Omicron to Omron

"If it ain't one thing," Yogi Berra said, "it's something different."

The way the past couple of years have been going, I'm expecting the seas to turn red any day. What haven't we had? Well, the locusts were mild and expected. There was only one big volcano. Still...!

So our workplace took a week off for the holidays. Except that we had to use our own vacation hours for that. Of course, right around then, I got sick with something that felt like it might be COVID. This was when you couldn't find a test anywhere and the lines were way too long for a sick person to stand in.

And no sick days or vacation left. So HR already hates me. Hey, they should know what happens each time they send out that email; "Someone in your working group tested positive, and..."

That was finally over and I was putting in a solid week's work again. We had yet another COVID scare and got a four-day weekend -- paid this time -- but on MLK day I collapsed at my desk.

Still not sure of the sequence of events but my BP went to something like 210/120 in the ambulance (I wasn't tracking well enough to memorize the numbers) and I spent a nice evening in a -- fortunately not terribly busy -- ER.

I'm back on hypertension medication and I haven't had coffee since. Still not fully recovered, though. Like the ER doc said, a hypertensive "urgency" (yeah, that's what they call it when you will start damaging organs but haven't yet) is like watering your lawn with a firehose. It can take it for a few minutes, but don't leave it on for too long.

But that makes me wonder. You know how car people say you should get out on the highway every now and then and "blow the crud out of the engine?" Well, maybe it works like that. I haven't had any gut trouble since then. Now, if only the ringing in my ears would stop...!

***

Yeah, I still can't concentrate on writing. I do have a nice movie night due at some point. Going to watch Phantom, Les Miserables, Moulin Rouge, la Boheme, and maybe Gigi while I'm at it. Have decided that "Collette" is going to be a major figure in the book and the big chunk of history.

And I've decided I really can't not have a scene down in the lake under Palais Garnier. So now I'm trying to plot in such a way so that sort of a thing makes sense.