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3 little annoyances
May. 26th, 2005 07:28 pmI had a dentist appointment at 5:30 today. Being a sensible person, I left work early, so I could catch the 4:30 bus. I don't know if the 4:30 bus was early, or if there was no 4:30 bus. This was annoying. There was also no 5:00 bus. (Well, no *inbound* bus. Two going the wrong way.) I called and rescheduled the dentist appointment. I was not exactly a model of composure. The bus finally arrived at 5:25. I was extremely annoyed. I wound up in Arlington Center well after 6, as the bus was slow as well as late.
I really prefer not to stand around outside in the cold rain, especially when my portable CD player has no usable batteries, as is so often the case. It seems like the only way to turn it all the way OFF when I'm at work, the only way that conclusively prevents it from turning on accidentally and running the batteries down, is to remove the batteries...and I need a screwdriver for that. So my raincoat was presumably been listening to the end of _The Far Side of the World_ while I was at work. Me? I was listening to bits and pieces of it all week. It's been maddening. The CD skips words or sentences or whole pages, and sometimes I can catch the lost bit by rewinding but sometimes not. This morning, I was thinking of posting here (in another post, for the sake of the spoilers) and asking some of you nice people to tell me what happens during a few critical missing sections. Fortunately, I found hard copy on my way home. I was desperate to know how they got from the seagoing convent situation to the scene with the coconuts. Whew. I'm getting the rest of the series as books on TAPE, or hard copy if I can't find an unabridged tape with an acceptable reader. It's just too frustrating for me to listen to books on CD.
In view of my increasingly miserable cold and/or allergies, I stopped at the drugstore to buy more decongestants. Over the last few years, I've discovered that Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) is the most effective decongestant I can take, but that I should not take any more than I *really* need because it tends to raise my blood pressure. That's why I stopped buying large quantities of the stuff and carrying it around with me, just in case I needed it to relieve sinus headaches that might aggravate migraines. The temptation wasn't good for my blood pressure. (In the sense that I usually caved right in.) So when I found myself at work with a mucous problem that was rapidly becoming catastrophic, I went to one of the first aid kits. They stock little one-dose packets of acetominophen and ibuprofen and decongestant and allergy medicine, as well as bandages and such. The "decongestant" packets used to contain pseudophedrine, but now they have phenylephrine. The pills look and feel the same, but they didn't seem to work for me. At least I didn't have a bad reaction to them, but I'm annoyed that the change slipped by me like that. At the drugstore, I was relieved to see that at least Sudafed is labelling the change: they have "new Sudafed PE" with yellow letters on the front of the box announcing "contains no pseudoephedrine." If you want the old formula Sudafed, you have to ask the pharmacist for it. I asked the pharmacist about phenylephrine -- in what ways is it different from pseudophedrine? Is it any less likely to cause blood pressure problems? How does it interact with the medications I'm taking? He had no clue. He seemed to think I was crazy for even asking. From my perspective, this new stuff is an inferior decongestant. If it had other advantages (like if it were less likely to raise blood pressure or cause sleeplessness or irritability) FOR ME, I might consider it worthwhile. But I really, really, hope the old formula stays available for a long time. This is not an acceptable substitute, though it may work fine for some people.
It all adds up, I suppose. It's really quite irritating. But at least I have the weekend to look forward to. And most of my mouth doesn't hurt. Putting off the dentist appointment to next week may be a good thing after all. And I have _The Far Side of the World_ to read. I think I will go take a bath with Quack Aubrey (the Very Yellow Admiral) and enjoy it.
I really prefer not to stand around outside in the cold rain, especially when my portable CD player has no usable batteries, as is so often the case. It seems like the only way to turn it all the way OFF when I'm at work, the only way that conclusively prevents it from turning on accidentally and running the batteries down, is to remove the batteries...and I need a screwdriver for that. So my raincoat was presumably been listening to the end of _The Far Side of the World_ while I was at work. Me? I was listening to bits and pieces of it all week. It's been maddening. The CD skips words or sentences or whole pages, and sometimes I can catch the lost bit by rewinding but sometimes not. This morning, I was thinking of posting here (in another post, for the sake of the spoilers) and asking some of you nice people to tell me what happens during a few critical missing sections. Fortunately, I found hard copy on my way home. I was desperate to know how they got from the seagoing convent situation to the scene with the coconuts. Whew. I'm getting the rest of the series as books on TAPE, or hard copy if I can't find an unabridged tape with an acceptable reader. It's just too frustrating for me to listen to books on CD.
In view of my increasingly miserable cold and/or allergies, I stopped at the drugstore to buy more decongestants. Over the last few years, I've discovered that Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) is the most effective decongestant I can take, but that I should not take any more than I *really* need because it tends to raise my blood pressure. That's why I stopped buying large quantities of the stuff and carrying it around with me, just in case I needed it to relieve sinus headaches that might aggravate migraines. The temptation wasn't good for my blood pressure. (In the sense that I usually caved right in.) So when I found myself at work with a mucous problem that was rapidly becoming catastrophic, I went to one of the first aid kits. They stock little one-dose packets of acetominophen and ibuprofen and decongestant and allergy medicine, as well as bandages and such. The "decongestant" packets used to contain pseudophedrine, but now they have phenylephrine. The pills look and feel the same, but they didn't seem to work for me. At least I didn't have a bad reaction to them, but I'm annoyed that the change slipped by me like that. At the drugstore, I was relieved to see that at least Sudafed is labelling the change: they have "new Sudafed PE" with yellow letters on the front of the box announcing "contains no pseudoephedrine." If you want the old formula Sudafed, you have to ask the pharmacist for it. I asked the pharmacist about phenylephrine -- in what ways is it different from pseudophedrine? Is it any less likely to cause blood pressure problems? How does it interact with the medications I'm taking? He had no clue. He seemed to think I was crazy for even asking. From my perspective, this new stuff is an inferior decongestant. If it had other advantages (like if it were less likely to raise blood pressure or cause sleeplessness or irritability) FOR ME, I might consider it worthwhile. But I really, really, hope the old formula stays available for a long time. This is not an acceptable substitute, though it may work fine for some people.
It all adds up, I suppose. It's really quite irritating. But at least I have the weekend to look forward to. And most of my mouth doesn't hurt. Putting off the dentist appointment to next week may be a good thing after all. And I have _The Far Side of the World_ to read. I think I will go take a bath with Quack Aubrey (the Very Yellow Admiral) and enjoy it.
