Today, PETA people from waaaay east of Chattanooga invaded the Scenic City to hand out “fashion felony” citations to folks downtown wearing fur, leather and other goods that they believe are animal-cruel. The “citations” required the folks to get out of these cruel clothes within 24 hours. It kinda appeared that one of the three folks were actually impeding folks’ progress down public sidewalks, and trying to talk over the top of anyone who had an opposing view. So, I guess they were kinda unlawfully detaining people.

However, to make the detention a little more bearable, PETA sent in the “fashion cops” — two scantily clad gals handing out the citations, leaving the hard conversation to the third member of their group.

Fun to look at maybe, but no one who has no lawful position over me has the right to stop me in public and keep me from going about my lawful business.

The humorous part of this was that they were basing their protest in an area of downtown that is well-known for its homeless population. I suspect those folks don’t have much choice in their clothing options!!!!!

…Which is to say, this morning we got up, and the heat was out. Again. Urgh.

I called the 24-hour answering service around 6am, woke someone up — which I’m sure will ensure us terrific service! — and told them that the heat’s doing the same thing it was on Sunday and Monday. I was assured that someone would be out “in the morning”. I assume that meant today, but who knows.

I don’t mind things breaking down (too much), but I do mind having the same work repeated on the same part after only 36 hours or so.

We’ll see what today holds…

Well, it’s not all that cold, but when the heat’s out, it might not matter.

Yup, we got through the coldest weather, but have the heater try to handle 30s and 40s, and it gives up the ghost. The repair guy tried for two hours to resurrect it, both through finding replacement parts (which he couldn’t) and through trying to build replacements that would work (which they wouldn’t).

So, Monday will bring round two of the man vs. furnace battle (reminiscent of A Christmas Story), and hopefully, the warmth will return to our somewhat chilly house.

Overnight, we completed a huge migration to new hardware at the office. This was the culmination of almost six months of work by the team, and went astoundingly well.

I got home around 3am, and slept until almost 11am — that was the sweet sleep of success. No pages, no e-mails, no emergencies, and no worries about anything major cropping up tomorrow when I start the next work week.

Again, I’m sure I’ll sleep nicely tonight!

This morning, I went out to the truck, only to discover that it had been broken into. Not the way to start on a Monday morning. We called the police, and while the detective was here, more neighbors came out, and some of them had had their vehicles ransacked too.

In my case, the detective believes I left the doors unlocked. Now Beck says that me getting a speeding ticket or leaving a door unlocked is a sign of the Apocalypse. I don’t know about that, but I do know that I am soooo paranoid about doors and locks that it surprises me that I would’ve left it unlocked. There were no signs of foced entry though, so it was either that, or the thieves had an electronic device to disable the alarm and open the lock. There’ve been reports of that here in town of late, so I wouldn’t want to dismiss that.

So, the truck was essentially untouched, with the exception of the fiends taking my XM radio head unit which was attached to my dash, and my GPS which was in the center console. Frustrating, but not the end of the world.

I guess the good news is that I can buy the latest model of my GPS, and all my accessories will work with it. Upgrades are normally good, but I’d rather elect to do that under other circumstances! 🙂

Well, no where really. I haven’t been cycling like I should, and I haven’t been writing like I should. Only working, working, working. This is the month of living crazily and working like a dog, so the Deauxmayne may be a bit sparse during October.

And, I’ve got to find some time to go out and shoot the fall colors. The leaves here are starting to explode in color. There’s a lot of color now, but it’s not quite ready yet — probably next weekend.

Bear with me during this busy month!

Such timing I have!

I’ve just found out that my high school class — 1981 Chattanooga Central High School — is having our 25th reunion tomorrow night in Ooltewah. With the short notice and Beck’s surgery, I’m just not gonna make it down, as much as I’d like to.

I went to the 10th back in ’91, and it was a great time. I oughta get those photos scanned and published up here one of these days…..

Anyway, I’m sure they’ll have a good time, and I expect I’ll have to plan on seeing them at the 30th.

Well, I guess it was bound to happen — my e-mail address is being used as a bounce-address for a bevy of spambots out there. I’ve been getting bounces to my e-mail address for the last two days from a hoarde of spam messages buzzing about the ‘Net.

I guess that’s not the worst thing that could happen, but I wonder if somehow my domain could be misidentified as a spam domain. From what I can see in the headers of the messages that are bouncing my way, they are all originating elsewhere, and are just using my email address as a place to land the bounces.

So, while it’s been reasonably harmless so far, and nothing that my e-mail rules can’t handle, it’s still a little troubling. I mean, what if I was legitimately selling replica watches, sexual aid drugs and mortgage refinance packages? 🙂

Tonight, I visited the Doc as a checkup out of my little incident over the weekend. The short and sweet, there’s no bad news.

Blood pressure was 120/90 — quite nice. I was down 12 pounds from my last visit — also very nice.

Basically, the Doc says that my take on the event was pretty close to right. The pain woke me up, and all the subsequent stuff had my passing out toward the bathtub. Essentially the same thing that happened almost two years ago. He’s scheduling me a couple of tests just to be on the safe side, but he’s pretty sure there’s nothing to be concerned about.

The good news is that there’s no impact to my cycling! I was real concerned that I’d need to take off for a while, but he indicated that since I’m not feeling any ill effects from or during my rides, there’s no reason to stop. The fact that I feel great when I ride is one of his biggest reasons for believing that there is nothing going on.

So, good news all around, and news that I can live with! 🙂

As the regular readers of this blog know, I had an episode of vagal reaction in September of ’04. (Read more about that incident here.) Last night, I was the lucky recipient of another visit by the vagal nerve fairy.

It was essentially the same kind of event as before: strong stomach pain, sweating, really feeling uncomfortable, skin crawling, go to the bathroom, and pass out onto the floor. This time I fell over the tub wall from a seated position, rather than from a standing position into the marble window sill, so that’s something good I guess.

We did the same things as last time — scoop me from the floor, apply cold towels, get me lying down in bed, and trying to cool me down and settle me down. Beck called the dial-a-nurse program we have as part of our insurance, and they indicated that the symptoms implied a vagal reaction. In an hour or so, I was calmed, and on my way to sleep.

Aside from feeling like I’ve run a marathon or two, and having a little nagging headache, I’m fine now, apart from being exhausted.

In reading about this strange condition, I see a lot of anecdotal stories about stress, pain, and dehydration being prime contributors to the onset of an episode. I don’t think that I’ve been in a great deal of stress lately, and I’ve been making sure to really hydrate myself when I ride, consuming better than 40oz of fluid on a two-hour ride — and that’s in 70 degree weather!

My bet is pain, and in this case and the last, the pain of a pretty powerful stomach ache. We had big steaks for dinner, and I know sometimes that’ll cause some stomach cramping for me. Lacking any other info, that’s what I’m chocking it up to.

However, I’m gonna talk to the Doc tomorrow, and make an appointment for my annual physical — it’s about time anyway. I think he’ll be pleased with my weight, with my exercise regimen, and hopefully that will bear fruit in other areas. My guess is that this will just be something else to watch as time goes on.