September 21, 2012

"It is better to go to the hospital to find out it is nothing than to stay home and die of diphtheria."

Advice to a friend last week while we were in Argentina - he had been suffering for 5 days and it was getting worse rather than better. We were in Argentina for 2 weeks of major beef fest! That is pretty much what tied us together as a group, we were the major partners in buying a cow each fall and parting it out. Mrs. Grumpy worked with the sick dude, the older couple were his girlfriend's parents. It was a really fun time but like all such vacations they end on an airplane which can only really, really suck - though on good days it just sucks.

Two days before we left for AR. Mrs. Grumpy declared that she was 50 (I knew that) and that she did not want to be 51 and still living with me (I should have known that but kept talking myself out of believing it). Kind of sucks too since we have been together for about 23 years. We both cried a bunch, promised we would stay friends, and she really did want me to go on this vacation (though I am not sure if it was my company or my share of the expenses that she wanted). Of course, the awkward part is we have a lease that does not run out until February but she is looking to buy a condo. Who knows how this will end. I am not really good at seeing how events will unfold until it actually happens but this does not really bode well. Since she she is the one who is breaking up and moving out, she says that she will continue to pay her share of the expenses until such time as....

For some reason, in the back of my mind I assumed that all the gay people knew all about each other and talked freely amongst themselves but 'Big Guy' asked us "what is with 'The Cop'? Is she/he in the process of changing genders?" she is just herself, I have no idea and would not ask her even if I was interested in the answer. Big Guy is in a 10 relationship and his partner is transitioning to womanhood - Big Guy is gay and proud and it sort of bothers him that when he is walking with his partner, he is considered straight; so I told him about Other Big Guy who has been married for 20 years and his wife is transitioning to man. Other Big Guy is absolutely straight but when he and his wife walk down the street everyone thinks he is gay. What do I know?? b-t-b I use 'Big Guy' for both because both are over 6'4", over 300 pounds and each can bench 400 pounds. Big Guy is able to use a concrete cutter on a wall - think about that for a minute, he can lift that big fucking gas-driven hunk of metal and cut a door-frame out of a concrete wall. Other Big Guy plays with boomerangs.

So there is a couple thousand dollars of electronics in the room - the only sound is of clicking keyboards and/or tippy-taps of smart phones as everyone but me is blogging about Argentina as it happens. Anyway, we came back the beginning of the week (yeah I am blogging about it but after not during).

The trip back was hell for me; I ran out of Vicodin a couple days before the trip home and it was really difficult to get NSAIDs out of the AR pharmacies so I ended up spending 24 hours with no pain-relievers. Now you have to realize that I have a problem with pain - I have peripheral neuropathy (translates as unexplained pain in my hands and feet - they kind of burn all the time), rheumatoid arthritis, and carpal tunnel - and, temporarily, tennis elbow) and so I was in pain for the entire trip and only fell asleep a couple times for about 2 or 3 hours. There was no distraction which is my usual way to combat the peripheral neuropathy. My doctor laughs and says that I have a prescription to play first person shooters for pain as needed.