What significant things have I done today?

[Opsa]

I just came back from doing my duty as a citizen. No, not paying taxes or procreating. Voting in the federal elections.
The election campaign was the most boring in living memory which in a way is a good thing.

Good for you. Voting is always a significant thing, even when you're voting more "against" than "for". It shows those running that someone out there is still bothering to exercise their freedom to vote.

[Swatopluk]

I got up at 4 am (instead of the already horrible 5am I usually do). To-morrow it will be even earlier to catch the flight to Seville.

[Jayna]

It is still morning here so I haven't accomplished much yet, but I did re-order cyan and black ink cartridges (accursed HP printer that won't let me print orders because I'm out of CYAN! I don't need cyan! I only need to print in black! Plus I can tell there's ink in that cartridge) and made soup. Right now, any minute now, I will be using the internet do do something productive by way of looking at what colors and styles are selling these days.

Oh, and then I shall go for a run.

[Opsa]

Just don't mix your ink with your soup. That'd be something I'd do.

[Jayna]

That would make me very sad. Fortunately, I have already eaten the soup.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I got tired of the expiring ink cartridges from HP & all and now I own a cheap laser* (besides, I don't print in color).

* although nowadays you can get them even cheaper.

[Griffin NoName]

Started reading course material (online). Found I couldn't concentrate and take stuff in. Just too tired. Worrying I may have to ditch the course and it's only two days in.

[Pachyderm]

Today I went to the doctor.

He told me that I have haemochromatosis. (Iron Overload Disorder). My body squirrels away far more iron than it needs to, (apparently, there is going to be an iron shortage) and stores it in all sorts of places such as joints, my pancreas, liver and heart. These are places where iron is not supposed to be stored...

The treatment is simple. I will have to have a pint of blood removed, once a week. For, possibly, two years. And then, once levels of stored iron are slightly lower than in normal people, I will be bled only every few months.

And I have bad veins to get blood out of. Very deep, apparently.

Hooray, life as a human pin-cushion beckons.

[Zan]

That blows.   

[Jayna]

Oh augh, Pachyderm, that sounds terrible! I'm sorry! I once went through a rather unpleasant period of life wherein I was being diagnosed with my brain tumor, and I was having something either removed from me or injected into me so frequently that it started to feel normal. The once-glorious vein in my right arm retreated so deeply that it's pretty much inaccessible and the left one's not so far behind it.

I just had a bunch of blood drawn last week, in fact. I feel for you. Now is a good time to practice thinking really hard about unrelated things.

[Darlica]

I drove 500 kilometres today, from the summerhouse back home with L snoozing in the seat beside me for most of the time.

[Zan]

I drove 500 kilometres today, from the summerhouse back home with L snoozing in the seat beside me for most of the time.

That's a good long drive.

You know, a friend of mine in Belgium once said "Americans think a 100 year old building is old, and Europeans think a 100 miles is a long way".

All the same, that's about what, a 5 hour drive?

[Darlica]

The time it takes depend on several things...

The speed limits; I started out on gravel roads and smaller asphalt roads with 50 to 70 km/h speed limits and the top speed limit around there is 120 km/h on some part of the biggest motorways.

It depends on the road conditions: which can shift dramatically over theses 50 km as I travel straight North to South or South to North (the summerhouse is in the south).

The condition of the driver (me); if I'm tired I tend to drive slower and make more stops to rest, drink coffe etc.

The drive today was almost as good as it gets, it took about 5 1/2 h plus the time it took having dinner and coffee as well as fill up fuel tank halfway, in really foul weather the same drive can take +11h which isn't fun at all...


100 miles might be a long way in mainland Europe or at the British Isles... Here in the North, at the outer rims of Europe it ain't. 

[Griffin NoName]

The treatment is simple. I will have to have a pint of blood removed, once a week. For, possibly, two years. And then, once levels of stored iron are slightly lower than in normal people, I will be bled only every few months.

And I have bad veins to get blood out of. Very deep, apparently.

Hooray, life as a human pin-cushion beckons.

Sorry to hear this Pachy. I've decided bad health is part of growing up 

Re the veins, a good trick is to immerse the arm (or hand or whatever) in very hot water for a few minutes. It brings the veins up. I always insist on doing it or they would never get anything out of me. I wont even let them try without doiing it as they just wreck me otherwise. Another trick is to ask for a chemotherapy nurse to take the bloods; they are always top notch and could get blood out of a stone.

Another more drastic method is to have a port fitted but I somehow doubt you want to go that far.

[Aggie]

Maybe find a young lady with vampiristic tendencies to assist you?