Stupid knowledge!

Ignorance is bliss. That's what they say. I can tell you for a fact - that is usually true. I was once really smart. I mean super-smart. I never, ever stopped thinking, even when asleep. I was always stressed, and always making everyone crazy with all of my thinking, and talking, and questions, etc. Then I got a few traumatic brain injuries, went through an accelerated program of relationship-training, and tried real hard to be rough on myself in general for a few years. Now, I'm slightly less smart, a whole lot less sharp, and my memory is pretty much ruined. Am I happier? I certainly am.

  Well, I was. Everything was going just fine, until I decided to write a blog. At first, I thought to myself: "How hard could it be? It's simple, right?". Then, I decided to do what I always do - I would learn everything there is to know about writing a blog. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for me. Yeah, right. As it turns out, there is a LOT to know about writing a blog! Arrrrrgh! I currently have about 30 tabs open in my Firefox pertaining to blog-writing (plus another 40 or 50 for other things, mostly wikipedia). It seems that I am doing it all wrong. I can't continue writing my blog this way! I have to go back to the very beginning and start all over! Crikey!

  So, here I am. What, now? I guess I have to design and build a whole new blog, while continuing to write in this one. Also, I have to do all of the other things that I have to do, such as: get my car inspected, dress myself, make stupid food, shave, answer my phone, and all the other tedious, seemingly unimportant nagging chores I have to live with. I also have to be awesome for Beth, try to pretend I like people when I go to the store, Be funny on facebook, and convince my kids that I'm not the worst daddy ever. It's a lot of hard work, doing all of these things that require thinking. Oh - I'm also continuously learning languages, science stuff, stock-trading, medicine, dentistry, *astrology, metallurgy, geology, and 20 other useless, random things. On top of all that stuff, I'm trying to plan our world tour.

  What ever happened to my big plan to simplify my life? I guess I'm gonna need another traumatic brain injury. This cognitive-function recovery is getting out of hand!

 *Exploring scientific validity

Dental disappointment.

Richest country on Earth - with the crappiest health care. That seems suspicious to me.

I have to go to the VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) dental clinic tonight. Yeah - tonight. Actually, at 2:00 A.M. They only take the first 10 people in line when they open at 7:00 - AND I have to have $75 in hand for the cost of x-rays only. How am I going to stand in line for 5 hours without going to the loo? Also - why should anyone have to? It just doesn't make sense. Greatest country in the world, my ass! America is like a bully who talks a lot of crap, but really has nothing behind the facade of awesomeness except self-proclaimed greatness. I have been to the E.R in 5 or 6 hospitals in 4 states, at huge expense, just to deal with dental emergencies resulting from lack of dental care for 12 years. I am simply too poor to go to a dentist in the U.S. I think I will end up going to Mexico to get my teeth fixed. Maybe I will stay, too. That's just pitiful.

Grrrrrrr!!!!!

 I had a new post almost written, and my clumsy fingers touched some button, I have no idea which one, and it all went away. I hate that. A lot. I'm not going to smash anything, as I wanted to, but I'm also not going to write the whole thing over again. I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but it is maddening. I'm going to sleep on it and write a new one tomorrow. I'm so mad, I'm literally angry with rage! I guess I should have been writing it in Notepad, as I am now, or in some other kind of office utility, which I know nothing about.

  I guess I need to learn some office skills.  Next stop: OpenOffice.org.

Oh, and, by the way- I just noticed that I opened Notepad, and still went ahead and wrote it directly in the Blog editor. Unbelievable.

Cork-board

 My friend Billy told me when I was 20 or so that organization is the key to success. He said it at least once a day, for a few years. He also said that Little Debbie Swiss Rolls were better than Hostess Ho-Hos. I set up a double-blind test, with all 5 participants choosing Hostess- including him. That has nothing to do with organization, but it proves that I know what I'm talking about- when it comes to crap I never eat!

  He was right about organization, though. This is why I have been trying to simplify my life, and concentrate my energy on fewer things. I am very organized in my mind, but in reality, I always have WAY too much crap, and too much going on all the time, to ever give any one thing the attention it deserves. I have a whole barn full of stuff that I am trying to forget about, I just sold 18 cars and trucks, and I still have too much to deal with. I am going to try to get rid of everything I can't keep in my car with me. Well, maybe not my motorcycles. And my four-wheeler. And my leather massage chair. And my '68 Mercedes. The rest is going.

  I told Beth today that we need to get a cork-board, and put it on the wall inside the door, where we can see it every day. Then we can maybe begin to have some lists of things we have to do, and in what priority. We only have about 6 months to get ready for leaving, and it seems like we have more things to do every day. I would almost trade everything for a couple of nice horses, and some good saddlebags. That would really be a lot easier to manage.

  Anyhow, we have to make lists, and we have to put them on this cork-board. I have tried the dry-erase board, but those markers always quit working right, and I end up writing on them with a Sharpie or something. This maybe doesn't sound so bad until you consider that I have some Industrial Super-Permanent Sharpies. Now you can see why that doesn't work out so well...

  All I have to do now is actually remember that the cork-board is there.

Metronidazole

 It seems that there is only one way to treat amoebic dysentery, and that is with Metronidazole- a powerful antibiotic, amebicide, and antiprotozoal. It is also the medicine of choice for several other conditions - including certain dental infections. The kind of dental infection a person might get after drilling out his own root-canal with a non-sterile drill. Even if great care is taken with all of the other equipment, it seems that the drill is actually the one part that really should be sterile.

  So, how is it that a person who is dumb enough to drill a root-canal with a non-sterile drill would just happen to have the one thing on hand that will treat this type of infection? That's a good question. I just happen to know one possible answer.

  It could be possible, hypothetically speaking, of course, that this very same person may have, at some time in the past, become the unfortunate victim of amoebic dysentery, and that the level of suffering resulting from this experience would have motivated this wise and foolish person to obtain and possess a supply of Metronidazole from an online pharmacy in Singapore. Or Malaysia, or something. If this is indeed the case, then it would mean that there must surely be a story to explain how this person ended up with amoebic dysentery while lost in North Carolina on a mountain-climbing/Appalachian Trail-hiking trip. I will investigate, and if there is a story, I will post it some time. You know- if it's true.