Drinking from a firehose

A week ago today we received the report from our mechanic's about the car we were contemplating buying. It needed a number of repairs, primarily among them a new axle, so we took that information to the dealer and negotiated a better price. So our new car is 2013 Town & Country minivan and we took it to work the very next day so that we could drop off the beige Park Avenue for a few repairs of its own. We exchanged cars at the mechanics the day after that, in no small part because the idea of that axle breaking while underway seemed like a great way to cause additional parts to fail. Well, that and the other car was supposedly all better. It got a brand new fuse box, which solved most of its problems. Only that turned out not to be the only issue, it has taken to feeling like it is going over rumble strips at unpredictable intervals (including on newly laid asphalt) and the heating/cooling system is now possessed. The driver's side blows cool air while the passenger side blows nothing other than air that feels like it came up from the depths of hell.

So, to jump ahead in this story, the Town & Country was returned to us last night after a whole series of repairs, one of which was not on the inspection as it couldn't be seen until the whatever was disassembled. So we once again exchanged cars and drove off in the minivan toward the grocery store. Around four miles later it stalled as we were puttering up Main Street in Royal Oak. Fortunately jebra was driving and coasted the car to a side street and found a safe spot to let it sit. We called AAA, had it towed back to our mechanic's, and exchanged it for the mostly working Park Avenue. I'm beginning to wonder if someone threw an automotive curse upon our vehicles.

Oh, and that Subaru Forester jebra was in love with? It was sold over the weekend and jebra spent most of Monday in mourning when he noticed it was no longer on their webpage. I called to confirm; that's how I know it sold over the weekend.

Scheduled for the weekend were two events, an Ingress XM Anomaly on Saturday and a Mission Day on Sunday, both in Ann Arbor. I'm still not entirely certain what an Anomaly is, but I went and helped my team (the Resistance) gain victory. In practical terms, this meant I went where I was told and did whatever action was requested (generally, keeping portals charged and helping them stay blue). We were instructed to bring as many Level 8 bursters and resonators as we could get our hands on (preferably 600 of each). Friday night after work jebra found a park in Birmingham we could farm for Level 8 gear, so we walked around hacking portals until we burned them out. We had a reasonable supply of both bursters and resonators when we left for Ann Arbor and arrived barely in time for check-in thanks to two serious accidents on the highway. Not even Waze could rescue us from being later than we wanted but we made it and we found our team before the action began. Many hours and five miles later we were done for the day. We grabbed some dinner on the way home, then I ran a load of laundry while I took a shower and waited for my hair to dry.

On Sunday we played a dozen missions; there were supposed to be sixteen available but there was a problem with one of them and it didn't come online during Mission Day. In my case it would not have mattered as I was barely able to complete the 12 we did. I was moving at a snail's pace by the end and alternately being delighted that I wasn't having to consume pain pills the way I did during the Detroit Mission Day and concerned about the state of my knees and lamenting how slow I had to move just to keep going forward. We had dinner in Ann Arbor at Hop Cat, where I learned why their crack fries are called crack fries (they must be made with crack as they are that yummy and addictive), then it was home for more laundry and getting ready for work on Monday.

Not much work got done by me on Monday even though I was there all day. I was so exhausted from all that walking (I did another 5.5 miles on Sunday) that it was a very sleep apnea-y day -- I'd type a few words, fall asleep, rinse, repeat. We drove straight home after work, where I brushed my teeth and fell into bed. My blood sugar was awful when I woke up the next morning (149) but I suppose that's what happens when I eat a ton of pizza for lunch then skip both dinner
and my evening dose of metformin. I did, however, manage to stay awake all day at work on Tuesday and got caught up on what I'd been trying to do on Monday.

Scrapbook papers & elements from the kit Bohemian Breeze
For more information about the designers and their work, see
http://mrs-sweetpeach.dreamwidth.org/903338.html.

The results from the neurologist are back and all tests came back negative. This is good in that anything found would have been dire, however it is annoying because this also means we don't know what the heck is wrong with me. Unless it has to do with lack of sleep, which we do know makes me nuttier than usual. The lack of sleep, by the way, is not because I don't have a CPAP machine or because I'm not using it. I've used it every time I've gone to bed since the doctor prescribed it. And I've had subsequent tests showing it's working correctly and the machine has been tested and calibrated. So I'm the actual problem, not the machine. Some nights I fall into bed and sleep the whole night through. Other nights I can't breathe because my allergies are acting up (in spite of the fact that I get allergy shots weekly, I take both Nasonex and Azelastine Nasal Spray before bed along with 50 Mg of Diphenhydramine and 1200 Mg of Mucinex DM). If my allergies aren't acting up I may get lucky and sleep. Or my legs might decide it's a lovely night to cramp and send me scrambling out of bed. Or my crazy peri-menopausal body might decide it's time to start up the hot flashes again. Or I might just get stressed out about who-knows-what and lay there thinking all night long.

As if that weren't enough, I just got off the phone with my regular doctor's office, who called to say that the results of my latest blood test were now in and I'm officially diabetic. Considering my mom told me that all of the women in the family turn 40 and diabetic at the same time, I figure I did pretty good lasting until I turned 52. They've sent in script for metformin (sp?) in to my pharmacy, so I get to start taking that whenever Medco gets it to me. Whooo.

*back again* I just set my mood to grumpy (which I am) and remembered that I really ought not be. Last week I joined the kindle crowd, and have a lovely Kindle Fire to play with. And today the husband broke down my resistance and tempted me into upgrading my home laptop computer to a Toshiba Quad-Core Laptop w/Blu-ray. (Today's offering at http://sellout.woot.com/ just in case I've tempted you as well.)

Now of course I'll need to figure out what to do with my old tablet (a Herotab C8) and my previous notebook (a Toshiba Satellite A215).

Even though I've had my CPAP machine for a couple of years, my memory for new events is still somewhat wonky. Some things stick, others don't. And, as far as I can tell, there's no rhyme nor reason for the lapses. This morning I spotted this article on Science Daily.

In short, UCLA researchers have discovered that people with sleep apnea show tissue loss in brain regions that help store memory. Principal investigator Ronald Harper hypothesizes that repeated drops in oxygen lead to the brain injury. During an apnea episode, the brain's blood vessels constrict, starving its tissue of oxygen and causing cellular death. The process also incites inflammation, which further damages the tissue. "The reduced size of the mammillary bodies (structures on the underside of the brain) suggests that they've suffered a harmful event resulting in sizable cell loss," Harper said. "The fact that patients' memory problems continue despite treatment for their sleep disorder implies a long-lasting brain injury."

While the above explains what's going on, continued memory problems is not something I want to have.

Even though I've had my CPAP machine for a couple of years, my memory for new events is still somewhat wonky. Some things stick, others don't. And, as far as I can tell, there's no rhyme nor reason for the lapses. This morning I spotted this article on Science Daily.

In short, UCLA researchers have discovered that people with sleep apnea show tissue loss in brain regions that help store memory. Principal investigator Ronald Harper hypothesizes that repeated drops in oxygen lead to the brain injury. During an apnea episode, the brain's blood vessels constrict, starving its tissue of oxygen and causing cellular death. The process also incites inflammation, which further damages the tissue. "The reduced size of the mammillary bodies (structures on the underside of the brain) suggests that they've suffered a harmful event resulting in sizable cell loss," Harper said. "The fact that patients' memory problems continue despite treatment for their sleep disorder implies a long-lasting brain injury."

While the above explains what's going on, continued memory problems is not something I want to have.

My memory is shot to hell. I know I'm missing at least a year thanks to sleep apnea, but there are days things still don't register. Or things register for a while, then they drift off to who-knows-where. The missing memory currently vexing me is concerns a tv detective who recently (i.e., earlier this season) adopted a dog from the SPCA or Humane Society. I remember the dog is mostly white and looks to be at least part pit bull, but that's *all* I can remember. I can't tell you what show this was on, which detective adopted him, I can't even tell you if the detective was black or white. He was male though -- I remember that much. I think I've narrowed the show down to Law & Order or L&O:SVU. Does anybody out there know who adopted the dog? I'm hoping it was one of the guys on L&O not SVU. If was SVU, I fear it was Chester Lake. If it was Lake, it just makes me all the more pissed about the season finale.

My memory is shot to hell. I know I'm missing at least a year thanks to sleep apnea, but there are days things still don't register. Or things register for a while, then they drift off to who-knows-where. The missing memory currently vexing me is concerns a tv detective who recently (i.e., earlier this season) adopted a dog from the SPCA or Humane Society. I remember the dog is mostly white and looks to be at least part pit bull, but that's *all* I can remember. I can't tell you what show this was on, which detective adopted him, I can't even tell you if the detective was black or white. He was male though -- I remember that much. I think I've narrowed the show down to Law & Order or L&O:SVU. Does anybody out there know who adopted the dog? I'm hoping it was one of the guys on L&O not SVU. If was SVU, I fear it was Chester Lake. If it was Lake, it just makes me all the more pissed about the season finale.