Planet Geek!: Radio Silence

And now a word from our intrepid explorer...

I've been quiet the last couple of days due to some health issues involving an abcessed tooth, hence the reason there's been a shortage of geeky blatherings of late. Through the magic of Amoxicilin and liberal use of Tylenol, I'm back to almost human again, though there's a long road of further dental work ahead.

I'd like to take a moment to talk about pain though.

I've never had direct experience with chronic pain. The sort of pain that is omnipresent, and can never really be ignored. The last 3 days though have given me a glimpse of what it's like. Even with vast doses of Tylenol, the ache is always there, and I can tell within minutes when it's time to re-dose.

On the one hand, I can generally deal with pain on a point by point basis. "This is going to hurt" "Okay." What I can't deal with is the constant, wavering hurt that never goes away. The worst part of it is it completely destroyed any attempts at concentration. I couldn't latch onto a concept for more than a few minutes before being distracted or whiny. For someone like me who is VERY active mentally, this was horrifying. My pain level was waffling between "Ow" and "I want to curl up in a ball and whimper". I hated every minute of it.

Now I'm back on something approaching functionality, and there is a sigh of relief heard in the land. Not only from me but from other important folks in my life, who have had to deal with me being far wiftier than I am even on my worst days.

Thanks for everyone for their patience. We now return you to your previously scheduled life, already in progress.

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Cloned from: Planet Geek!
Category: Life. Don't talk to me about life.
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Planet Geek!: At the whim of a thing greater than I...

Tonights plan had been fairly straightforward. Go out to Pittsburgh via 2 USAir flights. One to Philadelphia, then on to Pittsburgh.

Flight the first, no problem. Checked in, no lines, through security like champ, some idling before getting on the plane, and off we went. I was a little concerned about our delayed departure, because the overlap in Philadelphia wasn't that much, only about 40 minutes. We landed about 20 minutes late, but I knew the departing gate was only about 100 yards from our arrival gate. No problem.

Well, slight problem.

My departing flight has been delayed 3 times now. The airport monitors stubbornly still say "Departure at 10:45 ON TIME", despite the fact that it is now 11:30, and the gate display says "Departing: 2:13am"

It's quite a full flight, and the gate folks are doing their best, but there's just no plane to put us on, and the plane we want is on it's way from Chicago to Pittsburgh, where it will land, refuel, and fly to Philadelphia to get us. At the moment it's flying between Chicago and Pittsburgh.

I'm taking it in stride. Much as I'd like to be in Pittsburgh and enjoying the company that awaits me there, I have my laptop, wireless, reasonable food via the ABP on the concourse, and a convenient power outlet. I'm considering a long bout of Eve.

Perhaps there'll be more updates as this adventure (?) continues. For now, I'd just like send out a huge thank you to the United States aviation infrastructure. You've taken what should be a wonderous and exciting adventure and turned it into a waiting room.

Update, next day - In the end, the plane left Philadelphia at 2:03am, and arrived in Pittsburgh at 2:55. Total time lounging in Philadelphia: 3 hours, 45 minutes.

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Cloned from: Planet Geek!
Category: Life. Don't talk to me about life.
Full article & comments: Link (Comment ticker: )