Wednesday. Something is Wrong: Early in the morning, around 4 AM I awake with a pain in the brain. In the Cerebellum and Primary visual cortex the savages of Migrainia were at war. I got up a stumbled into the kitchen for a glass of water and some of the pills I have been prescribed when such skirmishes arise. I went back to bed only to get up groggy and still suffering at 6:40. I took two extra strength pain relievers and prepared to head out to work, thinking that in a couple of hours I could take another Midrin if need be. Need Did be, and then some. Nausea sat in as the Prefrontal Cortex got into the act. Vision blurred words slurred and an early exit occurred. I was home by 11:15, and agonized in the bedroom waiting for quiet, dark and peace. An eye pillow provided the dark, the balance never occurred and I fell in and out of fitful repose. The hypersensitivity of all my nerves made the bed feel like it was covered in glass dust.
Jenni came home and brought Rally's Fish sandwiches. My body and my hunger took neutral corners and the bout began. Then the new Harry Potter Movie went into the DVD player and we "watched" it . I had trouble getting the oculars to organize images on the macula and retinal surfaces and it took all my good humor (vitreous and otherwise) to make heads and tails of the tale. Having read all the books I can say that I was not lost, but I still will replay the DVD when I have time for a better reckoning with the images to the minds eye. Had Hermione been available she may have uttered "Oculas Repairo," but no, my woes were not due to broken glasses but instead broken brain. After moving pictures were phosphors slowly fading from the persistence of vision I again retired to the silicated surfaces of sleep to fight my way onto a morning. I knew immediately upon waking on the first alarm that there would be no way I could leave the confines of agony or address.
Thursday did not take place. I can't prove it but I'm sure it was no more than two hours long at best. Charlie woke me at 10 something with a dookie-pee pee ballet-tap improvisation number, I struggled on loose shoes and hoodie over sleep pants and tee and took the hound to his business spots. He read and left canine-p-mail, dropped a load of relief off at the base of a evergreen, and we came back in. I saw to it that there was food in animal dishes, and went back to the crypt and eye pillow. 6 something, Jenni is home and asks if I had the good sense to eat. I have no sense that is not enraged. She provided Wendy's shortly after waking me again to say that there is one of each for us. My one of each was a double w/cheese, a collection of slender potato planks and a cylinder of Sprite with straw (So was hers). I watched Smallville, then soaked in a tub of salinated hot water before returning to bed.
Friday: Not Working, not an option. More Midrin and pain killers, situation little improved, vision back to nominal and work on the horizon. I went to work, mostly because I had to, there I made a difference in the lives of camera cravers, fueled jets with ink for picturing a better world, and lest we forget sold memory for the express purpose of enriching memories. The meds were making inroads and I was merely in agony (no longer suicidal) when the day ended at the camera ranch. I went to the bowling alley to make a decision. I paid for my place to be vacant, and ordered a shot of Jägermeister (Deanne's migraine modifier) and a small coke back. I did the body shiggles* all the way to the car and drove home.

Saturday Morning: Work option. I was scheduled off, but I thought I'd get in a few hours to take some of the hit off the paycheck, and get back in the flow of things. The first flakes of the winter storm were just starting when I looked out at 8:05. By the time I left at 8:20 the ground was about covered. I took I-70 in and got in the center lane, away from the crazies and the panic drivers (the 80 mph daredevils and the 12 mph white knuckled cuckoos). I clocked in at 9:00, basking in the luxurious half hour 'skipping of prep time' and worked until 1:40. With the snow still coming down now mixed with freezing rain I again went into cruise mode and was almost alone on I-70 as I returned to my cocoon, nearly reformed after four days to the Cranium Condor!
Sunday, Sunday Snowday: The store is open, and I work next Sunday but today I am my own man and my old self (even my chest hairs say I'm an old myself), and there is football and e-mails and mail to send tomorrow, and football and, and Bowling, but I think Jenni and I are just there for the banquet, not knock over things with orbs fitted with finger openings. If I'm wrong then we will (one or the other of us) knock down more than dietary supplements.

Above, the mailbox this AM before the plow-hands push all of the streets solidified precip right in front of it. Joy!
Chuck Pace©2007
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*Shiggle: (shig-el), 1. v. (eng). involuntary shaking of the entire body resulting from the sampling of a foul tasting substance. 2. a word made up by my daughter Meredith when she had to take cough medicine at the age of about three.
"Uck, I don't like it Daddy it gives me the shiggles!