I know, but I tend not to do well if the instructor teaches rapid-fire. That’s just me.  The Applied Research part of it is not bad.  The other two classes, Fluid Mechanics and Architectural Design II, are not bad.

I slipped on the ice on my way to classes a couple of weeks ago and bruised my hip.  For a good week (actually not a very good week) I’d been limping, but now it seems to be getting better.  It’s the same old injury in my hip that will likely never go away.  I’m working on improving it.  I saw the doc about it.  He didn’t seem to think it was much – just bruised muscles.  My treatment?  Aspirin.  Yup – just plain aspirin.  I slipped just a week before that, too, as I was shovelling snow off the apron leading from the street to the garage.  I just sat there on the ground for a few seconds to take stock.  No, no problem.  After I stopped tensing, all was fine.

Aizlynn, on the other hand, did not fare as well.  She slipped once a couple of weeks ago while she and Caleb were here and then again with much more serious results while visiting Caleb’s folks in BC.  She slipped on the steps of Caleb’s parents’ house and went down several steps on her butt.  Apparently she’s quite bruised.  While here, she used my ice cleats since she has no Canadian-style winter footwear.  This is why I wasn’t wearing them and went down.

The weather has been warm the past few days, but it comes at a cost – wind.  I had a headache today and took 2 1/2 Tylenol-3s during class.  It more-or-less got rid of my headache.  It’s still buzzing away in the background.  I would have stayed at school a bit longer except that a) I had a headache, b) my study-buddies (Tyson, Randy, Christopher, Chrystal, & others) either left or were on their way out, and c) my tutoring student scheduled for 8:30PM cancelled.  So … I’m at home, studying Stats.

There’s a Facebook page related to the college called LC Confessions.  I looked a few times but could find nothing that pertains to me except for two posts – one on how crappy instant noodles are and one on if someone were to disappear off of Facebook, would they be missed.

Mom is feeling pretty weak these days.  There are times when she’s on top of her game and others when she’s a rag doll in a chair.  She tends to try to do too much.  I just overheard her talking with Floyd, exhuming two examples from memory of being really tired – one of when she was made to walk along next to the horse-pulled wagon when she was a kid and one where Father made her work out in the rain.  Floyd came up with the idea that no one was making her do stuff she didn’t want to do now.  It’s all up to her.

Suppertime.  Catch you later.

dream – military, phone

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Weird dreams last night.  I was in the military, this time the air force.  I was supposed to be someone who flew a small fighter jet, but I didn’t know how.  I tried bluffing my way through.  I was obviously walking in someone else’s shoes.  Nobody wanted to hear the truth.  I didn’t think I flew, but people wanted to talk about what accomplishments I made, and I had no idea what to tell them.  I checked the internet for facts.  I believe this is the first time checking the internet in a dream.

Next, my phone broke.  It just snapped right in half.  The weird thing is that it was still working – sort of.  I guess that’s what they call a “dog dream”.

Dreams area supposed to have some correlation in reality, but I cannot place where the plane flying experience comes into play.  The phone?  Well, I’ve broken phones before.  Maybe it’s a sign to be careful.

Midterm exam today, then architectural class, then an English tutoring student.  I’ve been working hard at the architectural plans.  Hopefully they won’t be a waste.  What I mean is, if someone else has already done it, maybe we’ll use theirs.  Gotta be sure that all details are correct.

father’s dirty long guns

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I took my first attempt at cleaning one of Father’s long guns – a 20-gauge single-shot shotgun.

I read my info about transporting it, checked the status of the gun, making sure the trigger lock was secure, put it into its bag, and went to Wholesale Sports Outdoor Outfitters and got some advice, cleaning stuff, and ammo.  I came back home to do the deed.

Now the task of cleaning it.  I don’t think father has ever cleaned his guns.  Talk about grimy.

calm after the storm

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Things are settling down now.  I’ve been on my ulcer meds for about two weeks.  Only one somewhat nasty attack during that time.  I’m happy for that.  The doc said the third time I get this there’d be some major s*** to deal with.  I’m hoping this is not the case.

There’s a kind of calm these days.  I can feel it about here and there.  Instructors are not as go-go-go as in the past, no work stress to deal with, no wondering how Father is doing, Mom is doing better these days (made gravy for Sunday’s turkey dinner), Floyd has no issues to speak of, friends (most) are understanding of the various things that have gone down, and the yearly Hell is gone (Pete knows all about this).  Calm before the storm?  No, after.  Feels good.  (Knock on wood.)

I’m not as behind in classes as I was.  I’m actually ahead in one but behind in another.  The rest are good.

I fixed my stereo.  …  Ha!  They don’t call them stereos anymore, do they?  My home entertainment system.

The fan had been making noise, so I cut it out with some metal snips.  In the process, I ended up destroying it.  I just wanted to squirt some WD40 into it.  So much for that.  So I duct-taped a computer fan with a limiter to it.  It seems to work just fine.  A bit overkill, but it is quieter than before.

My little Fujitsu also developed a problem.  A ribbon cable controlling the power supply broke.  I ordered a new used one online and put it in.  It took some monkeying, but it’s working now.  It’s now 12 years old, so it doesn’t compete with today’s computers, but it does make a good background music player.  “Ghibli” on “Study jazz” on YouTube.  Kevin introduced this to me during our final week of last term’s studying.  Look it up – unless you’re allergic to jazz.

loss

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Since Father got sick until just a bit ago, things have been stressful for me.  I’m not great with expressing my most inner feelings.  I’m not altogether sure I believe they should be expressed.  As Stanislof once said, “I have religion – I just think it should be a private thing, not yelled out for everyone to hear.”  There are things I don’t really wish to blab, to discuss.  It obviously does many people a great deal of good to explore, voice, compare, listen, vent, etc.  Those people have a hard time understanding that many of us don’t wish to.  I want to just live my life, not talk about how it is lived.  Yes, I feel – I just don’t want to discuss it.  As Curly once said, “I crap bigger than you.”  Well, good for you.  But TMI.  Keep your crap to yourself.
So I lost a friend.  They were upset at me that I didn’t call after Father died.  I was busy talking with many people and dealing with many details.  (Still am.)  Three other friends whom I told next time I spoke with them didn’t get angry.  They instead knew that I needed time to myself.  Acceptance.

On to other things.  I notice that since my old blog, going back to October of 2014 of the Third Generation of the Ongoing Letter (sounds official, eh?), nothing has been said of many things.  So here goes – a kind of rapid-fire update.

The van, a.k.a. “38”, is gone.  I sold it to a young person in Coaldale.  He wanted to buy an older ‘collector’ (and, being older than 25 years, it was) to pimp it.  Last time I saw it, he took the toilet out of it and removed the rear bumper.  I wonder what became of it.  I just know it’s gone, along with the Fun Craft logos Glenn painted on it.

I’m not at Flexibility anymore.  I quit.  I gave my notice before summer began.  Almost six years is enough.  I still see students now and then – Mongali, for example – and I’m happy to see they’re doing well.  New country, new life, new future.  But I wanted to concentrate on my education at the college and my new career.  I have one tutor student at this time.  Not sure if I’ll have more.  I’ve taken down my teaching website but might resurrect it in its new form later on.  Hard to know.  But, for now, I’m done with teaching.

slow server, howling server

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If you find the server here at ‘Allan’s Place’ a little slow lately, it’s because it’s doing some boinc work.  The CPUs are maxed out at 100% pretty much full-time now.

Because of that, the server is howling like a freight train, so much so that I couldn’t concentrate on my schoolwork.  So I pulled up its stakes and moved it to the storage room.  Peace and quiet.

…until something else makes noise.

home from hospital

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I’m back home. Everything is good. They did an EKG, blood test, urine test. Nothing wrong. Apparently I had an “angry stomach”. Stress, coffee, bourbon, age, etc. all factors in what happened.

So what happened? It started just before breakfast, right after coffee. It escalated to a slow, painful walk to school. It culminated in vomiting, visiting the school nurse, calling Floyd to bring me to the hospital (with more vomiting along the way), and a painful wait at triage.

Then seemingly miraculously, it evaporated to a calm, settling, restful wait for the doc. By the time she arrived, the only pain was from the stomach muscle workout.

Now back home resting in a warm bed … soon. As soon as I put the heating pad on the bed.

By the way – Mom is coming back home from hospital this afternoon. Read her blog under same title but different URL.

in hospital for ulcer

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I’m in hospital now waiting in bed for a doctor. Got sick on my way too classes at college. Strong upper abdominal pain. I asked Randy and Crystal to look after my stuff and went to the nurse’s station. Closed. I vomited a few times in a restroom then went at 8 to see the nurse. No triage there, just a nurse. Couldn’t do much. I called Floyd, got my stuff from class, met Floyd outside. I vomited again on our way here. An attendant met me, took me by wheelchair to emergency admitting. Half hour later they put my in bed. Now waiting for doctor. Floyd is visiting Mom upstairs.

playing catch-up

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I’ve been at classes for about a week now but missed a week of classes while in BC.  With T’s help I’ve managed to get caught up in one class (Process Design) but have more to go.  There’s an exam in Fluid Mechanics tomorrow morning.  I’ll try my best to get caught up before then.

I’ve got Process Design, Fluid Mechanics, Architectural Design II, and Statistics / Applied Research I this term.