h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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When I had my last wisdom tooth out the dentist had to stick his finger in my mouth for a "can I feel air coming through the hole?" test as the root was apparently less than a millimetre away from being in the sinus.

*sips *

[z]

I had the dentist x-ray one of my upper molars last week because of toothache - most likely generated from the cold stuffed up sinuses (that tooth was fine, the other one he looked at however...)

Starting to feel slightly more normal having not done very much at all today. It's either that or the ibuprofen have kicked in and are working their magic on my sore and achy body.

[lil] just completed all the work on another vat of EFBPS

One thing I've learned about grief is that we all have to deal with it in our own way and not be concerned if that doesn't fit into some preconceived opinion about how we "should" grieve.

My sympathies to all those with migranes, lugry, toothache and any other indispositions. It's never convenient to be ill, but this time of year it is even more inconvenient.

At the risk of being thought potty, I will admit to having cat ghosts. Chico is still hanging about. I see him occasionally. And many years ago I actually felt a cat ghost. It was when we lived in Tyler, Texas. A very sweet kitty named Spooky died. All of you who live with cats realize that they have distinctive purrs and voices, just like people do. Spooky always slept on the bed with us. For weeks after he died, I heard him at hight. When I was awake. I wasn't dreaming. F heard him, too. Then one night I reached out and there was this warm kitty next to me. I stroked it and felt a little crook on the tail. It was Spooky. He had gotten his tail caught in a screen door when he was a kitten and it was crooked for the rest of his life. I stroked him for maybe 30 seconds, and then he just vanished and never came back. He was saying goodbye.

Those of you who are totally committed to disbelief will do so. But it happened.

Hyp, that's a lovely story.

I sometimes dream about the cats I have loved and lost. That's as close to a kitty ghost as I've experienced.

*makes it through the backlog. Feels as if he's been on a roundabout for three days straight. Collapses*

Why is it always so much worse thinking about paperwork than actually doing it?

I lost an earring about two weeks ago, rather a nice lavender sapphire one, not quite with a comma in the value but certainly worth claiming on and definitely worth replacing. I've been worrying myself sick about making the claim because the last time I claimed on lost jewellery it was a multi-call, multi-week nightmare with the insurance company wanting to send me to their "preferred jewellers" and asking how we could prove that the chain was 18 carat and not 9 and demanding a discount from the lovely local jeweller who'd made it, and so on.

So I'd been putting it off and putting it off and putting it off for a fortnight.

This time she just said "which bank account should it go in?" and that was it.

I'm just astonished.

I'll go into town and see if I can find a competent craft jeweller to get cracking on the replacement. I don't want the money just sitting in my bank account, because it wouldn't.

B

[GDZ]

*sips *

Eek, 300+ backlog!

Congratulations Ag!

Gentle for those not feeling well.

Hope your mum feels a lot better soon, Marv.

Marv, glad to hear your mom is home, but sorry that she's still having pain. Let's hope they find something for that soon!

I went ahead and purchased Finale Songwriter for $30 some time ago - it was perfect for writing music, and you can print out the sheets when you're done. Much cheaper than the full-blown Finale, which is like $300 USD.

> I played Grand theft Auto on the PS2 and instead of making drug deals and doing drive by shootings . I drove sensibly , stopping at all the junctions , observing all the traffic lights and keeping to the speed limit .

Tod, I avoided a traffic accident because of GTA training - you know how the game's set up, with cars coming out of side streets at random? Well, my eye's now trained for that, so when I saw a car at a side street, I was ready for it, and when it came out at the side of my car, I swerved and avoided it.

> The first Christmas without a loved one is simply horrible.

I agree. Lots of sodden misery, crying, recriminations, and repetitions of 'there, there.' But Christmas is a time of purging, and of rebirth. It's a time to remind yourself how precious those remaining loved ones are. I don't know why we can't do that all year round, but there you go - Christmas is when we really appreciate our loved ones.

{z}

[mr]

What a day. Hopefully tomorrow will be calmer. Yeah, right. Tuesday is never calm. Was late to work because coming in from out of town. Spent most of the day working on little things, expecting a call from opposing counsel on my big trial date this week. It never came. I was thinking we were going to settle... especially since we've agreed to everything they way. Sheesh. I think she's just trying to make me sweat.

Isn't that what y'all get paid for, Irv?

*sips *

Sounds like a bad combination of tedium and anxiety, Irv.

We're waiting for the bad weather to fall on us. The wind is howling, the barometer is way down and snow is promised. And it's fixing to get ~really~ cold.

I don't think I'll decorate this year. Since I moved so much furniture around last spring I don't really have a cat-proof place to put my little tree, and, since I've become jobless, I am finding it difficult to put together some Christmas spirit. Or at least enough spirit to drag out the heirloom ornaments.

>>Isn't that what y'all get paid for, Irv?

Sweating? I suppose so, but who said I wanted to *earn* my paycheck?