 mike |
or...
Mikey through the looking glass? Anyway... I've had an interestingly boring couple of days. It began Wednesday night with a trip to the emergency room. While I was at work, I began experiencing what could only be described as violent dizziness. It panicked me. I wasn't sure what the hell was going on. I could barely stand up. I began wondering if some one had spiked my Fanta Grape. I called my supervisor on the radio to ask him if he was in his office. He said he was. I told him that I was having a problem and that I would be up. |
The walk up there was this Carnival of Souls experience that I won't soon forget. My sense of depth was totally skewed and I could barely keep myself level. It was like being shit drunk without the fogged brain thing I'd normally associate with that condition. Nancy (who works in the warehouse) saw me as she was going on break, and helped me the rest of the way.
After some discussion, it was determined that I should seek medical treatment. I called my mom (she lives within walking distance of the plant), and she picked me up and took me to the emergency room.
The car ride up was an adventure. My eyes wouldn't focus on anything and the road in front of me kept shifting and spinning. The motion of the car seemed to make it all worse.
After a long wait, a saline solution plugged into my right arm, a CAT scan, some blood work, and some valium to help with my equalibrium, the doctor told me what I long suspected:
I have rocks in my head.
He explained that he felt a small pebble (or other contaminant) lodged itself in my ear and worked its way into my inner ear, causing me to experience my severe disruption of balance. He said that he felt as though the contaminant would work its way out in a couple of days and I needed to stay home from work. He prescribed some antivert and sent me home at around three o'clock in the morning.
So I've been sitting here since then, bored out of my skull. My eyes straightened up back to normal today - normal enough so that I could sit here long enough to write this anyway. The antivert has been keeping the dizziness to a minimum - actually, I feel pretty much normal today.
I had today off as a vacation day, but it's been a total waste. The weather is pretty miserable out there, so getting anything done is pretty well lost. I'd rather not drive if I don't have to.
The sky was pretty clear last night, and I managed to get some shots with the new camera:
Orion: wide angle using the Kodak P880 w/telephoto lens
The other shots I got weren't what I'd wanted. I'm still figuring out f-stop, ISO, and whatnot with the new camera. The aperatures work differently than they do with the Z650, and there's also more flexibility than what I'm used to. I would've liked to have spent more time with it last night, but it was too damned cold out.
Oh yeah...
by the way...
The newest member of the family:
My Kodak P880: it offers an amateur photographer both flexibility and visual cunning to acheive results
I've had some unsure moments with the camera since I won it on eBay. The FedEx guy who was supposed to deliver it to me was quitting the company, and kept avoiding Mountain Top - so it wasn't getting delivered. I got impatient last Saturday and went down to their Pittston, PA place to retrieve it.
I managed to dump a little Coca-Cola into the camera's power button during the ride home, and the thing would power off intermittently. Part of what I was doing for my last couple of days off was cleaning the power button out with alcohol to break up the syrup and sugar. It seems to have worked. I didn't have any problems with it at all last night. Given what my eyesight's been for the last couple of days, I really didn't want to take the thing apart to clean it, but I think I've broken up most of the contamination without disassembling it.
I'm feeling pretty much back to normal now. My dizziness has stopped and my eyesight's returned to what it was before. I'll probably be out at Charley's tomorrow night.
It was unplanned, but at least I got a rest from the daily grind. I just hope that the co-pay from the insurance isn't too extreme...
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