Packed in Like Sardines

Too Much Mass Transport in One Day

Went to Cleveland and back yesterday just to get my stitches out. Supposedly I was also to meet with the ANS representative (the occipital stimulator study sponsor) but she was participating in an operation and said if I didn't have any questions it wasn't necessary. I knew it was going to be a big waste of time and money. I could have snipped the stitches myself for free! I guess they have to do it in case you get an infection or something. Wound care for idiots I guess. I grew up on a farm where you better know how to stitch yourself up because you were an hour away from any help.

Stayed overnight in St. Louis. Had a hard time finding a room - apparently either it's the all star game crowd starting early or it was convention week. Ended up on a murphy bed in a conference room for big $$. Sigh.

Got up at 4 am for a packed flight to Chicago, and then Cleveland. Took public transport in Cleveland - worked great the last time I was there - for $4.50 you can ride trains/buses all day and there's a route from the airport right to the Clevland Clinic. I get on the train at the airport, and apparently there was some "happening" for young grunge/punk/goth kids with no money and people just started pouring onto the train at every stop. They crammed in until you couldn't cram anyone else in. They were sooo noisy I missed my stop to catch the bus and I had to ride 20 blocks out of the way. Then the buses wouldn't stop - probably had the same problem with overcrowding, so I hiked my butt 20 blocks to the clinic. Couldn't have done that two weeks ago without ending up in an ER later!

I get my stitches out, ride back to the airport (at least the ride back wasn't bad - probably wouldn't want to be on the 1:00 AM ride that night!) then get on the planes back to Chicago and St. Louis - which were booked to the max, and I had two big boozy boys decide to crowd in the row I sat. By this time The Headache was awake despite the electricity, and I had two and a half hours of forced space sharing with bad old booze three day bender smells. I then had a four hour drive home. A looooooong day around way way way toooooo many people. The Headache didn't like it a bit, but it was controllable pain. I was able to medicate when I got home around midnight and go to sleep.

I didn't work much today but I did go in for an hour or two and was productive. The Headache is still pounding even tho I have tried some different settings on the occipital stimulator control. I'm going to knock out pretty soon and see what tomorrow brings.

Something was going on at the airports security wise. Last week when I went you could put your shoes in one of the plastic boxes and send them through the xray machine. This week you had to put them directly on the conveyor. Last week I had a neck brace on but they didn't check it for explosives or my hands for explosives when I was "patted down". These week they did. Also there were security TSA personnel doing random patdowns and searches of persons standing in lines for certain flights. First time I have seen that.

I'm tired of being a sardine. I looked at the private Leerjets at the airport waiting for someone to fly away in them, and wished I was one of the privileged few instead of one of the sweaty millions. Oh well.....sigh.