b.rox

Again this morning with the non-starting car. I think this is the second time since I wrote about this problem back in January. Plenty of power, but no engine action. We both tried it repeatedly. Xy was about to get a ride to work with our neighbor Debra when she asked me, “Did you try [...]

Last month I was experiencing some weird gastric discomfort, like a dull ache in my stomach which kept coming and going for several weeks. It was bad enough to disrupt my routine, to keep me from doing things I’d normally do.
At my mother-in-law’s suggestion, I visited the doctor. He gave me an EKG as a [...]

I’m taking my last Cipro today, the end of a four week course. When I first started taking them, the effect was dramatic. I called it “dropping the bomb” because I could feel it working throughout my body. I was sick; it made me better. It definitely made me sit up and take notice. (No [...]

The Ciprofloxacin is so effective it’s scary. Within an hour or two of taking the first dose, I felt worlds better. As my friend MF noted, you can feel it at work in your body. Rumbling throughout the digestive tract. I feel like I’ve dropped a nuclear bomb in my colon. And I can literally [...]

I’m sick as a dog. Barely able to think coherently. No snot, no congestion, just a fever, with attendant chills and sweats and borderline delirium. Every inch of my body aches. There’s a gland (lymph node?) on the right side of my neck that’s swollen and painful — painful only on the outside, not inside [...]

My mouth is numb from a visit to the dentist. They drilled on a couple teeth on my upper left and one on my lower right. The anesthetic did its job. I didn’t feel a thing. Completely painless. The criss-cross numbness makes me feel like the Harlequin of Novocaine. Unfortunately I think I’ve chewed a [...]

Now about that low-grade sore throat thing I mentioned. It lasted five days at least, and I’ve still got a lingering dryness, but it never seemed to progress to anything worse… it never became a full-blown cold.
Even though I didn’t get any serious sinus congestion, somehow one of my ears got that “unpopped” feeling like [...]

I wasn’t going to see a doctor about my ankle, but Xy suggested I should. So I gave my GP a call. I’m none too enamored of my GP, as I mentioned before. I’ve only seen her once and can’t even remember her name. But when I called, her staff referred me to an “orthopedic.”
So [...]

I rented a buffing machine to clean our tile floor. It cleaned up OK, I guess, except for a powdery white residue everywhere. I thought this might be efflorescence, but upon further investigation I decided it’s probably just dirt, specifically drywall dust.
As I was carrying the buffing machine back out to the car, I twisted [...]

I wanted to record my thoughts on being 40 years of age, but I frittered away the year. Now I’ve only got a few hours left.
There’s not much to say, except that physically I feel pretty much the same as I did at 30. The long slow inevitable decline may have already begun, but I’m [...]

I’ve started a new tradition. I’m not shaving between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. This gives me an annual chance to appreciate just how gray my beard is getting. I’d say I’m about 50% gray at this point. Then, on New Year’s Day, I’ll shave it clean and get a fresh start.
Footnote: I [...]

I’ve been off the caffeine for over a month now. I wanted to see if this would help with my intermittent insomnia. So far it seems to be doing just that. I’m having an easier time getting to sleep and staying asleep, without raiding Xy’s Xanax.

I’ve never had a steady doctor here in New Orleans, for a variety of reasons, not least among them the fortunate fact that I’ve been in remarkably good health ever since I moved here eight years ago.
Still, I’ve always heard that once you turn 40 you should get annual checkups as a matter of course. [...]

As I was walking to the Post Office Saturday morning, some jackass asked me for directions. I stepped up to his car, and when we were finished talking, I realized I was standing on an ant hill.

Actually the guy wasn’t a jackass at all. He was very polite. But my foot is now covered with [...]

I couldn’t take in anymore. Having hair in the summer heat just sucks. Plus, I was no longer looking my usual devilishly attractive self.
So on the way home for lunch today, I stopped at Hair Ideas, Inc., newly reopened.
Thus endeth the protest.

Quite an operation they’ve got there. Two barbers, several stylists, a nice waiting area. [...]

Motivated by a desire to get in shape, I purchased memberships at the Jewish Community Center for Xy and myself. I’m more motivated than Xy, a bizarre twist considering that when we first got together, she was much more athletic than me. We’ve both changed.
When we lived uptown, right next to the Tulane campus, I [...]

It’s April, so that means my annual coffee reduction ritual is in full swing. I stepped down to three cups per day last week. Now I’m at two cups per day. Next week, one cup per day. By the end of the month, I’ll be caffeine free for at least a little while.
Of course, I’ve [...]

If I’d tried to post yesterday, It would have looked something like this:
Worst. Hangover. Ever. Can’t. Barely. Type.
This one took me by surprise. I correlate hangovers with drinking too much, plain and simple. But this time around, I wasn’t really that drunk. Not so’s anyone would notice. I might have expected a mild headache, but [...]

I shaved my head seven months ago:

And then I shaved my beard into a goatee, and of course most of the time I still wear my hornrim glasses, which gets me back to looking like this icon of myself that I created in 1995 or so:

And so I braced myself for the inevitable question: Why [...]

I cut the middle finger of my left hand while sawing some tree branches. It didn’t hurt at all, but it bled a lot. Fortunately I had Xy to help me ice it down, clean it and bandage it. The bandage has stopped the flow of blood so I don’t think stitches will be [...]