Asthma Sucks! Cars suck worse. Stupid bureaucrats suck worst of all.

I'll get to why in a minute.

I wasn't at work today because I didn't want to deal with my boss. So, I decided to enjoy my day off, slept in until Dad woke me up by stealing my dirt. I'm very attuned to my dirt and can sense when anyone else is messing with it. That and he shouted out "I'm stealing your dirt."

I didn't mind too much, it was about 11 am by then, and he gave me the dirt in the first place. He's repairing a fence and had to remove a bunch that had piled up at it's base. He was just going to throw it away until I told him I'd take it. I want to build some raised beds to start a garden in the spring. This is good soil too, maybe a bit sandy, but that's the norm for around here.

(Damned, dirty, dirt thieves. Though it kinda reminds me of Mount St. Helens now)

I'm starting a compost pile to help amend the soil too; I've been taking home all the shredded paper from the office. We're cleaning out the files (When I say we, I mean Tammy) and I've gotten two large trash bags full and there's still 2/3rds of the files left to go through. (Poor Tammy) I should have started on that today. But, by the time I had showered, eaten, and dressed myself, it was already one o'clock. I'm very slow in the mornings, especially when that morning runs into the afternoon.

I decided to go for a bike ride today, I've been riding a lot at work but, those are mainly short hops. I do a pretty decent ride on Mondays though, where I go down every street on the property and all around the outside. It's only about three miles, but the whole place is on a slant with a couple hundred feet of grade over just a quarter mile. I love nothing more than to tear up those inclines and fly back down. Even so, this only takes me about half an hour, and that's with stopping to check out the empty homes.

I've done two hour rides on my stationary with no problem, but since I started riding at work I've been neglecting it. Lack of stamina wasn't my problem today though. My problem was all the fucking cars spewing toxic gas straight into my lungs. I haven't had an asthma attack in years, but all it took to set one off today was five miles in light traffic.

(Why do you neglect me so?)

There should be a law banning any vehicle made more than ten years ago from the road. I kept getting stuck behind these behemoths from the sixties, but the worst offender was this big white truck that could not have been street legal. Damned smoke coming off that thing sent me into a coughing fit. I was about half way out at that point and tried to keep going, but only made it a couple blocks before turning for home. Thankfully I had decided to go uphill and was able to coast most of the way back.

(Is this how I have to dress just to go riding? Isn't the Helmet bad enough? I look like a freaking mushroom with glasses.)

I was dead when I got back, all my muscles were leaden. My chest took the better part of an hour to loosen up completely. You know what really sucks? This was what I would consider a mild attack. If you've never had asthma, you just cant know how bad it can be. I've heard it likened to trying to breathe through a straw, but it's always felt more like drowning in fresh air to me. No matter how hard or fast you try to breathe, it doesn't work; that oxygen just will not get into your blood stream.

Now imagine being a little kid and trying to deal with that. Children like that, they don't need to be taught about death. Death is in the very air around them. Death is that band that tightens around their chest until they want to scream, but don't have the air to do so. There's help though, a little inhaler filled with albuterol.

Those inhalers are the difference between life and death for millions of children. But, they also contain a small amount of CFC propellant, and as we all know CFC's damage the ozone layer. So, some well intentioned idiot, who's clearly never had trouble breathing, decided to ban all CFC based inhalers. Never mind the fact that there is no other product on the market that's even half as effective.

The next best one has actually proven to be deadly to people with certain allergies. A slight problem, since asthma and allergies often come in a package deal.

So, imagine again that you're a kid with asthma, but you've got your trust inhaler, you never leave home without it. Now imagine that it just stops working, that it actually makes your asthma attacks worse. What do you do? You try to tell your parents, but don't have enough breath. They try to help by giving you your inhaler, it's always worked before. Why won't it work now?

They rush you to the hospital, but it's too late. You've slipped into a coma because there wasn't enough oxygen getting to your brain. Your last words “Mommy, Mommy, help me, do something, I'm dying.”

Please sign the petition to save CFC asthma inhalers. βeta, out.

I cheat.

These are some forum posts I did earlier that I feel like sharing. Today was interesting.

"It's barely noon and my day is already down the tubes.

Started out about two hours before I had planned to wake up with me breaking part of a bad tooth off in my sleep. I clench my teeth sometimes and I guess they slipped. So, I'm up two hours early after going to sleep two hours late. The pain dies down fairly fast but it's too late for me to get back to sleep, not that I didn't try. Eventually the alarm goes off and I stumble out of bed. I'm able to get dressed and make coffee without incident. But, before I'm even out the door, I get a damned thumb tack stuck in my front wheel.

Not wanting to be late, I decide to just walk the bike to work(less than a 1/4 mile). I use it for work so, they don't mind if I have to do a little maintenance every now and then. I use a glueless patch to try and save time, and I might have, if the damned thing had actually held. Oh, it was fine at first so I put the tire back on, knocking over my coffee in the process, of course. After a test ride everything looks good so I park it outside my office and get some paperwork done.

An hour, or so later, I have to go to the other side of the property, the patch still seems to be holding. I take about half an hour over there, mainly waiting on a slow computer. But, while I'm waiting I get bored and hop on the bike for a quick spin. I think this must have been to much for the cheap patch, cause ten minutes later when I get on to ride back to my office, the tire's flat.

Another walk to the workshop, another patch(the good kind this time), and now I'm sitting here, writing this, as I wonder what's going to happen next.

Anyone else have any good Monday stories? I'd love to hear that I'm not alone in my suffering.

P.S. I know I need to see a dentist and I will as soon as my insurance is renewed, I've already used up my allowance for this year.

P.P.S. This morning could have been worse, there was an earthquake around 4:30 am that I thankfully slept through.

Update: ARRRGH!

I don't mean to sound negative, I'm actually laughing about this right now.

So, yeah, after two months of riding with no flats I get two in one day. Yup, after finally getting that first one squared away. I go to ride a graffiti check of the property, two, three miles tops. Not only do I pick up a thorn requiring another patch but, my pants cuff gets caught on my frame pump and tears it right off. Ripped right through the velcro safety strap like it wasn't even there. Thankfully the pump and it's mount survived, I just need to replace the strap; I'm thinking zip ties.

At least I'm home now, and hopefully nothing else can happen to my bike. Thanks to everyone for listening to me rant, I'd still like to hear your Monday horror stories."

Fun huh?

In other news: I've decided to hand wash my clothes from now on. I saw this site http://homelessdave.com/hdwashingman.htm and think his setup would be perfect for me. Especially since dad is blaming me for breaking his washer. I did two loads of laundry every other week, there's no way I broke it.


more animals

I've only got enough room for a stackable washer & dryer, and they cost a fortune to replace. So, this idea is perfect for me. I can probably fabricate a hand washer for next to nothing(and there's always the bucket method), and I'd like to think I have enough technical knowhow to hook a bike up to my old washing machine. Whether this is true or not, we shall see. I'll keep you posted.

βeta, out.

Friday was a pretty momentous day

I finally bit the bullet, and bought a bike. I've been riding an exercise bike for a bit over a month to get back into shape. Not there yet, but I can manage a couple hours with no problem. So, I decided to get the real thing. I was starting to get bored staring at the same thing all the time.

(Here it is right after I got it home)

(Complete with it's first scratch courtesy of Dad's stupid paint rig)

It's a Raleigh Venture 3.0, a 21 speed comfort style bike. This thing is huge too, I'm 6'3" and the handle bars come up to my chest; a 22 inch frame on 26 inch tires. I got it for just over $300 at IE Bikes in Murrieta, the whole family had gone out to check on my sister in law. She was in the hospital after having a parasite removed(more on that later).

(Decked out with all the accessories)

I had planned to check out the Cannondale Comfort at Redhawk bikes in Temecula, but Erin, my sister in law, mentioned IE Bikes. They were just a couple blocks from the hospital. So, I figured what the hell, and went to have a look. Lucked out too, first bike I tried fit perfect and was a couple hundred cheaper than what I was looking at.

I spent the money I saved on some stuff to trick out my ride :p I would have gotten most of this stuff eventually, but it's nice to have it all now. I got a pump, water bottle & rack, head & tail lights, patch kit, multi tool, tire guage, spare inner tube, dorky looking helmet(I care more about my brains than I do fashion & so should you. In fact, everyone should care about my brains), and an under seat bag to hold everything that doesn't bolt to the bike, or strap to my head.

(Here it is crossing my exercise bike. Hard to see the scale from these pics, but trust me it's ginormous)

Onto Erin's parasite. She had been dealing with this thing for about nine months now. Apparently she contracted it doing something shady with my brother, I really don't want to know exactly what. He came out of it fine, but she had this thing growing in her belly. The little bugger was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 19.5 inches long when they cut it out of her. She(the doctors were some how able to determine it's gender)came out of the surgery fine, The doctors gave it a bunch of tests, some shots, even took prints of it's lower apendages. Erin seems to have lost it. She's decided to keep the parasite, and has even named it Elizabeth. I know these past nine months have been tough on her, but this is just crazy.

(Erin can been seen exposing her breast to the creature in some bizarre ritual designed to appease the beast)

No one else seems to find her behaviour odd. Everyone's doting over it, wanting to hold it, cooing at it in strange voices. I think it has some strange hold over their minds. My brother, Gary, in particular seems enamored with the parasite.

(He can be seen here, holding the parasite hours after it's extraction. I think it's trying to eat his finger.)

All kidding aside. Happy birthday Elizabeth Snow.

I'm gonna call her Snow White. Now they just have to have another one called Rosalie. Then we can have Snow White & Rose Red(read Fables, it's a great comic book).

I'm an uncle, again. βeta, out.