Final Countdown
Today was a decent day as far as work was concerned. No potty mouthed idiots. Only one particularly foul smelling passenger. And I didn't have to ask a single person to turn off or turn down their music. I did, however, have a passenger spill an entire thermos of coffee, which he cleaned up with no fuss quicker than I dreamed possible.
If that was the worst speed bump of the day then I say it was a pretty good day.
I was supposed to work a morning tripper, a two and a half hour bit that starts around twenty til seven in the morning. I went to bed last night anticipating 8 hours of sleep. Of course it never works out the way I hope and sure enough, at around three-thirty this morning my phone rang and my dispatcher asked me to be in at ten after five... leaving me short nearly two hours of intended sleep.
But I awoke and prepared myself for the day and then headed off to work. The shift I was replacing the morning tripper with was a straight eight run that makes four trips to the town of Clendenin and back. It takes nearly an hour to get to Clendenin, so figure the four round-trips takes right at eight hours. There were little time for breaks of any sort, especially not of the food consumption sort. Luckily I had, as I often do, stashed an apple and some fruit snacks in my purse before leaving the house.
By the time that shift was done, however, I was a right mess. I wasn't sure what was going on but my body had started shaking uncontrollably. After checking for my next work assignment I promptly exited the garage and headed for my car. I was shaking... terribly. I assumed it was a kind of sugar crisis. Since I'd not really eaten anything of actual substance since breakfast I figured my body was just telling me it was well past time to give it more food.
So as soon as I got home I threw a few items in the handy dandy microwave and noshed to my hearts delight. And it helped nearly instantly. It didn't completely stymie the shaking, though. It took some actual sugar products to do that, thank goodness for my sweet tooth and my little stashes of candy. But finally after about 40 minutes of quaking like a California fault line I felt much better.
I'd not had a sugar bottom-out like that in a long time. I typically consume enough throughout my day to keep that sort of thing from happening. Hindsight, I should have taken more food to work with me knowing I wouldn't get to eat a real meal for 8 hours. I also should have tested my blood glucose levels when it happened. I do have a snazzy little device for doing that. Of course I'm just glad I caught it before it got too out of control.
I remember one time way back when I was piddle-farting around my old college campus; I'd not eaten much during the day and had planned on spending gross amounts of money on buying alcoholic beverages at my favorite bar that night. When the time came I drank to my hearts content... but come closing time, things took a turn for the worse. I didn't know at the time that alcohol consumption can increase the effects of a sugar level nose dive. I thought for sure I was going to have to go to the ER, but some quick thinking friends rushed me instead to the nearest all night grocery store for some OJ, banana's and my favorite candy bar.
My sugar plight was turned around in no time and I felt like a million bucks... that had just been washed in a pair of jeans on the most vigorous spin cycle possible. It wasn't the best feeling in the world. And today was really not much different. Once I felt like I'd gotten my sugar straightened out I was zapped. But I had to go back for another two hour shift.
I made it through, however, like a trooper.
Of course at this point, my motivation isn't just getting through the day, it's getting through my last few working days left at the bus company. Knowing that the light is at the end of the tunnel really helps keep me focused.
I'm off tomorrow, gotta to do my new DOT physical and drug test thingy. It will also likely be my very last physical therapy appointment as my knee is back to its old, un-painful self once again. The exercises I've learned and the stretching I'm doing every day really has done wonders. I'm so happy to know I can fix things like that on my body without the aid of a surgeon.
I'm also considering a trip to the local strip mall to window shop for a tablet I'm considering buying. I spent a good part of last night online talking to people, reading reviews, watching review videos on YouTube about various tablets and think that I've settled on one as a primary candidate. But I want to see it, touch it and get a feel for it first hand before I commit to buying it.
I think that a tablet will be much more "handy" out on the road than this bulky, 6 lb laptop I have. Plus, I just want a new toy and have saved up some money to get one. I had been looking, of course, at the iPad 2 but honestly, my iPhone 4 offers me all of the same features in the palm of my hand. And I'm looking for more features, like the option for USB connections, SD card access and the like. So I'm hoping that things go well on my excursion to play with the tablet I'm considering buying, because it has all of the things I'd like to have and at a really great price, aka cheaper than the iPad.
If that was the worst speed bump of the day then I say it was a pretty good day.
I was supposed to work a morning tripper, a two and a half hour bit that starts around twenty til seven in the morning. I went to bed last night anticipating 8 hours of sleep. Of course it never works out the way I hope and sure enough, at around three-thirty this morning my phone rang and my dispatcher asked me to be in at ten after five... leaving me short nearly two hours of intended sleep.
But I awoke and prepared myself for the day and then headed off to work. The shift I was replacing the morning tripper with was a straight eight run that makes four trips to the town of Clendenin and back. It takes nearly an hour to get to Clendenin, so figure the four round-trips takes right at eight hours. There were little time for breaks of any sort, especially not of the food consumption sort. Luckily I had, as I often do, stashed an apple and some fruit snacks in my purse before leaving the house.
By the time that shift was done, however, I was a right mess. I wasn't sure what was going on but my body had started shaking uncontrollably. After checking for my next work assignment I promptly exited the garage and headed for my car. I was shaking... terribly. I assumed it was a kind of sugar crisis. Since I'd not really eaten anything of actual substance since breakfast I figured my body was just telling me it was well past time to give it more food.
So as soon as I got home I threw a few items in the handy dandy microwave and noshed to my hearts delight. And it helped nearly instantly. It didn't completely stymie the shaking, though. It took some actual sugar products to do that, thank goodness for my sweet tooth and my little stashes of candy. But finally after about 40 minutes of quaking like a California fault line I felt much better.
I'd not had a sugar bottom-out like that in a long time. I typically consume enough throughout my day to keep that sort of thing from happening. Hindsight, I should have taken more food to work with me knowing I wouldn't get to eat a real meal for 8 hours. I also should have tested my blood glucose levels when it happened. I do have a snazzy little device for doing that. Of course I'm just glad I caught it before it got too out of control.
I remember one time way back when I was piddle-farting around my old college campus; I'd not eaten much during the day and had planned on spending gross amounts of money on buying alcoholic beverages at my favorite bar that night. When the time came I drank to my hearts content... but come closing time, things took a turn for the worse. I didn't know at the time that alcohol consumption can increase the effects of a sugar level nose dive. I thought for sure I was going to have to go to the ER, but some quick thinking friends rushed me instead to the nearest all night grocery store for some OJ, banana's and my favorite candy bar.
My sugar plight was turned around in no time and I felt like a million bucks... that had just been washed in a pair of jeans on the most vigorous spin cycle possible. It wasn't the best feeling in the world. And today was really not much different. Once I felt like I'd gotten my sugar straightened out I was zapped. But I had to go back for another two hour shift.
I made it through, however, like a trooper.
Of course at this point, my motivation isn't just getting through the day, it's getting through my last few working days left at the bus company. Knowing that the light is at the end of the tunnel really helps keep me focused.
I'm off tomorrow, gotta to do my new DOT physical and drug test thingy. It will also likely be my very last physical therapy appointment as my knee is back to its old, un-painful self once again. The exercises I've learned and the stretching I'm doing every day really has done wonders. I'm so happy to know I can fix things like that on my body without the aid of a surgeon.
I'm also considering a trip to the local strip mall to window shop for a tablet I'm considering buying. I spent a good part of last night online talking to people, reading reviews, watching review videos on YouTube about various tablets and think that I've settled on one as a primary candidate. But I want to see it, touch it and get a feel for it first hand before I commit to buying it.
I think that a tablet will be much more "handy" out on the road than this bulky, 6 lb laptop I have. Plus, I just want a new toy and have saved up some money to get one. I had been looking, of course, at the iPad 2 but honestly, my iPhone 4 offers me all of the same features in the palm of my hand. And I'm looking for more features, like the option for USB connections, SD card access and the like. So I'm hoping that things go well on my excursion to play with the tablet I'm considering buying, because it has all of the things I'd like to have and at a really great price, aka cheaper than the iPad.
Comments
And I like the Kindle Fire, as much as I like the iPad. But I like the versatility and size of some of the other tablets. The one I'm looking at is a 10.1 inch Android. I no NOTHING about Android OS so buying an Android based tablet would be a bit of a learning curve.