R.I.P. To A Beloved iPod

I've had a 6GB iPod Mini for about five years now.  A couple of days ago I traveled up to the North Georgia mountains and wanted to bring my little green buddy because there was no cable, internet or wireless where we were staying.  So I plugged in the car charger and headed out.  

After a less than two-hour drive, we were getting all set up and my iPod was dead!  That was a bit disturbing because the indicator light on the car charger appeared to be working just fine.  Well, not having my tunes was not the end of the world; we had plenty of CD's and a portable CD player to entertain us.

Upon my return home I connected the iPod into my laptop.  Nothing.  My desktop.  Zip.  The Bose SoundDock. Nada.  It was dead.

Thank heaven my music is in the iTunes file on my desktop, so I haven't lost anything except the portability and overall cuteness of this shiny, bright green little bundle of fun.  On the upside, I think I paid $250 for it five years ago and a new iPod Touch is going to give me 8GB for $229. 

Wait . . . did I just say that spending $229 two weeks before Thanksgiving was the UPSIDE?  Geez...

I Need A Nap

This happens every year.  Autumn comes, the weather gets colder and the sun goes down earlier.  All those things can be dealt with, no problem.  But then . . . literally overnight . . . the end of Daylight Savings Time.  Why is it that we only set our clocks back one hour but the sun seems to be setting three hours earlier?

My brain and my body struggle to make this adjustment for at least two weeks.  It's now pitch black before 6pm and it's all I can do to keep my eyes open.  And the really sad part is, I can literally crawl into bed shortly after 6:00 and sleep through the night, and STILL not want to get out of bed before 9:00 the next morning!  

Thanks for listening, going to lay (lie?) down now... 

So Much for Having Any Control

So I get an email describing what I should expect prior to actually getting any drug.  There are tests, tests and more tests for a week in December.

The first - and longest - day of testing begins at 7:30a.m. on Monday, December 15th.  Monday mornings suck.  Monday morning during rush hour are nightmarish.  Monday morning rush hour in Atlanta is unspeakable.

Anyway, I meet with the study docs, give some blood for lab work, get an EKG, learn how to perform the cognitive tests required by the study and get fitted with a Holter monitor.  The Holter is basically a portable EKG that will track my heart rate for the next 24 hours.  At some point I will be sent to a nearby hospital where I'll submit to a Pulmonary Function Test and an eye exam.  

Trying to determine when I get to eat...

A Witness to History?

Let me be honest.  I voted for Obama.  Like many, I stewed over it for many months.  While I am a registered Democrat, I will jump the fence periodically when it comes down to actually voting.  Looking back though, I've never jumped the fence when it comes to voting for the President. 

Anyway, it's ten o'clock on Election Night and already the highly overpaid political pundits are giving Barack Obama over 200 electoral college votes.  Cool by me, but I've got a question.  Why does the electoral college still exist?  We have computers that can add and send total votes to Oz (or the White House or the Galactic Republic or wherever the official votes are stored), without the help of a middleman.  This is the Third Millennium, people!