HantaMouse's Journal

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They are eating her alive!
I come home from work today to find a bloody shivering mouse in the girls cage. Another one was following her around, trying to investigate her injury, sometimes taste it, and maybe carry off a piece or two. Apparently she is doing this without any malice at all, just curiosity, despite that her sister is screaming, biting back, and trying to stagger away.

I've managed to fish the poor thing out of the tank. She is sitting in a couple habitrail pieces on my desk, all huddled up and breathing with her whole body.

Assuming she survives the night, I'm going to have to buy another tank so she can recuperate in peace.

Update: It took almost 4 days, but she didn't survive.

Current Mood: empathetic

Debride of Frankenstein - Leg wound part 2
The non-viable tissue (just say dead skin please?) needs to be removed to speed the healing. So - "Make an appointment with this plastic surgeon. When they tell you they have an opening in May 2011, tell them I talked to the doctor and arranged something this week."

Doctors offices within shouting distance of the hospital I find creepy for some reason.

First I sat in his hyper-perfumed waiting room and filled out the standard forms on a standard clipboard. Then he threatened me with a skin graft. Then he prescribed honey. Yes, slathering honey into an open wound. It may be gamma irradiated New Zealand honey, but it has no other ingredients. You could put it on your waffles if it didn't cost $20 an ounce.

"Putting honey on open wounds?" you might say, "I've never heard of that." Well, neither did my regular doctor. And neither did two different pharmacies. I had totally given up on the idea when my mom pops up and says "I found some! you owe me $45"
(Thank(damn) you Canadian internet pharmacies.)

Oh, well. Since I'd unexpectedly paid $45 for a fist full of honey, I might as well try it.
Holy! Freeping! Hell! - Bee sting venom shouldn't hurt like this!
I spent the rest of the evening randomly shouting German-Klingon-Godzilla creole through clenched teeth.

Later "In Nomine Benadrylus, et Advilii, et Somnus Sancti" I managed to sleep one night wearing this stuff.
It was days before I dared brave it again. The second time I lasted all of 20 minutes before I hobbled roaring into the bathroom and stuck my leg in a cold shower.
(Then I spent the next half hour trying to unwrap the bandage under the shower while keeping my hair, clothes, and floor dry.

I go back to the plastic surgeon in a couple days so he can see how my not using his treatment is not helping me heal.
And sometime this weekend I plan to go sit in front of my mom and eat a waffle with $20 an ounce honey on it just to see her squirm.

My so-called DragonCon
Long story short, I had a high velocity collision with the bolt on the side of a fire hydrant. I donated blood to the streets of Atlanta, the writers track room floor, and the towels and linens of the Sheraton.
(yes housekeeping got a generous tip)

Emergency repairs and absorbent socks allowed me to remain at the con to the end, but since I was going on my third day with an untreated gaping wound on my leg I reluctantly decided once I got home I would go see my doctor. With all the Zombies, Lycanthrops, and Vampires running around. I needed to be extra careful.

Her initial opinion was "Ew!" Which, while matching my assessment perfectly, didn't inspire confidence.
Then she got the other doctor in that office for a second opinion, and he immediately agreed "Ew!"

Now that we were all in agreement, they said things to each other like "Secondary Intention" and "Are you going to Debride?" which caused me some considerable internet research.

So she spooned on a fistful of something that felt like Drano Creme and re-wrapped it.

The outcome should be, if I don't get an infection, (and none is evident right now) I might have skin on my leg again in about three weeks.

And I've completely forgotten anything else that happened at the con.

Area wide hangover
It was creepy this morning; unusually quiet. There were no cars on the road, few birds chirping, and co workers unusually subdued.

Don't know if its weather or not, but I've been kinda waiting for an earthquake or tidal wave to strike all day.

Subway
I've heard one of the most important goals when driving a car, is not to let your car touch any other car.
I always thought that goes for trains too. Someone obviously disagrees. Fatally.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Metro-Trains-Collide-Between-Takoma-Fort-Totten.html

Vacation Day Last
"Mousies! I'm home!"... Yup, all the mice are afraid of me again.

I'm going to have to shave tomorrow morning. Not looking forward to that, but then again, my 17 day beard has revealed a few too many white hairs for my liking.

Current Mood: HomeHomeHome!

Vacation Day 14
Racing home. Hotels are still thin, and we went further than we had planned. St. Joseph, Missouri.
The restaurant here gives away peanuts, and expects everyone to drop the shells all over the floor. Gave the place a mouse cage feel.

Current Mood: miles-n-miles-n-miles

Vacation Day 13
My Aunt and I were the only two brave enough to go in to Rushmore Cave. We climbed hundreds of stairs with the occasional three foot ceiling full of razor sharp priceless crystal stalactites.

Next we detoured into the BadLands of South Dakota, which is much like the Painted Desert of Arizona, with less color and more prairie dogs.

After such a busy morning, we only put 194 miles today, and made it to AssEndOfNowhere, South Dakota.

The pizza place here puts cinnamon in the outside rim (rind?) of the pizza crust, so after you eat the pizza, you're left with a cinnamon bread stick dessert. There is a squeeze bottle of icing on the table for just that.

We need to average about 450 miles a day to get home on time. Not too bad, but apparently we're heading into weather. We've kind of gotten used to warm sunny days.

Current Mood: SoVeryAwayFromItAll

Vacation Day 12
Right when I got to the foot of Mt. Rushmore, work called again. Difficult to concentrate on their problems while standing under stone presidents, and watching a chipmunk forage under the bleachers.
Everything except the mountain itself is owned and operated by the Federal National Monument Concession Corporation. They run it very well, but the concept makes me itch.
Also on display, was a brown squirrel, and two mountain goats.

Seeing the Crazy Horse memorial and all the associated museum stuff, ticked me off in so many ways today. Possibly a few ways I should be ashamed of, if only I took the time to analyze why.
Every time I see a gift shop full of authentic (insert current favorite PC Amerindian term here) handcrafted pottery, beads and rugs, I lose a little more respect for the whole 'cultural preservation' thing. And every 'took our land' sends me a little more Archie Bunker.
It doesn't help that the only Indians I see are standing behind the counters of gift shops or McDonalds, and cleaning hotel rooms. Thats entirely my fault for playing tourist, but it does tend to distort my perception, and I have to actively compensate for it.

There are at least ten caves here. I wanna visit one before I leave.

Current Mood: antimulticultural

Vacation Day 11
Today we put on miles toward the Black Hills (Mt. Rushmore) area, and made it to Douglas, Wyoming. We passed many antelopes on the way, and many jackalopes now that we're here.

We decided not to go to the Royal Gorge Bridge. Nothing they have to offer can compare to the roller coaster drive we went through yesterday.

Current Mood: MapShocked

Vacation Day 10
The first part of the drive was boring as farming.

The second part of the drive was through Durango, Silverton, and Ouray.
There are mountains here. Serious no-nonsense mountains. Big beautiful mountains covered with trees and melting snow. It is also a steep winding two lane road with sheer drops inches from the edge and no guard rail. I loved every minute of it. The others with me were less enthusiastic, and more... stark raving terrified.
My new land altitude record is 11312 feet, almost as high as my last plane trip.

Part three of the drive was this long road, where mountains rise tall on either side with a broad flat valley between. In the valley was The Perfect Recreational River, and an unused railroad used for storing thousands of unused ore cars - very like a linear junk yard.
My blackberry was totally out of touch, and the navigator couldn't even find its satellites.

Now we are at Cañon Colorado, hopefully to spend some quality time on and around the Royal Gorge Bridge.
Towards the end of the day there should be a two hour drive to Pikes Peak.

Edit: I forgot to mention we were dodging bicycles the whole way up and down the mountains.

Current Mood: Yehawww!

Vacation Day 9
Today we drove through Monument Valley and took a bazillion photos.
At the Monument Valley Visitors Center we paid $5 per person for the privilege of shopping at their gift store, and eating at their restaurant. Wouldn't have been a problem, except the waitstaff couldn't be arsed to feed us. Lunch took 90 minutes for nothing but burgers/sandwiches.

For scenic drive purposes, we have been off the interstate all day. A tiny burb called Monticello Utah was our first choice for stopping, but everything was inexplicably full.
Our map is terrible at city dots. It showed the same sized dot on the map for Deer Creek (boarded up rustbucket) as for Cortez, which is quite a large and nice town.

Oh, and I am sick to death of desert mesas, scrubby little shrublets, and navajo art. Today, towards the end of our journey, we rediscovered this wonderful invention of nature called the Tree. I missed them.

Current Mood: sleepy

Vacation Day 8
The Grand Canyon very much is. Pictures don't, and descriptions can't. There is something about being able to see the canyon wrap 270 degrees around you and straight down beneath you that no picture can capture. There are trees clinging to every slightly horizontal surface to help give you some idea of scale. There was also twice as many cars as people, which I haven't figured out yet.

Everywhere there were swifts darting and diving, ravens slowly soaring overhead, those giant hovering bees everywhere, and the occasional lizard watching you watching him.
Looking straight down below the overlook, I saw the tiniest mouse sized squirrel scurrying around the rocks.

Got back to the hotel room early enough to veg and recover, ready to start the "Scenic Drive" portion of this trip.

Current Mood: Thoroughly sightseen

Vacation Day 7
In person, Meteor Crater is a lot deeper and less wide than it appears in the pictures. I wore shoes that didn't protect my feet from the rocks, and white skin that didn't protect me from the sunlight. Its also quite easy to get out of breath when you are over a mile higher than your cardiovascular system has been optimized for.

So far this trip, I've been 650 feet below ground, looked into a 550 foot hole, drove 9000 feet above sea level, and covered a total distance of about an eighth of a nanoparsec.

This is the third day work has been calling me trying to untangle some major disaster or another in areas only I'm the expert at. The first two days it was not a problem passing the long drive on the phone for four hours. Today was too busy with tours, scenic drives, and back alley navigation. Much later, I've been able to remote into the servers and fix some of the problems, but then the remote system kicked me off for "scheduled maintenance". I tried.
This is all made more difficult by my being three time zones later than they are.

Current Mood: Sunburned

Vacation Day 6
Another 400 mile day through New Mexico and Arizona, which ended at Holbrook, just outside the Painted Hills and Petrified Forest.

Just inside the park boundary we saw a roadrunner, but couldn't get a picture. Ravens were working the tourists looking for handouts.

All the cities around here are painted the same shade of pink-peach and trimmed in teal. Bleah.

We should arrive at the Grand Canyon tomorrow afternoon, perhaps too late to do anything there.

Current Mood: Time Zoned-out

Vacation Day 5
Tucumcary, New Mexico, only 402 miles today. Saved some miles not using the interstate, but the little rustbucket towns on the road had nothing of interest, including rest stops, gas, or food.

No rain today. Apparently no rain in a very long time. Lots of dry lakes and streams, small rivers surrounded by mud flats in big channels.

Flat, featureless, forever. I grant that Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas have totally different looking flat-featureless-forever, but I think we stopped early because the drive was so boooring.

We did see a cow city. Can't estimate how many cows all packed together, but I feel safe in saying ten thousand is an underestimation.

Tomorrow we move into Arizona. There is a Petrified Forest and a Meteor Crater that just happen to be in our way.

Current Mood: Flat, Featureless, Forever

Vacation Day 4
Prairie dogs! Living in the shopping center landscaping!

Salt mine tour & museum was interesting, but first we waited for two hours for it to open playing Uno in the car. In the mine, we had to wear hard hats and carry emergency breathers
There was also a space museum smack in the middle of nowhere Kansas. Why?

Tomorrow we get back in the car and put on some miles.

Current Mood: Prairie dogs!

Vacation Day 3
More Torrential downpours all morning, after thunder all night. The entrance of the hotel was flooding, so loading the car this morning we took our shoes off and splashed around in ankle deep water.

We made it to Hutchinson, Kansas; 467 miles today. Its too late to do anything, but we have plans to hit all the tourist traps around here and stay a second night. Kansas junk stores are all Wizard Of Oz themed. I'd have thought they could come up with something better, but no.

Oklahoma and Kansas have fewer trees, fewer cows, fewer cars, fewer gas stations, fewer hotels, fewer restaurants, and less altitude.
Most of the fields were not planted, and/or were full of water. There were oil pump widgets randomly placed in the middle of fields, sometimes surrounded by cows. I'm not sure if I've ever seen one of those in person before.

Our hotel is a convention Center. Current events include a wedding reception, a pink frilly girly party-dinner, and Reverend Whosit's Couples Counseling Seminar. It also has a small water park inside full of kids.

Salt mines tomorrow, and other time spent not in a car.

Vacation Day 2
Last rest stop I folded the seat foreward to repack the back a bit, but when I put the seat back into place, a soda had rolled under it and was half crushed. It took considerable force to yank the seat forward again, while it rained on my back. Somehow the soda didn't burst all over the floor.

All morning was lightning and downpours. ("Where is the road!") All afternoon was sunshine and warm breezes. Tonight there are tornado warnings.

Lunch was a KFC buffet, but there was food there I've never seen in a KFC before. Something we're guessing was hominy, some flavorless pudding foam, an overspiced cooked dry chicken noodle once-was-soup (dumplings?), and cinnamon flavored... jellyfish. Tennessee is a whole different country.

Made it to Conway Arkansas, just west of Little Rock. Thats 1032 miles so far. I expect us to get to our first destination tomorrow, but too late to see it.

We taught my Aunt how to play Five Crowns, and laughed at her attempts to shuffle a 118 card deck.