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Not Everybodies Got to Get Stoned

It's cool in the upstairs bedroom. A cool front has crept in over night and with the windows open it's almost cold. but that is not what wakes me up. I have mild but persistent pain in the lower left quadrant of my stomach. I've had this before. It's gas or maybe early signs of some problems in my bowel, either constipation or diarrhea. Normally the pain will abate and I can continue to function. I can't sleep an I don't want to wake up Maria, so I get up, make my coffee and start my day.

As I sit reading the columns from Urban Milwaukee, The Guardian, Bloomberg, and Slate, I m getting more pain and concern. I gut it out until 8:30 and then ask Maria to take me to the ER at Thedacare.

I'm laying on the exam table in room 10, gowned and in far more pain then my previous episodes exhibited. Nurse Wendy is going over some basic questions given my symptoms. Doctor McCloy comes in and does in indepth exam and postulates it's probably diverticulitis.

They ask for and get a urine sample and take two panels of blood. They also give me mrorphine for a quick relief of pain and another injection of a longer lasting pain relief medicine. The morphine works immediately. I mean no pain, almost at once.

The sleep I lost last night is paid off in the sleep I enjoyed in the exam room waiting for test results. Doctor returns with the two door quiz show problem. It's either diverticulitis or kidney stones. A Cat scan will tell us. I will restrain myself from trying to fit any number of jokes about Cat scans at this point. I've done enough diversion by pimping Urban Miwaukee in an earlier paragraph.

I have a kidney stone, actually this could be called a kidney rock. If it was a diamond, it would be worth thousands.

I now am the proud owner of a plastic urnil, small screen strainer, medication to make the stone
easier to pass, medication to relieve pain and medication to make it easier to take all of my other medication.

Yes, I have a kidney stone, but thankfully, it too will Pass.

If there is anything that can be done to fix my soon to be declared antique MiniMac, I will be back in the business of editing the social media sites I've been I trusted with. Oh yes, I can still post. It's not like I've abandoned them. Now I'm working on a I-Pad, version 2. I know. Isn't amazing. I might be the last person in the world, still using these versions of Apple Equipment.

The process of harvesting relevant information for my readers is simple. It's posting it that becomes a little like playing tennis in the dark.

Currently, my MiniMac is in the competent hands of our local and longtime Apple Dealer, Computer World. I can't believe they still had me in their database. I'm waiting for the analysis, cost of repair and state of operation estimate. It is, in all probability, a software problem. That amounts  to a wiping of the hard drive and reinstalling the OS. Than we get to the "is it worth it" question.

My computer is not something as close to me, as say, my dog. But we've been together for quite awhile. Countless entries, comments, and futile story attempts have passed from my keyboard to it's digital arrays and to it's dark disk drive

It knows what angers me. It knows how I think. It knows what I dream of. It's all in there. I have it saved in the cloud and in an external hard drive. Only time and a skilled technician will set it's fate. Stand by for news.



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