Bruises Anyone?

Yesterday I had my annual CT Angiogram, and I have some mighty colorful (and a bit painful) bruises on both inner elbows from IVs. The left arm (bottom pic), the nurse got a vein, not what she needed to get. The right arm (top pic), the CT Tech got what he needed to.

Thankfully, I don't have an issue or fear of needles / shots, even if it pinches a bit. The worst part is always the actual injecting of the contrast into my body (aka iodine).

During and after the test I feel like crap, and for the next 48 hrs. I'm directed to drink lots of fluids to help flush all of that iodine out of my system. Needless to say, I'm still not feeling that great. Tomorrow I should be all good though.

Knocking on wood, crossing my fingers, and everything else one can do for good luck that my aortic aneurysm has not enlarged any. Now I wait...

SWAT Team? Flight for Life?

Today was Boulder Rural Fire Department's Annual Open House. Woo hoo! Something I look forward to every year... mostly to see a couple of my firefighter friends, and, well, too see the Flight for Life as well. (OK, and to see the fire trucks, police cars, bomb squad, SWAT Team, etc. also.) Yes, I'm a kid at heart...

Anyway, today was exceptionally fun, as I was dressed in SWAT gear! haha I spent quite a bit of time talking with one of the SWAT policemen, and... he dressed me up.

That bullet resistent (not bullet PROOF) vest was HEAVY... approx. 25 pounds. I wasn't going to run in it. And the silly hat made
me feel a bit like a bobble-head. Needless to say,
rediculous looking or not, I had a blast at the
SWAT car, tank thingie.

The Flight for Life is ALWAYS exciting, but today was a busy day for emergencies. The 11am arrival had a real emergency so couldn't show up... they moved the 1pm arrival to noon, but then they had an emergency they had to finish with so showed at 12:45. Just when everyone started looking at the helicopter (the highlight of the Open House) and talking to the flight crew, they had to leave for another emergency.

All in all, I had a great time wandering around.

A Compliment!

A short while ago, while sitting in the sun at a local coffee shop (I treated myself to a rare decaf carmel latte), as I was waiting for a friend... a man at the next table started talking to me. "Are you waiting for someone?" "Yes," I replied, "A friend." "A woman friend?" "No, a man friend." He was a quite inquisitive, and then asked if I would mind talking about love and grace until my friend arrived. I told him that I really didn't have much to say, as I was lacking love in my life, and lacking grace too for that matter.

Anyway, we talked for a bit... mostly about books... and my friend showed up.

When I was getting up from the table to leave, this mystery man started talking again. His parting words were several, but what sticks out most in my head (other than, "If you don't want to go to work tomorrow... don't. Find a way to not have to go.") is:

"You grace the sun beautifully."

Let's just say I was shocked, and even though he was a bit... eccentric... his words and the genuine look behind them made my day! People just don't say such things to me. Wow.

Thank you for that, Mystery Man.